6 Ways to Generate Website Traffic Through Google
No matter what business you are in, you need to make sure that you are ranking highly on a Google Search. In 2023, it’s imperative that you generate website traffic through Google.
Think of it this way…
Suppose you were looking for some information. Where’s the first place you would go to?
I’d bet it would be your phone. At the palm of your hand and within a few seconds, you’d have your answer. Or, to be more specific, you’d have 2 billion answers.
If I were to guess again, I’d say that the first site you think to search from is Google, the biggest search engine globally.
Today, Google ranks as the most visited website in the world, with more than 92.5 billion monthly users and a net worth of $1,978 billion.
But did you know that in 1998, the search engine ranked at position 16 and by 2002-2004 it had skyrocketed to position 1? So just how did they move from position 16 to a strong position 1 in 3 years? And how can we use Google to bump up our own website numbers?
Google’s success can be largely attributed to its PageRank algorithm, which ranks search results based on linking behaviour. And using this one simple technique is one way to increase the traffic coming to your website.
Now, there is a lot to SEO, and to get support with more technical sides of it we’d recommend getting in touch with someone like Kaydee Web who can help you with a strong strategic plan (they’ve also got a great range of blogs too). However, we’re focussing on what you can do DIY style.
How To Drive More Website Traffic
Most business owners are trying to get more visitors to their websites.
Why? It’s a piece of the puzzle in growing your business. By having our targeted audience visit your websites often and in large numbers. It shows interest in the subject, and these leads are likely to convert into sales.
That said, here are our 6 DIY ways to increase traffic to your website:
1. Content
People come to your website to gain some sort of information that they didn’t previously have.
If you want to increase the website numbers, you need to create content that people would like to see and engage with.
Improve your website ranking skills and present yourself as an authority on the topic you’re writing about. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance.
Here are two tips to generate quality, relevant, authoritative content:
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Examine Your Client Avatar
Knowing your client avatar is one of the most useful exercises you can ever carry out in your business.
It guides your marketing and enhances your customer experience.
Asking yourself this one simple question can help you generate website traffic: What kind of information is your target audience likely to find useful?
This is what you want to provide on your website. Find out more about how to know your ideal client avatar.
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Make Use of Relevant Software
In today’s world, there’s probably software to help you out with everything you need.
Keeping up with online trends is super useful in identifying content gaps, but you can also use software for that.
You can use software such as Answerthepublic, Quora, and Ahrefs to find the topics that people are searching for the most, and curate your content around that.
2. Use Relevant Keywords
To increase your website numbers, you need to match your content to the search intent.
Google pays attention to how people interact with your website. And if people generally get what they’re looking for from your page, you can expect your rankings to improve. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, your ranking goes lower.
What does this mean for you?
When you’re putting up content that applies to your audience, use keywords that show the topic clearly and concisely. Avoid clickbait, as it can lower your average user session.
Here are two tips to make sure you’re using the right keywords on your website:
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Understand User Intent
Consider the intent behind each keyword. Are the users looking for information, product, services, or solutions?
Your keyword must be relevant to what you are trying to achieve. If you are trying to get them to buy a product, the keyword must outrightly insinuate that intention.
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Keyword Research
Researching keywords helps you to get firsthand information about your target audience, the information that they want to know, and how they want it presented.
Moz and Ubersuggest can help you to discover the keywords that are most relevant to your topic.
3. Consistency
If you want to improve your website traffic, you need to have regularly updated content. This allows you to remain relevant and up-to-date.
You also need to refresh the existing posts. A major SEO mistake is thinking that SEO is a set-it-and-forget-it task. Even if you’re ranking high for your target keyword, that status is not permanent. You have to work to maintain that spot.
Here are two tricks that can help you to stay on top of things:
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Perform a Site Audit
After a while, some of your online articles become outdated. They are not relevant to the current time, and thus not helping with website traffic.
There are certain sites such as Ahrefs WordPress SEO Plugin that can perform a site audit for you and show you exactly which articles are outdated.
Links, statistics, and year in title are some of the factors that can make your content become outdated.
In some cases, all you need to do is update some parts of the articles, and in others, you need to rewrite them completely.
