The struggle of trying to find a niche in the vast array of sites online is a common frustration for many a small business. People see options like SEO and have trouble understanding what it can do for people like them when paid options are all the rage. So, how can SEO increase web traffic in a way that outpaces or offers more benefits than other options?

This guide will explain why search engine optimization can transform your online presence. By the end, you will understand how to boost your visibility and present yourself as an industry thought leader. 

Keep reading to discover proven strategies that can put you over the top and turn your website into a traffic magnet.

The Basics of Traffic-Boosting SEO for Small Businesses

SEO is the very foundation of modern digital marketing. Whereas paid clicks can give you people straight to your pages, SEO can ensure those visits are worthwhile. 

In short, you cannot afford not to engage with SEO if you want to compete with even other small businesses online, let alone established names. A good SEO strategy can even the playing field and get you noticed even in a saturated market.

Why Is Website Traffic Important?

The importance of a website that resonates with users cannot be understated.

Website traffic is your lifeblood when finding new customers, especially if they have never heard of you before. If you have no visitors, you may as well not have an online presence, as nobody is coming to look at you. Whereas high traffic can increase both your brand visibility and how recognizable you are to the average customer.

This is why marketing is important, after all, working to increase your website traffic is the definition of marketing online. You want to have both large numbers of eyes on your site, as well as the assurance that they want what you can offer.

Small Business SEO Fundamentals

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the method by which you can ensure that you are attracting views that are useful to you. For a local business, this can include such things as:

Focusing on local SEO to attract customers from your local area. These are people who are more likely to be invested in you due to both your location as well as the feeling of interacting with a real person. 

Optimizing your Google My Business page to appeal to searches in the local area. This will increase your visibility when people search for services of your niche in relation to where you operate.

Research strong keywords to focus your content on. While this should still be useful content, using the right terms lets search engines know what the page is about. Having high-volume, low-competition keywords also ensures that people who search are more likely to find you.

These keywords need to appear naturally in your writing, though. If you overuse them or write worse text to fit them in, Google may reduce your ranking.

Developing Content That Appeals to Search Engines

Search engines list items on their sites depending on a wide variety of factors. Google uses the following tenets:

“Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)”

These four elements are how a search engine determines if your content is relevant to an audience and if it thinks you should rank high in its results. As such, it is important to:

• Avoid the use of AI to show the writer has real experience
• Display expertise in the nuances of your writing
• Create relevant and useful content to show your authority in that subject
• Be truthful to ensure you are trustworthy

By following these SEO tenets you are more likely to gain web traffic as search engines offer your content to more people.

Local SEO and Community Visibility

As a local business, you should ensure your content is specifically useful to your local area. Try not to promote rival regions, and talk about what you do in the context of local events and problems.

On top of other SEO principles, if you are aiming to be a local business, you will need to ensure you are visible to others locally. SEO, in that case, includes a little bit more physical outreach to develop local authority.

For example, it may benefit you to participate in local events and start networking with others in the area. People from your region who trust you can then start to offer you backlinks from their site once they learn how useful you are. 

To help with this, ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across everywhere you promote yourself online. This gives high-profile sites such as local newspapers the ability to contact you much more easily, too.

Why Not Just Use Pay-Per-Click?

While there is no doubt that pay-per-click advertising (PPC) can get people to your site, there are several downsides:

• It does not provide sustainable growth
• It can be very expensive
• The benefits are short-term
• It does not build up search engine trust

This does not mean you should not use it, though. By combining SEO and PPC, you can maximize your visibility. Be aware of budgetary considerations that you may need to take into account, though.

Common Misconceptions About SEO

While getting traffic is important, you should also have a realistic expectation about what the process entails. This is especially true when you start ramping up your SEO efforts.

The following are some things people believe about SEO after a brief search online, or after working with a hobbyist in SEO. Allow us to illuminate where these expectations fall down on inspection.

SEO is a one-and-done deal. False.

Search engines will change your ranking over time depending on how relevant you are. You need to keep providing high-quality, relevant content long-term.

SEO is all about keywords. Incorrect.

SEO focuses on both keywords and the user experience of a site, as well as several other areas. The whole process aims to give users a way of both finding you as well as considering you an industry leader they should follow.

SEO should give instant results. We wish!

SEO efforts can take some time to give you results. Everything that someone needs to do to get your site off the ground can be very involved, including:

• Analyzing your existing reach
• Keyword research
• Competitor research
• Planning and writing website copy or articles
• Updating the UX of your site
• Working with search engines to analyze your traffic
• Pivoting content based on prior success or failure

Together, this can take between 3-6 months to see a significant uptick in how many visitors you receive. This may be towards the upper end if you have used tactics in the past that pushed your ranking down in the eyes of search engines.

