Traffic is traffic. Have you ever heard that? With the fast pace of internet marketing and the onslaught of spam we seem to get caught up in tracking numbers of hits and we lose sight of the bottom line? Sales. While it is true that any traffic you generae reflects the fact that you are getting exposure, you should seek prospects that are found in your demographic or will have a positive effect on your sales.

In order to know what to do, you need to know what you've been doing. Consider a tool such as Google Analytics. It is a free resource that will allow you to track your current visitors and it gives you the ability to see who is visiting your site, when they are visiting, and where they are visiting your site from. This information can be very useful in troubleshooting your marketing plan.

If you want to find out what's keeping prospects from completing a transaction you can set up a system for tracking your conversion rate (or number of visitors who complete a transaction). Once you know where you are losing visitors you will be well on your way to making the needed adjustments and increasing your sales figures.

When you advertise online, you will want to keep your target audience in mind. If you are catering to stay at home moms with discretionary income then you will want to shy away from advertising on a major sports website. Just the same, if your audience is high school boys you will not want to spend any advertising dollars on a website for senior citizens. An exception to this rule would be to build a brand presence. If you are marketing a product for young children whose parents would need to log on, you will want to spend your ad dollars trying to reach the children to expose them to your product but you would also need to reveal your product to the financial decision maker as well.

Just take time to consider your demographic and you will spend your time and money much more wisely.