4.4 million new blog posts are published every day, so it can be tough to stand out from the competition.
But some techniques can bring your numbers up as fast as reasonably possible. Here at Clever Real Estate, we’ve deployed several strategies that have exponentially increased our traffic in less than a year.
Just keep in mind that bringing in sustained, organic traffic is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. A recent study of the top-ranked pages on Google showed that the average page in the top 10 pages was two years old, while the average No. 1 page was just three years old.
The upshot? While the tips below will get your traffic up in the short term, you’ve got to maintain your efforts over the long term to get where you want to go. Here are the strategies we used to help us get a quick influx of traffic to our website.
Search engine optimization
Let’s start with the most obvious, and most powerful technique to bring in eyeballs: search engine optimization. To put it simply, SEO is the art of refining your website so that big search engines, like Google and Yahoo, will rank it higher. Appearing near the top of the search rankings gets you more visibility and more clicks. So how do you do that?
1. Choose the right keywords.
Using keywords is like a matchmaking exercise. Your ideal customers are out there using search engines to look for you. Incorporating the right keywords on your website is like lighting a beacon so your customers can find you. This means you have to do your research and try to anticipate your target users’ searches. Keep in mind that this is a virtuous cycle: The more effective your keywords are, the more customers will be able to find you, and the more clicks your website gets, the higher it will rise in the search rankings.
2. Produce high-quality content.
Google doesn’t just use initial click-throughs to evaluate your website; it also measures how long users stay after clicking through. If they bounce back to the search results after a short stay, Google will designate your website as “low quality,” and your ranking will decline.
This means that enticing users to click is only half the battle. Once you have their attention, you have to keep it by offering them useful, high-quality content.
There are no easy shortcuts when it comes to high-quality content, though at this point we know what isn’t high-quality content. Listicles, slideshows, and short videos aren’t going to get the job done anymore. In 2019, long-form content is the new king.
That may seem surprising, considering attention spans are shorter than ever today, and there’s never been as much competition for eyeballs. But think of it this way: Your customers haven’t come to you to be entertained or amused; they’ve clicked through because they want specific answers and information. If they see that you’re not going to give them that information, they’ll click over to one of your competitors.
The average length of a piece of high-quality long-form content is about 2,000 words, but many sites are seeing results with pieces twice as long, or even longer.
3. Make your site easy on the eyes.
If you’re producing long-form content, it’s more important than ever to make your site visually pleasing.
Think punchy sentences and short paragraphs of no more than three or four sentences. Leave plenty of white space on your pages so your readers don’t feel overwhelmed or intimidated. And don’t forget about the back end of the site. Make sure your site loads quickly and easily, and is aesthetically pleasing on both desktop computers and mobile devices.
4. Build authority with internal linking.
Cultivating a high authority rating is another way to rocket up the search rankings. That happens when Google sees users interacting with a website beyond their initial click-through, clicking deeper into the site. The more they click around and the longer they spend on your site, the higher its authority rating will rise.
So how do you entice users to click around your site? Well, there’s an easy, surface-level answer to that question, and a deeper, more complicated one.
First, is the easy answer. On those popular landing pages, you’ll want to provide plenty of internal links to other pages on your site. Don’t make them excessive or spammy. The links should be logical and discreetly placed. You’ll also want to provide sidebars of related pages, which take us to the next, more complicated answer to this question.
To effectively leverage your internal links, you’ll need to anticipate your users’ subsequent needs. For example, let’s say the landing page in question is about how to calculate a mortgage payment. Once the user finishes reading that page, you can make some reasonable assumptions about the next questions: How do they qualify for a mortgage? How do interest rates affect mortgage payments? When is the best time to buy a home?
If you have pages that address these subsequent questions, you can place them in a sidebar to keep the user clicking around your website, seriously enhancing your site’s authority.
There are more than 3 billion social media users out there right now. That’s a massive potential audience. In fact, more people use social media than watch television. If your website is the library, where all the information is kept, then social media is the party, where all the people are. If you want to connect with them, you have to be on social media too.
Facebook has an ad program that lets you target a precise, specific segment of its users. If properly used, Facebook ads offer some of the greatest market penetration and conversion rates you can get.
YouTube is another social media platform that can be immensely useful. While you probably know the video platform is hugely popular, did you know that it’s also the second most popular search engine on the web? That means YouTube isn’t just the fun, peripheral platform many clients think it is. It should be right up there alongside Google as one of your main sources of users.
