What Is Organic Traffic And How to Increase It: Part One

In today’s digital landscape, organic traffic plays a crucial role in the success of online businesses. But what exactly is organic traffic, and how can you increase it? In part one of this EYNTK guide, we will dive deep into the world of organic traffic, its significance for your website, and actionable strategies to boost it. By understanding its concept and implementing proven methods, you can drive targeted visitors to your website and maximise your online visibility.

 

Understanding Organic Traffic: Definition and Importance

Organic traffic is when traffic from search engine results is earned and not paid for. Essentially, it’s when internet users visit a website off their own backs, without any persuasion. This usually means a site is valued by Google or other search engines for being trustworthy, authoritative and knowledgeable in its field.

In terms of online businesses, earning organic traffic is of major importance. This is because it drives higher conversion rates, which allows you to build new customers/leads while still retaining your current ones. 

Plus, in comparison to paid search, it provides optimum long-term sustainability. While paid can put you at the top, once you stop shelling money out for the number one spot, your visibility and rankings disappear. Organic, on the other hand, is sustainable and can boost the quality and quantity of your site visitors. Why? Because searchers trust organic search way more than paid search, which can often be bypassed and overlooked.  

Obviously, search engines play a major role in driving said traffic, because they decide whether or not your content ticks their boxes, which in turn determines how high or low your pages rank. Ranking factors can often change, too, and algorithm updates can alter the way search engines evaluate sites. For example, an update could focus on the quality of backlinks within an article or the relevance of the overall content. Should your website not meet the criteria of algorithm updates – which is why it’s important to regularly update your content based on current landscapes – it’s likely that your rankings will drop.

Just a little food for thought there…

 

Optimizing On-Page Elements for Organic Traffic

On-page SEO elements, like meta tags, headlines, URL structure, image optimization, etc. are non-negotiables when it comes to enhancing online traffic. It helps search engines decipher your website’s content/purpose, and how it relates to your targeted keywords. When you optimize on-page elements – i.e your structure and content – you’re able to make it more relevant to specific search queries. This can then boost both your content and site in the search engines. Plus, when you rank higher, you’re improving your visibility, meaning more people will be likely to click on your page which is a prime example of increased organic traffic. As your site starts to generate more of this buzz, you’ll notice more opportunities for converting visitors into paying ones.

It’s all well and good explaining how useful optimizing on-page SEO is, but how do you go about it? Here’s a little crash course in how to perfect some of the most important elements:

Meta descriptions:

• The recommended length is between 150-160 characters. 
• Don’t keyword stuff but make sure your main keyword is in the description.
• Include relevant info about the content in the description.
• Each page has to have a unique description.
• Quality over quantity.

 

Headings: 

The purpose of an SEO heading is to help you rank for your keyword and make the user want to click through your webpage. Here’s how to craft a quality one:

• Put your keyword first.
• Write for humans not search engines – it’s the user you want to entice, as they are the ones who will help boost organic traffic.
• Keep it unique.
• Keep it brief.

 

URL structure:

First things first, you need your URL to be ‘friendly’. This will improve the user experience in a variety of ways. One, it will allow them to memorise it quicker, making it easier for them to remember and re-enter. Two, it makes them SEO-friendly which is a big help to search engines. 

 

• Start with your page title.
• If applicable, used localised words.
• Remove special characters.
• Remove numbers.

 

Remember, simple URLs win.

 

Image optimization:

This improves web speed and gives users a better overall experience. Some of the best hacks include:

• Use direct and concise image names.

• Resize your images – decrease image size files to increase page load speed.
• Choose the right image format – standard web images are .jpg. They can be easily compressed which results in high-quality images but at a smaller size. .gif images are typically used as icons or decorative images, and support animation. It’s a perfect format for simple images that only use a few colours on a website. .png is an alternative to .gif, and more sites are using them because they support more colours and don’t degrade with re-saves.
• Optimise your thumbnails – the majority of ecommerce sites use thumbnail images on category pages as they quickly show products without taking up too much web space. However, they need to be a small size otherwise they can affect page speed. Also, make sure the image names are different from the larger versions of the same image so that the smaller pictures aren’t accidentally indexed. 

 

In terms of keywords – because they apply to all on-page elements – you need to make sure you’re selecting the right ones for your web pages. They need to relate to your service/product and reflect what searchers will type in to locate your brand on the web.

Ultimately, using the right keywords across your site and content helps search engines to understand the meaning, intention, and content behind each of your web pages.

 

Creating High-Quality, SEO-Optimized Content

Honestly, the saying quality over quantity couldn’t be any more critical here. The only way you’ll attract high-quality organic traffic is if the calibre of your content reflects this standard. 

Solid content is way more likely to pull in visitors who will be actually interested in your products, services or content. Attracting the right people improves the chances of them staying on your site longer, actually reading your content and getting the answer they were looking for, not to mention engaging with your brand and hopefully becoming recurring visitors/customers. 

