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You notice your blog traffic is taking a dive.

Maybe it’s because of a new LinkedIn update, or maybe your email click through rate has gone down. Either way, you want to get your traffic back up and are weighing your options.

One fairly easy way to do this is to buy blog traffic. But what are the pros and cons of this? Does it negatively affect your SEO? Will it drive any conversions?

Read on to explore some answers to these common questions.

Why People Buy Traffic

There are a multitude of reasons why people buy traffic, but let’s look at some of the more common ones.

1. Maybe you’re under pressure to hit a certain number of page views a month. A recent decrease in traffic from a previously reliable source has left you worried you’re not going to hit your goal, so you decide buying blog traffic is the best route.
2. Some people may simply be curious. They’ve never used this type of service before and they want to know if buying traffic can actually lead to conversions.
3. Others may think that the increase in page views will be a positive SEO signal. It will show Google a lot of people are visiting your site, so obviously it must be worthy of the attention. 

Does it Hurt SEO?

A common follow up question is whether buying blog traffic hurts SEO. While it doesn’t help it, it doesn’t hurt it in the sense that buying traffic will automatically earn you a search penalty or harm your search ranking.

Of course this also depends on the type of traffic you’re buying. If you’re buying “good” traffic, traffic that markets itself as “quality, targeted visitors” and “not spam,” you’re probably safe (and it will probably cost you more). However, if you’re purchasing “bad” traffic, super spammy traffic that uses known robot IP addresses, it could have a negative effect on your SEO.

Backlinks

Another way buying bad traffic can negatively affect your site is if the service funnels visits to you via a network of low quality blogs. These blogs will create an excess of bad backlinks, which search engines will flag as spam. The only way to undo this is to disavow those backlinks, which can be a hassle.

Bounce Rate

Another thing to think about is your bounce rate. Bounce rate is “the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.” The longer people stay on your site and the more pages/different parts of your site they visit, the lower your bounce rate will be (which is good for SEO).

However, if people are “bouncing” off of your website after only a few seconds, it signals to Google that it wasn’t able to hold the visitor’s attention. This is bad for SEO, as search engines will see it as a sign that you’re not adding value or that your website isn’t very user friendly. 

What Is It Really Doing for You?

If you stop to think about it, what is buying this traffic really doing for your site and your business?

Yes, one reason to have a website is to build awareness of your company and its products/services, but it’s also to get conversions. Unless a lot of that purchased traffic is actually converting into leads on your site, what’s the point? 

At the end of the day, it’s important that you weigh your goals against the reason why you’re buying traffic. If you notice that all that new traffic simply isn’t converting, it might be your best bet to discontinue the service. Your money might be better spent on creating a new gated asset or running some social media ads.

Furthermore, even if the type of traffic you purchase isn’t negatively affecting your SEO at the moment, isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?