Google Webmaster Tools now have a Robots.txt generator.  We all know how important robots.txt is for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but often people do now know how to create it. The tool present on Google Webmaster site provides an easy way to create a Robots.txt for your website.

Once you have created the Robots.txt file for your website, you can test it with the Robots.txt analysis tool available in the same section.  This tool actually tests the URLs mentioned in the file for allowed or disallowed pages and directories of your website.

The direct traffic has higher conversion rates and average spend than traffic coming from other sources like referrals, paid search and organic search.  The study reveals that people coming directly to the website have a conversion rate of 3.3% with an average purchase value of $170.  They spend over five minutes and view six pages on an average.

The traffic coming through referrals comes second in terms of conversion and average spend.  The paid search and organic search traffic occupy third and fourth places respectively with a lower conversion rate and average spend but with a significant number of page views.

This study does put a question mark on the value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for online retailers who tend to rely a lot on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and improving their organic search rankings for keywords.  While one should not undermine the importance of traffic driven by search engine, it is required that retailers study their traffic trends and see what works better for them.

Read the article “Direct Traffic Most Valuable” on eMarketer.