If you run a website, then you’ve likely spent time creating and optimizing a marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website. But how many visitors should you aim for your website to get?

To answer that question, you will need to complete the following steps: 

• determine how many visitors are typical to websites in your industry
• determine how many visitors are “good” for websites in your industry
• establish a goal based on variables like industry, size, and user experience and create an action plan to achieve it

In this post, we’ll walk through how to complete each of these steps. Feel free to jump on one of the links above to skip to that step. Otherwise, let’s get started. 

How many visitors does a website typically get?

It depends. With over 1.9 billion websites on the internet today, it is impossible to provide one number, or even a range, to accurately answer this question. Fortunately, there is data as well as tools and other resources to help you make an educated guess for websites in your industry.

To this end, the HubSpot Blog surveyed over 400 web traffic analysts in the U.S. to gather data on various metrics including their monthly traffic, bounce rate, click-through rate, and the strategies they use to rank on search engine results pages. The majority tracked analytics for B2C websites, while the rest tracked for B2B sites. Thanks to this survey, we can provide some answers for how many visitors a website typically gets and where these visitors come from. 

When asked how many total visitors the website they tracked analytics for got per month, the majority answered between 1,001 and 15K. Here’s the breakdown:

• 1,001-15K (46%)
• 15,001-50K (19.3%)
• 50,001-250K  (23.2%)
• 250,001-10M (11%)
• 10M+ (0.5%)

These percentages change when you consider other factors, like the size and age of the website. Let’s look at those breakdowns below. 

Visitors by Website Size

Since website size might refer to the company size (ie. the number of employees) or to the amount of content on the website, we looked at both factors and how that affected total monthly visitors. 

According to the HubSpot survey of over 400 web traffic analysts, the number of employees correlates to the number of monthly visitors — but more employees doesn’t always mean more visitors. Sites with over 1000 employees did make up the majority that get between 50,001-250K and 250,001-10M total monthly visitors. They were also the only sites that get over 10 million total monthly visitors.

However, approximately 8% of companies with fewer than 10 employees get between 250,001-10M total monthly visitors whereas 0% of companies with 11 to 200 employees do. Also, approximately 31% of companies with 201 to 500 employees get between 50,001-250K and 250,001-10M total monthly visitors, which is higher than the percentages of companies with 5001 to 1000 employees and companies with more than 1000.

According to the data, the less frequently you publish, the less visitors you get per month and vice versa. For example, 36% of sites that publish multiple times a day get between 1,000 and 15K monthly visitors whereas 100% of websites that publish once a quarter or less do. Also, only sites that publish multiple times a day get over 10 million total monthly visitors.

Visitors by Website Age

According to HubSpot data, the age of a website correlates to the number of monthly visitors. Sites that have existed for over 10 years did make up the majority that get between 250,001-10M and over 10 million total monthly visitors, and the minority that get between 1,001-15K.

However, older doesn’t always mean more visitors. For example, approximately 34% of sites that have existed for 7-9 years get between 50,001-250K total monthly visitors whereas only 29% of websites that have existed for over 10 years do.

Where do visitors come from?

Knowing how many total monthly visitors websites get on average is important — but it’s also important to know where these visitors are coming from. It can help you determine whether you should invest more in email or social media, for example, or in ensuring your site is mobile-friendly. Let’s take a look at the results of the HubSpot survey below. 

Visitors from Traffic Sources

According to HubSpot data, the distribution of website traffic by source is:

• Direct (22%)
• Organic Search (17%)
• Social (16%)
• Email (14%)
• Display ads (12%)
• Referral (9%)
• Paid Search (9%)
• Other (1%)

As you analyze other companies and industries, you can assume that direct traffic, organic search, and social are the top web traffic sources.

Visitors from Device Types

According to this HubSpot data, the distribution of website traffic by device type is:

• Mobile (41%)
• Desktop (38%)
• Tablet (19%)
• Other (2%)

Other data suggests that mobile makes up an even greater percentage of website traffic worldwide. In fact, mobile has accounted for approximately half of web traffic worldwide since 2017 according to data from Statista.

How do you scale this information to your business? There are a series of factors to consider when determining how many visitors your site should get and setting a “good” number — or benchmark — as your goal. Let’s take a look.

How many unique visitors per month is good?

The answer to this question depends on a few factors. First, are you evaluating a B2B, B2C, or hybrid company? B2B companies have a target audience of other businesses and organizations. B2C companies target direct consumers.

