Today, I will show you how you can increase website traffic by giving you the steps we use.
That’s right… you will see screenshots from analytics and learn the process we used to generate more traffic.
“How?” you may ask. Follow these two strategies:
- Optimize your current content with long tail keywords
- Evergreen list guest posts
Using long tail SEO to Increase Website Traffic
Most of us want to rank for lucrative search terms like “health insurance” and “credit cards.” Those search terms are very valuable, but they are actually very difficult to rank for.
Conversely, there is a lot less competition for long tail keywords, and this is where you’ll get the majority of your traffic.
If you look at the traffic from one of our blogs, Stylishlyme.com, 70% of the search traffic comes from long tail search phrases. And just like Stylishlyme, you’ll find that the majority of your search traffic is finding you from long tail phrases too.
Don’t get me wrong, of course, we want to rank for any head terms, phrases with one or two words. I’m saying, that we typically will rank for more long tail phrases. I’m reasonably sure you are experiencing the same thing. From our experience, most sites have a few head terms and hundreds maybe even thousands of long tail terms.
How do you increase your search engine ranking for long tail terms?
Let’s go step-by-step.
First, you’ll need to see the search terms your website pages are ranking for.
Log into your Google Webmaster tools. If you don’t have one, you’re done before you even started.
Continuing… Once you login, you’ll want to click on “Search Traffic,” then “Search Analytics.”
When viewing “Search Analytics” you’ll see a list of keywords like these:
Here you’ll see a list of all the keywords you rank for in Google. A crucial part of the process of increasing website traffic is increasing the number of keywords you rank for.
As you can see from the screenshot many of the keywords are long tail phrases. Here are more from the same list:
Your next step is to find the head keywords that you rank for and then search for them and Google.
For example, Stylishlyme ranks for the term “stylish braids.” We go to Google and search for “stylish braids”. Then, scroll all away to the bottom of the results page and you’ll see two columns that show you “Searches related to stylish braids.”
Google is telling you that these phrases are relevant to the term you already rank for. And the head term is always much harder to rank for than the long tail search terms.
With this knowledge in hand, integrate some of the longtail phrases related to your head term into the blog post page that already is ranking for the head term, this is how we generated more search traffic.
Don’t stuff these phrases inappropriately. Gently add two or three of these within the page, and make sure the sentences make sense.
We use this strategy to increase website traffic on Stylishlyme weekly and the results of been great.
Increase Website Traffic with Evergreen List Guest Posts
This snapshot shows the traffic spike due to an audience relevant evergreen list guest post.
The post topic relates to the fall season and is relevant every year. In the screenshot below you’re able to see the traffic increase as the Fall season approaches and this guest post becomes relevant once again.
Graph view is weekly to show the quick increase in website traffic from the same evergreen list guest posts.
Referral traffic has passed organic traffic. The guest post links to the full article, 20 Stylish Ways to Wear Boots. That article on Stylishlyme is receiving the referral traffic.
I’m sure from this example, and other things you’ve read, that you understand the value of guest blogging. One of the main motives why you should consider using this strategy is: it’s a great way to provide useful, valuable content to the community you write for and service.
Other reasons to use this strategy are:
- Get in front of a large number of readers who don’t know you.
- Get your brand known or recognized.
- Meeting others similar to you aka networking.
- Capturing the new audience that is coming to your website with an offer.
- And let’s not forget, getting a link to your website.
Evergreen List Posts
In case you aren’t exactly sure what we mean by evergreen list post, I’ll briefly explain.
Besides their usefulness in guest blogging, evergreen list post can also be written as original content on your website. This is a proven method for increasing website traffic. Check out this Moz case study that shows how evergreen content generates traffic many years after the original publication date.
When you increase website traffic, there are some positive impacts. Like with Stylishlyme, the guest post increased the audience and engagement with the website. Vanessa, the fashion blog author, is recognized as a thought leader (and a brand) in her niche topic.
She also receives frequent requests to help other businesses with their blogging efforts. Those requests turn into leads for Uhuru’s digital marketing team.
In August 2014, Stylishlyme received 19,214 search visitors:
On July 12 – Aug 13, 2015, search traffic is at 124,365 visitors:
Both organic and referral website traffic continue to increase due to these strategies.
IMPORTANT!
You work hard to get people to your site, so make sure to have a content offer ready in exchange for the visitor’s email. Make sure the content offer has context to the content your surge of traffic is seeing.
Do these strategies work for you?
Yes, it works for any industry and content. If you already have a blog on your website, then it’s easy to start implementing.
We do the same thing with Uhuru Network and in our content marketing programs for clients.
I’ve found that the combination of long tail keywords and evergreen guest list posts will enable you to increase website traffic. You should double your search traffic within one year of following these strategies.
Conclusion
You don’t need to be an SEO expert or know a lot about digital marketing to increase your website traffic. By making simple tweaks to your keywords in your content or changing your blog/page titles, you can increase website traffic coming from search engines.
Are you going to give these two strategies a try?
– Peter
P.S. If you need help executing these strategies or help with your marketing go here.
