New visitors are users who have never been to your website. For tracking purposes, new visitors are users who do not have a first-party cookie on their device from your website within a time period defined by your analytics software (often anywhere between 30 days and two years, depending on the tool you use).
Don’t expect your new visitor count to be 100 percent accurate
Because cookies are browser- and device-specific, a user who is actually a returning visitor could be tracked as a new visitor if they visit your website from a different device or browser, or if they visit in incognito mode. And if a user denies cookies on your website, they’ll be tracked as a new visitor every time they come to your website, so your new visitor count will be overstated.
So, as with any metric, you’ll need to take it with a grain of salt. There will always be discrepancies in your session, pageview, and visitor metrics. Nonetheless, tracking new visitors does contribute to a clearer understanding of your business health.
New visitors help you scale your business
If you’re targeting the same people again and again, your business isn’t going to grow. You need to make sure you’re reaching new people and optimizing your content for them.
Track new visitors so you can understand what content:
- Brings the most new visitors to your site.
- Keeps new visitors engaged once they land on your site.
- Encourages new visitors to take the action you want them to take, like subscribing to your newsletter or requesting a demo.
Then, use these insights to inform your content strategy and marketing campaigns.
How to get more new visitors
There are a myriad of tactics to get first-time visitors on your website. The approaches you choose depend on your business type and where your target audience spends time.
The following are a few tactics worth trying for many businesses. Iterate one at a time, so you don’t spread your resources too thin. Then double down on what works and try another tactic when you have the bandwidth to invest in it.
Create search-optimized blog content: Companies across industries see an average of 53 percent of their website traffic come from organic search. Create SEO content relevant to your business to bring people into the customer journey.
Invest in paid ads: Paid ads help you reach a specific audience that could be interested in your brand but might not have heard of you yet. Use paid ads to introduce your business to your target audience.
Be active on social media: Ninety-three percent of businesses have a budget for social media marketing, and that spend steadily increases year-to-year. Try starting a YouTube channel. The platform has its own SEO to tap into to reach new audiences. Or share valuable content on LinkedIn to tap into the 63 million business decision-makers on the social network.
Develop a backlinking strategy: Backlinking is a way to take advantage of another website’s audience. Bonus: you can increase your domain rating at the same time, which will help your website rank higher in search.
Guest post on other websites: Take advantage of the attention other websites earn from your target audience and guest post to introduce those people to your business. By guest posting, you position yourself as an expert in the industry, and readers become more familiar with you and your brand. And you could earn a link to your website depending on what you negotiate with your partner.
Get your product featured in review sites and articles: Find the top-ranking reviews for your product category across the web through searches like “best real estate software” or “hr platform.” Then reach out to those websites to see if they’d be interested in reviewing your product and adding it to that ranking page. Also, add your business to review-specific sites that help audiences find software across categories like G2 and Capterra.
Sponsor industry newsletters: Get your business in front of new eyes by paying for an advertising spot in email newsletters that your customers read. Better yet, if you can contribute original content to the newsletter, you earn the trust of its audience.
Once you’ve got new eyes on your website, make returning eyes out of them. Keep them engaged through relevant CTAs, depending on the content they landed on. If you want them to read more content, encourage them to read a related article, download an ebook, or become subscribers to your email list. If a website visitor landed on a page designed for people looking for a product like yours, invite them to sign up for a demo or free trial.
Gain deeper insight into your new visitors
Tracking the number of new visitors on your website is just the beginning. Once you know who’s new to your website, analyze the quality of their interactions with your business to determine if your content is effective.
Identify what content people are connecting with on their first visit, and promote that content to optimize your strategy for the future.