Organic searches are the largest source of website traffic on the internet, at approximately 53.3% according to BrightEdge research. Moreover, B2B companies gain twice as much revenue from their organic searches than any other digital channel.
These statistics alone show the importance and impact of search engine optimization (SEO). Sure, you can take the easy way and gain website traffic from paid ads, guest blogs, and other digital marketing tactics, but learning how to increase organic traffic on your site is a more long-term and sustainable solution.
In this article, we’ll discuss some SEO best practices to help you boost your site’s organic traffic. Read on to find out!
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What Is Organic Traffic?
There are numerous types of traffic sources, including direct traffic, paid search traffic, social traffic, email traffic, and organic traffic. Today, we’re only going to be focusing on what organic traffic is.
Simply put, organic traffic is the type of traffic wherein users search certain terms on a search engine like Google and Yahoo and click on your website from the yielded results. This type of traffic doesn’t involve paid ads; it’s merely the result of your SEO strategy and inbound marketing.
Ahrefs, a trusted SEO software suite, found in a study that only 5.7% of pages rank among the top 10 in the search engine results page (SERP) within one year for at least one keyword. Although this percentage may look bleak, knowing how to create a good SEO strategy can help you get closer to your website traffic goal.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the nine effective steps on how to increase your website’s organic traffic.
How To Increase Organic Traffic in 9 Steps
Search engine optimization is tricky. There are hundreds of factors that can affect your SERP ranking and organic traffic, and it’ll be overwhelming if you try to consider all of them. However, knowing the crucial factors that contribute to SEO will get you closer to understanding how it works.
Create High-Quality Content Relevant to Your Target Audience
The content you post plays a huge role in SEO. It helps you build customer loyalty, gain more leads, and generate revenue. However, you can’t just post random content just for the sake of it.
When creating a blog post or any content form, you have to consider user intent. What does the user want to know more about when they input certain keywords into a search engine? It’s your job to provide them with the right information to appease their curiosity and show them you’re an expert.
To keep up with their editorial calendar, 73% of B2B companies use workflow, calendaring, or content creation tools.
Do Your Keyword Research
Doing keyword research is essential in learning how to increase the organic traffic of your website. Nearly every SEO campaign starts with effective keyword research.
So, what exactly is keyword research? It involves analyzing and identifying terms that internet users enter into search engines to find certain information. You then build your content around these terms to satisfy user intent.
Moreover, keyword research helps you uncover the popularity of these terms (search volume) and how difficult it would be to get a high SERP ranking if you do use them in your content (ranking difficulty). Ahrefs found that 94% of keywords in the US database have a search volume of less than 10; that is, they’re only being inputted on search engines less than 10 times per month.
Post Regularly on Social Media
Building a social media presence on the most popular platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, will help bring traffic back to your website. Every time you post a new blog, you can share it on your social media accounts to get more traffic.
There are many trends to keep in mind when using social media for your business, one of which is regular posting. Posting regularly can increase engagement and exposure because your audience can expect new content from you, particularly if you schedule your posts.
Build Relationships With Influencers and Industry Experts
This is another step in learning how to increase your site’s organic traffic. Influencers can help in marketing your business on their platforms.
They may not have the massive reach that traditional media has, but they have a higher trust rating. Statistics show that 61% of consumers would rather trust the recommendation of a friend, relative, or influencer on social media.
Additionally, industry experts have a good knowledge of what people want to buy online. They often work with brands on social media campaigns, helping them develop content that resonates with their audience.
When you build relationships with these types of people, they're more likely to share your posts or link to your content if they like it. This helps increase the amount of organic traffic coming through your site or blog.
Don’t Forget About Titles and Meta Descriptions
The meta title is what users see on the search results page when they type a query into a search engine. It’s also known as the headline. On the other hand, the meta description can be found under the meta title in search results. Its maximum length is 200 characters.
These website elements help search engines figure out what your post is about and help users find the information they’re looking for. The key is to keep them descriptive, not promotional. They should also include the primary keyword you used in the post.
To ensure that your meta titles and descriptions are properly optimized, you can outsource these tasks to a trusted SEO agency.
Participate in Backlink Activities
Backlinking is a technical aspect of SEO wherein links leading back to your website are placed on other sites. These are called backlinks. The more backlinks you acquire from high authority and reliable sites, the higher your SERP ranking will likely be.
There are two types of backlinks. You already understand what organic traffic is. But there is also a so-called organic backlink, which are links you naturally get from sites that like your content and use it as a source for their content. The second type of backlink is paid.
Focus on Responsive Web Design
In knowing why organic traffic is important, you should also understand how your web design contributes to it. Your website reflects your business, so it should be designed properly.
A website with a responsive design can be viewed seamlessly across multiple devices. That is, you can view it properly no matter what device you use. When users encounter an unresponsive website, they’re 73% more likely to leave that website.
That said, since a huge portion of the global population accesses the internet using mobile devices, web designers should adopt a mobile-first approach to reduce bounce rates.
Optimize Page Speed
Page speed is one of the factors you need to consider when optimizing your search engine positioning to boost organic traffic. This critical factor impacts how long visitors stay on your website, your SERP ranking, and your conversion rates.
Many website managers often overlook this detail because it almost seems inconsequential. After all, how much can a few seconds of delay in page loading really hurt? Well, it turns out even a 1-second delay can reduce customer satisfaction by 16%.
The following tips can help you reduce page speed:
- Compress images.
- Minimize redirects.
- Turn on browser caching.
- Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Remove unnecessary plug-ins.
Audit Your Website
This SEO process involves reviewing your website and identifying areas you can improve to boost your organic traffic. During an audit, you check your site’s structure, performance, analytics, content, keywords, meta tags, and more.
You can run your website through an SEO audit tool (there are several trusted sites on the internet) or hire an SEO consulting firm that can perform the audit for you and make improvements as needed. Make sure to schedule audits from time to time to ensure that your site is running smoothly.
Why Is Organic Traffic Important?
We’ve previously discussed what organic traffic is, so you already know that it’s the biggest source of website traffic. It yields long-term exposure for your website, but other than that, here are some of the reasons why you should invest time and money in learning how to increase your site’s organic traffic:
- Sustainable source of website traffic
- Increased trust rating with potential customers
- Boost brand awareness and exposure
- Improved search engine ranking
- Increased conversion rates
- Generates quality leads
- Promotes high ROI
- Gives you a competitive edge
Key Takeaways on How to Increase Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is vital if you want your website to perform at its best. While paid traffic can bring you a lot of leads, it can be costly. Besides, you wouldn’t pass up on the added benefits of increasing your organic traffic.
It’s a tricky process, but when done right, it can be more powerful than word-of-mouth marketing. You may not see the results of your efforts right away, but they’re more sustainable than any other traffic source. Simply follow the steps we’ve outlined above on how to increase your site’s organic traffic and be patient and consistent. Your site’s traffic will skyrocket soon!
