Parse.ly: External referrals contribute more than half of the site's visitors

Audiences are becoming increasingly segmented, and what works for one person may not work for another. Understanding these audiences, and the needs of each of them, means creating a content strategy that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Every audience is a niche

The ultimate goal of a website is to get people visiting, so understanding where your audience is getting indexed can tell you where the opportunities are.

Eleven of the 20 categories we analyzed had more than half of their audience coming from external sources, such as social media, search engines, and other aggregators. The majority of the rest came from internal or direct referrals.

How to Optimize for a Niche Audience

Technology and computing

Search is the biggest driver of niches in technology and computing, but internal referrals are also important.

Health and Fitness

Most of the traffic to the Health & Fitness website comes from on-site visitors. This also means more opportunities on external platforms.

E-commerce

E-commerce traffic comes from all directions, but search contributes more.

science

Traffic to the broader “Science” category of sites comes primarily from search and internal traffic.

The diversity within the science category suggests that each cross section has a truly niche audience. Perhaps the first consideration is that those covering science need to segment their readers’ interest levels: content for fellow professionals or content for a more general audience.

199IT.com Originally compiled from: Parse.ly Do not reprint without authorization