Publishers have long known that the best strategy for traffic growth is simple: focus on what you can control. But lately, with “Google Zero” cannibalizing clicks and search behavior shifting off the open web, it can feel like controllable factors are diminishing.
Not entirely.
Yes, pageviews are generally shrinking, especially from Google. But when we look across other traffic channels, audiences are finding new doors into the content they love. And often, these audiences are more engaged, more likely to come back, and ultimately, drive more revenue.
That’s why the future of traffic mitigation and growth isn’t about replacing pageviews. Instead, it’s about higher-quality visits that mean your business can actually thrive with less overall traffic.
Not all traffic delivers equal value
To uncover this opportunity, Raptive, a technology and media company, analyzed our network of more than 7,000 sites and found that revenue per pageview can vary dramatically by source. For example, Instagram drives nearly four times more revenue per pageview than ChatGPT across the sites analyzed. If you’re spending time trying to figure out how to optimize for LLM referrals, this finding should prompt a closer look at where those efforts sit among your priorities.
This analysis offers a preview of a forthcoming, more comprehensive Raptive report on the state of publisher traffic. We regularly share new data and findings drawn from our network-level insights to help publishers understand how audience behavior is changing and what those shifts mean for their businesses. Looking across thousands of sites helps us identify patterns that can be difficult to see within a single publisher’s analytics.
Those patterns are a starting point. The revenue associated with a traffic source will vary by publisher, audience, content, and geography. A network-wide comparison can help you ask better questions while your own data should guide what happens next.
Measure what each traffic source contributes
Understanding how each of your channels drives revenue can be a valuable tool for deciding where teams should apply their focus. If a channel drives meaningful revenue per pageview but gets little attention, it should be considered as an area of investment.
Start by comparing each channel’s share of pageviews with its share of revenue. Then look at return visits, pages per session, and newsletter sign-ups to understand what happens after people arrive. A source that looks small in a traffic report may be doing more for the business than its volume suggests.
There’s a resource question here, too. What does it take to attract those visits? A channel with strong revenue per pageview may still require substantial production or distribution effort. The opportunity is to find where valuable audiences and a sustainable investment of time overlap.
Turn valuable visits into lasting audience relationships
Direct, for example, has long been a valued traffic source. Readers who deliberately seek out a publisher represent an audience relationship worth investing in. Those audiences tend to arrive more frequently, turn more pages, and engage with more revenue-driving things, like affiliate links and newsletters. Direct also tends to get less attention because measuring efforts to influence it feels challenging.
That doesn’t mean publishers have to wait for readers to form a habit on their own. Give them a reason to return: a recurring column, a useful tool, a newsletter that solves a specific problem, or coverage they can’t easily find elsewhere. Make that next step visible while they’re on the site. Then track whether readers return and whether those repeat visits contribute more revenue over time.
The next step is simple: look beyond which channels drive the most traffic and identify which bring the most value — and what it would take to grow them. Publishers can’t control what the walled gardens do or where Google goes next, but they can control the experiences people get when they arrive, the reasons they come back, and how the brand shows up across platforms.
For the next planning cycle, choose one under-invested channel, set a revenue and engagement goal alongside a traffic goal, and test a focused effort to grow it. That gives teams a clearer basis for deciding what deserves more resources.
There’s still opportunity for growth — you just have to know where to look.
About the author
Sharon Profis is the SVP of Audience Strategy at Raptive, where she helps creators turn audience growth into stronger businesses. She has led content and audience teams across digital publishing and, for more than a decade, has shared her love of cooking as the host of a PBS cooking segment.