Internet Traffic

Internet traffic refers to the actual amount of data transferred from a website, as opposed to the number of times a site is visited. Roughly a product of the number of users and how much each surfer is using the site per visit, traffic is considered a general measure of a site's popularity. It is also a particularly useful subset of web analytics for determining what parts of a site are popular and appropriate for advertising.

When either advertising or running a business online, traffic equals money, so a central effort of most websites is increasing internet traffic. The most common strategy is of course online advertising, or e-marketing, resulting in the ever-present barrage of popup ads, banners, and e-mail campaigns. Advertisers usually pay per click, meaning they pay the site displaying the link for every bit of traffic sent their way.

However, numerous methods of increasing traffic are available besides advertising. With the increased popularity of Yahoo! and Google (the third- and fourth-most visited sites in the United States, respectively, according to Nielsen NetRatings), gaining traffic from search listings is becoming crucial. If generated from an unpaid listing, this is often called "organic traffic," and is certainly the most cost-effective method of attracting visitors. Also popular is "web exchange," an agreement by a group's members to funnel a certain amount of traffic to other members.

Not all internet traffic is considered good. Expensive equipment and software design is required to handle increased traffic, and traffic overload beyond what a system can handle will often fatally slow down a site. In addition, some traffic represents a specific security threat, either seeking after sensitive information or trying to cripple the website.