If you have a website then you’ll want to get organic traffic, despite the term sounding a bit vegan.
Organic traffic simply means visitors landing on your site through a web search and not via a paid ad. It’s the long term way (and the best way) for people to find you on the web. But be prepared to invest some serious time winning that yummy traffic.
1. Blog on the regular.
If you’re blogging when you can be arsed it’s the same as not blogging at all. It does nothing for your organic growth.
You need to be adding consistent, long-form content that’s SEO-optimised AND great to read. I dedicate an awful lot of my working life writing about business blogging. I hate to repeat myself (sometimes that’s unavoidable because people don’t listen) so click here to read all the posts I’ve ever written about blogging and why it’s so ruddy important.
2. Write for your audience and not crawler bots.
What’s a crawler bot?
They’re those things search engines use to index your website pages. I always imagine them as robot bug librarians and that scares the shit outta me.
Sounds obvious doesn’t it – writing for your audience and yet people balls this up. They go mad on the keyword stuffing (PAXO’s least popular flavour by the way – ah dad jokes) and get so fixated with their relevant search terms that they forget that actual humans are going to read it.
Keyword cramming is counterproductive.
You’ll be penalised by the algorithm because it will figure out what your game is and you’ll fail miserably in your pathetic attempts to cheat the system.
3. Use internal links.
I’m referring to referencing other relevant content within your site.
The crawler bots will be alerted that the content you’re currently writing has a connection with other posts or pages. But it has to be relevant, again these bots are not stupid so arbitrary links will do no good.
4. Grab tasty backlinks.
I’m talking about getting a link to your site from a big-hitting website, one that gets loads of quality traffic.
But avoid those sites that are spammy, you want a high-end backlink that will bring all the boys to your yard.
You could do this by guest blogging or contributing to a reputable eMagazine or article. But they’ll only want you if your content is useful and well written.
Backlinking is time-consuming.
There are several methods to getting them, for example, the broken link method. If you want to know more, click here. You can search on the web for sites that are looking for guest bloggers and contributors but not all of them will be free.
You should aim should always be to produce really great content, the kind that shows expertise, authority, and trust. That way people will gladly share your blogs and articles and refer back to your website.
5. Use clear permalink structures.
Those are the permanent links to each one of your site pages.
They need to be simple and easy to understand and again, relevant to the content. You want to pay close attention to your blog post pages – check out the wording in the URL:
Notice how the above example has a clear title, you can understand what the post is about.
Some website providers (I’m looking at you WordPress) default blog post page URLs to a selection of numbers – absolute rubbish if you want prospects to find you on a Google search. No one is going to be typing in random numbers to find the answers they are seeking.
6. Know your keywords and long-tail keywords.
These are the words you want your site to be found for but also the terms you want your blog posts to be found for.
You need to figure out where your customer is in their buying journey to know what words you need to target. Those keywords will also reveal the intent behind your visitor’s search queries. If you’re totally confused by that, click here to find out more.
But long-tail keywords are much sexier.
These are phrases, specific to the subject matter. These keywords have more chance of converting because they relate exactly to what you offer. And when people are searching for those terms, they’re ready to buy.
So whilst I discourage you from going ‘keyword crazy’ you do of course need to scatter them through your content, where it makes sense to do so. And don’t forget to add them on your images alt. titles.
7. Clear meta tags and descriptions.
These terms are a bit scary if you’re not familiar with SEO or website building.
I’m talking page titles and descriptions that show up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages):
You really need to get good at crafting the perfect title for each page and blog post.
Hooking the reader in is what it’s all about so make it easy to understand but relevant to the content. The description below the title should concisely describe what the page is about.
8. Get involved in online chats.
Start showing people how useful you are by answering their questions. You can do this in Facebook groups or sites that are specifically geared to helping people, Quora for example.
Dedicate some time each day to see what people are asking, if it’s something you know a bit about, pop some advice and refer to your site link.
9. Promote.
Keep telling people about what you do and how you help. Use your social media, it’s your free space to promote your business and/or website.
My fave is LinkedIn, no longer the hangout of dry business corporations looking for employees but a thriving community and social platform like no other. It’s the only place where you can reach loads of people without spending a penny on ads (shove that in your face, Facebook!). Lovely organic reach right there. And it’s fun!
Before you leave…
No one said organic traffic would be a one-time thing. It’s not, you have to do this stuff all the time. It takes work.
If you’d like to know more about SEO-optimised content writing or how to blog to attract clients, hit the button.
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