How to increase traffic?

[seoman10]

This may seem a bit of a broad question but grateful for all knowledgeable input!

There are many things to focus on when looking at organic SEO, but where should I be spending the most time/effort in order to increase traffic.

[ZoeRigley]

What a great response!

[NgEF]

Hi,

Wow, that's a really broad question! (And one that I'd love to have the secret formula too)

In all honesty, I follow a pretty simple framework for optimizing a new site or working on a new project.

1. Find out what's the main Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the site. For example, if it's an e-commerce site, then the main KPI is most likely conversions into sales ($) rather than just traffic. So in that case, the aim is to get ranked for high converting keywords. If it's a local business with no e-commerce function, then localized search ranking for relevant keywords might be best. So find out what's the KPI before anything else.

2. Do the keyword research! This is pretty much the MOST important part to me. Rankings can be worked on and improved, but if you start off on the wrong keyword, it can be a massive pain to redo the entire site, just because the targeted keyword is wrong! I've got the most experience working with e-commerce sites, and what I do typically is to run some traffic for a first batch of targeted keywords via Google Adwords (if it's not too expensive!), to see if the traffic is useful in converting to actual results. AdWords will take a few minutes to set up, but to optimize the site for organic search is a bigger project! If the traffic from AdWords pans out, then it's probably a good set of keywords to work on for organic search too.

3. Once I've established the keywords, the next thing i work on is the on-site stuff. Site architecture, URLs, domains, page titles, content relevancy, internal linkages, the whole works. It might be a while before you look at all these stuff once the site is up and running again, so you want to make sure it's all right and in-place.

4. Prep for the launch of the site by creating all relevant social media pages/profiles. Social's a big part of search too and for overall marketing purposes too. For search optimization, it's also best to ensure that all your social media profiles are linked to the site you're working on.

5. Once the site is live, tap on whatever quality backlinks you have. I'm pretty certain most of us here have a secret cache of backlinks that we secretly hoard. So tap on those to give your new born site that little bit of boost at the start. You can also consider a few (just one or two) directory links. For directory links, I'd highly recommend DMOZ since it's free (might get a link or might not, but definitely worth a try), and Yahoo's directory (paid inclusion at $299/year but actually worth it).

6. Now that everything is in place, this is where the real work begins! Ensure a constant (and quality) presence on social media, continue to create good quality, relevant and most importantly, share-worthy content for the site, build relationships and get links either organically or through social engineering, try to get PR coverage if possible (not press releases, but relevant and hopefully good coverage of the business), and grow your traffic!

Hope this helps!

[ZoeRigley]

Hi,

I'd first look at why you want to increase traffic, and make sure your plan links in to your final goals- whether it be to gain sales, leads, help customers find answers to questions, engage users, or display advertising content. I'd also ask how quickly you'd like to get traffic. This usually sways the methodology I'll use, so it's always important for me to understand this.

If you're after traffic very quickly, I'd recommend a Google Adwords campaign, which is a great conversion-driven way to generate traffic, right away. SEO will take a bit more time to generate this traffic. In an ideal world, a combination of both can work together for great ROIs.

With a completely fresh customer, I'll make sure Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools are set up and correctly configured, especially for goals and conversions, and E-Commerce tracking if appropriate. I'd also check for major technical issues with crawlability and indexation, there's a great Technical SEO Audit Checklist which you can use from Geoff Kenyon.

From there, there is such a wide range of tasks you can complete to increase traffic, on the SEO side, and I'd really recommend reading Moz' beginner guide to SEO from start to end, to create your plan.

I hope this helps- you're right, it's a very broad question. Moz' knowledgebase has a massive amount of information which you can use to create your plan, I'd definitely recommend you spend time reading through this!

Hope this helps, 
Zoe