 

While we’ve discussed the importance of keywords, it’s vital you know how to conduct the research and then incorporate the relevant words naturally into your content:

How to conduct keyword research:

Obviously, as this is so crucial, you can’t really afford to get it wrong. Which is why many businesses give this job to the pros, like us. Keyword research is one of our major services in terms of technical SEO, and we’ve helped a ton of businesses rank for those all-important keywords.

But for an idea of how to get started, revise the following:

• Make a list of broad topics that are relevant to your field.
• Expand on each with a list of key phrases you think your audience use.
• Find related terms.
• Verify search intent.

 

Plus, always be asking yourself these questions: 

• Are the keywords you’ve come up with as strong as they could be?
• How do you rank in your industry? 

When it comes to incorporating keywords naturally into your content, consider the following:

• Use the main keyword in the first couple of sentences. If this seems unnatural, make sure it’s at least within the first paragraph.
• Use the keyword and its variations naturally throughout the content – if you feel you’ve used them too much, or the copy doesn’t flow reading back, then you’ve entered keyword stuffing territory, which is a no-no.
• As well as the copy, make sure your main keyword is in the header and some of the subheadings. Also remember it needs to be present in your URL link, images, and alt tags.

 

How to create engaging, informative, and shareable content:

Your content needs to align with user intent and satisfy search queries. Luckily, we also offer expert content strategy services that will guarantee perfect copy every time. But again, if you want some advice, here’re some brief tips:

 

What is trending?

The best way to reach a lot of people is by finding out what’s trending. So, create content that links up with current events, gossip, or news. Obviously, while still relating to your product/service/brand.

It doesn’t just have to be blog content, either. If your audience is swayed towards the Gen-Z age group, it’s all about the video content. 

(More points if you can create content that can be repurposed. For example, a good old blog can be lifted to different formats, like social media captions, memes, videos, etc.)

 

Does it add value?

Valuable content equals shareable content. Bible. 

When creating, make sure it covers these three non-negotiables:

• Is it emotional?
• Is it entertaining?
• Is it educational?

If you can answer yes to all three, you can guarantee that your content is full of value to the searcher.

 

Evergreen is just as important as what’s on trend:

If you don’t want to constantly rely on trends, make sure you have a good amount of evergreen content available for searchers. This basically means it’s always going to be relevant and people are going to take something away from it whenever they read it.

Good examples of evergreen content include industry tips (obviously updated as and when needed), helpful how-tos and FAQs.

 

Be original:

If someone’s already written it and written it well, why would someone bother coming to your site? As well as your content actually being unique, putting something out that uses your own original research or expert opinion tells search engines that it’s of high value, too. 

It also makes your web pages relevant, specific and compelling to the audience you want to tap into. 

 

Enhancing Off-Page SEO Factors

Off-page SEO is the process of boosting a site’s position in search engine results through actions that are taken off the page. And in terms of significance, some factors are just as important as on-page…

 

Building high-quality backlinks:

High-quality backlinks can help you improve your search visibility by ranking you higher in the search engines. Which can increase the organic traffic that comes to your site.

We actually produced an article on why backlinks are so important a while back, and it details their advantages and how they’re earned.

Basically, the more you earn, the more Google values your site for being the following: popular, informative, reputable, and legitimate.  

 

Earning brand mentions:

Brand mentions are any online references of your brand/service/product/company. They’re out of your control and can pop up in a variety of online spaces, like blog posts, social media posts, product reviews, news articles, etc. 

Brand mentions can really affect your reputation – and organic traffic – so the more positive ones you receive, the better it is for your company. Any negative mentions need to be squashed ASAP to avoid compromising your rep.

 

Guest posting:

Guest posting is where you write informative content for another company’s website with the intention of attracting traffic back to your site.

It helps you to share all of your authoritative content with audiences that are similar to yours. Plus, building your credibility with said audiences within a further range. 

Obviously, the higher profile of the sites that you contribute to the better. As over time, your brand will be recognised as a trustworthy, reliable and go-to source. 

 

Influencer collaborations:

Partnering with the right influencer can provide you with instant increased exposure. It can also boost brand credibility and help you to reach your target audience while doing so at a cost-effective level. 

Collab posts are often the most popular way of collab-ing these days, as the content is shared to both yours and the influencer’s page. This way, the content is put in front of two separate followings, but also easily points the influencer crowd to your profile. The more eyes = more brand awareness.

 

Drive traffic from social media to your site

Any strategy that boosts social media reach, engagement and increases follower numbers also naturally helps to build brand familiarity. Which can simultaneously help to drive organic traffic to your site. Focus on the following to leverage social media platforms and attract said traffic:

 

• Spend time nurturing the platforms that drive the most website traffic
• Always include referral links in your social profiles (website link in bio, etc.)
• Add links into your social posts
• Share your links in social media groups (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Use content techniques (CTAs, customise links, post at right times, etc.) that stimulate click-throughs 
• Boost traffic through social shares

 

That’s it for part one. We’ll let you digest all of these tips and tricks – and implement them into your marketing strategies – to increase your chances of naturally boosting your online traffic.

 

Part two will be ready and waiting…