Traffic Keeps the Site Alive
This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links. The thoughts and ideas expressed may not be exactly what the ghostwriter and copywriter Scott Sery believes. But he did read it, and signed off on it, so it’s at least pretty close.
Whether you’re using your online presence to sell more products or to simply raise brand awareness, your success is often measured by the amount of traffic you receive. As such, it is important that your website gets as much traction as possible.
However, this is somewhat easier said than done, especially when you consider the fact that “90.6% of digital content gets no organic traffic.” With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can follow to ensure that your website gets the traction it deserves, taking your business to new heights while doing so.
Find different ways to climb the ranks
Whether they’re using Google or Yahoo, users are far more likely to click on the first handful of results than those further down. This often means that poorly-ranked websites are ignored, even if they contain high-quality content. As such, it is important that you find different ways to “climb the ranks” or encourage each platform’s algorithm to work in your favor.
The key to succeeding in this regard often means doing your research. This way, you know exactly how to rank in a competitive niche, whether that’s through embedding high-quality backlinks into your content or refining your keyword strategy.
Ensure your content is SEO-Friendly
One of the easiest ways to ensure that your website ranks highly (and therefore receives a higher volume of traffic) is to ensure that your content is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly.
While this can vary, SEO-friendly content is generally:
- At least 500-1000 words in length.
- Original content that cannot be found elsewhere.
- Accessible and easy to read.
- Broken down into sections, using headings and subheadings.
- Filled with keywords and keyword phrases.
Make use of keywords and keyword phrases
Whether you’re writing a new blog post for your business or a landing page for a product, skillfully embedding the right keywords/phrases into content will help capture the attention of your target audience (and improve your online rankings).
However, as some keywords are more “competitive” than others (meaning that they are used more frequently), you’ll need to carry out some research that will help you find keywords that stand out. Platforms such as Google AdWord can be useful in this regard, as they can help you to expand upon your list of keywords/keyword phrases while also sharing insight into their popularity and performance over time.
While you should try to embed plenty of keywords into your content, you should also be wary of a practice known as keyword stuffing. Though packing in as many words as possible may seem a great way to get the algorithm working in your favor, it can often make your content feel like nothing more than nonsensical fluff. As such, this could actually cause your content to drop in the rankings.
Use headings and subheadings
As mentioned above, high-performing content is often broken down into multiple different sections through the use of headings and subheadings (H1s and H2s). This is because they make your content more accessible and easier to digest, something which algorithms then reward by pushing your content higher on the results pages. Subheadings also make it ‘easier’ for algorithms to understand your content and the intent behind it.
On a similar note, you should avoid overly long paragraphs of chunks of text. Try to be concise and to the point, and find
Include images in your content
Including images in your content can also help to improve your SEO ranking and ensure that your content is as engaging as possible. You should also add ALT descriptions to all images. Original images tend to perform better!
Focus on creating quality content
Posting content for the sake of posting content will never bring forth the kind of results you want or need. In some cases, it may even turn customers/clients away as opposed to keeping them engaged. As such, you should always ensure that you are posting quality content that your audience will find in some way useful or entertaining. For example, if you run a clothing company, your content could be a mixture of the following:
- Product descriptions, or the stories behind each item
- “How to” guides on how to put together outfits (featuring pieces from your own label)
- Blogs exploring the latest or enduring fashion trends
Putting together a content schedule and deciding ahead of time when to upload content can also prove useful. This gives you plenty of time to pull new blogs together and edit them with the SEO tricks and tips outlined above.
Ensure your content is mobile-friendly
As the majority of users tend to visit websites through their mobile phones, you should make sure that your content is mobile-friendly and optimized. This, again, helps to ensure that the content is as accessible as possible and can be enjoyed by a wider audience.
Run ads
If you’re finding that your website is not receiving enough organic traffic, then you may want to look into different ways of capturing the attention of your audience, such as targeted or PPC ads. While they serve the same purpose, both function in slightly different ways, and carrying out some research ahead of time will help you to determine which is your best option. However, it is worth noting that many companies use a mixture of ad styles in order to expand their reach.
Either way, this is something that you should monitor carefully moving forward so that you have a better idea of which ads or ad styles bring forth a positive ROI and which you may need to rethink.
In short, there are many steps that you can take that will help you to ensure that your website gets the traction it deserves. From running targeted or PPC ads to finding different ways to ensure that your content dominates the top page of search results, following the above guide is a great starting point for high-performing content.