Audience vs. Traffic Content: Which Boosts SEO More?

It can be very tempting to try to focus your SEO effort on keywords that could potentially drive massive amounts of traffic to your site. But what percentage of those visitors actually convert into leads or sales? Too often, they come, they see, they bounce. That’s the risk of over-relying on “traffic content.”

On the flip side, you’ve got “audience content.” It speaks directly to your core audience, the ones who are more likely to engage and ultimately convert. But lean too heavily on this side, and you might find yourself in an echo chamber, with your growth stunted by a ceiling of limited search volumes.

Striking the right SEO balance between audience content and traffic content, that’s where the magic happens. Let’s explore how to find that sweet spot.

The Differences Between Audience Content and Traffic Content

The concepts of “traffic content” and “audience content” are not formally defined SEO terms, but they are often used to describe two different strategies for content creation: lead generation versus lead nurturing.

Traffic content is primarily geared towards drawing in users. It’s usually centered around high-volume keywords — terms and phrases that lots of people are typing into search engines. The aim here is to cast a wide net, pull in as many visitors as possible, and then work on converting them into loyal customers.

Audience content, on the other hand, is more about catering to the specific needs and interests of your existing audience. This often involves focusing on niche, long-tail keywords or even zero-traffic keywords. The goal with this type of content is to engage and retain your current audience, turn casual visitors into loyal fans, and boost your website’s overall authority and trustworthiness.

Let’s illustrate these differences with some specific examples. Imagine you’re planning SEO content for a business that sells some kind of productivity software — let’s say it’s called “BlitzDo”. Here’s what the traffic versus audience distinction might look like for your brand’s content plan:

Traffic Content Examples

• Top 10 Productivity Software in 2023
• How to Improve Your Productivity with Software
• Pros and Cons of Using Productivity Software at Work
• Ways to Boost Team Productivity with Software Tools
• Guide to Choosing the Right Productivity Software for Your Business

Audience Content Examples

• How to Get the Most Out of BlitzDo
• BlitzDo Tips and Tricks for Power Users
• Top Productivity Hacks Using BlitzDo
• Solving Common Project Management Issues with BlitzDo
• How BlitzDo Integrates with Your Existing Software Stack

An important misconception to clear is the notion that either type of content does one thing to the exclusion of everything else. This isn’t true; some pieces of traffic content can and do drive conversions and loyalty, while some types of audience content can and do drive large amounts of search traffic.

Think of it in terms of the difference between a flatbed pickup truck and a cargo van — both vehicles can move a lot of objects from A to B, but each one is optimized with somewhat different considerations in mind.

Having this understanding in place, we can now start to delve deeper into each of these content types, starting with traffic content.

The Pros and Cons of Traffic Content

The primary characteristic of traffic content is its focus on high-volume keywords – phrases that users frequently type into search engines.

Benefits of Traffic Content

• Broad Reach: The most obvious benefit of traffic content is the potential for a broad reach. High-volume keywords can attract substantial numbers of visitors, providing excellent exposure for your brand.
• Brand Awareness: By consistently appearing in search results for popular keywords, you increase the likelihood of people recognizing your brand. This can be especially beneficial for newer businesses looking to establish themselves in a competitive marketplace.
• Potential for Virality: When you create content that appeals to a broad audience, there’s always the potential for it to go viral. This can result in an explosive increase in traffic and an impressive boost to your visibility.

Pitfalls of Over-relying on Traffic Content

A strategy focused solely on traffic content does come with a range of disadvantages.

• Low Engagement: While traffic content can attract a large number of visitors, these individuals might not be the most engaged or the most likely to convert. They could be casual browsers, window shoppers, or even accidental visitors who stumbled upon your site but aren’t particularly interested in what you’re offering.
• Content Saturation: The competition for high-volume keywords is often fierce. Many sites are vying for the same set of keywords, and this can lead to a saturation of content. It becomes increasingly challenging to stand out and grab users’ attention in this crowded space.
• Lack of Personalization: Traffic content is, by nature, designed to appeal to a wide audience. This often means it lacks the depth or specificity that might be necessary to engage your core audience. A lack of personalized, audience-specific content can result in missed opportunities for engagement and loyalty building.

In essence, while traffic content is a potent tool for driving visibility and brand awareness, over-reliance on it can lead to impersonal content that fails to deeply engage your audience. That’s where the second part of our equation, audience content, comes into play.

The Pros and Cons of Audience Content

Unlike its traffic-attracting counterpart, audience content aims to resonate on a deeper level with your existing audience or a very specific subset of potential customers. This type of content is crafted with personalization in mind and is often built around long-tail or even zero-traffic keywords.

Where Audience Content Wins

• Deep Engagement: Audience content has the potential to foster deeper engagement with your audience. When your readers see that you understand their needs and interests, they’re more likely to engage with your content and stay on your site longer.
• Loyalty and Retention: By consistently delivering valuable, personalized content, you can encourage loyalty and improve audience retention.
• Building Authority: Audience content allows you to showcase your expertise in specific areas related to your industry. This helps build your authority and trustworthiness, both with your audience and with search engines.