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Re-use Your Content
There are times when you simply may not have the time to update your site. That’s okay because you can always reuse the existing content.
You can take existing content and present it in a different format such as podcasts, a blog post, or a video, all to attract a new audience.
You may also want to use cross-promotion. Promote your content across different marketing channels, such as social media, email newsletters, and in your other content pieces.
Linking to related or updated content within your blog posts or articles can keep readers engaged on your site longer and encourage them to explore other pages.
4. Become User-Friendly
Have you ever opened a website using your phone and noticed the content is disorganised? Maybe it’s slow loading, unresponsive, or you struggle to find information. Or, maybe the website design is just too complicated, or the buttons are too small for a mobile phone.
When this happens, it affects the amount of traffic leading to that website.
Here are three ways to make your site more user-friendly.
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Mobile-Friendly Site
Statistically, more than half of website traffic comes from mobile phones. For that reason, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as high.
Thankfully, Google has a free mobile-friendly test which can help you test your live URL and see the improvements that you can make. Twenty Eighty Online also have a really useful website checker too, which will give you some idea of how optimised your site is.
It gives a yes/no, good/bad set of answers, followed by a list of the issues it found. This way you can fix and optimise to ensure your mobile site runs smoothly.
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Fast Loading Speed
Slow speeds can be irritating! As a consumer, if you can’t quickly find what you’re looking for on one site you will switch to the next available option.
These slow speeds also lead to a high bounce rate.
The solution is to optimise your website for speed. Compress your image sizes and choose the right hosting service plan. Lastly, reduce the number of redirects.
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Simple Layout
Unfortunately, complex websites just don’t cut it! Keep your layout clean and uncluttered. Use whitespace to create a visual separation between elements, and don’t overcrowd pages with too much information.
Use legible fonts and maintain a consistent style across the site. The text needs to be an appropriate size, with enough contrast to the background.
5. Google Ranking Algorithm
The internet is a game of algorithms. If you can learn how to work with the algorithm and make it work for you, you are in a better position to succeed in your efforts.
It’s no different when you’re trying to bump up your website numbers. You’ll need to understand how Google’s algorithm works.
Here are two things to keep in mind:
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Dynamism
Like any other algorithm, Google changes from time to time, so you have to constantly be on the lookout for new updates. Do your research constantly and thoroughly, and make sure to change your site with the changes that Google makes.
This will help you to stay on top of things.
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Ranking Factors
Of course, Google wouldn’t publicly reveal all of its algorithms, otherwise we would all rank highly, which beats the purpose.
Still, through its how-to-search page, we can see some factors that contribute to ranking, including the user experience, backlinks, topical authority, and keywords.
You can read about 200 factors that Google uses in its ranking. It’s worth noting that some of these are controversial, some proven, and others based on speculation.
6. Collaboration
As a business owner, you must have already learnt that it’s essential for you to work with other people if you’re to succeed. When it comes to improving your website numbers, you can’t ignore this factor.
Find non-competing brands with the same target audience, and help one another.
How can this be done?
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Webinars
Webinars are a great, cost-efficient way to market your product, share your expertise, and generate leads. To increase your website traffic, collaborate with another company to offer some information or advice.
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Guest Blogging
You can also tap into guest blogging, which will help you to generate more referral traffic. more backlinks, and increased brand awareness. Find a topic that is likely to benefit both of your audiences and write comprehensively for another company’s website.
Don’t forget to mention the name of your company and potentially add a backlink to yours.
Conclusion
Your website is an important tool. It’s likely to be one of your first sales contacts, and it’s a window into your business. It can help you increase your brand’s credibility and chances of getting leads.
But to perform at this level for you, you need to be updating and looking after your website regularly.
If you’ve been struggling with the visibility of your website, and have got to the point where you need some expert help, we’d recommend one of the following; Motley.co.uk, Kaydee Web and Twenty Eighty Online
In summary, if you are looking to increase your website traffic, here are the 6 DIY ways to do so:
- Content
- Relevant Keywords
- Consistency
- User-Friendly
- Google Ranking Algorithm
- Collaboration
We’re always up for a conversation. Get in touch with us for any questions you might have.