I’ve talked a lot about the different forms of paid advertising for web and social media platforms. For the next few weeks, I’m going to switch gears and talk more about organic online traffic.
This is website traffic that finds you through searches for something in Google organically, not through paid advertising.
I use a really simple formula to explain Google to my clients:
You | Google | Searcher
Think of Google as the biggest referral network in the world. They have all these people searching and they have all the search solutions … and they have the power to put them together.
You can either pay for that through some sort of pay-per-click advertising or you can do a few things on your website consistently to improve your organic search rankings.
Keep in mind that search engine optimization (SEO) is very extensive and not something that can be explained or taught in one article – but the steps below will get you started.
These are some of the basic ways to get your website found and earn you more customers.
Know your target audience
This is who you write your content for. These are the people who have pain points that you have a solution for.
Find out what your ideal customer is struggling with and then use that as a way to build your keyword research. Once you understand your online ideal customer avatar, you can start to build your website around them.
You need to think of your website as the hub of information that circles around what problem you solve. And then it’s these words that you put throughout your website (blogs, about page, services page).
So when people search “best carwash in Calgary,” your business is on the first page of the search results.
Do your keyword research
This one ties into the target audience really well. Once you know your audience pain points, you can have a better idea which keywords you should target. Try to research by using words or phrases that are casual versus a catch phrase.
For example, “best carwash in Calgary” is what people might search rather than “clean car.”
There are a lot of tools to help you with keyword research but it’s a manual process. You need to do the work. Look up the keyword or phrase, see who’s using it, and determine if it’s relevant to your product or service.
Google has a free keyword planner that can be really useful for suggestions and organization.
Use all of this research on your website
Use your new list of keywords, keeping your target audience in mind, and start to sprinkle your keywords throughout your website. These 10 or 15 words are intended to put you on the first pages of customers’ searches. And with some consistency, you’ll be there.
You will have to update your website with content and blogs on a weekly basis. Every page needs to have some of your keywords. This will take some time but it’s worth it in the end.
The total number of visitors doesn’t actually improve search rankings but it does play a really important role. The more popular your website is (the more visitors you get), the higher your website will show in rankings.
These are things you can do on your own time:
- Create an ideal customer avatar to really understand your target audience.
- Research the key words or phrases people will use to find you.
- Sprinkle those key words or phrases throughout your website.
Working on your website searchability will increase your online traffic and you will earn more customers.
Donita Fowler is an online marketer who supports entrepreneurs in their quest to be the boss of their online platforms.
Donita Fowler is a Troy Media Thought Leader. Why aren’t you?
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