9 Ways to Increase Organic Traffic to Your Website
There are many good reasons to increase organic website traffic. By definition, organic visitors arrive on your pages from a search engine, so it's not the result of a link to your site, pay-per-click, or other direct advertising. Your site is one of the top results for their search query, which means these visitors are high-quality prospects who are already interested in what you have to offer.
Increasing traffic to your website doesn't happen spontaneously. It's the result of a process designed to raise search volume, but that's good news. With the right tools, reaching a targeted audience is within your grasp. You need only implement some SEO strategies and roll out your digital marketing plan. Here are some tips to do it effectively.
Start With a Strategy
Discover ways to increase your organic search traffic. Perform a self-assessment of some techniques you might already use. For example, maybe you already regularly post content and run it through an SEO checker, but is that enough? Use SEO tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEM Rush to determine where you are and where you need to go. After identifying deficiencies, put investments towards those areas in order to reach your goals.
The vast majority of website content gets no traffic from Google. According to Ahrefs, Over 90 percent of web pages get no referrals from the search giant at all. That means there's room for your brand to use specific techniques to be among the approximately 10 percent that benefit from organic search traffic.
Optimize the Site for Mobile
Smartphones are a ubiquitous accessory. Not all brands, however, have taken the next step to optimize their sites for mobile, or to create an adaptive version that adjusts to device size. Yet, having a responsive site is vital for organic traffic conversions, since 65 percent of internet users prefer using their mobile device to shop and, in the fourth quarter of 2019, 61 percent of Google searches came from mobile.
Upgrade Your SEO Strategy
Search engine optimization is all about increasing traffic, but there are several SEO strategies you can use to get the best results. Typically, these include:
- On-page SEO. All the elements of a page should have a specific structure in order to make the page more Google-friendly. Page titles, headers, meta descriptions, internal links, and image captions are examples of on-page SEO elements.
- Local SEO. Local pages are crucial to businesses, like eateries and brick-and-mortar shops, that rely on local customers. Local SEO involves updating contact information across all online properties, engaging on social media, and setting up a Google My Business account.
- Technical SEO. This involves repairing any issues with a site's technical specifications. It includes fixing broken links, improving page load speed, and clean URLs. HubSpot reported a 50 percent increase in organic traffic after performing technical SEO updates.
- Historical optimization. This means updating your old content, so it's current, accurate, and relevant.
SEO upgrades are a big part of increasing organic traffic. To make the job even easier, consider partnering with a service like Scripted who can handle content updates for you.
Develop a Content Calendar (and Stick to It)
A content calendar is a schedule that helps you post new content and update existing content. Keeping content fresh serves several important objectives. First, Google likes sites with new content, so typically it will help with ranking. New content also tells your potential customers that you are active in your industry and enthusiastic about providing information.
A fresh site with regular content updates is more attractive to internet-savvy users and sophisticated search engines, but how do you keep your site teeming with new content? A content calendar will prove handy, but content creation takes time and talent. With a service like Scripted, you can source high-quality writers to keep your content calendar up-to-date and on point.
Start Blogging
One important element of your content strategy should be a blog. This is one way you can demonstrate knowledge and authority to readers. It's where you share company news, discuss products, and provide meaningful information to your customers. Several team members can contribute to your blog and you can source expert writers to assist them in this content creation process.
Crucially, your blog posts should contain long-tail keywords. These are distinct phrases that drive a specific segment of organic traffic to your website. Despite the name, long-tail keywords do not always have more words or characters than a head term keyword phrase. A long-tail keyword is a niche phrase that has less search volume than a head term, but because of its uniqueness, the users who search that phrase are more likely to convert.
Blog posts with long-tail keywords not only improve organic search traffic volume, but get internet hits that are more likely to turn into revenue.
Emphasize Expertise
Google uses several techniques to decide how to rank a website and among them is the quality of content. The better your content does at answering a searcher's question, the higher your rank will be. For this reason, it is important to reveal your brand's authority. You can show expertise by posting valuable content and this content should be unique, informative, and easy for readers to access and understand.
Promote on Social Media
Every opportunity you have to promote your brand is an additional chance to increase organic website traffic. Social media gives you a platform to share content and to develop a following. As your online reputation grows, more people will know and trust your brand. This naturally leads to a higher number of click-throughs from a search engine results page as users start to recognize your name.
Peek at the Competition
Brands do not seek traffic in isolation. They compete with other companies, often for the same audience. So, it often helps to review what your competitors are doing. Specifically, check out their website and social media accounts; search for competitive keyword terms and see if they rank in Google. Obviously, never try to copy what they do. Instead, distinguish yourself by finding your own niche.
Hire Content Writers to Speed Up Your Online Strategy
Organic website traffic is crucial to a brand's sales and revenue growth. While it's not easy, you can start by reviewing the above tips. The right strategy and the right content will ultimately help drive people to visit your online properties and -- as part of that process -- you should consider checking out content writers on Scripted who can help with the content creation efforts you should be getting underway.
Published by Scripted Writers on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 in Content Marketing, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Guides, Organic.