The Pillars of SEO for Empowering Traffic and Conversion

Three core concepts play a part in increasing your web traffic in very different ways. These can be summarized as:

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Technical SEO

Focusing on all these areas can drive significant traffic to you and improve conversions. Combining them is the epitome of a comprehensive SEO approach, and can also be a lot of work, which is why SEO management is a popular service.

On-Page SEO Optimization to Boost Traffic

This involves updating each page you have on your site to give it the best chance of a search engine understanding its purpose. 

The methods involved with on-page SEO efforts include:

• Using targeted keywords or synonyms throughout the article
• Using header tags (H1, H2, H3) to make your content more readable
• Including internal links to keep people on your site longer
• Ensuring content matches the E-E-A-T guidelines
• Updating the site regularly to provide fresh and accurate content

By following each of these steps, sites like Google will then rank your pages higher in relation to people searching for that topic.

Off-Page SEO Authority-Building and Credibility

Building up off-page SEO means finding ways to promote and link to your site from external locations. This can entail:

• Requesting backlinks from trustworthy websites
• Guest blogging on other sites to link new audiences to you
• Using social media to promote your content
• Involving yourself in your industry locally or on a wider scale
• Removing “toxic” backlinks that might harm your SEO ranking

As you develop these external links, Google will start to notice you more and consider your site to be more reputable.

Technical SEO for a Smoother User Experience

You need your site to give users the best experience possible, otherwise, they are likely to “bounce”. Instead, much more natural flow through your site and reducing friction can make it much more likely they stick around. You can enhance this by:

• Boosting your site’s loading speed
• Ensuring your web pages are comfortable to use on mobile
• Using the latest security standards such as HTTPS
• Fixing broken links
• Making sure all pages can be found and understood by search engines

It can often be harder to diagnose many of these issues as they involve understanding the mindset of someone using your site. Some of the best ways to discover such problems are to use your site yourself or work with someone who knows how to look for these issues for you.

Measuring Success by Analyzing Web Traffic

Watching your own web traffic gives you raw data you can use to assess and understand both who your audience is and how they act. Tools such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console can help you both track traffic and get detailed reports on user behavior. You can then use this information to review your SEO strategy and where you need to concentrate your efforts.

If your traffic is going down, for example, you need to update how you handle SEO. First, you should analyze the keywords you are using. Watch how they succeed or fail over time, and try to create new content using keywords that are rising in value.

Try to also take seasonal trends into account. An extreme example would be noticing why there are fewer searches for Mariah Carey when it isn’t Christmas. There are more subtle trends throughout the year, month, or even day that you should be aware of, though.

Advanced SEO Strategies and Trends

It is important to always stay in front of the competition when you start focusing on SEO. Keeping an eye on emerging trends and strategies can work to future-proof your efforts and ensure you maintain your traffic lead. 

The following are a few examples you can investigate to give you that edge and that causes people to visit you over others.

Content Clusters and Topic Authority

Instead of writing about a wide variety of topics all the time, focus your content into specific clusters of information. For example, if you sell clothing, you could write five articles one week about the latest trends in shawls.

If you create blog categories or pages that link to these topics you can then help search engines understand that you are an authority in that area. It can also boost a user’s experience with your site if they want to find all the information they can on one topic.

Regularly updating this list of clusters, as well as the content in them, can continue to offer you advantages. In some cases, they can even position you as an industry leader in that area.

Using Video and Social Media SEO to Engage With Your Audience

Instead of only using text and images, try to use videos to help boost engagement and traffic to your site. If people see what you offer in a short and snappy video, they are more likely to then follow your brand.

Optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords to ensure they have the same impact as your site. You can even overlap them with the aforementioned content clusters to allow for cross-promotion. Using the videos in your site’s content then allows you to create a web of connections that keep people involved with what you offer.

How Can SEO Increase Web Traffic For You?

You should now be well on your way to answering the question, “How can SEO increase web traffic?” in a way that allows you to take your growth into your own hands. Still, not everyone has time to jump on such an involved process. On-page, off-page, and technical SEO can all start to add up after all.

Don’t let this stop you from making an effort though. Start implementing these tactics with an SEO expert like Rose & Cactus and let them take the work off your hands. Book a consultation today, and you should soon see your web traffic soar!