In the last week I've been asked at least twice what "good" traffic is. My answer is always the same…
Speaking the same language
The first thing, though, is to make sure that when we say "traffic" we're talking about the same thing. There are so many stats and metrics involved with traffic — unique visitors, visits, hits (although that's a completely vague term and I vote we banish it from our stats vocabulary), etc. They all measure and indicate different things.
"Pageviews" is probably the best term to use when conversing about traffic in general.
A pageview is counted each time your site loads. So, when someone comes to your main page and your site appears on the screen, that's one pageview. The visitor might scroll down to read (still the same pageview) and then click over to another one of your posts. Your site will load that new post (on a new page) and that will be a second pageview. And so on.
In general, when bloggers talk about traffic in pageviews, I'd say the default is monthly pageviews (as opposed to daily or weekly).
So, with that in mind, how many monthly pageviews is good? Well, it depends. There are bloggers for whom 500 pageviews a month is fantastic. And there are bloggers for whom 500,000 monthly pageviews would be so-so. Age of blog, niche, popularity and purpose are all things that would determine what is good and what is not-so-good.
But let's be real here, many times the reason why we want to know if our traffic is "good" is because we are comparing ourselves to others. Beware of sabotaging your blog (and your life). Ask me how I know. 
A better question
Instead of asking, "Is my site's traffic good?" first ask, "What is my site's goal and am I reaching it?"
Why are you asking the traffic question in the first place? Do you want to make money and aren't sure if you have enough traffic to do so? Do you want to build a strong, intimate community? Do you want to know if a move to a more robust hosting plan is warranted?
Your answer will help you define what a good amount of traffic is for you. It will also determine what kinds of things you can do to increase your traffic.
Don't look at numbers, look at trends
So my answer to the question "What is good traffic?" is this:
- It depends.
- Don't get hung up on the numbers. What matters more is an upward trend in your traffic stats. Is your traffic steadily growing from month to month? Sure, we all have months that dip & spike for all kinds of reasons, but if you look at the last 6 months or the last year, are your numbers steadily increasing? If so, then I would say you're moving in the right direction. If that's your goal of course.
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Hey Amy, it is great how you actually ask the question about what metrics are we using. I would just continue the post here saying that if you are selling a 1.000$ consulting package and every 50th person that comes to your site purchases, that means you don't need but 50 people a day to make 30.000 a month.
But if you are relying on ad clicks and affiliate sales, you will need way more traffic.
I would agree that the best thing is just make sure that the traffic is growing steadily.
Thank you for a great explanation of the different metrics terms. I'm working to increase my traffic so I can earn an income from my blog. I'm wondering, which stat should I share in a media kit – monthly page views or monthly visitors, or both?
I would at least include monthly pageviews, monthly unique visitors, Facebook & Twitter numbers.
Hey Amy…can you elaborate on what you mean by "Facebook and Twitter numbers"? Is this simply number of likers/followers? Or are you referring to more indepth insights?
Here I was just talking about the basic number of followers you have for each.
I was wondering this exact thing this morning… I need help! LOL I need different ways to market my blog without spending a ton of money. Any ideas?
There are quite a few ideas in my Traffic Archives.
No matter how much you try to ignore stats, if your a blogger your going to think about it. Great post Amy – to the point-easy to understand and exactly what most people want to know.
Thanks!
When I started my first blog, I was insane about checking the traffic! Then, I realized how time-consuming it was to worry about it! I still check my traffic sometimes, but mainly I'm working to build a better blog, network more, and try to write helpful content! I'm finding the less I focus on my numbers, the more they seem to increase!
Love your blog, Amy…and I'm looking forward to Relevant!!
I'm curious…what is your typical traffic each month (if you don't mind sharing)?
Thanks Amy- as a new blogger part of me wants to see big numbers….500 wow!!! I would love that. 50,000?! who ARE those people.. but I remind myself of what Ann shared at Relevant and I concur with her sentiments- I write for One and if I only reach one- person- then I consider myself having done faithfully. Yes, you cannot make money with one view! My blog is all about ministering and teaching the hearts of women. God bless.
Great perspective, Nicol. Thanks for the reminder.
Amy,
Very nice. Too many times I worry that bloggers get too wrapped up in NUMBERS. Sure you want them high but the key is to keep them moving in a forward direction, like you stated.
The only time I can think that numbers really need to get technical is if you are selling your blog.
I can admit I look at bounce rates in reference to the sites that feed visitors to me to kinda gauge if I am getting good traffic or not, that is just a quick way. The higher the bounce rate, the more I figure they like what they are reading.
I try to check quality over quantity.
~Allie
Wait, I think you mean the lower the bounce rate, the better, correct?
Ha ha! Yes, lower. What was I thinking?
~Allie
I want to make sure I understand right.. When looking at my bounce rate….do I want a low number or a high number? I've consistently had a bounce rate of 75%.
The lower the better.
Hi Amy
Ahhhh, so I've been wondering what "Page Views" means exactly. I figured it was what you're saying, but great to have it confirmed. Quite a timely article for me, actually. Thank you for the simple explanation!
Lina
My pleasure! Glad it helped.
Thanks, Amy! You recently gave me this exact advice – upward trend, not a magic number. Wonderful advice.
This post was super helpful for me, Amy. I've really been evaluating who I want to read my blog-who I'm writing for. That's helping me to think and develop new and different ways of finding those people.
Thanks for all your thoughts, especially your interaction on FB. It means a lot to me. Somedays it's hard to read a blogpost, but getting even just a nugget on FB is helpful. So, I hope you keep doing that! Thank you!
Good things to keep in mind. I am just starting to learn about pageviews, etc. I need to set some goals for myself in the future…
Yes, goals are great!!
What's the good traffic for 3 weeks old site? I got around 1300 page views and 650+ visitor from first 3 weeks. I have no idea, is it potential or not.
Thanks.
I think it depends on your niche and the goals for your site. You might be interested in How Much Do Real Bloggers Actually Make? That will give you some hard stats on the experiences for others.
Well, I finally installed Google Analytics after relying on Word Press Stats.
As I expected, Google shows that I have fewer unique visitors than I thought, but my page views are actually quite a bit higher on Google Analytics than on Word Press.
I'm really not sure what that means…..I guess visitors are making more use of other pages/posts within my site than I thought.
My traffic has been steadily growing over the last year, though not at the speed I was hoping for. I guess I had this hope my site would go "viral,"-lol.
I notice very definite seasonal trends, so I'm working on being responsive to that.
Oh, the difference in stat numbers means it's not an exact science and all stats vary from service to service (mine do!). I understand the frustration of not growing as you'd like but I always say that slow growth is good growth. Also, it seems common that a blog will barely increase in traffic and then suddenly there will be exponential growth, so don't count it out.