If you’re like many business owners, 2020 comes with a resolution to grow your business. You want to find new clients, nurture the ones that you have, and ultimately increase your bottom line. One of the best ways to do this is to increase the traffic to your site. But do not subscribe to the idea that you have to spend money to make money. In fact, the best thing you can do for your website will cost you exactly $0 in your advertising budget.
One of the first things Intentionally Inspirational founder Jason Wright does when he looks to grow one of his client’s businesses is target organic traffic.
What is organic website traffic?
Organic traffic is when someone finds your website all on their own, usually through search results. It’s website traffic that’s not developed through advertisements, but organically through search results or links from other articles, they are reading.
Why is organic website traffic important?
There are plenty of reasons why organic traffic is important, but let’s go with the biggest one…it’s free! Organic traffic happens because someone is searching for your company or a topic relating to your company. They click on a link and suddenly they’re on your website.
Organic traffic is something that just happens on its own, though there are ways that you can cultivate it and nurture it, which is what I’ll talk about below.
How to create organic traffic
When it comes to organic traffic, there are a few areas that we target.
SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the reason your website lands on the front page of a Google search ahead of all the other websites. Google uses a complex algorithm to scan your website, searching for the keywords or terms the user has typed into the search bar. It then ranks those keywords and terms and your website.
If you check enough boxes on Google’s list, you’re more likely to appear on the front page of a Google search. If you’d like to better understand the way Google uses SEO, check out Google’s Search Journey Impact on Business.
As for improving your SEO, I’ve written about the issue before. If you’re looking for a little help try looking at 5 SEO Tools Your Website Needs. I also wrote this article to help your YouTube videos appear on the first page of a Google search.
Social Media
Social media is another great way to grow traffic to your site organically. Using your social media helps keep your content in front of people and often leads followers to your other social media channels and your website.
One of the keys to growing your website traffic organically through social media is making sure you have a well thought out content strategy. You can start out by creating a social media policy for both you and your employees. Then create a content calendar to keep everything straight.
If you’re looking to grow your social media followers, then check out this article, 3 Tools You MUST Use To Grow Your Network, and this one called Why You Should Be Using Stories in social media.
Social media is all about creating content and links that drive people to your website and ultimately make a sale.
Email List
The other thing you want to focus on when you’re growing organically is your email list. In this instance, it’s all about focusing on what we call warm contacts. These are people who already have a positive impression of your company and are open to hearing more. In other words, they’re an easier sell than the people who have never heard of your company.
As we talked about in a previous post, they are the Best Holiday Gift to Give Your Sales Funnel.
If you’re looking to grow your email list, then take a look at this article, One Simple Strategy to Grow Your Email List. If you’re looking to get more clicks out of the emails you send out, check out our post 3 Tips to Make Your Email Stand Out. And if you need ideas for quality content, check out 3 Tools to Create Awesome Content and 5 Clickbait Headlines to Use in Your Next Post.
Getting Backlinks
The last thing we focus on is getting backlinks. Backlinks are links that come from other websites, podcasts, Twitter, etc. The real benefit of backlinks is you’re reaching the audience of a company that’s already formed a relationship with their followers.
For example, if you make a guest appearance on the podcast, it’s customary for the podcast to promote your website and your projects. This means free advertising to all of the listeners of the podcast.
If you make a guest blog post for a popular website, then that blog post is reaching all of the readers of that website. One of the sites that does this a lot is the site Entreprenuer.com, which uses a variety of guest bloggers on a variety of topics.
Conclusion
When all of this comes together, you have multiple avenues from which you can pull potential website visitors. And the best part of all is that most of them are warm traffic that are familiar with you and your brand.
Written by Erika Towne