How much of that traffic is actually useful?

[MajestySEO]

I used to focus on the traffic number. then I started looking at where that traffic was actually coming from.
I rejected a DR 74 site yesterday. Traffic looked fine in Ahrefs. SEMrush showed a fraction of that number, most pages were unindexed, and the content had nothing to do with the niche I needed. DR meant nothing there.
A site can show 50K or 100K estimated monthly traffic, but that doesn't tell you much.
Maybe 80% of the traffic is going to 2-3 pages. Maybe those pages rank for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche. or most of the traffic is coming from a country you are not interested in.

That's why I now look at a few things before judging a site
- Which pages are bringing the traffic?
- What keywords are those pages ranking for?
- Which countries are sending the traffic?
- Is the traffic stable or did it suddenly appear?
- Does the site's content actually fit the niche?

I also don't put too much weight on DR/DA. they are useful for getting a quick idea, but they don't tell you the whole story.
I would rather see 1-2K and consistent organic traffic than 100K estimated traffic coming from pages that have nothing to do with the site I am working on.

Curious what others check first. what's the first thing you check after seeing the DR/DA and traffic numbers?

 

[SerpStory]

Traffic only matters if it brings the right visitors. I would rather have 1,000 visitors who are interested in the product than 10,000 visitors who leave immediately. I usually look at conversions, engagement, returning visitors, and the pages bringing traffic instead of focusing only on total traffic numbers.

 

[thaaz]

After relevance, check the exact page or section where the link would sit. Is it indexed, linked internally from pages that receive traffic, and surrounded by related content? A domain can have legitimate traffic while the proposed placement is buried in an orphaned section. Domain-level numbers won’t show that.

 

[joydoable]

Check where the traffic comes form and what keywords.

 

[MajestySEO]

First thing I check is topical relevance of the traffic-driving pages, exactly what you mentioned. A site can have great DR but if 80% of its traffic is coming from 2-3 unrelated pages, that authority isn't really passing any real value to a guest post/link in a completely different niche.

DR shows the authority of the whole domain, but links come from specific pages. If those pages are not related to your niche, the link may not be very useful.

Traffic only matters if it brings the right visitors. I would rather have 1,000 visitors who are interested in the product than 10,000 visitors who leave immediately. I usually look at conversions, engagement, returning visitors, and the pages bringing traffic instead of focusing only on total traffic numbers.

Right. source and keyword matter more than volume. a site with 3K monthly traffic all coming from one relevant keyword beats a 100K site where most of that is entertainment or unrelated informational traffic.

After relevance, check the exact page or section where the link would sit. Is it indexed, linked internally from pages that receive traffic, and surrounded by related content? A domain can have legitimate traffic while the proposed placement is buried in an orphaned section. Domain-level numbers won’t show that.

Good point on conversions and engagement. from a link placement angle I would add index status to that list. A page that's crawled but not indexed isnt passing much regardless of what the domain numbers say.

Check where the traffic comes form and what keywords.

This is something many people miss.
A site might have 50K visitors and a strong backlink profile, but if the specific page where your link is placed gets no traffic and has no internal links, the link may not be very good.

so always check the exact page where your link will be placed.

 

[Proxy_Soxy]

I also look at what the site has been linking out to lately

If every second new article suddenly has links to completely unrelated niches, the traffic can still look fine today but I’d probably pass on it

 

[Sarah Mathews]

I used to focus on the traffic number. then I started looking at where that traffic was actually coming from.
I rejected a DR 74 site yesterday. Traffic looked fine in Ahrefs. SEMrush showed a fraction of that number, most pages were unindexed, and the content had nothing to do with the niche I needed. DR meant nothing there.
A site can show 50K or 100K estimated monthly traffic, but that doesn't tell you much.
Maybe 80% of the traffic is going to 2-3 pages. Maybe those pages rank for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche. or most of the traffic is coming from a country you are not interested in.

That's why I now look at a few things before judging a site
- Which pages are bringing the traffic?
- What keywords are those pages ranking for?
- Which countries are sending the traffic?
- Is the traffic stable or did it suddenly appear?
- Does the site's content actually fit the niche?

I also don't put too much weight on DR/DA. they are useful for getting a quick idea, but they don't tell you the whole story.
I would rather see 1-2K and consistent organic traffic than 100K estimated traffic coming from pages that have nothing to do with the site I am working on.

Curious what others check first. what's the first thing you check after seeing the DR/DA and traffic numbers?

For me, the main thing I check is whether the backlink can be placed naturally within a unique, relevant article and I also look at the sites niche relevance and overall content quality before considering all metrics.

 

[Sloan Boone]

I used to focus on the traffic number. then I started looking at where that traffic was actually coming from.
I rejected a DR 74 site yesterday. Traffic looked fine in Ahrefs. SEMrush showed a fraction of that number, most pages were unindexed, and the content had nothing to do with the niche I needed. DR meant nothing there.
A site can show 50K or 100K estimated monthly traffic, but that doesn't tell you much.
Maybe 80% of the traffic is going to 2-3 pages. Maybe those pages rank for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche. or most of the traffic is coming from a country you are not interested in.

