By now you probably realize that in order to produce any real income online, you first need traffic to your website. It goes without saying that optimizing your website for search traffic is a necessary part of this process.
Here’s an important statistic (for those just starting out with an online business) which might get you to straighten up in your chair for the rest of this post:
75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results
See: https://www.imforza.com/blog/8-seo-stats-that-are-hard-to-ignore/
Needless to say, it should be a high priority to get your website ranking on the first page of Google for some relevant search terms to your business. Some of you might already be ranking for some great keywords on the first page of Google – and if that’s the case – great, however another thing you must think about is this:
“Today it’s not about ‘get the traffic’ — it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.'”
See:https://www.marketingcloud.com/blog/40-inspiring-marketing-quotes-from-seo-experts/
So what are the key takeaways here?
- Search optimizing your website is not a guaranteed traffic generator
- The keywords you want aren’t always the right keywords to go after
- The secret is getting the RIGHT kind of search traffic
SEO Optimization By Itself Is Not A Guaranteed Traffic Generation Strategy
Here are some sobering facts.
- Working on search optimization for your website does not guarantee a steady source of traffic.
- Increasing your rank and placements for terms on Google doesn’t mean you’re going to get a flood of traffic, either.
It’s also important to note that having the top rank of any search engine, while a great accomplishment in some regards, still never EVER guarantees more sales and customers by itself.
“You have to stand apart by offering high quality, relevant experiences to audiences that you truly understand.”
http://www.poweredbysearch.com/blog/top-10-seo-quotes/
Finally, this is something that you should probably read two, three, or four times:
Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages. And companies with more indexed pages get far more leads.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/24-eye-popping-seo-statistics/42665/
So Why Doesnt Being #1 Guarantee Me More Customers And More Money?
Most search results are simply too broad.
If you’re the highest rank on a Google page for a keyword like “shoes”, you may mistakenly equate this to tons of awesome traffic and loads of customers .
One and a half million searchers per MONTH enter the word “shoes” into the search bar. So if I manage to capture only 1% of that entire search market, that’s fifteen hundred clicks!
Sure, but you must ask “why” exactly are they entering the word “shoes” into the search bar in the first place? Are they looking for an image of a shoe? Perhaps they’re interested in buying or selling shoes online? Are they working on an art project and getting ideas? There’s no real indicator for what exactly they want, and why in turn they would choose to visit your site.
Keywords that are too broad are seldom productive, they’re actually really hard to rank for and lack the necessary strategy behind them to produce meaningful traffic.
On the other hand, some search terms are actually too specific
[Location] based [business industry] might be attainable as a search term for ranking in your immediate geographic area, but how many people are honestly searching for that?
We at WPMakeovers DO believe that focusing on a geographic area is a good idea, if you’re tied to one. But don’t ever think that you ALWAYS have to think local.
Being too specific could actually limit the number of people that are searching for your business. Many times businesses are guilty of assuming that their customers know exactly what they are searching for. Or, that the terminology you use is known by your customers.
Where people go wrong
Keyword research is crucial to any online business who wants to make an impact on its bottom line via search engine traffic. Although it’s not something you learn in school, it’s still relatively easy to spend a little time researching the right keywords for your business.
Occasionally businesses make assumptions that they can’t actually back up. Does the majority of your potential customers actually search for your business by name? Be realistic. Unless you’re Apple or Nike, they probably don’t.
Typically people search or ‘Google’ questions to help them solve a problem. Or, they’re looking for a specific product.
“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”
https://www.mainstreetroi.com/10-quotes-to-guide-your-seo-strategy/
Search question examples:
How much should I spend on a bed?
How do I clean an oven?
What’s the best way to record a phone call?
Investigating what your customers and users might actually want to learn and know is exactly how you should be targeting your SEO.
Now comes the trickiest part – actually working on your website to build your search engine rankings. Contrary to the SEO methods of recent years past, it’s no longer about meta data or writing tons of keywords into every page and blog post. Those days are certainly over.
