Top 8 Actionable SEO Tips to Boost Organic Traffic
5 minutes | Word Count: 871Are you looking to get additional traffic to boost your website? If so, you should make sure you focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to drive new visitors to your website.
There are a variety of SEO strategies you can employ to bring new potential customers to your website. Once they’re there, it’s important to engage your visitors and encourage them to move deeper into your sales funnel.
Here are eight actionable SEO tips that can bring in or boost organic traffic so that you can reach more people!
1. Create Content for the Featured Snippet
Have you noticed the large-sized box featuring the answer to your question when you Google certain questions? That’s called a featured snippet, and it’s a great way to bring more visitors to your website.
To improve your chances of being featured up above search results, find ways to answer questions succinctly in your text. Use bulleted or numbered lists, and focus on specific questions that your customers may be asking.
2. Get a Link for Mentions
Has someone mentioned your company – for whatever reason – but not included a link? If so, you can reach out to them and ask if you can have a link under the text that mentions you.
All you need to do to implement this strategy is monitor brand mentions using a tool like Mention or BuzzSumo. From there, reach out to the author of the piece or the owner of the website. You can often find that information on the About page or in the bio under the article.
3. Address Questions Your Audience is Asking
Remember that search engines want to serve up the most useful and relevant content to searchers, and you’re working with them in that effort. Find out the questions that your audience is asking and answer those questions in your content.
AnswerThePublic is a great website that allows you to find out what questions people are asking about a wide variety of topics. These are grouped into Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. When you find key questions, write a blog post to answer it!
4. Share Your Content on Social Media
There’s no such thing as “build it and they will come” online. Instead, you have to “build it” and “promote it.” Then they will come!
If your company has a social media site, share your content there regularly. Don’t stop there, either – ask your audience to share it as well. That way, you can leverage both your social network and the social network of your followers.
5. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
If your SEO strategy isn’t getting the results you want, it’s possible you’re focusing on keywords that are too broad or have too much competition. Do some research on long-tail keywords (which have three or more words.)
Something like “fixing squealing brakes” can be great for a Toronto auto shop. You can provide information about why brakes make noise and invite people to come see you for repairs.
Long-tail keywords allow you to target people who are asking specific questions or are in certain stages of the buying process. It’s a great way to rank more highly on search results and gain more visitors! If you want help discovering the right keywords for your business website, consider working with a professional SEO consultant.
6. Use Local Keywords
Along with using long-tail keywords, take advantage of local keywords that mention the city, neighbourhood, or street where your business is located. These keywords are a strong buying signal – in fact, 50% of local searches made on mobile phones resulted in a visit to the physical store within 24 hours.
Searches for “Services near me,” happen frequently as well, and showing up in those search results is largely dependent on how well your Google My Business page is filled out. Don’t overlook those important details!
7. Be Ready for Mobile Devices
Over half of all search traffic currently comes from mobile devices, so it pays to make sure your website is optimized for mobile. This means using a responsive theme and checking to make sure that text is readable and elements don’t overlap on a small screen.
Google will penalize any website that isn’t mobile-optimized, so make sure you’re ready. If you haven’t checked your site on a small screen lately, pull it up on your phone now!
8. Master Fast Loading Speed
Not only will visitors navigate away from your website if it takes too long to load, Google won’t rank you highly either. Make sure you take steps to keep your loading speed fast.
Choose the right hosting service and make sure you have a plan that’s appropriate for your traffic. If you have a major media mention, be prepared for a sudden boost in visitors. Make sure your images are sized correctly and that items load asynchronously.
Organic Traffic Drives Sales
Having people visit your website is essential if you want to boost the sales of your business. Each web page and blog post should have a call to action (CTA) that invites the visitor to take the next step in the sales cycle.
Don’t wait – optimize your site for SEO today!