How to Increase Organic Traffic in 2024

In the days of Facebook-promoted posts and Google AdWords, the instant gratification of shelling out a few bucks for immediate traffic may seem highly appealing. However, without continuous efforts, it may not be sustainable. You’ll get traffic to your website now, but what happens when you stop the paid campaigns? Will your content ever be found again?

Organic traffic means the content you put on your website today will drive traffic to your website tomorrow, next month, next year, and probably even several years from now. That’s why working to attract organic website traffic will be worth the effort. You don’t see that kind of ROI from paid traffic.

When it comes to putting efforts to drive organic traffic, there are good ways, and there are better ways. Some downright awful methods should be avoided at all costs as they do more harm to your organic search traffic than good. If you’re ready to put in the work to gain organic website traffic and increase your online credibility the right way, these are the things you need to know about and start doing.

What Is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic refers to the number of website visitors that have found your website through the unpaid searches they made online. It is a crucial parameter for any website as they do not have to pay a penny to attract these footfalls. Search engine optimization is the key to achieving monumental organic traffic to your website.

Benefits of Organic Website Traffic

• It is absolutely free. You do not have to pay to run ads.
• It allows businesses to reach an audience they might still need to tap into.
• They bring traffic to your website that might be interested in your product or service already.
• It builds brand credibility, making people feel more connected and trusting of your brand.
• Ranking efforts can be magnified with content and SEO strategies to ensure scalability.
• The performance can be tracked, allowing businesses to update their SEO efforts continuously.

How to Increase Organic Traffic

Attracting organic traffic takes time and consistency; here are some tried and tested SEO strategies that you should consider using to attract your target audience and convert them into returning loyal customers and brand advocates:

Optimize Your Pages for Humans, Not Search Engines

Most search engine algorithms are being developed to make finding information easier. Creating content rich in keywords that don’t answer the search query might not work best. Instead, focus on writing content by understanding the search intent. Producing listicles, guides, case studies, and long-form articles are some ways to achieve this.

Optimize Your Page Titles

Titles are crucial as they tell your target audience what your content is about. Consider using the main keyword (only if applicable) in the title. Experimenting with copywriting is an excellent way to come up with titles that strike a chord and are identified as valuable by search engines.

Conduct a Technical SEO Audit

Regularly conducting technical SEO audits ensures that any technical errors are identified and addressed to increase the website's ranking potential.

Create the Best Content you Possibly Can

Show people what your expertise is by publishing high-quality and value-oriented content pieces. Make sure to research well and touch base on topics that don’t have too much information available.

Creating content for the sake of creating content will only get you so far in getting seen on organic search results. Because you heard publishing regular articles is good for SEO, not focusing on value and meeting the search intent can limit your growth. In fact, it may even cause a lot of damage to your brand’s reputation.

Your website is a representation of your business. In a lot of cases, it’s the first impression a potential customer may have of your business.

Just as you wouldn’t deliver a sub-par product or service, you shouldn’t publish low-quality blog posts. It’s not unreasonable to suggest you should write the best content you possibly can every time you publish something.

I’m a big fan of Scott Stratten (author of UnMarketing) because he never seems to say anything that I disagree with. Here’s a great quote from his podcast about blogging that relates to this point:

Me demanding the best content you can write should not be intimidating, it should not be paralyzing. It should be the minimum that when you write something, you look at it and go: “Yes! That’s what I wanted to say!”

What does this have to do with increasing organic traffic?

Well, it just so happens that search engines are almost as good as people at telling when you’re phoning in your content. High-quality content ranks better, which, in turn, drives more organic website traffic. It’s also the kind of content people will find helpful and worth sharing.

So, give it everything you’ve got before hitting the ‘Publish’ button.

Adhere to Google’s E-A-T Guidelines

E-A-T stands for ‘Expertise, Authority, and Trust,’ and it is a highly regarded framework used by Google to gauge the value of a website. Here’s how you can make it work:

Expertise: Write content that clearly shows your expertise in the field by producing valuable and unique content.

Authority: Work on building website, content, and brand authority, establishing you as a credible source of information.

Trust: Avoid posting duplicate or thin content, as they can significantly lower your website’s credibility.

Target “People Also Ask” and FAQ sections

Instead of always creating content on new topics, consider addressing frequently asked questions your target audience is asking. It will add more depth to your content and SEO strategy.

Grab The Low-Hanging Fruit

Everyone wants to rank for those broad two- or three-word keywords because they tend to have high search volumes. The problem with these general key phrases is they are highly competitive. They are so competitive that you may not stand a chance of ranking for them unless you devote months of your time to it.

Target long-tail relevant keywords that have low search volume but are still being searched. With these, you can capture the attention of people who are on the lookout for information.

For example, if you’re an SEO agency, don’t bother trying to rank for the term “SEO agency.”You’ll never knock out the heavyweights that already rank for that term. Instead, narrow it down a bit more. Be more specific by including the area you serve. For example: “SEO agency in Albuquerque, NM.“

You could get even more specific by narrowing it down to a customer base. Is there a particular group of clients you tend to serve? Try including that in your long-tail key phrase. For example: “SEO agency for non-profits in Albuquerque NM.” That’s a key phrase you’re a lot more likely to rank for. Not to mention, it will also attract way more targeted, organic traffic than a broad key phrase like “SEO agency.”