Producing video content for YouTube can be a fun, easy, low-cost way to reach hundreds of millions of people.
Guest blogging
Guest blogging can be an amazingly effective way to get the right eyeballs on your website. Having a post appear on a popular, respected site lends you credibility as well as an immediate bump in traffic. Not only that, but a well-written blog post in your area of expertise establishes your authority word by word, line by line to an audience of knowledgeable readers.
So what should your guest blog posts be about? Obviously, you should write on subjects in your area of expertise. But beyond that, think about what people want to read. A good general rule when brainstorming guest posts is to think about the content you wish you’d see, and then write it. It’s always a good idea to think about things in terms of problem-solving. What obstacles have you run into recently in your field, and how did you overcome them? Posts that provide answers or solutions are universally compelling, and editors can’t get enough of them.
LinkedIn posts
LinkedIn is basically Facebook without all the static and distractions, and it gives you access to a network of professionals who share your interests. Though most everyone is on LinkedIn for networking purposes, it can also be a huge source of traffic.
Once you’ve completely populated your personal or company profile, the rules of posting on LinkedIn are a lot like the rules of posting anywhere else. Quality matters: The quickest way to alienate your ideal reader is to waste their time with low-quality content.
LinkedIn is a social platform, too, so engagement counts. Post two or three times a week to maintain a familiar presence. Pose questions in your posts, and answer and acknowledge comments. You should also join relevant LinkedIn groups and share your posts there. Don’t forget that LinkedIn allows you to share your posts with individuals in your network, which can be a great way to touch base with important contacts or influencers. Just be sure that you don’t abuse this feature and come off as a spammer.
10 Essential SEO Strategies For Entrepreneurs To Increase Their Traffic
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you want to get lots of buying customers, it is paramount to get lots of traffic to your service or product pages. But this is not usually easy to achieve because there is always strong competition in every niche. However, you can achieve this goal if you know the right things to do. Below are some essential SEO strategies entrepreneurs can use to boost their traffic:
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1. Understanding your target audience
Before you start driving traffic to your business, it is crucial to define your target audience. This is because getting traffic from the wrong people will be counterproductive, as such individuals will probably not use your services or products. Therefore, you should focus on getting traffic from your target audience.
Get started by knowing the demographics and pain points of your target audience. Once you know these things, it will be easier to create content that can bring the right people to your business.
Related: 6 SEO Tips to Benefit Any Business
2. Keyword research
The goal of SEO is to rank your website on top of search engines for your target keywords. So, it is not surprising that keyword research is a crucial SEO strategy. In fact, your SEO campaign can hardly be effective if you don't include some essential keywords in your content. Therefore, as you start your campaign, you should invest in keyword research.
Simply put, keyword research refers to the whole process of finding the right keywords that can drive the target audience to your website. You need to look for the specific keywords that your customers often use when looking for the services or products you offer.
Doing keyword research manually can be tiresome and time-consuming. Luckily, tons of software can make the job easier and faster for you. Some of such programs are Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs. The software will help you to find the right keywords and even show you their search range.
However, you should be careful with the use of keywords on your website. You must ensure that you don't overstuff your website with too many keywords. Overstuffing your website with keywords will make it difficult for people to read your content. Therefore, keep your content simple and readable by using keywords appropriately.
3. Site architecture optimization
Regardless of the quality of your content, your website architecture will play a vital role in determining the amount of traffic you will get. If search engine spiders and users find it difficult to locate content on your site, they will likely lose interest in your offerings. So, you need to optimize your site architecture.
In general, it is recommended that users should be able to reach the most essential web pages on your website with just three clicks. If the users need to struggle to find the most important pages, they will most likely never return to your website. Some will not even have the patience to find the pages before leaving your site. Also, you should consider using a short and easy-to-memorize URL.
4. Content marketing
Of course, content marketing will make a big difference in the success of your SEO campaign. Therefore, you need to invest heavily in how you create and market your content. Notably, content marketing involves numerous steps that will be explained below:
1. Create and publish high-quality content
When it comes to content marketing, the type of content you create will play a crucial role. Even if you drive traffic to your website through other means, low-quality content will send the visitors away.
Your content should provide credible answers to the varying questions of your audiences. Apart from being resourceful, the content must be well-written and formatted so that people can assimilate the information without any difficulty. If you are using written content, it should be well-punctuated and free of any grammatical errors.
