This is a sentiment we've taken to heart here at SEOmoz. So in this post we will share how we grew traffic and conversions in 2009, as well as some of the valuable lessons we've learned in the process, which we're excited to execute on in 2010.

Traffic Statistics from 2009

In the past, SEOmoz has shared data about the traffic we receive (see past years - 2006, 2007). In 2008, we somehow skipped out, but this year, we're bringing sexy back. Yes, it's probably helpful to our competitors, but it's also hugely valuable to our members (we hope) and part of our core value of transparency. So in the same vein of Rand's blog posts about the venture funding process, we're opening the kimono and sharing some analysis in hopes that others can benefit from our traffic and conversion rate learnings. 

We'll start with an overview of visitor and broad traffic data: 

The early part of the year featured a big growth, as the overall popularity of the site spiked, new traffic sources (like Twitter) started bringing in visitors and we had some big successes with email marketing. The latter part of the year saw relatively steady numbers, with a small, predictable fall in December for the holidays.

Return visits show a fairly similar trend, with a slight drop in Q4 (though, as you'll see below, it was a massive growth from 2008).

We've come a long way in 2009 - growing traffic to the site as a whole and to the blog. Revenue was also up over 250%, so it's not just additional visits or visitors - conversions have also been improving.

All this raw data is interesting, but it's even more valuable to dig in deep and identify the opportunities for improvement.

11 Conversion Rate Optimization Lessons We Learned in 2009

If marketers are captains of leaking ships, finding ways to remove more water faster might work, but plugging the holes and improving conversion rates is much more efficient. At SEOmoz we're proud of the ship we're sailing, but there's also a laundry list of ways we can improve. So based on some of the things we learned in 2009, here are some of the holes we will look to plug to keep the Moz ship rising in 2010.

The takeaways from these slides shouldn't be - do exactly what we're doing on your pages - but rather, find a process at your company to identify where your traffic is going, where you are losing customers, and make small conversion rate improvements because, depending on how you monetize your site, making incremental conversion rate improvements could be the most efficient way to hit your revenue goals this year.

For us at SEOmoz, 2009 was an outstanding traffic year. We're certainly proud of the fact that over 100,000 more visitors will visit the site this January than last January, but we are also well aware of the fact that more traffic does not equate to more revenue. So for this reason, we will continue to place our efforts on better converting the visitors we already have and better retaining our existing PRO members.

In closing, please note that this post is not meant to bash SEO, PPC, social media marketing, or any other traffic building tactics. Getting traffic to websites is what we do. It's at the core of what we do at SEOmoz! Our goal is simply to be transparent about how we're working to improve our business. Admittedly, however, when Rand says conversion rate optimization will be a major trend in 2010, it's possible he's projecting just a little. :-)