Long-tail key phrases more closely resemble what an actual user would type into a search engine. As users perform searches more like they would verbalize a question, studies have shown that long-tail key phrases are driving results due to greater relevancy and less competition.

Write Consistently

Create a content strategy that keeps you covered, all year round. Sporadically publishing content makes it challenging for search engines to determine your website’s credibility and authority. This is especially important because search engine algorithms also undergo periodic changes and updates, and being inconsistent can end up reflecting poorly on your website as a dependable source of information.

Try not to get too caught up in what certain studies will tell you are the best days and times to publish a blog post. Just try to be consistent.

Aim for once a week at minimum. Ideally, the more, the better, but if you’re running a business at the same time, it isn’t easy to publish more often than that without hiring writers.

Search engines love frequently updated sites. But more important than that, users do. A place that’s updated consistently tells users you’re serious about providing good content, which makes it worth it for them to invest their time into reading it.

Consistent updates keep people coming back, which keeps them sharing your content, linking to it, and telling others about it. These are all signals that help boost organic traffic.

Publish Guest Posts

Publishing guest posts on websites that get monumental traffic every month is a great way to enhance organic traffic. With this, you will attract traffic from websites with a loyal audience, substantially increasing your chances of making sales and conversions. Use long-tail and quality keywords that are trending and in demand to achieve proven results.

As Matt Cutts has said, guest blogging for SEO is dead. It’s done. Don’t do it. Don’t even think about it.

Guest blogging purely for inbound links is a flawed strategy because the value of those links is going down. However, guest blogging for traffic is still an incredibly viable strategy. While that inbound link you get at the end of a guest post doesn’t have as much SEO value as it used to, it still has the value of exposing your content to a new audience.

It also has the value of the traffic that comes from being published on a high authority site. There are some best practices to keep in mind when guest posting:

1. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Aim for authoritative websites with high-quality content and decent traffic numbers.
2. Guest blog on websites within your niche. Guest posting on popular websites means little if you’re not reaching your ideal audience.
3. Promote your guest posts as you would your posts. This shows that you really value the opportunity to post on the other website's blog.
4. Check back regularly and respond to comments. Ideally, you want their visitors to become your visitors. Responding to comments is a great way to get that relationship started.

Use Internal Linking

Having internal links throughout your website will keep your target audience on the website, as they offer more places to visit. Not only do they break the visual monotony, but they also help your audience discover new and interesting parts of your website, offering information they might find useful. However, you must make sure to avoid excessively stuffing your content pieces with internal links, as they reduce readability and may come across as spammy.

Implement Schema Markup

By adding schema markup on your website, you can help search engines have an easier time understanding your content. In turn, it eventually also increases the chances of your website ranking much higher on SERPs.

Revamp Outdated Content

Revisit the old content pieces you had published earlier and identify a few ways in which you can make them more worthwhile for the readers. Search engines like Google are always looking for new information, and revamping outdated content pieces can be a winner. To get noticed, updating the introduction and adding new keywords can do miracles.

Build Trust On Social Media

Social media offers businesses the opportunity to showcase their expertise by consistently posting content, drawing engagement, and building credibility. There are various social media channels you can use, but to be seen as relevant, carefully understand who your potential customers are and where they spend most of their time. Creating custom content is crucial to striking the right balance and keeping them interested in learning about your business.

Remember: Don’t Anger Google

Making Google angry is like biting the hand that feeds you. Unfortunately, some SEOs still like to test the limits of what they can and can’t get away with. Increasing organic traffic should always be done ethically, or you will get hit with a Google penalty sooner or later.

Here are some tips for avoiding those penalties:

1. Don’t build cheap links.
2. Don’t ever, ever pay for inbound links.
3. Don’t use exact-match anchor text.
4. Don’t publish low-quality, scraped, or stolen content.
5. Do publish awesome content that’s helpful to users.

Like I said at the beginning, building organic traffic is hard. Anything that promises a shortcut to an avalanche of traffic will more than likely lead to a penalty down the road. Embrace the daily grind of creating great content that helps users and provides a solution to what they’re looking for. In the end, that will drive more organic traffic than any shortcut ever will.

Conclusion

I’ve always been a believer that hard work gets the best results, and in practice, it always ends up being true. On the web, it’s no different. If you want more organic traffic, you have to work for it. That means giving your best effort every time, going after opportunities your competitors have missed, being consistent, guest blogging strategically, and staying on Google’s good side.

If you have any thoughts or questions about building organic traffic or would like to agree/disagree with anything I wrote, please leave a comment! I just joined the Positionly team, and I’d love to get to know the community here a bit better.

Every website owner wonders how to increase organic traffic on their website without spending a fortune. You can achieve more organic growth with a strategic approach and careful planning. Read more!