You don't necessarily have to create and publish content yourself. Hire freelance content creators to help you.
2. Use an interesting meta description
The meta description is a snippet that gives the readers an idea of the information in your content. This description appears below the headline of an article in search results. Make sure your meta description is engaging enough to motivate people to want to read your content.
3. Utilize engaging headlines and title tags
The title tag helps internet users to find your site when searching for related keywords. So, if you want to get more engagement on your website, you should make your title tag interesting. Also, you must make sure that your headline is engaging as it can draw readers to your website. However, it shouldn't be too long.
Related: The Secret to Super Successful SEO
5. Link building
If the links to your website are on other websites, people can click them and visit your website to see what you are capable of offering. Besides, search engines tend to rank a site higher when its link has been embedded in lots of websites. Therefore, it is crucial to invest in link building for the website.
You can collaborate with lots of website owners to use this strategy to boost the traffic of your website. However, you should concentrate on building links to your website from credible, high-ranking sites. For instance, a single link from a well-known university website will boost traffic to your website more than several links from unknown blog sites.
6. Speed optimization
Nowadays, a typical internet user wants to browse through as many web pages as possible within a few minutes. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that a fast, responsive website will get more traffic than a slower one. According to a report from Strange Loop, a one-second delay in the loading time of your website can lead to around a 7% loss in conversion rate. Given this, you need to focus on optimizing the speed of your website.
You need to get rid of anything that slows down the loading speed of your website. If you have plug-ins you are no longer using, don't hesitate to remove them. Also, don't upload unnecessary heavy media files that may slow down your site. Overall, make sure that your website loads within 3 seconds.
7. Optimization of vitals of your website
These are the elements that affect the overall user experience. These elements not only make more users visit your website but also encourage them to return later. They include the mobile-friendliness and safety of your website. You need to talk to experts about what you can do to optimize the vitals of your website and improve user experience.
8. Social media optimization
Today, billions of individuals are using various social media channels. These individuals fall into different age groups, social statuses, races, professions, etc. So, regardless of the demographics of your target audience, you can rest assured that you can find them on social media. As a result of this, every entrepreneur must take advantage of social media to boost their traffic.
Therefore, you need to get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms to promote your business. You can get tons of people from these platforms to visit your website. In addition, add social share buttons to your website. These buttons will enable users to share your content on their social media pages, thus assisting you to reach more people.
Related: 50 Easy Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
9. Consistency
Although this is not a technical strategy for SEO, it is still an important strategy that can change the fate of your website. However, many entrepreneurs do lots of things at the same time. As a result of this, they may not be able to apply all the essential SEO strategies consistently. Unfortunately, this can be the downfall of their SEO campaign, as they will hardly get any positive results from their investment.
So, if you want the other SEO strategies to be effective, you need consistency or you can hire an SEO consultant. You have to create and publish content regularly. Also, you need to be consistent with the kind of content you are publishing on your website. Stick to topics that fit your offers. You must also be consistent with the way you engage your audience on social media.
If you are struggling with consistency, hire a content creator. Such an individual can also double as a content manager and help you to curate the content on your website and social media pages.
10. Analysis of metrics
The last SEO strategy for entrepreneurs is ensuring that metrics are analyzed regularly. As you continue to spend your hard-earned money on an SEO campaign, you need to be informed about the performance of the campaign. Therefore, you have to get some important metrics about your campaign and ascertain the things that are working and those that are not working. This will assist you to decide what you have to improve, change or stop. Google Analytics, SpyFu.Com, Moz, and SEMRush.Com are some of the best and most affordable tools for getting important metrics about your campaign.
In a nutshell, these SEO strategies can be the game-changers for lots of entrepreneurs struggling to get traffic for their businesses. However, they have to be patient and consistent, as the desired improvement will likely take some time before showing.
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Start Driving More Traffic To Your Website
Driving organic traffic to your website taking too long? This is a common question/complaint from new DIY marketers and also business owners.
If you aren’t doing the right things (which we’ll discuss in this article), then that’s to be expected. After all, there are over 1.6 billion websites in 2019, and over 500 million blogs. That’s approximately one blog for every 14 people in the world today!
So, you’re competing with millions of other established blogs. Of course, it’s going to be tough.
If you produce mediocre content, with a mediocre DIY presentation, then you won’t get good results.
