What is Website Traffic Growth?
Website traffic growth is a marketing metric that measures the increase or decrease in visitors to your site typically either month-over-month or year-over-year.
How to calculate Website Traffic Growth:
Monthly Growth Rate:
[ (#) sessions from current month - (#) sessions from previous month ] / # session from previous month X 100 = (%) Monthly Growth Rate
Yearly Growth Rate:
[ (#) sessions from current year - (#) sessions from previous year ] / # session from previous year X 100 = (%) Yearly Growth Rate
You can calculate your website traffic growth by first subtracting the number of sessions last month (or year) from the number of sessions this month (or year). Then divide the result by the number of session last month (or year) and multiply the outcome by 100 to convert to a percentage.
Pros:
Website traffic growth is a key metric for any marketer to track and improve because increasing traffic increases the number of potential customers you can acquire. It also indicates the health of your top-of-the-funnel activities (i.e. social media, paid ads, SEO, etc. - the channels that drive new visits to your website).
Of course, there are plenty of other specific session numbers and dimensions (# of organic sessions, session length, session source, site engagement, blog sessions, etc.), but this one marketing metric provides a quick overview of your website traffic and how it’s growing. Website traffic growth is a good leading indicator for lead and revenue growth.
Cons:
If you only track website traffic growth, you might see a false positive if your conversion rate drops while your session numbers slowly increase. It’s important to track both the traffic and conversion rate together to get an accurate picture of your overall marketing efforts. Tracking the conversion rate with this metric helps you identify if you’re attracting the right type of visitors (the type that converts) or not with your marketing efforts.
Website traffic growth mostly indicates growth in awareness, however, you have to be aware that it won’t necessarily result in revenue. For example, if you’re attracting the wrong type of visitors or don’t have a compelling enough message or offering, then website traffic growth is simply a vanity metric.
Relevant Marketing Metrics and KPIs:
If you’re adding Website Traffic Growth to your marketing dashboard, you might want to also consider tracking these related marketing metrics for context.
Industry Benchmarks
As with many metrics, website traffic growth will vary widely based on company stage and audience. However, a monthly growth rate of 10-20% is generally considered a good benchmark.
Additional Notes:
This is a good metric to track, but don’t make it your primary metric as a marketer (unless you’re a publisher who makes ad revenue simply by attracting a visitor) because growing website traffic won’t necessarily result in revenue or lead growth.