What you need to do specifically is create and write content that ANSWERS the questions that people are SEARCHING for. Revolutionary, right?
People might moan about algorithms, content updates, spider-bots, and the like. Don’t worry about keeping up with Google or Bing’s employees. Assume that they want to get the most relevant articles, posts and products in front of an audience. Your job is to make content that people want to read – when, and if, they find you.
Businesses that stick to the old “stuff a post with keywords and use meta data” WILL get left behind, if they haven’t been already. SEO isn’t about tricking Google or working with spiders, it’s about creating content that wants to get read by your customers.
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”
So, How Do We Go About It?
Structure
Having a steady blogging routine for your website is a very fast way to build content that does 3 things:
- Develop a writing style that is easy to read and digest, making it more likely for visitors and potential customers to consume more and stay longer.
- Become a more natural writer – forget writers block, you can now write blog posts fast
- Consistent content is easier to crawl for search engines like Google, meaning you’ll rank faster.
If you’re struggling to create a blog post format, feel free to copy ours:
- Summary – use a short sentence to introduce the post. For example “in this post we talk about topic” or “if you read this you’ll be able to result”.
- Quote – search the internet for a quote to use relating to what you’re talking about. There’s always something written somewhere that you can quote and use. You could also link back to that article for sweet SEO gains.
- Key takeaways– List the 3 key points that you’re covering off in your article
- Key point 1 – write a few paragraphs explaining the top 3 learning points for your topic. Give answers, show solutions and explain how to get results.
- Key point 2 – write a few paragraphs explaining the top 3 learning points for your topic. Give answers, show solutions and explain how to get results.
- Key point 3 – write a few paragraphs explaining the top 3 learning points for your topic. Give answers, show solutions and explain how to get results.
- Conclusion – Write a brief summary. The easiest way is to highlight your favorite point in the blog and turn an objection. – For example, “my favorite part about cleaning an oven is that it’s easier than people think. You can just leave the chemicals to work and you’re away! I know a lot of people say they haven’t got time to clean like that, but what we’ve found is if you just set aside half a day, it’s done sooner than you think”
- Next steps – Give next steps if they want to take it a step further. My favourite line is “if you’re serious about this topic, then you need to…” then give an email address, a lead magnet or a something for them to follow up with.
Keep It Regular And On Time
Posting regular content is key to building trust with search engines and your customers alike. A posting schedule is easier to stick to when you’re writing regular content. Feel free to use our calendar below.
We find writing two blog posts a week, and only publishing one, is a great way to give yourself some space when you really can’t write anything.
- Monday – brainstorm 5 ideas to write about. Common questions, things they should know etc.
- Tuesday – Write out the structure for both blog posts. Use our framework above
- Wednesday – Write the first post
- Thursday – Publish a post
- Friday – Write the second post and schedule it for another time
Choosing topics
Choosing topics is probably the easiest part of creating content. You have 3 main areas to find ideas.
- Google your own topics and industry and look at what other businesses are writing.
- Search forums, groups and boards for questions that your customers are asking. LinkedIn, Facebook and Quora are great for this
- Brainstorm ideas that you want to talk about. Think of a few broad topics and then write down more specific titles and sub-topics for blog post ideas
We actually find it helpful to not keep everything we think of. Whenever we brainstorm 5 (or 50!) ideas, whatever we haven’t written that week, we’ll discard.
If it’s really a good idea, we’ll think of it again, or come back to it.
Summary
So there we go! The truth about SEO is writing content that people want to read. Make sure to update and submit your new sitemap every time you publish new content (although you can automate this – or we can show you).
Our favorite part about this, is that SEO doesn’t have to be hard. If you’ve got a process and a structure, you can rank your content really quick. Just keep in mind that you need to commit. If you’re not really ready to write and create content regularly, then you’re not going to get the content you want.
Takeaway
Not sure where to start? If you’re serious about getting more traffic from your SEO, then you need to check out our SEO audit. What if we could give you every item that needed fixing on your site so you can rank on Google faster? Fill out the form below to get yours today.