One can infer that the potential for more unique monthly visitors for B2C companies is greater than that of B2B companies simply because their target audience is exponentially larger. B2B companies use niche marketing to sell particular products or services to a specific group of businesses while B2C companies focus their strategy on the needs, interests, and challenges of people in their everyday lives.

Data from the HubSpot survey of over 400 web traffic analysts provides mixed results however. While 22.5% of B2C sites get between 40,001-100K unique monthly visitors, only 16.7% of B2B websites get that amount. However, 16.7% of B2B sites get over 100K unique monthly visitors and only 14.7% of B2C sites do. 

In the table below, you’ll see a breakdown of how many unique visitors that all websites included in the survey get, and a breakdown by B2B and B2C sites. 

Taking note of the data above, determining how many monthly unique visitors is “good” for your company depends on your answers to the following questions.

What is the standard in your industry?

To make an accurate guess of where your company should be, determine the industry standard. To do this, evaluate your competition. Using tools like the previously mentioned SimilarWeb and SEMRush, you can create a general overview of your competitors, and use these statistics to establish an average for your industry.

How much content do you produce?

The more content you have available on your site, the more opportunities you create for visitors to find it. How much new content are you producing? One? Three? Five or more? The size of your team will affect the amount of content you’re able to create. If you find that you’re unable to produce new content, consider expanding the size of your team to meet your needs.

How well is your content strategy working?

To fix something, you need to know if it’s broken. Evaluate whether your content strategy is working. Are you ranking for your keywords? Have you seen an increase in views over the last few months? Where is the bulk of your traffic coming from? Once you can determine how your site is currently performing, you can take active steps to create an effective content strategy.

What is the search volume for your targeted topics?

Search volume for your targeted topics is directly related to the demand for that information, product, or service. High search volume can mean more visitors; however, this is directly affected by the competitiveness of your keywords.

How competitive are your target keywords?

A combination of these factors affects your website’s unique visitors per month, but it boils down to competition. The more competitive your target keywords, the harder it is to rank on the first page of a SERP. The more competitive the industry, the greater the chances of having potential website visitors split among the competition.

For example, in the HubSpot survey, 29.4% of B2C websites described the competitiveness of their target keywords as above average, or highly competitive, whereas only 25.4% of B2B sites did.

Is your website secure?

Establishing a safe and secure website with an SSL certificate can boost your reputation and relationship with future consumers. Not only does it mean less time worrying about potential security incidents, but it allows your visitors to insert their information into your systems with confidence.

Is your website accessible?

Fifteen percent of the world’s population are persons with disabilities. Many still use the web, and businesses must ensure that their content is accessible. Accessibility is not a feature, and making your website convenient to all visitors is not a bonus but a necessity.

Is your website mobile-friendly?

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly for cell phone users, you’re cutting off a large portion of potential visitors. According to data from Statista, the number of unique mobile internet users stood at 4.66 billion in 2021, indicating that over 92 percent of the global internet population use a mobile device to go online.

Optimizing your website for mobile is therefore essential. Over 50% of the web traffic analysts surveyed by HubSpot said that it was one of the SEO strategies they leverage. 

Is your website optimized for the user experience?

Click-through rate and bounce rate are metrics that help determine the user experience on your website. You should evaluate them together. 

Click-through rate is the percentage of people who visit your page after it comes up in a search. Bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive and leave your web page quickly after landing on it. While a high click-through rate is positive, a high bounce rate is negative. A high bounce rate sends search engines a signal that your content isn’t relevant to the users and negatively affects your rank.

In the HubSpot survey of over 400 web traffic analysts, the average click-through rate and bounce rate ranged widely. However, most of the websites (67%) had a click-through rate between 10-39%, while the majority (43.8%) had a bounce rate between 21-40%. These are good benchmarks to use for your site. 

Once you can evaluate your industry, website, and content strategy, the next step is to set goals and execute them.

Setting Reasonable Goals For Website Traffic

Focus on the word “reasonable.” A goal to reach 10,000 monthly visitors next month might not be a stretch if you garnered 9,000 visitors this month. However, if your website receives an average of 2,500 monthly visitors, this goal is less probable. Setting a realistic and attainable goal is the key to creating the proper marketing strategy for your business.

Step 1: Define your goal.

First, define your goal. To do so, analyze your current metrics and that of your competitors.

