How To Create Website Traffic Goals (And Achieve Them)
Traffic goals flat out work.
Making the goal gives you a specific focus. The haze falls away, and now the mission is clear.
This traffic goal acts as a north star — “the why” — to propel you to put in all the work required to achieve it. Call it free motivation.
How do I know all of this? I’m speaking from experience. With my first blog TakeYourSuccess.com, I made a goal to drive one million page views to the site.
Honestly, everything became easier after making the decision. Of course I had challenges along the way, but those were minor compared to my big traffic goal.
I ended up driving 1.7 million pageviews and 87% of the traffic was organic, directly from Google search. Honestly, in the days where it felt like a grind, the traffic goal helped me keep working.
If you’re interested in achieving the same, where people are flooding your website, then you’re in the right place.
Let’s explore more about setting a traffic goal so you can make your own, learn why they’re so helpful on your mission, and get all the long-term benefits.
Things To Know About Traffic
Looking at this from a bird’s eye view is advantageous before you jump into the specific work.
Here are core principles you should know about traffic.
1. Traffic is already out there, you just need to attract it
This is very helpful to know. When you realize you don’t need to stir up fake demand, then it takes the pressure off.
While the traffic is going to your competitors currently, if you do your job then eventually it can be siphoned to you. In a way, you’re halfway there.
Plus, according to Oberlo, 3.5 billion Google searches happen every day. If you get a tiny little fraction of those searches, you’ll be in an amazing situation.
Lastly, there are many different types of traffic you can gain:
- Organic traffic from Google searches
- Paid traffic from advertising campaigns
- Social media visits
- Referral visits from others
The road you choose is up to you. Do what you know the best, and then after you master one, add more traffic avenues.
2. Traffic compounds over time
Getting traffic to your site can be painful at first. It takes consistent focus, energy, and patience.
However, traffic begins to snowball once you hit a critical threshold. It happens at different times for everyone.
Once you’ve “paid your dues,” you’ll begin to receive more backlinks to your site, social shares, and people recommending your content to their friends. (P.S. In need of backlinks to rank at the top of Google? Try this.)
You’ll find yourself putting the same amount of effort into growing your site’s reach from month one to month 12, though you’re getting 50 times the results a year later.
3. This is a numbers game requiring consistency
I like games of consistency. They mean if I’m disciplined enough, eventually I’m going to win.
Attracting people to your website is one of these games. The only way you lose, is by giving up.
Why quit, when more than what you can imagine is on the other side of hard work? If you promise to show up, the reward is yours for the taking.
Setting A Specific Traffic Goal
Some goals just aren’t that motivating. I get it, you want to play it safe and make sure the goal is easily achievable.
But the problem I have with easy is it’s not going to be life-changing.
We want something worth shooting for, where the reward is worth the effort. It’s fine if it’s a little scary. That means it’s a good goal.
Now thinking about your own traffic goals, what’s a number that’s beyond your comfort zone, but not impossible? Does that feel like 1,000 page views per month? Or 10,000? Maybe 100,000 in total traffic? Or if you’re already there, one million? Keep in mind, your traffic goals should also align with your revenue goals. For more insights on how much traffic your website needs to generate revenue, check out this comprehensive guide: How Much Traffic Does a Website Need to Make Money?
Does that feel like 1,000 page views per month? Or 10,000? Maybe 100,000 in total traffic? Or if you’re already there, one million?
Naturally this depends on your current monthly traffic number.
If you have 0 visitors per month, then shooting for 1,000 traffic sessions would be a win.
When you’re consistently hitting 25,000 views, doubling the traffic to 50,000 is the next step. You get the idea.
It’s time to think about your traffic goal and create one. Yes, stop reading and take as long as you need to figure out the right traffic goal for you. Once you have this number, you can continue.
Pro Tips For Staying Motivated
Setting a monthly or annual traffic goal is one thing. Staying motivated long enough to achieve it is the hard part.
Unless you have the discipline of Superman, in that case ignore this list, then here are four action steps to help you along the way.
1. Have A Strong Why
We only have 24 hours a day. So if you don’t know why you’re spending valuable time on something, you’re not going to stick with it long enough to see results.
This is a critical flaw of any plan. To avoid this downfall, get a clear why for your traffic goals.
Is it because you want to grow your ecommerce business? Are you an author who wants more eyeballs on your books? Or do you have a blog and simply want more people to read your awesome tips so they can have a better day?
Ensure your why is connected to your long-term goals. And the more emotional-baked and logically-sound the reason is, the better.
Then you’re ready to move on.
2. Find An Accountability Partner
What’s better than someone going through the same challenges?
If you’re fortunate to know someone who wants to expand their website’s presence as much as you do, you’re lucky. Ask them to be your accountability partner, and you’ll be theirs, in the efforts of achieving your traffic goals. This will inspire confidence.
If you don’t know anyone, the world is big. Use social media to ask around or directly message people who you think would be a good accountability partner.
Message strangers on Twitter, for example, and see if they’re interested in committing to meet virtually every week or month. By looking at their tweets, you’ll be able to judge if they’re a good fit.
3. Join A Mastermind Group
For an accountability partner on steroids, join a mastermind. In this group environment, everyone is focused on driving more traffic to their site.
I’ve found the smaller the size of the group, the conversations and information shared go deeper. The sweet spot is around five to eight members.
In each meeting, discuss:
- Your goals
- Your challenges
- New insights
- Your questions for the group
Using these four cornerstones will keep the talking focused and allow each individual to have key takeaways to execute on their own.
Also, naturally people will have answers, at least ideas, of how to reach your goals.
You can find a group like this by pulling together friends and peers you already know. Ask them if they’d be interested in meeting around their website traffic goals.
You could also join a group that already exists. Searching Facebook Groups is a good idea for this route.
4. Review Monthly Progress
A goal is only as good as you measure it.
Set a reminder in your calendar on the last day of the month to review your
monthly traffic. Google Analytics is the best way to track your traffic.
Doing this ensures you don’t forget about your goal. Plus, you’ll be more motivated to achieve your objective when you can see progress each month.
Now if you’re not making progress, this is a red flag to redesign your approach. With 30 or 31 days to make moves, your monthly visitors should be rising.
Set aside one hour per month to review your past month’s traffic. Get a clear understanding of what types of traffic and pages are bringing in the most traffic. Analyze why that is. And then double-down to multiply your results going forward.
(Keep in mind, once you achieve your first goal, then make a new one, and so on.)
Conclusion
When you do this right, you’ll know the value of a website traffic goal, why you’re going to create one, and how you’re going to get it.
All that’s left to do at this point is to do the work.
Once you’ve completed this guide, here are some other resources you can leverage:
- Free SEO Course teaching you how to rank at the top of Google
- Using SEO keyword research to work smarter
- Promoting content for accelerating traffic growth
We’re rooting for you!
What’s your traffic goal going to be?