That's why I now look at a few things before judging a site
- Which pages are bringing the traffic?
- What keywords are those pages ranking for?
- Which countries are sending the traffic?
- Is the traffic stable or did it suddenly appear?
- Does the site's content actually fit the niche?

I also don't put too much weight on DR/DA. they are useful for getting a quick idea, but they don't tell you the whole story.
I would rather see 1-2K and consistent organic traffic than 100K estimated traffic coming from pages that have nothing to do with the site I am working on.

Curious what others check first. what's the first thing you check after seeing the DR/DA and traffic numbers?

It is always my habit to go through the traffic drivers before the domain total itself. If there are any pages for the domain that do not have any traffic, weak keywords nd are abandoned, the 50K figure does not mean anything.

 

[Anos_King]

I used to focus on the traffic number. then I started looking at where that traffic was actually coming from.
I rejected a DR 74 site yesterday. Traffic looked fine in Ahrefs. SEMrush showed a fraction of that number, most pages were unindexed, and the content had nothing to do with the niche I needed. DR meant nothing there.
A site can show 50K or 100K estimated monthly traffic, but that doesn't tell you much.
Maybe 80% of the traffic is going to 2-3 pages. Maybe those pages rank for keywords that have nothing to do with your niche. or most of the traffic is coming from a country you are not interested in.

That's why I now look at a few things before judging a site
- Which pages are bringing the traffic?
- What keywords are those pages ranking for?
- Which countries are sending the traffic?
- Is the traffic stable or did it suddenly appear?
- Does the site's content actually fit the niche?

I also don't put too much weight on DR/DA. they are useful for getting a quick idea, but they don't tell you the whole story.
I would rather see 1-2K and consistent organic traffic than 100K estimated traffic coming from pages that have nothing to do with the site I am working on.

Curious what others check first. what's the first thing you check after seeing the DR/DA and traffic numbers?

Imo, i'd check with traffic relevance and distribution first. As of me DR & DA are surface level metrics only. If traffic was from unrelavant pages or from the wrong region, site loses it value for me. And also I would compare with target niche and check whether the traffic trend is stable.

 

[Eliterank]

Traffic numbers can look impressive, but not all traffic is useful. I think relevant visitors and real engagement matter more than just having a high traffic number.

 

[MajestySEO]

I also look at what the site has been linking out to lately

If every second new article suddenly has links to completely unrelated niches, the traffic can still look fine today but I’d probably pass on it

that's a good check. Outbound links tell you a lot about the site owner. If they link to anything and everything, it shows they don't care much about who they link to. good outbound links usually mean the owner cares about the site.

For me, the main thing I check is whether the backlink can be placed naturally within a unique, relevant article and I also look at the sites niche relevance and overall content quality before considering all metrics.

good backlink in a good article is often rushed. Sellers want to deliver fast, so the article is written around the link instead of making the link fit properly. that matters for both the reader and Google.

It is always my habit to go through the traffic drivers before the domain total itself. If there are any pages for the domain that do not have any traffic, weak keywords nd are abandoned, the 50K figure does not mean anything.

exactly. the 50K number is a domain level average. It hides everything. a site can have two pages driving all that traffic and 800 pages that nobody visits. If your link goes on one of those 800 pages, you are buying the domain's reputation but getting page level placement with no real audience or internal equity behind it.

Imo, i'd check with traffic relevance and distribution first. As of me DR & DA are surface level metrics only. If traffic was from unrelavant pages or from the wrong region, site loses it value for me. And also I would compare with target niche and check whether the traffic trend is stable.

Right, DR and DA are useful for filtering out the obvious junk quickly. But they stop being useful the moment you start using them as the final answer. traffic similarity and distribution take longer to check, which is probably why most people skip it.

 

[Ben Arthur]

Spot on. After looking at the basic numbers, the first thing I check is the organic traffic trend over the last year or two. I want to see if the site took a hit from any recent Google updates. If the traffic is tanking or bouncing around like a rollercoaster, I skip it right away. There's zero value in grabbing a link on a sinking ship, no matter how high the DR is. After that, I check the top pages to make sure the traffic is actually relevant to my niche.

 

[KoD-]

The first thing I would check is traffic distribution at the URL level. Domain level traffic can be misleading if a few pages are responsible for most of it.

 

[cloakme]

Yes, exactly. If a site is regularly updated, has consistent backlink growth, good organic traffic, all important pages indexed, and the site is technically healthy with good page speed, I’d consider it a strong domain.

But checking these metrics also helps identify sites where the traffic or authority may have been manipulated. That’s why I prefer looking beyond DR and traffic numbers before judging a site.

 

[Noura Digital]

I will check traffic sources and top ranking pages first. Then I will look at keyword relevance, traffic countries, indexing and whether the traffic has been stable or not. DR/DA is only a quick metric forr me.