How to Increase Traffic AND Conversion Rate (AdWords)?

How to Increase Both Website Traffic AND Conversion Rate with Google Ads 

Here’s a classic digital marketing challenge: 
How do you increase your website traffic and improve conversion rate at the same time? 

At first glance, it seems like those two goals conflict—and they often do. Let’s break down why, and how to actually solve this. 

Why Increasing Traffic Can Lower Your Conversion Rate 

Let’s say you start off with a very narrow, high-intent keyword—like your brand name in exact match. 

For example: 
“Yael Consulting” [exact match] 

• The person searching knows who you are 
• They’re highly qualified 
• Your conversion rate is super high 
• But the traffic volume is very low 

There simply aren’t that many people searching your brand compared to broader terms like: 

• “online marketing company” 
• “AdWords consultant” 
• “digital agency near me” 

So, when you expand to these broader terms: 

• ✅ Traffic increases 
• ❌ Conversion rate drops 

You’ve moved into territory with lower buyer intent—so more people are seeing your ad, but fewer are converting. 

The Traffic vs. Conversion Trade-Off Curve 

Imagine a graph: 

• X-axis = traffic volume 
• Y-axis = conversion rate 

As you go after more general keywords: 

• Your traffic goes up 
• Your conversion rate drops 
• You get a curve that slopes downward 

Your goal is to find the sweet spot along that curve: 

Where you’re still getting meaningful traffic without killing your conversion rate 

The Real Strategy: Optimize the Middle 

Instead of trying to max out volume or conversion, your job is to maximize the qualified traffic in the middle of that curve: 

• Use keyword intent filters 
• Exclude irrelevant traffic with negative keywords 
• Write ad copy that qualifies your audience 
• Improve landing pages to speak to the broader (but still serious) buyers 

This lets you expand volume without sacrificing quality. 

Final Thoughts 

If you’re only chasing traffic, your conversion rate will fall. 
If you’re only chasing high conversion rate, your traffic will stall. 

The smart approach is to: 

• Start tight with high-converting keywords 
• Expand strategically into broader terms 
• Qualify traffic along the way 
• Monitor the balance between volume and conversion rate 

That’s how you scale profitably.