Platforms such as Google Analytics, HubSpot,  SimilarWeb, SEMRush, and Ahrefs will enable you to analyze the traffic of websites in your industry. Using a combination of these tools is common. For example, in the HubSpot survey, about 82% of the web traffic analysts used Google Analytics and 25% used HubSpot’s web analytics. The next three most popular tools were Mint, Spring Metrics, and SimilarWeb.

Let’s use HelloFresh and other meal kit delivery services as an example. The company’s direct competitors include Every Plate, Home Chef, and Blue Apron. The ranking for their monthly total visitors, according to SimilarWeb and Sitechecker, is as follows for February 2022:

• HelloFresh: 12M
• Every Plate: 2.9M
• Home Chef: 2.7M
• Blue Apron: 1.9M

Note that the same website may differ in traffic estimates provided by different tools. While you can’t assume which platform is more accurate than the other, you can use a combination of information from different sources to find an average. This will provide a snapshot of how many visitors a website typically gets. 

For example, if you’re a new meal kit delivery service looking at the total monthly visitors for these companies, you’d get an average of 4.9 million monthly views. Now, this can be a goal for future growth, with incremental benchmarks. 

A monthly goal for a small business receiving 5,000 total monthly visitors could be 10% or 500 visitors, for example. Set goals with a content plan in mind. With this goal in place, you can use it to determine the success of your content strategy.

Step 2: Build a content plan around MSV.

Monthly search volume (MSV) is the number of times a specific keyword is entered into a search engine each month. MSV allows you to anticipate the amount of traffic available for a particular keyword term. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to gauge which keywords are worth targeting for your content strategy. You’ll also be able to assess the needs of potential clients and customers and cater your content to them.

An effective content plan won’t only target keywords with the highest MSV. In the HubSpot survey, only 15% of the web traffic analysts described the MSV for their target keywords as “very high.” The majority (60%) described it as “somewhat high.”

Some free online keyword tools that help calculate MSV include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keyword Generator, and Answer the Public.

Step 3: Determine a publishing cadence.

In conjunction with creating your content strategy, lay out a schedule. How often you update your website is key to attracting more visitors because you increase the number of opportunities to land on your page. According to the data from the HubSpot survey shared above, you want to post new content to your website multiple times a month at least. Ideally, you should post new content once a day. Websites that post daily are more likely to get between 15,001 and 250K visitors per month, and less likely to get between 1,0001 and 15K visitors than websites that post monthly.

The amount of content is, of course, dependent on the size of your team and audience. The more resources you have, the more content you can create. The larger your audience, the more content you should create.

While determining a publishing cadence is necessary, it is equally important to stick to it and remain consistent.

Step 4: Assess your performance.

The first step to assessing your goals is having a data reporting software set up. Once you do, it’s time to look at a range of metrics. Of the web traffic analysts surveyed, total monthly visitors, unique monthly visitors, and bounce rate were the most common metrics used to assess website performance. Others included search traffic and industry-wide trends.

To start, check if your unique monthly visitors increased. Whether or not you met your goal, ask yourself the following questions to review your progress:

• Did your unique monthly visitors increase or decrease? By what percent?
• Are you ranking for targeted keywords?
• Was there a trend (increase or decrease) in visitors across your industry?

An increase or decrease in your unique monthly visitors isn’t enough to gauge the complete success of your goal or content strategy. Are you ranking for your targeted keywords? If yes, your content strategy is working, and your location in SERPs can lead to further increases in the future. If not, reassess and adopt new SEO methods for growth.

When assessing your performance, it might also be necessary to measure factors out of your control, for example, industry trends. Was there a mutual dip in unique monthly views among you and your competitors? It is possible that your keyword MSV wasn’t as high as in previous months. A decrease in MSV for your keywords is out of your control. However, it is your responsibility to pivot and discover what your target audience is searching for.

How many visitors should your site get?

In content strategy and marketing, consistency is key. How many visitors should your site get? Ultimately, it comes down to how consistent you are in the tips featured above. Do you keep up with industry best practices to guide your knowledge on MSV? Do you periodically evaluate your content to boost your SEO? Are you updating your information to guide your goals?

There is no magic number when it comes to monthly website visitors. Evaluate your website and use your current metrics to determine where you want to be in one, six, or 12 months from now. Changes rarely happen overnight. Set reasonable goals with realistic timelines, and you’ll eventually see growth.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2009 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.