How to Increase Your Website Traffic Long Term?

How do businesses generate consistent forms of traffic?

Businesses are in need of short and long term solutions that attract customers and leave a lasting impression on them.

There are multiple ways in the digital marketing industry that can generate  traffic.

Websites are essential in this digital age for business relations, generating traffic, and increasing revenue.

Paid advertising is another method of short term traffic generation. You get volume by setting a budget and a bidding margin in the digital space.

If paid advertising is a short term solution for generating traffic, what is the long term solution? The answer is search engine optimization or SEO for short.

Entrepreneurs and business owners are also looking for ways to increase website traffic for the long term and there is a solution.

So How Do You Increase Website Traffic Long Term?

If you own a computer or smart phone and have ever searched for anything online using Google, Bing, Yahoo, or YouTube, then it is essential to recognize the importance of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

Popular search engines are what make the digital world go round. With an average of 3.5 billion searches per day on Google, it would be wise to utilize this free tool to market your business.

It is now more crucial than ever before.  If you work in small to large sized businesses, franchises, corporations or are an entrepreneur, getting noticed on the web is essential for getting new customers or leads.

Using keywords or key phrases in search engines is a free way people satisfy their consumer needs and that is a partial aspect of SEO.

So, what exactly is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the unpaid process of enhancing site visibility and increasing organic traffic. This applies to search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

For educational purposes, we will reference Google because it has the highest market share and web authority when it comes to online consumer behaviors.

SEO can be categorized under local, national or global. We will get into the tactical side  shortly but let’s explain these concepts.

Local SEO

Local search engine optimization is the process of making a business’s website visible in the local community. This is highly applicable to small business owners or entrepreneurs who are trying to establish themselves and get known.

Businesses who have physical locations or who serve across the local community will find that local SEO will help increase their site visibility on the first page of Google.

National SEO

National SEO is the process of ranking your business across your country’s provinces/territories or states.

This is terrific for businesses who are known country wide. Some Canadian brands or companies that rank nationally include: IMAX and Lululemon.

Global SEO

Global SEO involves ranking internationally for a wide range of regions across multiple continents.

Furthermore, this type of  SEO requires a thorough strategy that is a step above National SEO.

You would need to consider multiple languages and a have thorough understanding of your industry within the countries you are optimizing for.

Why Is SEO Important?

It is the organization/order in which people see content appear after entering a search online.

Make sure you rank locally before trying to rank nationally, and make sure you rank locally and nationally before trying to rank globally.

Search engines have many algorithms that help determine how to rank the importance of a site, image, video, keyword or key phrase.

They will always prioritize what they consider to be relevant, most accurate and helpful to the user. Putting UX (user-experience) as a top priority.

So it is important that the keywords you are ranking for are linking through to information that is relevant and not spam.

If you are using click bait or linking through to something that is not useful to the search performed you will certainly get penalized by Google and other search engines.

Understanding these strategies and utilizing them in your marketing strategy  will give you a long term advantage that attracts audiences and is virtually costless.

Tactical Strategies for SEO

Some starting examples of SEO that you could implement on to your website would be,

On-page Optimization:

• HTML title tags
• Meta Description
• Focus keyword or key phrase
• Anchor text
• Image alt attributes
• Mobile responsiveness
• Improve speed of website

Off-page Optimizations:

• Outbound link building
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Submitting sitemaps
• Influence marketing

Steps Moving Forward

Now that we have a brief understanding of what SEO is and how to start, I want to tell you why it is important that you begin the implementation process.

If you offer a product or service, it is likely you will have other competition out there. You want to be able to rank for local SEO or target specific cities and demographics through SEM, (search-engine-marketing).

Being in front of the right audience is important and will be the make or break decision on whether you get that next sale, or if the competition in front of you will.

Lastly, maintaining consistent NAP (name-address-phone number) information across the web will be critical when ranking for local and organic search results.

Want to take your online business and Digital Marketing to the next level?

Contact Us today and discover how we can increase your website traffic in the long term and our team of experts will be happy to help get you started.