12 Proven Ways to Generate more Google Traffic

While there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to generating more Google traffic, there are some common best practices to adopt. In this post, you will learn 12 of these practices and how they can improve your SEO ranking, generate more traffic and leads for your website.

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Every website needs traffic, whether a personal blog or a business site. That excellently written, well-researched piece won’t get much mileage unless it is viewed by people. This is why consistent traffic is the goal of most site owners, regardless of the niche and purpose of their website.

Here are some proven methods to generate more Google traffic:

Conduct keyword research

Every article that ranks starts with keyword research. Performing keyword research will help you find out the most common search terms people use for your topic and optimize your content for these terms. There are numerous tools you can use to conduct your keyword research, including Google’s very own Keyword Planner. Checkthisarticletounderstand howtouse

Ubersuggest is also an easy-to-use keyword research tool. You can use this tool to improve your search rankings. Ubersuggest provides you with features such as the keyword overview section which tells you the volume, cost per click, SEO, and paid difficulty of your selected keyword. It also gives you the keyword ideas, related search terms, and their associated difficulty. 

Conducting proper keyword research before writing your articles and blog posts can help you with writing targeted content that ranks. 

One of the secrets to ranking on Google's search engine is to target long-Tail Keywords

Short-tail keywords have more search frequency but are much harder to rank than long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, give you a higher chance of competing with higher authority websites. Long-tail keywords also tend to produce readily convertible leads and are especially helpful for ranking for voice search queries. 

A long-tail keyword strategy improves your chances of ranking for search queries that are more prepositional or conversational and can lead to an overall increase in site traffic. 

Create great content

It might seem like a non-brainer but creating great content is one surefire way to improve your Google search rankings. Using the right keywords, craft informative and engaging blog content that is helpful to readers. 

However, blog articles aren't the only kinds of content marketing that drive traffic. You may start a podcast or host a webinar if you connect better with people via audio.

Most social media programs now allow you to publish photographs, audio recordings, long-form text, and videos, among other forms. You can try out one or more of these formats to evaluate which one best suits your audience.

Optimize Backlinks and Internal links

By definition, backlinks are links from other websites to yours. A backlink involves a bigger and more credible website giving yours a shout-out. Not only does this help get your website’s name out in the bigger webspace and increase inbound traffic, but it also helps Google index your site and make your content discoverable through search. 

Backlinks have the potential to take your website rankings to the sky but only when they are relevant. Relevant, high-quality backlinks are from credible, legitimate, and authoritative websites in your niche. When they come from the right source, backlinks are a powerful tool that can level up your search rankings.

Internal links, on the other hand, are as important as backlinks in building your site traffic. Internal links are links that lead from one page to another page on the same domain. An excellent internal linking strategy, including defined subcategories and hub pages, helps the Google web crawler index the entire website. 

This also provides the added benefit of keeping your viewers engaged for longer as they move from page to page. The decrease in bounce rate sends a positive signal to Google that your site is valuable and interesting to your audience and this can boost search rankings.

Social Media Strategy

Almost everyone nowadays uses social media. Meeting your consumers where they like to be is one of the most effective strategies to increase website traffic. Increasing your social media marketing efforts will help you reach out to new consumers, raise brand awareness, and drive more traffic to your website.

However, you must note that users go to their favorite social media platforms to be entertained, not to be sold to. To ensure that your efforts are well-received, you must first provide value to your potential "following" and establish strong relationships with them.

This can be accomplished by publishing educational pieces that portray you as a thought leader in your industry, posing questions, answering questions, or entertaining content about your business. 

When new content is released, here are some ways to drive traffic to your website through social media:

  • Use relevant hashtags
  • When new content is released, update the link in your bio to promote it
  • Reply to comments on your posts
  • To promote new content, tag influencers who might be interested in the content
  • Make sure to reveal a few details from your content (a sneak peek) that will inspire them to read more on your website
  • Answer questions on platforms Quora, Reddit e.t.c and include links to your content in your response

Improve your site experience

Not even the most logical and hierarchical internal linking structure will keep users on your page for long if your website doesn’t provide an intuitive user experience (UX). 88% of online shoppers claim they wouldn’t return to a website after having a bad user experience and people make 75% of their assessment of a website’s credibility based on its aesthetics.

A great user experience design always incorporates design elements that are usable, valuable, and functional. Aesthetics are important but they should never distract from the main purpose of the website. 

