Search engine traffic versus link traffic.

[newsguy]

I've always read (and it makes sense to believe) that search engine traffic is the best kind of traffic because it's very targetted--people are actively looking for what your site contains (usually).

But one of my sites in particular gets a lot of traffic from a link that's on another site with a similar theme. Would that traffic be just as good as the search engine traffic? What do you think?

[steve sardell]

Would it be good traffic? Not sure, but it would (should) be relevant traffic. To me good traffic is relevant traffic that may not instantly convert, but at least tells another of the site. Better traffic, may not instantly convert, but tells another who does. The best traffic is one who not only converts, but tells others, and they not only convert, but keep coming back.

[AussieWebmaster]

I've always read (and it makes sense to believe) that search engine traffic is the best kind of traffic because it's very targetted--people are actively looking for what your site contains (usually).

But one of my sites in particular gets a lot of traffic from a link that's on another site with a similar theme. Would that traffic be just as good as the search engine traffic? What do you think?
Although good text links have a decent conversion ratio, search traffic has the best conversion percentages of any type of visitor. They are looking for the topic and then pick your information in the SERPs to fulfill that need.... if the site is well planned and written you close ratios are excellent.

[randfish]

In my specific segment, my referral traffic actually has a higher conversion percentage than my search engine traffic. The site takes commercial loan applications for specific types of short-term deals and the traffic that comes through links on other sites makes up about 40% of traffic and 60% of applications, while search engines make up just over 35% of traffic and 40% of applications...

So, it depends - on your market, your links, the types of searches you get, etc.

[AussieWebmaster]

In my specific segment, my referral traffic actually has a higher conversion percentage than my search engine traffic. The site takes commercial loan applications for specific types of short-term deals and the traffic that comes through links on other sites makes up about 40% of traffic and 60% of applications, while search engines make up just over 35% of traffic and 40% of applications...

So, it depends - on your market, your links, the types of searches you get, etc.
I should have qualified that if strategically placed the links can have a great conversion ratio. But you have to combine very carefully crafted keyword links with very niched sites.... that way the filtering is done for you... many may have ended up at the site with the link via search too.