On the other hand, if you
then you, too, can earn your spot on the first page and get that sweet and consistent (free) monthly search traffic!
What every new blogger needs to know
If you’re a new blogger with a brand new domain (without any domain authority), then you can’t expect to go into blogging and make money right away. It just doesn’t work that way.
For most established DIY bloggers, it takes years to achieve the success that they want. That takes a big commitment, which is why most bloggers fail to see any success. (We’ll give you some tips for staying motivated later in the article).
But that doesn’t mean you can’t see results faster if you follow the right tips, which we’ll share below.
A new blogger needs to understand that there are fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO) that every blogger must know to succeed. And then there are the SEO hacks that aren’t common knowledge that can help you get ahead of the curve in your niche.
How bloggers can grow their traffic
Let’s first talk about the fundamentals.
One of the most common SEO mistakes from bloggers is creating content that nobody wants to read. This happens when the blogger doesn’t do the necessary keyword research. Another common SEO mistake is writing about topics/search terms that have too much competition already.
Targeting long-tail keywords are the key to success: These are four words or more (they are typically a phrase), and they can rank higher than shorter keywords, regardless of your niche.
Come up with a primary keyword for each page and put it in prominent places to improve SEO and visibility, such as in the title tag, meta description, subheadings, and image alt tags.
Logically structure your content using a hierarchy. Start with the main idea and branch out from that to back up the main idea.
Backlinks matter a lot, especially for competitive topics that get many searches.
There are three types of backlinks: internal links, which link from your own posts; external links, which link from websites outside of your own; and outbound links leading away from your sites, such as affiliate links or links to other blogs/social media sites.
Choose high cost-per-click (CPC) keywords if you’re also selling products to increase your overall conversion rates, even if the term has slightly fewer searches than a similar term. Cyprus, Ahrefs, or the browser tool “keywords everywhere” can provide CPC info for every keyword that you’d want to rank for.
How to get traffic more quickly than other competing sites
Now let’s look at how you can take the above principles to the next level to see good results more quickly.
Use the right keyword tools. Several tools can help you with long-tail keywords. Use at least two or three of these tools as most of them don’t provide accurate data on their own.
Go for keywords with low monthly search volume – 500 searches or less if you’re a newer site with less domain authority. This tactic makes it easier to appear on the first page with quality content.
Don’t think about keyword stuffing – this is a black-hat technique from 2009 that no longer works.
A table of contents plugin will help you display your content hierarchically.
Follow the relatively little-known skyscraper technique created by SEO specialist Brian Dean. With this technique, look for popular content in your industry and create two to five times the amount of content. For example, if a page ranks No. 1 as “25 DIY Tips for Stay-at-Home Moms,” then create your own article with 50 DIY tips or more! Then promote it to the right people to get more shares and backlinks.
If you’re on WordPress, use the free optimization plugin called WordPress SEO by Yoast to optimize your posts and page contents.
Find relevant secondary keywords to use as well, aka LSI keywords. To do this, use Google autosuggest or a dedicated LSI keyword tool like LSI graph.
Specific tips for DIY blogging
Every blogging niche has its unique quirks. Here’s what you should know as a DIY blogger to get ahead quickly.
Try to rank for featured snippets.
The main way featured snippets usually rank is through paragraph snippets. To rank with a paragraph snippet, you should use “question-based subheadings” and write the answer/reply in the first paragraph. Try to keep the paragraph length between 40-50 words (approximately 300 characters).
Guest post on other sites in your DIY niche and network with other bloggers to share or link to your content.
Participate in weekly roundups (the best online content is included in these).
Besides SEO and your online activities, DIY blogging success is all about your DIY design and presentation. Lighting is everything when taking photos. A well-lit photo using natural lighting is the key. Take photos early in the day with the sun positioned behind the camera.
Staging: Create a specific look and feel with your environment, but don’t make it too sterile.
Group things in odd numbers to create more visual interest. Stick to groups of three when you’re just starting out.
Even great photos need editing. You don’t need expensive software, just use some free photo-editing software on your phone to improve brightness and contrast.
Stick to your wheelhouse: In other words, your skillset or design aesthetic. If you don’t, then your projects might just end up wasting your time and resources.
Ready to drive more traffic to your website? Just follow these tips to grow your blog and optimize your website content with SEO best practices, and you’ll be well on your way!
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