Imagine optimising your marketing budget and decreasing spending. While many businesses jump to paid advertising and media for quick results in their digital marketing, it’s not always necessary or recommended. We often suggest businesses start with organic ways to attract website visitors.
There is a lot of “noise” and competition online. But, if you learn how to increase your organic visibility, you can attract more visitors to your website. Below, we will share our top six secrets to the best and most effective free ways to attract traffic to your website.
But first… organic traffic vs paid traffic
Before we go too far, let’s clarify the differences between organic and paid traffic:
- Organic Traffic: Organic traffic comes from search engines. Since you don’t pay for placement or visibility, building momentum and increasing organic traffic can take a while.
- Paid Traffic (or PPC): Pay-per-click (PPC) or paid traffic includes traffic from paid ads or links. It can sometimes produce faster results, but you pay for the visibility.
For this article, we will focus on organic (aka free) ways to attract visitors to your website.
Tip #1: Be human
In this day of “fake news,” AI-generated content, and bots, your customers’ bullsh*t metres are on high alert for disingenuous organic content. Our top tip for optimising your website for to increase organic search traffic is to optimise it for humans (not just the SEO requirements).
Here are some ways to show your human side on your website:
- Show your face (or a team picture, not just stock photos)
- Have accurate contact information using the same address and format as in your directory listings (like Google’s Business Directory).
- Have (and regularly update) a blog or resource database.
- Ensure its navigation and functionality is intuitive
Tip #2: Keep things consistent and fresh
Google favours websites that are updated often. Create a schedule to regularly review your website content for potential updates or optimisation. A blog is a great way to post regular content, as is updating your website content on your home and other pages.
(Here are some tips to get your blog creativity flowing with new topic ideas.)
It’s also important to research what your customers are searching for when looking for a business like yours. These searchable phrases will become your SEO keywords and should be incorporated throughout the pages in headings, body content, links, and images). This is part of your technical SEO strategy, which just happens to be our next tip.
Tip #3: Don’t forget tried-and-tested on-page SEO tactics
Google has created a guide to how it ranks websites in search results. If you follow their rules, and not too many other people are trying to rank for the same keywords, you have a good chance of increasing the placement and visibility of your website in search results.
The Google website ranking algorithm is designed to help searchers get the results they need based on your website’s:
- Relevance to their search query and intent
- Quality of your website (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness)
- Usability of your website
- Plus over 200+ factors
Some ranking factors are within your control (such as readability, SEO keyword choice, currency, and usability), but other factors are less controllable (like how long your website domain has been active and the cleanliness of your website code).
The best way to see where your website SEO stands is to get a free SEO audit to learn your strengths and areas for improvement.
In the meantime, read our Small Business SEO Checklist to learn more about how to design and write your website for on page SEO.
Tip #4: Craft compelling, SEO-friendly links
When your site appears in search results, users will see a title and a short paragraph. In SEO-speak, these are called your meta title (<60 characters) and meta description (<160 characters).
For each page of your website, you have the opportunity to customise the meta title and description. This allows you to include your chosen primary SEO keyword phrase for that page and to accurately set the expectations of visitors when they click on that link.
Research the best keywords for your business based on the number of searches that phrase gets per month, how many others are trying to rank for those keywords, and which best describes your business. You can update your meta title and description at any time to see what combination of keywords and copy compels the most people to click on your link in search results.
Tip #5: Be social on social
Did you know that your presence and activity on social media can greatly improve your website’s ranking? It’s true and great news if you’re already active on social media!
Google looks for active sites. They also consider your linked social media profiles as “proof” that you’re a real, active human, and that gives you extra points for your website showing up in search results!
Social media is another free (or inexpensive) way to increase your engagement on multiple platforms and lead followers back to your website. Make sure your social media posts and interactions are ethical, or your followers (and Google) will view you as pushy or inauthentic.
Tip #6: Make the old, new again
Update and refresh your old content to get the most long-term value from your organic content. Regularly review your website (including your blog) for outdated content or pages that can be updated with new information.
Do an SEO audit for pages that aren’t ranking high in search results, and plan how you can refresh and republish the content to increase engagement and click-throughs to your website.
What’s the right path to increase organic traffic success?
So, what’s the best way to grow organic traffic to your website? There is no one solution. The answer for your website will rely on combining multiple strategies (such as the six tips above). You’ll also benefit from regularly auditing, revising, and monitoring your content to optimise it to get more eyes on your website and more engagement with your brand.
Is there room for improvement in your organic SEO? Talk to Mhairi and the team at Out-Smarts Marketing for a complimentary SEO Audit or to discuss how they can help your website boost its organic SEO. When you improve your SEO, you’ll notice increased traffic to your website, more online engagement, and an increase in sales or conversions.
(And you can do all this without paying for ads! Pretty cool, eh?)
info@out-smarts.com
604 909 3532
