Driving Organic Traffic

In the midst of the digital renaissance, online visibility has the power to make or break a business. While having a great looking site is a plus, it’s not always enough. Both social media and websites utilize an indispensable tool to get eyes on your brand: Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website to improve it’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Think Google—and maybe Yahoo and Bing, but let’s be honest, Google. Improving your ranking in these results increases the quantity and quality of organic traffic, thereby boosting your website (or IG post) to the top of search results. As more companies recognize the need for a strong online presence, understanding SEO’s role in driving organic traffic is a make-or-break component of your success.

What’s Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic refers to the visitors who land on your account or website through unpaid searches. This means they aren’t coming to your site or account from a paid ad, be it on Google or in their Facebook feed. The higher your site ranks in these organic search results, the more likely it is that users will visit, and in turn SERPs will rank your content higher and higher.

The nice thing about driving organic traffic—and the main reasoning for pushing—is it’s just cheaper than paid traffic! It’s also slowly becoming people’s preferred method of searching as consumers turn away from forced ads and generally tend to trust companies that aren’t paying to push themselves to the front.

Types of SEO

There are several types of SEO that your business can focus on. For now we will focus on website content. On-page SEO involves optimizing individual pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic. This may include the following factors:

- Keyword Optimization: Using relevant keywords in your content to reflect users’ searches.
- Meta Tags: Including titles and descriptions with keywords to improve visibility on SERPs.
- Content Quality: Creating high-quality and valuable content that not only answers users’ questions, but keeps them engaged after receiving their answer.
- URL Structure: Crafting a clear and concise URL that includes your keywords and doesn’t look like a keyboard smash.

In addition to on-page, Off-Page SEO is also to be considered. These are actions taken outside of your website to impact your SERP rankings. These are things like:

- Backlinking: Acquiring and linking to high-quality content from other websites to boost your site’s trustworthiness.
- Social Signals: Engaging with your audiences on social media platforms and pushing your audience to your website.

Your site’s Technical SEO also factors into driving organic traffic. This means ensuring your site meets the technical requirements that search engines care about such as:

- Site Speed: Your site’s loading time will improve user experience (and prevent people from clicking away if a page takes too long to load).
- Mobile-Friendliness: Ensuring your site is accessible and fully responsive on the most commonly used device–cell phones.
- Crawlability: Making sure search engines can easily navigate and index your site’s content.

The last SEO leg work to check off your list is Content SEO. This means you’re creating content that is relevant and useful to your audience. Think the following:

- Blogging: Hey, we love teaching people tips and tricks and our site benefits from the keywords in this very blog that you’re reading! Share your knowledge on topics your audience is interested in.
- Content Clusters: Organizing content around core topics and linking related articles to optimize internal linking to other blogs or even social media posts.

SEO is not just a marketing tactic—it’s a fundamental part of your business’ success. Optimizing your website to meet the demands of search engines can help you drive organic traffic, build brand credibility, and grow. As the online landscape continues to evolve, staying informed about the latest trends will be essential for companies looking to maintain a competitive edge.

Worried your site isn’t meeting Google’s requirements? You’re in luck—we offer website audits! Reach out to us at 330.286.0487 or send us an email at info@mcconnellmarketing.com to see how we can help drive traffic to your site.