Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best on the Planet

Add to Mixx!
33 Comments Filed Under: StumbleUpon, Social Media, SEO 2.0, Web 2.0, Google

Do you think Digg or Reddit is the place to go nowadays? Never used StumbleUpon until now? You should, both as a user and a webmaster. Users get highly relevant content that matches their preferences, that’s the way of social browsing. Webmasters get substantial and steady traffic. Especially new and small non-profit blogs like mine can get a regular, even daily traffic boost. That’s not all though to say about StumbleUpon, it’s not just any traffic, it’s the best and most targeted traffic I have ever seen!

Let me present 7 reasons why StumbleUpon traffic is the best traffic out there:

  1. Lowest bounce rate on the planet! The bounce rate (you can check it in Google Analytics) tells you how many users just ran away instantly after landing on your site. Even very targeted Google traffic has a bounce rate of 70, 80% which means that 4 out of 5 users won’t read your page and hit the back button. The bounce rate of StumbleUpon: Approx. 30% !!!
  2. New visitors: StumbleUpon traffic means over 95% new visitors, new visitors that are really interested in your topic not just any visitors.
  3. Most pages/visit: This number tells you whether a reader just clicked on a post and then went ahead somewhere else or if s/he just kept on reading more on your site. StumbleUpon users visited 2 pages per visit. That means they read the article that was stumbled and then clicked on the homepage for instance to read more or at least to check what this blog is about. Other traffic sources reach 1,5 pages/visit.
  4. Steadiness: There is no server outage caused by StumbleUpon! Digg can mess up your server, cost you much money and damage your reputation. StumbleUpon traffic comes in steady recurring bursts, SEO 2.0 has been stumbled several times by now, 5 articles have been submitted by users, but one particular post has been stumbled repeatedly. It means that every time a user decides to “like” this post you get a burst of traffic, which in my case is 100 - 200 visitors, not much you might argue, but for a new blog like mine that counts 200 visits without social media it’s substantial.
  5. No flames: Digg and Reddit users hate you for no apparent reason because those services force topics upon people whereas StumbleUpon just sends you those who like your topic anyways. I noticed that I was dugg by the stupid flame comments “you suck on the internet” on my post. StumbleUpon users in contrast behave like surprise guests because they stumbled into your party in a way. So they don’t offend you. On a side note: I was submitted to Reddit and was buried in an instant, probably for being a SEO.
  6. International traffic: While Digg is predominantly white, middle class Americans and Europeans StumbleUpon even brought me some of the rare users from Africa. This is a truly varied international community.
  7. Instant traffic: While new blogs and sites won’t get any significant traffic from Google, StumbleUpon can jump start your blog. My blog was stumbled on day two of SEO 2.0 at a time where Google sent 2 visitors per day. The first significant traffic from Google began to pour in after two weeks but still amounted to 20 - 30 visits. After a month I received more traffic from StumbleUpon alone that from Google’s organic search.

Conclusion: If you set up a new blog or site that targets a niche, you are on shared hosting and you do not want your hosting bill to skyrocket or you are non-profit anyways try to target the StumbleUpon audience and skip the “you suck on the internet” mobs of Digg and Reddit.

Also do not concentrate on Google. Google does not send any significant traffic to new sites to prevent spam. So only older authority sites can built upon organic Google traffic.

If you rely on commercial success concentrate on StumbleUpon first and then go on to other social media when you can afford the 300$ hosting bill and your success makes you immune against flame comments of the mob. Instead of the mob following the lowest common denominator choose the smart mob of StumbleUpon and other social browsing services.

del.icio.us StumbleUpon Facebook Google Mixx Sphinn TwitThis

33 Comments »

  1. Glen Allsopp —

    I’m a big fan of stumble upon traffic. You will find that the more you get involved the more you can leverage

  2. Pingback Organic SEO Service » Blog Archive » Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is The Best on … —

    […] Original post by onreact […]

  3. Skellie —

    I was also pretty surprised to find that SU traffic had such an impressively low bounce rate. I think it is, without a doubt, the most underrated of all the social media services. To this date most of my traffic has come from StumbleUpon!

  4. Darren McLaughlin —

    I get StumpleUpon traffic all the time and always considered it to be very low quality. Might depend on your niche.

  5. Pingback SEO 2.0 | Top 10 StumbleUpon Traffic Optimization Articles —

    […] before publishing my post hailing StumbleUpon as the best traffic source in the world, 2 of my posts got stumbled in the meantime. So I decided to look closer at […]

  6. Better Blogging with Michael Martine —

    Nice to see I wasn’t the only one who noticed the low bounce rate. Great point for new blogs regarding Google vs. StumbleUpon.

  7. Ian AR @ Last.FM —

    Thanks Tadeusz - I master a few sites and’ve been on StumbleUpon for some time, so I’ve noticed some of what you’ve described.

    All my sites are on LAMP platforms and using AWStats I’d gained the impression that SU traffic’s more fickle than other forms, since average visit duration seems to fall during a SU spurt.

    Can you recommend a LAMP-based AWStats alternative to improve my perspective?

    From my experience, I’d add is that, if your page is geo-specific, add geographical SU-tags on your initial SU review. The USA bias on SU traffic is very strong, if you’re not especially seeking USA traffic, it’s a good idea to do something positive about it.

