John recently put up a store along a sidewalk. He’s got fresh products displayed. Now, what he needs to do next is to promote his store and products to gain customers. He thought of advertising on newspapers, radio, and television. Unfortunately, he already exhausted his funds. Then, he thinks of a way to do it for free.
After a while, he started texting his friends and relatives, informing them of his new store and encouraging them to come and buy. He also borrowed a microphone and started enticing passersby. Yes, he even invited a friend to render songs. Eventually, his tactics led to more and more customers streaming in.
Those may seem obvious and given strategies. But that is just to give you a picture of what it’s like to market your business without necessarily spending many bucks. In fact, you can even do it for free. In digital marketing, we call that increasing organic traffic.
So how do you increase organic traffic to your blog/website? One of the reputable ways of doing this is through so-called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Putting Organic Traffic into Layman’s Context
Simply put, organic traffic refers to readers/customers/clients who reach your blog/website without you having to pay for advertising. In other words, these are visits driven by search engines like Google and Bing for free.
Now, what makes organic traffic beneficial?
The most obvious reason, it does not cost you! Paid traffics cost you thousands or even millions. Now, you wouldn’t want that, especially if you are just a start-up, right? Paid traffic is advisable if you already have an established business. Another challenge of paid traffic is that you would have to pay to make your ranking sustainable continuously.
But again, if you are a start-up, wouldn’t it be more acceptable and convenient to do it for free?
The main downside of organic traffic, though is that it takes months or even years to build. But the good news, you are assured that your online visibility is high and significant not just in a month or a year but in the long run. That is, if you consistently and innovatively apply tools and practices, especially what we call SEO.
Now, I’ve listed the following actions items you may apply to increase organic traffic significantly. Take note. These are practices which I personally learned and applied on my website. In just four to five months, my organic traffic steeply increased. In fact, five of my articles rank top 3 on the search results.
If I can do that in just a relatively short period, I bet you can too.
Create Content that Offers Value
Yes, you can write articles after articles per month. But if you are just doing this for the sake of content itself, then you are treading on uncertain ground. Simply put, you are creating a museum of dead articles. That means, no traffic. No conversion. No income. And worse, a big loss on your part!
The most important thing to consider if you want sustainable organic traffic streaming to your site is that you should produce quality articles. Now, an article is considered quality if it gives value. In other words, it helps solve the problems of your target readers/customers. If you can do that, then expect people to be automatically searching and opting for your posts.
Say you are into travel blogging. If your articles are written with a lot of budget-friendly tips, detailed itinerary, and other information necessities, then expect gradual growth of subscribers. They choose to follow your website because they feel and know the value that you sincerely give them. You provide their information needs. In turn, they become your craving and raving fans.
Again, create content that solves problems!
Now, what does quality has to do to increase organic traffic? Well, Google prefers to put articles with the greater and longer readership to higher ranks. And a higher rank means more click/subscription.
Choose the narrow path to a Wider Pasture
Most starters usually start targeting highly sought keywords right away in the hopes of gaining significant rankings. This is a disadvantageous practice, especially that such keywords are very competitive. This would make it harder for you to rank higher or worse, you won’t ever rank high at all.
The solution? Start targeting a more specific keyword, otherwise known as a long-tail key phrase.
If you are an affiliate marketing agency, for instance, don’t start aiming to rank for the term “Affiliate Marketing.” Again, that cuts your chances of ranking high over more established and older websites. You can instead narrow the terms to hit with reference to your target customers. For instance, instead of affiliate marketing, make use of “Affiliate Marketing for Travel Blogging,” or “Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.”
That is what I did in my travel blog. I can assure you, your tendency to rank higher would be faster!
As you build your authority over these more specific topics, you can then target general keywords.
Regularly Feed Site with Quality Posts
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s not helpful to write an article. Instead, write with value in mind. And do that with consistency.
Studies show that you should write at least one article per week. But if you can write more, the better.
That is because Google likes websites with regularly fresh and quality contents. It also helps in gradually building your authority so you can eventually, rank higher on search engines.
As for my travel blog, I publish at least 10-15 posts a month.
Aside from integrating the value, you should write your articles following recommended practices. Among these include Use of transitions and the active voice; Reader-friendly sentence structure; Catchy and free-flowing statements; Informative and Comprehensiveness; Shortened paragraphs; amongst others.
Remember. the more quality articles you write, the more entries where organic traffic can come in.
Engage on Social Media Platforms
Social media is one of the easiest ways to immediately gain organic traffic. It helps mainly when your articles are just recently published.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Name them. There’s just a lot of social media platforms where you can share your posts and let others share it too. It’s a good start to boosting online visibility and engagement.
In the first two months, my blog generated more than 50 000 organic traffic from Facebook alone. But this was only possible because I created quality/value-laden posts which became a hit on the FB Pages where I shared them.
So while you are still waiting for your articles to rank on search engines, do start generating organic traffic from your social media accounts.
Google considers social media engagements when ranking articles. Because it just goes to show that the more people share/like your article, the more it is relevant and friendly to readers.
Exude Power and Relevance through Links
To rank high on Google and increase organic traffic, you need to build internal and external links properly. So, what’s the difference and how do they help?
Internal links are hyperlinks that lead your readers to another content on your website while the external link directs them to other websites.
Internal links boost your website’s relevance since it allows readers to stay longer and even engage. That signals Google that your website is preferred by readers, thus, driving it to a higher rank.
On the other hand, external links help improve the authority of your website and lead your reader to even more detailed references. That will make them feel that you are providing them with the best value you can offer with the help of other sites. Just make sure that you link to reputable websites.
If you want to know more about this, do check out Yoast’s recommendations here.
Final Thoughts
Those are just some of the most common and most straightforward ways on how to increase organic traffic. Of course, there are more, and there are tons of references out there about this.
But remember, to make all these sustainable, your articles/posts should offer solutions. In other words, these should meet the needs and wants of your target readers.
Go ahead. Apply the above practices, and you’ll gradually generate organic traffic, boosting your digital campaigns not just in a month or two but in the long run.
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