Every business will benefit from strong organic search traffic.
We’ll let that line sink in as you put your wallet back into your pocket. Big businesses may have big money to throw at their marketing budget, but small businesses can make an impact too. Whether you’re B2B or B2C, organic search drives 51% of traffic. And if you look across different industries, you’ll find service-based businesses drive the most traffic through search at 73%!
The best part of organic traffic is that it only costs you time to improve. Here are three ways to increase organic search traffic for your business.
Create A Blog
It’s the statement every client groans at. A blog doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process or the thing you dread about your website. When it comes to blogging, remember, it’s quality over quantity. If you can only manage one post a month, so be it – but make it count.
Not only are you optimizing for search results, but also your users. Think back to when you defined your personas and speak to your audience! Next, make it easy to read by including things like sub-headers, bullet points, and images.
Why do we encourage having a blog?
- A blog gives you an outlet to generate fresh content.
- Blog posts give you a place to focus on long-tail keywords.
- Blog posts can improve user experience.
Consider your blog a high-level selling tool allowing you to be a resource to your potential clients. Using your persona’s goals and challenges, create blog posts that give them answers or solutions to their burning questions. Posts could include how-tos, lists, case studies, etc. These blog posts could also have helpful tips for your clients to get the most value out of the products and services you provide.
Prospects may come across your content in their searches, using specific search terms often referred to as “long-tail keywords.” These are more specific phrases visitors are likely to use during voice searches or when they are closer to a point-of-purchase.
For instance, it will be challenging to rank for the keyword “office chair” if you sell office furniture. It’s a broad keyword that a lot of companies are competing for. You may want to focus on a specific line of office chairs in a blog post, so you chose the long-tail keyword “best ergonomic office chair under $200”. Now feature your product and list the reasons it’s the best. A post like this can sway a customer into a purchase or provide an excellent resource for elements they should compare, like seat height, chair adjustments, and support.
Ultimately, when you provide your visitors with high-quality content, you’re improving their experience on your website and with your brand.
Optimize and Repurpose Content
If you already have a blog, consider optimizing your content. A lot has likely changed with the search algorithm since you created your website. You may find old post topics are becoming trendy again. Revisit those posts and make sure they are optimized for search by defining a keyword, adding alt tags, and writing a meta description.
You also want to make sure the information you’re providing is relevant to your changing industry. Changes could be as simple as updating dates and statistics or as significant as restructuring your page.
This is also the perfect time to assess if that blog post could be updated with a high-value offer, like a downloadable checklist or recently published e-book. If you have a new offer for your latest service, make sure you’re updating old posts with your latest call to action!
Creating new content can be time-consuming. If you’re in a crunch this week, browse through your blog and try to find ways to repurpose content and streamline your marketing. Content could include turning blogs into podcast episodes (or visa versa!), finding snippets of text for social posts, and so much more.
The beauty of content is in the way you can adapt it to any channel. Refining through optimization and distribution by repurposing can stretch one idea across hundreds of platforms. Not only will this save you time and stress, but it also expands your search traffic sources.
If you’ve ever chatted about SEO with GreenCup Digital, then you know our favorite phrase: “SEO is a long-term game.” A social post can go viral in one day but still has the ‘here and gone’ effect. Now that blog post you just posted could take up to 2 years to get to Google’s Top 10! There are anomalies to this stat, but keep it in mind as you’re chugging along. When working on your organic presence, you’re building a stronger foundation for your website. Organic SEO is the long road, but your reward along the way will be a continuous stream of search traffic.
Secure Backlinks
You can do a lot of work to your site to help increase organic traffic. It’s often the easiest place to start because, quite frankly, you’re in control. With that said, backlinks should be an area of focus if you’re looking to build up your website’s trust and your authority in the industry.
A backlink is simply a link to your website from another website. For instance, if there was a review for Best Digital Marketing Agencies in West Michigan with a link to GreenCup Digital, that’s a backlink for us! Backlinks not only help drive traffic to your website but the more backlinks you have coming from credible websites can help boost your rankings.
So how do you get more backlinks? First and foremost, it starts with quality content. Remember how we mentioned creating a blog? Sharing insight and knowledge relevant to your industry is the best way to get “picked up.” Make sure you cover several topics focusing on various keywords. It will take time, but you’ll get noticed!
Next, spread the word! Sharing your website links on social media and in your email marketing helps people find your content and, in return, share it. Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to industry experts and simply ask them to check out your latest post.
Increase Your Organic Search Traffic
Organic search traffic has a snowball effect. We’re not here to sugarcoat the interwebs. It will take time and consistency to begin, but once you’re in a rhythm, that snowball will continue to get larger and larger and begin to gain momentum on its own.
So, where do you begin?
Each month focus on the following:
- 2-4 blog posts topics with their accompanying long-tail keyword
- 1-2 old posts to optimize or repurpose
- 1-2 websites you’d like to secure backlinks to
As the seasons of your business ebb and flow, so will your content. Maybe in the summer months, you only get two blog posts done and one post optimized. That’s ok! The end goal to increase your organic search traffic is to work on it continuously.
If you’re struggling to develop ideas for blog posts or competitive keywords, consider a GreenCup Digital SEO Audit! You’ll leave with an in-depth report giving you insight into how your website is currently performing, along with keyword research to help you better position your content.
