Update: I’d like to thank all of the Sphinners out there who helped put this article on the front page. A special thanks goes out to these two who helped get this article there. Thanks!
We all know that Google uses the Click Thru Rate (CTR) in their paid listings. Heck, you can even see the CTR of each of your own running ads in the Google Adwords dashboard.
So with that same technology, is it sensible to think they use the same technology to improve the relevancy of their organic results too?
Case + Point:
Google has a limited amount of factors that they can distill from their own personal analytics. With that set of data, they have to try and extract the most meaning possible.
If Google serves the same 10 results for “Wordpress Consulting” over and over then hypothetically each result should get 10% of the clicks. [click to continue…]
A Rant:
Does an advertisement like “Get More Traffic NOW” sound familiar? Doesn’t everybody just LOVE the idea of more, more, more traffic? Jeez, wouldn’t everything just be great if there was MORE traffic to your website?
Let me tell you something: More doesn’t cut it.
I don’t mean to be the guy to spoil the “More Traffic Party”, but it’s not more traffic that you want. It’s the RIGHT traffic you want.
You don’t see restaurant owners going out begging for just anybody to be in their restaurant… they aren’t looking for people just milling around with no money getting the rugs all dirty and getting in the way of the servers and what not. A restaurant wants the RIGHT kind of traffic too, in this case someone who is a)hungry and b)willing to pay what it costs to eat there. The 85% of the population who is either not hungry or has insufficient funds isn’t invited. That’s how you should be thinking about your website too.
What is the right traffic? Well it depends on your site, but usually the right traffic is someone who wants to buy your product, will click on an ad, or wants to hire you for a service. Too many webmasters are out there working for and paying for traffic that’s getting them NOWHERE.
How do you decide what traffic is the RIGHT traffic for your website? Well, that’s a good question, and one that doesn’t get a lot of attention sometimes. And it just so happens to be one of the best questions you can ask yourself.
And, it’s also a big enough question to justify an entirely new post. So until then, just remember that it’s not MORE you want, but the RIGHT traffic.
(The follow-up to this post is the first post in the How to Find the Right Traffic to your Website series. Click here to see it.)
-Brad
My name is Brad and I love to help people drive traffic and make great blogs. Thanks for coming by. If you like what you see here then check me out on 
