So you’ve checked your Google Analytics and observed that your online traffic isn’t increasing as quickly as it used to. With so much competition on the internet, gaining traffic is difficult. There are several aspects that contribute to site traffic, and dealing with them may be daunting. Your website may be experiencing troubles that are stopping you from receiving traffic. While having a well-designed website is essential, it is only half the fight.

Ahrefs examined almost a billion pages of content and discovered that 91% of them get no organic traffic from Google. To make matters worse, 4.5% of these sites get fewer than 10 search views each month. That indicates that over 95% of pages are failing to get relevant search traffic that may have a significant effect on their business. So, what can you do to increase organic traffic and rank in the top 5% of all sites on the internet?

I’d like to highlight a few common errors people make while writing content and show you what you should do to enhance organic traffic to your sites.

Some of these strategies are quicker than others, but all of these tactics and techniques are necessary for a successful organic traffic campaign. Let’s get started.

1. Is the website’s SEO poor?

In short, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is about how easy it is for people to find your website through natural searches on sites like Google.

Do you appear when people search for phrases relating to your industry?

As an example,

What happens when you Google “pet shops near me” if you own a pet store? What about “where can I get dog food in [your city]”? Keep in mind that I’m not referring to sponsored advertisements here, but rather to the organic results that show.

The better your SEO, the more likely people will discover and visit your website. It’s critical, but many people get it wrong since there’s a lot to it and it’s always changing. Both your website’s front-end and back-end content should be SEO-optimized.

2. Backlinks of High Quality

The first error is that most “trafficless” sites lack any (or many) high-quality backlinks. I don’t want to sound like everyone else, but I’m aware that some people are skeptical about link development. The truth is that high-quality backlinks may help you rank better. (The key term here is “quality.”)

And their study, like many other trustworthy research studies, verifies this evidence. They noticed that 55.24% of the sites do not have any referring domains. Furthermore, 29.79% of pages have no more than three domain connections.

They examined how the number of referring domains to a page interacts with its projected organic search traffic to present an even clearer picture. And there is a linear relationship here. The more backlinks a page has, the more Google search traffic it receives. The same is true for the number of keywords a page ranks for. Rather than going into detail about each link development strategy, I’ll give links to other blogs that will assist in link building. But I will teach you about certain link-building tactics that you may use to develop connections to existing content that may not be rated due to a lack of links.

• #1. Take links from the top ten sites for your chosen keyword.

Simply enter your chosen term into the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer tool. Following that, I strongly advise you to click the “Update” button to refresh the Top 10 SERPs and extract the most current and trustworthy data. When the refresh is complete, scroll down to the SERP overview to see the top-rated sites as well as the number of backlinks leading to each page.

Then, click on the number of backlinks to access the page’s backlinks report. Look at the connecting sites, think about why they are linked, and then contact them to ask for a link back to your site.

It is important to note:

To boost your chances of getting a top-ranking position, do this for all of the top-ranking sites that are related to your page.

• #2. Guest posting:

This is also a great way to improve links to sites that need more traffic.

Because you’re generating the content, you have some control over the connecting URL, its placement, and the context of the link. To locate guest-posting opportunities, go to Google and put “your subject” in the title, followed by “guest post by” as a phrase match. As you can see, there are several locations where you may pitch your guest post. But, since you don’t know anything about SEO for these websites, I strongly suggest downloading the Ahrefs SEO toolbar, which will provide you with an inline view of both page-level and domain-level data.

Correlation may not always indicate causality. There are several sites that get visitors despite the absence of links. This is usually due to one of three causes.

1. Some of these websites include PBN connections, which prevent web crawlers like Ahrefs or even Google from discovering them.
2. They’re going for a super-low competition issue with very minimal search demand.
3. They’ve already generated a slew of high-quality connections to other pages on their website, which they may use to transmit PageRank to new pages that seem to have few to no backlinks from other websites. Because these examples are so varied, we’ll skip over them and go on to the second SEO blunder.

3. Pages with little traffic aren’t addressing a subject with a high potential for search traffic.

Ahrefs categorized all of the sites in their Content Explorer database that get no organic search traffic into four buckets depending on the number of linking domains to each page. And they discovered that 30,000 sites had backlinks from over 200 referring domains yet received no traffic at all. They discovered two sorts of pages that fall into this category.

