With roughly 5.6 billion searches on Google every day, organic traffic is out there for the taking. SEO is how you take it.
According to statistics gathered by Search Engine Journal in 2021, 93% of online experiences begin with a search. Through search engine optimization strategies, you can ensure that when someone searches for a particular phrase or keyword, your website is the one that they find first.
This is incredibly important because most searchers simply won’t scroll through multiple pages of results. The vast majority will find their answer on the first page, so that’s where you need to be!
When your website ranks high on search engines, it becomes easier for your target audience to discover your website. However, achieving this takes sustained effort.
To position your website attractively and retain that position requires a long-term marketing strategy. Algorithms are constantly evolving, so your SEO strategy can’t be left to grow stale.
Read on to benefit from our expert advice on how to boost your website traffic using SEO.
5 SEO Tips for Boosting Organic Traffic to Your Website
SEO is best implemented by specialists for maximum results. However, there are some general changes to your approach that you can implement to improve your ranking over time.
1. Create human-centered content
Since it’s search engine bots that crawl your website, it’s easy to forget what these bots have been designed to do: detect the usefulness of your website for humans.
To understand what your website needs to do to impress a search engine, think about the purpose of the search engine. If it doesn’t deliver reliable, quality results, then its users will switch to another.
That’s why you should write high-quality content with people in mind. Forget the old days of keyword stuffing; search engine bots are too smart now, and they know when you’re employing these outdated strategies.
Instead, focus on increasing the value and readability of your content and publish fresh content regularly. Provide your website visitors with the best possible experience. Not only will this boost your SEO as bots register your website’s usefulness, but it will also mean that you impress the visitors you manage to attract through organic search.
Here are a few tips on how to create human-centered online content that will increase your ranking and bring organic traffic to your website.
- Understand your target audience – Knowing the search intent of your target audience will help you create content that appeals to them, answering their questions and meeting their needs.
- Conduct keyword research – Use SEO tools to perform keyword research and this will help you anticipate the words and phrases your target audience uses in an average search query. Don’t cram your content with them, but use long-tail keywords to determine what types of content your audience seeks and provide them with it.
- Use keywords naturally – When creating content, it is crucial to target keywords without cramming them in. Bots are only getting better at assessing the quality of your writing, and that includes how natural and fluent it sounds. Do not compromise the readability of your content by overstuffing it with keywords or you may be penalized.
2. Prioritize user experience
More than ever, search engines are focused on improving user experience. Many recent algorithm updates have been implemented so that search engine crawlers can better detect the best functioning websites.
Search engines like Google will prioritize websites that give users a worthwhile experience because users will become frustrated if they send them to slow, buggy, or unsafe sites. That’s right; functionality has an impact on your organic search ranking.
Here are some of the aspects that combine to create a great user experience:
- Page layout: Ensure that your page is simple and easy to navigate. A user-friendly page layout is vital for a quality user experience. Use internal linking so search engines can easily index every page of your site.
- Mobile-friendliness: Google search results prioritize websites that are both desktop and mobile-friendly. More and more people access the internet through mobile devices as opposed to desktop computers. Google is moving toward a model that ranks sites based on their mobile versions, so make sure you optimize with this in mind.
- Content value: When a user enters their search terms, they want the result to satisfy their query. If they ask a question, your website should provide the answer with engaging and accurate content. The more valuable your content is, the higher you move up the organic search ranking. You’ll see a corresponding growth in your traffic.
3. Focus on your area of specialty
The role of a search engine is to provide its users with the most authoritative websites based on their search query. For this reason, they prioritize websites that have carved out niches in certain specialties. These are websites that have become reputable and known for accuracy in their own specific fields.
The content on your website should reflect your area of expertise. It’s better to be detailed on one particular topic than provide a shallow overview of many. For instance, if you specialize in the financial service sector, your website content should be focused on that topic. There is no point mixing it with other unrelated content, as even if this does attract traffic, it’s unlikely to result in conversions.
Honing in on a particular specialty sets your website apart and pushes it up the ranking on the search engines. A wealth of content on one topic demonstrates your level of expertise. Relevant content creates a credible online presence that renders you the go-to source for your specialist subject. Google rewards reputable sources, so aim to build authoritative websites if you want to boost your ranking.
If you write well on a particular topic, you’re more likely to attract external links. External links demonstrate authority to search engines, and your website will be moved up in the rankings as a result.
4. Create blog posts consistently
A well-maintained and well-written blog can be a source of constant traffic to your website. According to a Hubspot report, statistics show that companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don’t blog. Through blogging, you set yourself apart as an expert in your field. A recently-updated blog has major SEO benefits too!
For your blog to serve as a stream of traffic for your website, you must be creating relevant and quality blog posts on a regular basis.
Here are a few tips to help get you started:
- Outline your blogging goals. What does your audience need to know to become a customer? Create content pillars with your organization’s goals in mind, and blog around these topics. Use long-tail keywords to discover your audience’s search intent and create content with this in mind.
- Use blog posts to create internal links. You can ensure that Google indexes all of your pages by creating links between different blog posts, as long as these links are relevant and natural.
- Develop a consistent schedule for your blog. Whether you choose to blog once or twice a week or even fortnightly, make sure you show up when you said you would.
- Delegate the work or dedicate the time. Researching, creating, editing and publishing blog content represents a significant time commitment. You can either create space in your own schedule to handle this or delegate it internally or externally. SEO services like Papaya Search are available to manage your blog on your behalf.
5. Optimize Your Website’s Load Time
Remember, search engines reward websites that provide visitors with a positive experience. That means a slow website load time can bring you down in the rankings, reducing your ability to attract organic traffic and convert potential customers. .
According to research by Google, 53% of visitors abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. No wonder Google takes the loading speed of your website so seriously! Bounce rate is a core ranking factor, so optimizing your website load speed should be a key focus of your SEO strategy.
This is another SEO tactic that brings additional benefits. A quicker-loading website won’t only appeal to the algorithm, it will also please visitors who click through, making them more likely to engage with your products or services.
Boosting Organic Traffic with Papaya Search
To improve your organic traffic, you must appear highly on the search engine results page. The only way to achieve this is through sustained SEO efforts informed by an understanding of your audience’s search intent.
Is all this extra work worth it? Yes, of course! After all, this organic traffic isn’t just any traffic. It consists of people already actively searching for your products and services.
The potential to convert this interest into sales is considerable, which is why search engine ranking is so important.. And the availability of services like ours means you don’t have to do this work alone.
Papaya Search is a leading agency specialized in all things SEO, and we have decades of experience in this field.
With our cutting-edge search engine optimization services, you can rest assured that every possible strategy will be applied to improve your website’s position.
If you want to boost your search rankings and, by extension, your organic website traffic, reach out to our SEO specialists today. We’d be delighted to discuss how our expert support can help your organization achieve its goals.