Potential Pitfalls of Audience Content

Like everything else, an overemphasis on audience content also has potential pitfalls:

• Limited Reach: The more specific your content, the narrower your audience. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does mean you’re limiting the potential pool of visitors to your site.
• Time-Intensive: Creating high-quality, super-specialized, bottom-of-the-funnel content often requires more time and resources than producing top-level traffic-oriented content. You’ll need to invest in research, possibly engaging with your audience directly to understand their needs and interests.

The Role of Zero-Traffic Keywords

The term “zero-traffic keyword” is misleading. In most cases, these aren’t keywords that generate absolutely no traffic. Instead, they are keywords for which traffic volumes are low enough that they are overlooked or underestimated by standard keyword research tools. In reality, these keywords often still attract a meaningful number of highly engaged visitors, making them a valuable component of a well-rounded SEO strategy.

Here are a few of the benefits that zero-traffic keywords can deliver:

• Boosting Topical Authority: Content crafted around zero-traffic keywords can help you cover a topic more comprehensively, which can enhance your topical authority.
• Building E-E-A-T Score: Google loves websites that demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Content developed around zero-traffic keywords can provide nuanced insights, contributing to a better E-E-A-T score.
• User Engagement: While zero-traffic keywords might not necessarily bring in a ton of traffic (though they often do), the users they do attract are often more engaged, since the content is likely to align closely with their specific interests.
• Filling Content Gaps: Zero-traffic keywords can help identify gaps in your content and provide opportunities to offer unique, valuable insights that your competitors might have overlooked.

Striking the Balance: When to Use Audience vs. Traffic Content

Just like a well-crafted recipe, a successful SEO strategy requires the right balance of ingredients. So, how do you know when to use audience content and when to rely on traffic content? And more importantly, what is the ideal mix?

Here are a few factors that can influence this balance:

Domain Authority

For new domains or those with low domain authority, it’s often more beneficial to start with audience content. At this early stage, your domain doesn’t yet have the credibility with search engines to rank for high-traffic searches. Moreover, driving large amounts of traffic isn’t very beneficial if you’re not offering content that nurtures or converts those leads.

Industry

In certain industries, a few high-volume keywords may be especially relevant or competitive. In these cases, a focus on traffic content can be advantageous. On the other hand, in niche industries with specialized needs, audience content may play a more significant role.

Business Model

Your type of business can also sway the balance. For instance, a news website that relies on advertising revenue might prioritize traffic content to maximize page views. A SaaS business, however, might focus more on audience content to nurture leads and increase conversions.

Audience

Your audience’s preferences and behaviors should inform your content strategy. If they’re active searchers, traffic content can keep you in their sight. If they’re seeking deeper engagement or highly value trust and authority, audience content may be more effective.

Business Goals

Your specific business goals are a significant determining factor. If your goal is brand visibility or breaking into a new market, traffic content might be your go-to. But if you’re aiming to deepen customer relationships, improve retention, or establish yourself as a thought leader, audience content should feature prominently in your strategy.

Experimenting with Ratios in Your Content Plan

Establishing an ideal balance of traffic and audience content is not a set formula. It’s an evolving mix that should be continuously monitored and adjusted. For new domains or domains with low authority, a starting point could be a greater focus on audience content, say a 70:30 mix of audience to traffic content. This approach allows you to build your domain’s credibility and engage the audience that you do attract more effectively.

As your domain authority grows and you establish a foothold in your industry, you might start to increase the proportion of traffic content. Remember, achieving the perfect balance isn’t a one-and-done effort. It requires continuous tweaking and refinement based on your evolving business goals, audience needs, and shifts in the market or industry trends.

Traffic vs Audience Content: Measuring and Refining Your Approach

For any content strategy, gauging the impact of your efforts and fine-tuning your approach based on what the data tells you, is essential. After all, what good is a strategy if you can’t measure its success and make necessary adjustments?

Here’s how to do that with your content mix.

Understanding Key Metrics

The metrics you need to watch may differ slightly depending on whether you’re focusing on traffic or audience content.

• For Traffic Content: Look at metrics like overall website traffic, rankings for target keywords, and organic click-through rates. If your traffic content is doing its job, you should see increases in these areas.
• For Audience Content: Metrics like time spent on page, bounce rate, and user engagement (comments, shares, likes) are important. These can help you gauge whether your audience content is resonating with your readers and leading to deeper engagement.

Remember that these metrics are interrelated. For instance, a high bounce rate might indicate that while your traffic content is successfully driving visitors to your site, your audience content might need tweaking to better hold their attention.

Using Data to Refine Your Approach

Once you’ve collected some data, it’s time to analyze and take action.

• Identify What Works: See which pieces of content are performing best. What do they have in common? Is it the type of content, the topics covered, or the keywords used? Use these insights to inform your future content creation.
• Spot Content Gaps: Look for areas where performance is lagging. Are there topics you haven’t covered adequately? Are there audience needs or interests you’ve overlooked? Addressing these gaps can help improve both traffic and engagement.
• Test and Iterate: Don’t be afraid to experiment. If your current mix of traffic and audience content isn’t delivering the results you want, tweak the balance. Keep an eye on how these changes impact your key metrics to find the mix that works best for your business.

Remember, SEO is not a set-and-forget strategy. It’s a cycle of planning, executing, measuring, and refining. By continuously monitoring your performance and adjusting your approach, you can optimize your balance of traffic and audience content to achieve your specific business goals.