Type #1 These are sites that went far with unethical link-building practices that did more damage than good.

Type #2 These were news websites.

As an example,

You have around 250 referring domains and get zero organic search traffic per month. When you look at the referring domains report, you’ll see that they have some high-quality followed links from authoritative sites. The problem is that if no one searches for what you’re writing about, you won’t receive any traffic from Google, Bing, or other search engines.

If you are unable to convert your material into a keyword-targeted article with high search traffic, the best course of action would be to provide internal links to other sites that you want to rank. And by doing so, you’re basically spreading link equity to other related sites, which will enjoy the benefits. Most importantly, you may link to a commercially valuable landing or product page that isn’t often or frequently linked to.

4. Is the website user-friendly (particularly on mobile)?

Have you ever been to a website and been disappointed because it wasn’t operating correctly or you couldn’t find what you were searching for?

It all comes down to the user experience. Your website should be simple to explore and utilize. Links should function properly and lead to the intended destinations. Finding critical information (particularly contact information) should be simple. It should be simple to use and functional regardless of the device.

It is a tremendous error to fail to optimize your website for mobile. In 2018, mobile phones accounted for 52.2% of all website traffic. Yes, we’ve exceeded the halfway point, and this figure is only likely to rise.

5. Does the website take a long time to load?

Speaking of vexing websites, who wants to spend an eternity waiting for a simple web page to load? Nobody has time for that, do they? Slow load times have been demonstrated in tests to have a major influence on page abandonment. Every second matters nowadays.

Slow load speeds will not only turn off visitors, but they can also harm your search engine results. It’s a two-for-one deal!

6. Can the webpage be crawled?

Google may not even be able to discover your website. And if that’s the case, it’s an issue you should address right now.

Google indexes a website’s pages by ‘crawling’ them on a regular basis. This is usually done automatically, but if your site isn’t being indexed, make sure you’ve generated and indexed a sitemap and asked that Google crawl your site.

How can you find out whether your website has been indexed? Go to Google and type “site:[yourdomain]”.

As an example,

Site:yoursite.com. Then you’ll get a list of all the pages that Google has successfully crawled and indexed.

7. Is there harmful code on the website?

You may have dangerous code loaded on your website without your knowledge! This is more typical of well-known PHP systems like WordPress. An attacker could have used WordPress (or, more likely, one of its many available plugins) to get into your site and install code with bad intentions.

If Google discovers anything that is like the above, your site will suffer a big ranking penalty.

8. Are there any broken photos or links on the website?

Broken links and photos occur, but they must be repaired as quickly as possible. It might be due to typos or because a URL changed and the link was not updated. In any case, it hurts the user experience and could hurt your search ranking, especially if the links are to other pages on your site.

Tools like Google Analytics and Raven Tools can be used to find pictures and links that don’t work.

9. Is the website linked to a Google My Business account?

Setting up a Google My Business (GMB) account is free, simple, and essential.

When people search for you on Google, a GMB helps them rapidly locate vital information about your business, such as your hours, location, images, and contact information.

Having a GMB is also the sole method to acquire Google reviews, which not only helps with search results indirectly but also makes your business more desirable to prospective clients (as long as the reviews are good, of course).

10. Is there a sufficient quantity of material on the website?

Inadequate content on your website not only lowers your search ranking but also implies that you have nothing to offer visitors. There are probably dozens of other websites that provide a wealth of information about your sector — so why should visitors select yours? To put it bluntly, they probably won’t be without content (excellent stuff, that is).

On the other hand, having too much material might be detrimental to your website’s visitors. It’s all about delivering value to your target audience when it comes to content, and both visitors and Google can tell when you’re not.

11. How is the website’s keywording?

This brings us back to SEO. Using the right keywords in your online content can help make sure that your website shows up in search results for relevant topics, but it can be hard to do it right.

First and foremost, don’t overdo it. Always write for the reader first, then for the ‘robot.’ People will stop reading if you use too many keywords, and search engines are smart enough to find this kind of content.

There are a few typical keywording stumbling blocks:

• You are not using keyword targeting.
• You work in a keyword-heavy industry.
• You’re focusing on too narrow of a niche.

