What’s a good amount of visitor traffic for a life coach’s website? And how can you know whether your current traffic numbers are on the right trajectory to grow your business?
These are common questions I get from my coaching clients when consulting with them about their websites. It’s understandable. You want to know you’re on track to meet your business growth goals, and you want a benchmark to be certain you’re going to get there.
Today I’m going to give you a minimum traffic baseline to shoot for on your life coaching website. I’m also going to tell you why quantity of traffic doesn’t always mean quality. And I’m going to give you better indicator to focus on instead of traffic (spoiler: it’s your conversion rate) so you can set your business goals.
first, what is website traffic? What is a conversion rate?
Website traffic is just that – the traffic of people that come and go from your website. Usually traffic is measured by how many unique visitors you get on any given day, week, or month. There are awesome web tools (I recommend Google Analytics) that capture all of this information for you.
A conversion rate is the percentage of people actually take you up on the offer(s) you make on your website.
So, the conversion rate to your email list is the number of people that actually sign up for your list divided by the number of people that are presented with that sign up. If 20 people see your sign up, and 2 actually fill out the form and hit “submit,” then that’s a 10% conversion rate (2 divided by 20).
Same goes with your mini-session. If 20 people open and read your email where you offer a mini session, and 1 contacts you and schedules one, then that’s a 5% conversion rate (1 divided by 20).
Calculating your conversion rate is why knowing your traffic numbers is so important. That leads us to our next question, and what you still want to know…
What is a good amount of traffic?
The answer is: it depends.
Quantity doesn’t mean quality
Having a high quantity of website visitors doesn’t necessarily mean that a lot of them are going to be interested in what you have to offer.
I’ll offer you two examples to illustrate this, adapted from this informative article from A1WebStats:
- A life coach who has solid website traffic (3000 visitors a month) but who has some weak spots in her website and marketing in general. So she only gets 30 people who sign up for her email list. That’s a 1% conversion rate.
- A life coach who has comparatively low website traffic (750 visitors a month) but her marketing and website are much stronger. She gets 30 people who sign up for her email list, a 4% conversion rate.
Both of these coaches have 30 people who sign up. But one of them has a much higher conversion rate because their marketing and online strategy, in general, is stronger.
You want to be the second one, right? It means fewer costs (if you’re purchasing traffic via ads) or less time invested (if you’re going that route to bring the people in).
Focus on the conversion rate, not the traffic
The moral of the story is this: traffic is an indicator, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
It is certainly true that lower amounts of traffic are tied to a lackluster revenue stream. As one meta-study found, websites with less than 400 visitors a month are really limited in the success they can achieve.
But what’s more important here is the number of people that are actually taking you up on whatever you’re offering on your website. In other words, the conversion rate.
You’ve learned that traffic isn’t everything, and that your conversion rates are more important. Which leads you to wonder…
what’s a good conversion rate?
Neil Patel teaches that a good conversion rate is simply one that’s better than the one you have now.
And if you don’t have a website yet (hello, you need one!), get it set up and use your initial conversion numbers as a baseline. You have to start somewhere and use your own rate as a benchmark to jump off from.
You might be thinking, “Well, that’s all helpful, but it still doesn’t put my mind at ease on the conversion and traffic numbers to aim for on my life coaching website.”
Ultimately, what traffic and conversion numbers you’re shooting for depends on your income goals.
how much $$ do you want to make?
On her now defunct “How to Be a Life Coach” podcast, Master Coach Brooke Castillo provided a breakdown of a potential income stream for a life coach based on a specific income goal.
She pointed out that if you want to make $100k as a coach, and you’re willing to coach 20 clients a week, then you need these numbers to make it happen:
- 20 clients x $100/hour = $2000/wk (working 50 weeks per year)
- Working backwards, you need 40 mini sessions of which 20 people sign up, a 50% conversion rate on the mini session
- To get 40 people who are interested in your mini session, you need 400 people who see your offer for a mini session via your marketing emails, a 10% conversion rate on the email offer
- To get those 400 people to join your email list, Brooke suggests 4000 people will need to see your offer to join your email list, again a 10% conversion rate
A 10% conversion rate is the average on Facebook ads across all industries, so that benchmark doesn’t seem unreasonable. Facebook ads are the traffic source that Brooke Castillo recommends. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to market your business besides ads. But with any marketing option, it’s helpful to have some sort of metric to track how useful it is by tracking website visits and conversions, where possible.
Keep in mind this process of advertising and marketing would need to be repeated every time a client finishes the length of your program. Brooke suggested 6 week coaching packages, but I know coaches who do as long as a 6 or even 12 month agreements with clients.
If your income goals are different, then these exact numbers for traffic will be slightly different. Take those numbers and tweak them to align with your own goals.
avoid the comparison game
You’ve got a huge network of peers who are in the coaching industry. It might be easy to compare your numbers to theirs and feel like you aren’t doing something right.
In this excellent article on boosting conversion rates, Brandon Weaver explains why comparing yourself to other businesses – even ones who sell a comparable service (like coaching) – isn’t helpful. He says:
“In digital marketing, there are … many variables contributing to a business’s conversion rate — which is why you can’t compare yourself to them either, even if based on appearances, they’re similar to you.”
Your business may look similar to your peers, but you are serving a completely different niche. Your people come to your website from different places, their needs are different, their worldview is different.
There are so many factors to a conversion rate that you’re really shooting yourself in the foot to compare yourself to someone else, even if they’re a coach. Avoid unnecessary stress and panic by refusing to play the comparison game.
The only person you’re competing against is yourself.
A final word…
In the end, don’t obsess about traffic. Analyze traffic as the tool it is. But remember that it’s only one indicator.
Instead, focus on the relationship and reputation you’re building with your people. Spend your energy and focus on connecting with your market and converting your ideal client. Provide massive value.
And don’t forget the significance of getting other touch points out to your people in addition to your website.
What’s most important is people are able to establish a relationship with you so they come to know, like, and trust you.
Hope this was helpful!
Jennie
P.S. Website traffic is a good indicator, but conversion rates are an even better one.
And those numbers will depend on your business and income goals.
Just remember that comparing those numbers to anyone but yourself, even those in your industry, isn’t going to get you where you want to go.
