There’s no denying that the Internet search landscape is forever evolving. Google, the search engine used by around 92% of all Web users, constantly updates its search algorithms to deliver a better user experience – especially to mobile users.
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While it’s possible to drive more traffic to a website using paid ads like PPC marketing, it makes sense to put most of your efforts into boosting organic visitors.
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Some people wrongly assume that organic traffic is pointless because you can simply “buy” traffic through various marketing and advertising mediums. However, organic traffic will always be the most important way to drive visitors to a website.
Why? The answer is simple: organic traffic is an essential way of determining that a website is functioning as it should. Plus, organic visitor traffic helps you to build an audience and keep your marketing costs down.
The Road to Organic SEO Success Is Essential But Isn’t Easy
There is one fact that you must keep in mind, and that is, organic SEO is harder to achieve today than it was several years ago. That’s due to a combination of the following factors:
- Search engine algorithm updates. Google updates its search algorithms several hundred times each year;
- Search engine innovations. In recent years, Google has made it possible for people to search the Web in new ways, such as through smartphone apps, voice commands, and IoT devices;
- Increased competition. Each year, over half a million new websites get launched on the World Wide Web.
There’s No Viable Alternative to Organic Search
Another fact to consider is there is currently (and probably never will be) an alternative to organic search. The simple truth is, when people want to answer a question, they’ll type their query into a search engine.
Most people don’t automatically visit directories (remember those?), nor will they always find the answer to their questions in Wikipedia. Google and other search engines are still the definitive way for Internet users to find answers relevant to their questions.
Organic Traffic Is Highly-Qualified
When someone searches for something on a search engine, they will end up with relevant results. If one of the top relevant links happens to be to a page on your website, those people will most likely click or tap through to it.
Now, consider what might happen if you pay for search placements using Google Ads. Your ads should theoretically show up for relevant searches – but that doesn’t always happen. Consider the following example:
- Your website sells wallpaper with pictures of cartoon fish printed on them;
- Your PPC ads get triggered if someone searches for “cartoon fish wallpaper”;
- If you have the wrong ad settings, your ads could show up for search queries like:
- Fish;
- Cartoons;
- Windows wallpapers.
- Some of the traffic to your site via those ads can potentially be from irrelevant searches.
In contrast, if someone searches for “cartoon fish wallpaper” or “fish wallpaper,” such organic search engine referrals will be more relevant – and thus, you’ll have highly qualified prospects visiting your site.
The Secrets to SEO Traffic Success
Now that you understand why organic traffic plays such a pivotal role in boosting website visitor numbers, you will undoubtedly want to learn the “secrets” to SEO traffic success. The truth is, there aren’t any secrets but more tried and tested common sense techniques.
The following provides a definitive description of what you should be doing for SEO traffic generation:
Keyword Research
Arguably the most essential foundation step of improving any website’s SEO begins with keyword research. You need to find out what people search for and what will most likely drive them to click or tap on your website links.
For instance, if you run a website selling computer parts, people might search for things like:
- PC case;
- Hard drives;
- SSD drives;
- Motherboards;
- RAM;
- Windows 10 Professional.
You can use tools such as Keyword Planner in Google Ads and even Google Trends for inspiration.
Monitor Your Search Engine Rankings
Finally, one essential task to carry out periodically is monitoring your search engine rankings. You can use many SEO tools to check where your pages rank for specific search terms and keywords.
That way, you will know which pages rank well and where there is room for improvement. You should also monitor your search engine rankings in collaboration with an analytics tool like Google Analytics. We use RankMath which is an excellent plugin with WordPress.
You also need to have a good SEO Checklist tool that can guide you with the detail steps and procedures. We have used SEO-Buddy which we highly recommend for beginners.