    Also, a small point, currently, SU has a high density of Mozilla/Firefox users - so if you’re getting a lot of SU traffic, remember your browser-type stat’s are skewed.

  8. Ankesh Kothari —

    SU is great. One of the reasons for such low bounce rates is: they don’t show you a list of 100 links to visit.

    Where as every time you visit other social websites like digg and reddit - there are a 100 links you want to go through. You enter in a race against new content. And thus visit more websites, but spend very little time on each of those websites.

  9. Carl Coddington —

    SU is very good for traffic boost. Just don’t use it to much or your site will get banned from it.

  10. onreact —

    Ian, thank you for voicing your interesting observations. You can try TraceWatch if you prefer LAMP but I use Google Analytics as I am lazy.
    The vsist duration is a little lower than that of regular users or specific searches but still substantailly higher than not targeted traffic.

    The US bias is less visible than on Digg in my opinion.

    Ankesh: Good point, it’s about attention and focus.

    Carl: Let others stumble you, just create compelling content that fits the interest of stumblers. SEO 2.0 and especially SMO is not about messing with a system. It’s about using it in the best possible way.

  11. Logan —

    Plus, Digg is mainly based off of popularity so if no one popular likes your page no one else will go.
    In SU we don’t get a choice.

  12. Adam —

    For social traffic, I haven’t found anything that brings a more consistent flow. StumbleUpon is great.

  13. Lord Matt —

    It’s all true I tell you. It is also cool. No silly users dumping crap text in the comments for me to go delete just people that liked it and those that left. The trouble is my server can not keep up with it. (poor server though). I read one research pge that the avergae age of the SU top 100 uses was 35! Which suggests that Stumble appeals to those with a brain (unlike…).

  14. Rose Sylvia —

    Excellent article and insights on the typical SU user and the power of that social networking site to drive traffic.

  15. Pingback 7 Reasons To Use StumbleUpon To Gain Traffic —

    […] SEO 2.0 - 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best on the Planet This article actually provides 7 reasons why it is advantageous to use StumbleUpon. Get the facts […]

  16. jessica —

    Great post I’m going to look into stumbledupon. Maybe even stop using digg so much.

  17. Pingback SEO 2.0 | 3 StumbleUpon Traffic Myths Debunked —

    […] initially complete strangers would stumble me and I would receive a small wave of traffic each time after some weeks Lyndon of Cornwall SEO stumbled me a started the first avalanche that brought me […]

  18. Pingback Some Sunday Stuff: Search, Stumble & Signs – Boob News on MyFreeImplants —

    […] MyFreeImplants pages a thumbs up, it will in turn bring more people to the site. And it brings high quality traffic, meaning there is a high probability the new visitors will sign up for an account, which is a very […]

  19. Pingback SEO 2.0 | Top 5 Resources for Stumblers Outside of StumbleUpon —

    […] you might have noticed: I’m not entirely through with StumbleUpon although I have been attacked there repeatedly and almost blocked for no apparent reason besides […]

  20. Blogging and SEO tips by mcrilf —

    I’d agree with your points, particularly bounce rate. I’m starting to love SU, both as a user and a blogger, driving traffic to my blog. After all…it’s how I found this post!

    Best,

  21. Pingback 65 Must Read StumbleUpon Articles | Newest on the Net —

    […] 3. 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic is the Best on the Planet […]

  22. turtie —

    stumble upon traffic is great, but I can see it being abused by some people. on blogcatalog there are people who ask for stumbles from other bloggers just to generate more traffic. If people just stumble a blog or website without actually reviewing it, this can hurt the way that stumble upon (and social bookmarking) works. if enough people do it, it could become disastrous. but I agree, stumbleupon is great!! I just don’t want to see it getting abused

  23. onreact —

    turtie, you are right that with success every platform also faces abuse. fortunately SU has some basic and advanced checks and balances to render those abuse attempts useless.

    In fact a blog like mine that is successful on SU without any asking for votes is the proof that with the current SU ranking those sites get popular which truly deserve it.

    In contrast first generation social sites like Digg with very plain ways of voting up or down are prone to fail.

  24. Brian Stewart —

    Great article and tips on StumbleUpon. I have been get a lot of traffic for my arcade site from there. Not much from Google so far

  25. Pingback StumbleUpon - A Blogger's Best Friend —

    […] 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic is the Best on the Planet […]

  26. Ryan —

    Stumbleupon sucks. The traffic they send you is worthless. People just sit there clicking stumble.

  27. Pingback SEO 2.0 | StumbleUpon Traffic Stopped —

    […] “StumbleUpon is the best traffic in the world” thing is over. StumbleUpon stopped sending […]

  28. Pingback SEO 2.0 | Case Study: How to Get a StumbleUpon Submission Reviewed 200 Times in 2 Weeks —

    […] StumbleUpon traffic is not really reliable and I strongly advise you not to depend on it for your blog StumbleUpon is […]

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Say Something

When posting a comment, do mind the blog commenting netiquette. Most notably:

Your name should at least contain a name: Tad of SEO 2.0 or TS, onreact.com is OK, "Search Engine Optimization" is not a name.
Also do not link to domain.com/services/search-engine-optimization but to your homepage or "about-page".
Write more than only "Thanks, great" or I have to assume that you're a robot.
When you disagree, do it politely.