Businesses usually face the challenge to get traction for their product or service. But often, the crowd seems to go their competitor site, and it is certainly frustrating.
It is essential for businesses to understand that audience reach and organic traffic cannot be achieved through basic search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts or PPC ads.
Here are some ways to boost organic traffic in the right manner.
Do not Cannibalise Keywords.
When you use a key phrase on website pages recurrently, it is called keyword cannibalisation. These pages tend to eat traffic and could include two pages are competing with each other by ranking for a similar search on the same page.
Although it is good to rank at on the first page of Google search results, by stuffing keywords and keyphrases and then mirroring competitor sites on similar topics, the points appear similar, and then the visitors get divided among both articles. It is not applicable to sites which are scoring high for similar keywords but pages that resemble each other by using keywords similarly, aiming to hijack traffic.
You can check if your website pages are cannibalising traffic by searching “site: yourwebsite.com keyword” on the search results. If you find pages are doing the same, delete the least performing ones and merge the other pages. Add 301 redirects so that you don’t lose backlinks on those pages.
Delete unrequired pages and even de-index the pages to ensure those pages do not rank on SERPs.
Pay Utmost Attention to User Intent
User Intent implies user purpose behind search engine searches. The content in the search results is expected to fulfil the search queries; Google will rank content that is not applicable to the user queries down in its results. If the content does not fulfil what it sets out to do, it will result in bad user experience. Google also employs several algorithms to detect user intent while updating old content or while indexing new pages.
To generate content pieces, which are relevant to user queries, the organisations need to get the audience to read it in terms of informational or transactional content. One should create a sound content marketing strategy before producing relevant content. Satisfying user intent is key to boost organic traffic and thus drive customer satisfaction. With relevant content, more readers will come back to the site again. The great experience will trigger Google algorithms to crawl the web pages and rank them high on the SERPs.
Employ Consistent Methods for Content Updates
To boost organic traffic rapidly, sites need constant content updates. A recent HubSpot report revealed that publishing old blog posts with new images and content could boost increase organic traffic by more than double! Updating sites with old content has helped several sites boost organic traffic by more than 50%. Blogs succeed if there are constant updates, and one can leverage old content to increase traction.
It is advisable to not start content updates without assessing the metrics. Analyse the content pieces and user behaviour before updating them. Use Google Analytics for analysing different metrics and the site performance on Google Search Console, in turn, understanding the trending keywords that attract traffic. Remove broken links and add multimedia elements to existing pages, including tweets, Facebook posts, videos, infographics and more! Divide the content into short sentences and make them readable.
Re-edit your mobile pages so that mobile users don’t abandon your page. Ensure that the 301 redirects are working well too.
Manage Link Building Efficiently
Link building is an efficient way to drive the increase in organic traffic. Most pages fail to get traction because they are missing backlinks. With inbound or outbound links, the pages get more traction and visibility. They are known to be the third most important factor for Google’s search ranking algorithms. Availing link building services can work wonders if done right or could lead to penalties, or account suspension if any policies are violated while building links.
Marketers need to use descriptive text for link building to ensure that the users know beforehand the kind of page they will visit when they are redirected through the link. Avoid exchanging more reciprocal links from any site. Check outbound links and if they generate credible content with a low spam score. Use internal linking to guide users from one page to another, thus ensuring more time spent on those pages.
Gauge your Current Metrics
To drive more organic traffic, analyse the current data effectively. Examine the data to derive insights in an instant. These insights will help you comprehend data to generate ideas that necessitate brainstorming. Check your users and their behaviour on the website so that you understand the impact of modifications with a better potential of enhancing organic traffic.
Pay heed to the acquisition, behaviour, and conversion of website pages along with the source of the traffic – organic, referral, and social platforms. Check out the prominent devices of the visitors, the bounce rate, and the conversions. Get a view of visitor videos, heatmaps, and funnel performance to gauge visitor’s behaviour perfectly. Google Analytics can help you know visitor behaviour, their dwell time, etc., indicating user engagement.
Create Engaging Content
And last but not least, generate fresh and relevant content as much as possible. Publish blogs as frequently as possible, without compromising on quality! Thought leadership articles posted on the website or blog could attract many eyeballs and provide opportunities for gaining more organic traffic.
