6 ways to improve your website traffic through Google

Suppose you were looking for some information today. Where’s the first place you would go to?

I’d bet it would be your phone. At the palm of your hands 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 the 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 to your website

Most business owners are trying to drive more visitors to their websites. 

By having our targeted audience visiting our websites often and in large numbers. It shows interest in the subject, and these leads are likely to convert into sales.

Here are our 6 DIY ways to increase traffic to your website:

1. Publish relevant, authoritative, quality content

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.

You can use softwares 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, the ranking goes lower.

What does this mean for you?

When you’re putting up content that applies to your audience, use the keywords that show the topic clearly and concisely. Avoid clickbait, as it can lower your average user session.

This is where researching keywords come in. It 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. Update your content regularly

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.

Links, statistics, and year in title are some of the factors that can make your content become outdated.

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.

In some cases, all you need to do is update some parts of the articles, and in others, you need to rewrite them completely.

4. Ensure your website is mobile-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.

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.

5. Get to know the Google Ranking algorithm to increase website traffic

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.

And like any other algorithm, Google’s changes from time to time, so you have to constantly be on the lookout for new updates.

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 here. It’s worth noting that some of these are controversial, some proven, and others based on speculation.

But like I said, it’s all a game of algorithms. Play around with some of these and see how your ranking improves.

6. Collaborate with other brands to tap into their audience

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.

This can be done through webinars arranged by the two companies, or any other forms of lead magnets.

You can also tap into guest blogging, which will help you to generate more referral traffic. more backlinks, and increased brand awareness.

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 to 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:

1. Publish relevant, authoritative, and quality content
2. Use relevant keywords
3. Update your content regularly
4. Ensure your website is mobile friendly
5. Get to know the Google Ranking algorithm
6. Collaborate with other brands

We’re always up for a conversation.  Get in touch with us for any questions you might have.