Targeted website traffic refers to the way in which visitors arrive at a website, as well as the visitors themselves. The concept is that the amount of purchases made in relation to the number of visitors to a site selling a product will be higher if people who visit the website have entered because a marketing element has sparked a specific interest in the website's offering. This is different from website traffic arriving from random sources where a visitor sees the website but has little to no interest in the content. The term "targeted website traffic" is primarily used by companies that have an Internet marketing infrastructure in place to attempt to drive traffic to a separate website.
There are many ways for a person to arrive at a particular website. One way is known as organic website traffic. This is when a person searches the Internet for information through a search engine or other portal site. The website that wants traffic might come up as a search result or it might appear as a link in a forum or other location. By clicking on the website and visiting, the user is expressing an interest in the site, but the information about the products and services on the site are not completely understood, leading to an organic, exploratory browsing experience.
The difference between organic website traffic and targeted website traffic is that the targeted user will be driven to the website though search results, advertisements or social media content that directly targets a specific audience. One example is a person who is looking for a wedding ring. An organic situation could take that person through many sites selling many types of rings, while targeted marketing will attempt to capture that person with specific information or advertisements specifically about wedding rings.
There are many companies that sell targeted website traffic. This means they are able to isolate consumers who have an interest in a product or service and move them to the desired site in the hope that they make a purchase there, usually garnering a commission in the process. The information that can be targeted can be as broad as the country or state in which a person lives or as narrow as a specific brand or model of a product. A targeted website traffic company can sell traffic either by the number of unique visitors sent to a site, by commission on sales made, or with a flat fee.
Large companies that attempt to drive targeted website traffic to a specific set of sites can sometimes pay other companies for the right to read tracking cookies on a user’s computer. This allow the marketing company to get a better idea about the user’s browsing habits, interests and sites that he or she have visited recently. All of that information can help to build a profile that will allow much more accurate targeting of websites.