Have you ever been reading a blog on one website and click to continue to read more, and after clicking a link, you are now on an entirely different website? If this has not happened to you, consider yourself lucky because you got to finish doing what you wanted on one site. But if you are a business owner, pat yourself on the back because this is what a referral site is. A referrer site is the URL of a webpage embedded on another site. Referral links are often a result of backlinks placed on other websites that bring traction to your site.
If this is still kind of confusing to understand, consider this: Have you ever been reading a blog, and there are words with hyperlinks attached to it? These hyperlinks may be over one word or a group of words within the text that details specific information on a brand or product. When you click on that link, it “refers” you to another website that talks about another product or service that may be related to what you were reading.
The purpose of a referral site through backlinks is to increase user engagement (even if the engagement is the result of leaving one site for another). A referrer site has great benefits with it comes to digital analytics. It can also be especially beneficial if the traffic you receive is from other partner sites.
Here are four reasons referral sites are important in digital marketing:
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Referral Traffic
Referrer sites are a great tool to help your business. Nearly all of the digitally operating companies are relying on referral traffic they receive from different websites. Owing to the importance of digital analysis, you can also calculate the traffic your website receives from each link. This has turned the concept of referrer links into a huge opportunity for marketing strategies based on user behavior.
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First-Time Users
Referrer links are the best way to attract first-time customers. Obviously, you can’t retain a visitor if they haven’t seen your business or know about it, but referrer sites help you tap into a new audience by embedding it on a site as a backlink.
This increases your reach and has the potential to make users become paying customers. If you are only engaging using organic one-way traffic to your website, you miss out on a lot of money. But do keep in mind that a referrer site will only smoothen the process.
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Mutual Partnerships
Building referrals are not only useful to increase traffic to your website; it can also build a network of connections. Being able to have your site featured on another page allows more user engagement to increase awareness of your site. Often, being able to mention others can businesses can become a mutual benefit and long-term partnership. One thing to keep in mind is that you should go through several sites to make sure that the sites you choose have partnerships or agreements with a quality reputation. For instance, you would not be asking for a house paint service to refer you via a backlink to an article about digital marketing.
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Site Performance
How can a referrer site improve your website’s performance? This answer is quite simple. When you track your referral analytics, you’ll know more about where you originate your traffic from. For instance, if you run a meditation blog and notice that you are receiving a lot of referral traffic from a men’s wellness page, you will know there was a connection made through a backlink promoting your business. The SEO in the blog will increase your site performance because of the referrals to your site.
The concept of referrer sites is widely entertained in all areas of digital marketing, especially on all the major social media platforms. Most people (young and old) are not engaging on social media. Discovering what a referral site is and how it can benefit your business via these social media platforms can increase your brand awareness beyond backlinks in blogs.
