Which is more important, getting traffic or having engagement?
It’s easy to say both, but it’s really a timing issue. In the beginning, you need traffic, and engagement is more of a signal of how well you’re getting your message out. If you have a small (n) traffic problem, meaning you don’t have much traffic at all, then multiplying the small (n) by any number isn’t going to do much to move the needle. So when you’re just starting out, traffic is more important than engagement.
But, if you increase engagement, you get more sales from your traffic, more repeat visits and Google gives you a higher site rank. So this is also a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Not enough traffic and amazing engagement doesn’t help that much. Not enough engagement and your traffic is wasted and growth is even harder.
All traffic isn’t created equal.
Organic traffic ranks higher than paid traffic, and it’s free (not). You can grow old and die before Google decides to send you organic traffic without running ads. Organic traffic is anything but free once you consider how much time and/or money you spend creating the content that drives organic traffic.
Social media traffic may be easier to get, but it’s typically less effective at driving sales. There are those who ROCK social media, and those who just post. Mobile visitors to your website are less likely to buy than desktop visitors. Social media is more mobile-oriented so it tends to bring in more mobile visitors. Social media skews to a younger audience which is also a consideration. If you are a natural at social it can be a driver. If you need to hire someone, it’s more expensive than ads.
Paid traffic and engagement
Once you start paying for ads, you absolutely need to work on engagement! Not having an engaging site is spending money you don’t have to. It isn’t just that an engaging site will increase sales. We typically see an increase of about 3% with Stylaquin. Here’s a little tidbit that doesn’t get as much attention as it should, Google will charge you less for ads than other sites, even if they bid higher, if you rank better than they do. I’m not making that up. Sites with high engagement scores pay less for ads. Google would rather send searchers to sites they’ll engage with than sites they’ll bounce on. Bad search results make Google look bad.
Traffic and Engagement are conjoined twins, destined to be forever working together and dependent on each other for any real progress. So which do you focus on first? Traffic, but once you have more than a trickle, you need to work on engagement.
If you are a Shopify site, the fastest way to increase engagement is to add Stylaquin. It’s easy to add and starts at less than $30/month. Stylaquin shoppers stay 70% longer, view 185% more items, and come back 3X more than those who shop the old-fashioned way. It comes with a 14-day free trial, so you have nothing to lose—give it a try!