Generally, user experience plays an important role in either decreasing or increasing your bounce rates and can heavily affect your Google search rankings and site traffic.

Submit your website to the Google Index

This is an underrated but effective way to increase your website’s visibility. You can submit direct links to all your website pages through the Google Search Console. This helps the web crawler crawl across your entire website and index it better.

Google makes it clear that “submitting a page to the index will not guarantee inclusion or influence your PageRank, and isn't a replacement for creating compelling and useful content” . But your website needs to be indexed to be visible in the first place. Submitting it for indexing is a crucial first step.

Mobile-first

You may have heard that mobile-first design has become less relevant with time. That couldn’t be further from the truth, especially as it affects your ranking on Google. Over the years, Google has steadily moved over to mobile-first indexing. Mobile-first indexing means that Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking. So, if your mobile site has a less than optimal user experience design, you could see an overall drop in ranking and site traffic.

When you only design your website for Google's search engine crawler, you're overlooking the most crucial aspect of SEO: your customers. At the end of the day, ranking #1 in Google is useless unless your website is correctly structured to turn that traffic into leads and sales!

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile increases your website’s chances of being found. Introduced in 2014, Google Business Profiles are a free way to promote your website and they are also incredibly easy to make.

When people find your business on Google Maps or Google Search, they also see your address, phone number, email address, opening and closing hours, and reviews through your Business Profile. It is important to optimize your profile so it gives customers all the information they need to arrive at a decision. A well-optimized Google Business Profile can drive traffic to your website.

Guest Blog

Guest blogging is a great way to generate traffic and influence your search traffic. There are two ways you can go about guest blogging. You can either hustle for an interview with one of your industry’s heavyweights or ask them to publish a post on your site. He/she will be encouraged to promote this post/interviewn their site and this is likely to drive traffic both ways. Also, guest blogging gives another voice to your content and helps to spice things up.

You can also guest blog yourself. This works especially well for business-to-business (B2B) websites. Research other businesses/writers in niches that are either similar to or complement your niche. Connect with them and ask if you can make a guest post on their blog. This post should provide value to the blog’s audience and can include a lack of your website.

Learn from Your Analytics

Google Analytics is another free tool you can use to level up your search rankings. Google Analytics provides insights that help you understand how your pages are performing and which queries they are ranking for. It also helps you analyze referral traffic and maximize your backlinking opportunities. The information on click-through rat, es, bounce rates, and other engagement factors can help you optimize your landing page conversions.

Google Analytics will help you figure out if your linking strategy is right for your business, which type of content gets the most attention, what you need to work on and what you are doing right.

Get Listed in Online Directories

Online directories have a bad rep and it is possible to stray into bad practice territory by submitting your business on too many online directories. But online directories can have a positive influence on your search ranking when they are used right.

The most important online directory for increasing organic traffic is Google Business but there are other major directories like Y,ahoo, Yelp, Bing, and Whitepages. It is important to list your website on major directories that are related to your niche. Your listings on these directories get mleadraffic and lead back to your blog or website. 

Email Marketing

Email Marketing is still one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to a website.

A study shows that email marketing generates $36 for every $1 spent, resulting in a staggering 3,600 percent return on investment. What more could you possibly want?

Email marketing allows you to immediately contact potential customers. It's the perfect platform for establishing long-term relationships and increasing client loyalty. You can ask questions, solicit comments, introduce soft sales, and urge clients to make a "big buy" by posting questions, soliciting input, and introducing soft sales.

Here are some best practices for Email marketing:

  • Use catchy headlines and introductions
  • Include a link for subscribers to read more of the content
  • Check to see if your emails are mobile-friendly. Because mobile devices account for 46% of all email openings, links should be easily visible
  • Make use of personalisation techniques by including the subscriber's name
  • Use well-designed themes to make the email aesthetically appealing

Final Thoughts

Publishing more and more content was once a terrific way to broaden your SEO's reach. For example, when you post more articles on various topics, your website's chances of ranking in Google improves.

However, many organizations pushed this strategy to its logical conclusion and began publishing low-quality content in order to increase article production at a reduced cost. Quality now trumps quantity, thanks to Google's recent algorithm adjustments. Always keep this in mind, and fight the impulse to scrimp on quality in order to get your pages out faster.

It is also important to note that engagement is built slowly and steadily and the process is never to be rushed. So, push out great, targeted content; put in the necessary work, and be patient while you expect results.