There are many alternative solutions as well. Like using keyword planners, implementing longtail keywords, and generating 10x content, etc. And then it gets a little jargony at this point, but there are loads of wonderful articles out there that can and will help you out (and, while you’re at it, try to see why some of these pages show higher up in Google results than others).

12. Does the website meet the user’s expectations?

Keywording is crucial, but so is understanding the user’s purpose when they search with those keywords.

Where is the user in the buyer’s journey? Are they just starting and seeking an answer to their question? Are they in the middle of their buying journey doing product research, or in the final stage of making a purchase? A perfect funnel from the start will lead the buyer through these steps, but that is a different subject.

Google is becoming more adept at determining the purpose behind consumers’ search queries. If you optimize your online content for the goals of your target audience, you are more likely to get people to visit your website. This probably means optimizing for more than one goal, since you want to attract potential customers at different stages of the sales funnel.

13. Is the website E-A-T (Expert, Authoritative, Trustworthy)?

These three criteria are used by Google to assess the quality of content on a site. It examines who is Authoring the Material, the Content Itself, and the Overall Website.

Google considers a variety of factors to determine how informed, authoritative, and trustworthy a website is. Here are a few examples:

• Is the structure of your website reasonable and intuitive? Is it simple for individuals to locate information? Is each page labeled and easily accessible? Is there an “about us” page on your website? Is there a lot of contact information? Include your terms of service and privacy policies as well.
• Who is supplying the content? What qualifications do they have? For example, medical advice from a doctor is more trustworthy.
• What is the reputation of your website or business? Reviews, referrals from other high-quality firms, BBB ratings, recognition, awards, and so on.
• Is the material appropriate for the website? You wouldn’t put your confidence in a real estate post on a baking blog, for example.

Not only will raising your website’s E-A-T assist your Google ranking, but you’ll also be doing your clients a favor. After all, Google evaluates these factors in the best interests of the user.

14. Is the website’s material out of date?

Regularly upgrading your website’s content will boost your SEO and provide you with additional things to advertise on an ongoing basis (which we will talk about more later).

If your website’s content hasn’t been updated in a year, six months, or even two months, it’s time to consider developing a content strategy. Creating a content calendar is a great way to make sure you are always making content that will help you reach your goals.

15. Can the online material be shared?

By sharing your material with a large number of people, which is fantastic (and again, we will dive into this more in the next section). And, if you develop material that those people want to share, your reach will rise tenfold. And the more people who view your material, the more probable it is that they will click on it.

How do you go about doing this? Create stuff that people are interested in. Keep it current while being innovative. What are the most pressing concerns of your target market? What exactly are they searching for? How can you assist them?

16. Is too much time spent on creation and not enough time spent on promotion?

You have a visually appealing, informative, and user-friendly website with a wealth of relevant and high-quality material. You’ve optimized for SEO and everything is flawless. All of this will help you acquire traffic, but its effectiveness is limited.

You must put yourself out there in order to be noticed. So make sure you spend time advertising your website. In other words, this isn’t the real world, it’s the virtual world, and you have to build the road to your website by promoting it. (See example at the end of the post.)

17. Is a marketing budget in place?

With so many things to consider, marketing will become an afterthought, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.

If done correctly, investing in your marketing plan can significantly increase your site traffic. You don’t need a large budget; just plan and spend wisely. You may spend money on display advertisements, PPC advertising, geofencing campaigns, and so on. There are several alternatives!

18. Do you use social media to market your website?

If your business isn’t already on social media, now is the time to get started.

Starting is simple and inexpensive, and it’s a wonderful way to create connections with current and new consumers and direct them back to your website. Share links to blogs and intriguing landing pages on social media to promote your website. Just make sure you’re consistently publishing high-quality material!

Organic posting is theoretically free, so it will only cost you your time. If you want to increase your site’s traffic quickly, sponsored ads on social media may be quite beneficial.

19. Do you have an email marketing list?

Email marketing is a great way to stay in front of your customers’ minds and bring people back to your website.

Build your subscriber list and distribute intriguing information from your website, with links back to learn more. It is usually a good idea to have a sign-up form on your website.

My Final Thoughts

Both your website’s front-end and back-end content should be SEO-optimized. The more backlinks a page has, the more Google search traffic it receives. Mobile phones accounted for 52.2% of all website traffic in 2018. This figure has only risen.

So, thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this information, please share.

I appreciate your interest.