Previously, ‘falling behind’ had a different definition. Now; however, it means not ranking high on Google. You know how they say, ‘the best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search’. In a rush of technologically evolving businesses, it has become one of the key concerns for the tech-savvy.
The goal is to gain more and more organic traffic from search results on the search engines. Organic traffic not only means more business in terms of sales but also it makes your website more attractive to advertisers because only an interested prospective customer would land on the website.
Traditionally people would buy traffic (PPC), but there are several downsides to that when compared to organic traffic. Although reaching the ideal level of organic traffic might cost you a bit in the beginning, in terms of hiring SEO experts and investing in SEO tools, it is a sustainable approach. This is because on the other hand; you needed to keep paying for traffic using PPC techniques.
Similarly, organic results have high click-through rates compared to PPC advertisements. This is because users doubt the credibility of advertisements and have more trust in organic results.
A few years back, I came across a small business owner who almost shut his business website down because he was not generating any leads online. Upon investigating further, he told that he had constantly been posting products on his website but never got traffic.
Conducting some research, I found out his poorly maintained website was the reason. He had no idea what search engine optimization was. I gave him a few SEO tips which made him realize he was at fault.
If you have read this far, it means you have a reasonable knowledge of SEO already. I know you are not here for basic SEO tips, which is why we shall discuss some more advanced tips that can help you proceed in your organic traffic game.
1. Broken Link Building
You must know that backlinks play a great role in the ranking of a webpage. In other words, more and more domains linking to your page means higher rankings on the search engine for your page.
So, what is a broken link?
Also referred to as a Dead Link, a broken link refers to a link on a page that does not work. Either the link does not exist anymore for some reason, or it is an improper (improperly inserted) link.
In a broken link building strategy, you find pages that have broken links and then suggest to them your link as a replacement for that broken link. If you want to go a step further, you can look for all the pages that link to that same broken link and then suggest to all of them, your link, instead. This is known as ‘Deep Broken Link Building.’
Let us briefly go through the steps of how you can do it.
Step 1. Find links pages, as they are the best place to look for broken links.
- Use Google search term “keyword inurl:links.” This will give hundreds of results of pages containing links with your keyword in them.
- Use simple Google results bookmarklet tool to get the results in a list form.
- Use another tool to remove the duplicates from the list.
Step 2. Check for link ranking. Using a tool such as Ahrefs, you can find out the ranking of the domains and sort them accordingly. This would help you figure out which link you want to target first.
Step 3. Using SEO Spider tool you can now find which of the domains have broken links. It will also fetch the broken links from those pages.
Step 4. Using Ahrefs batch analysis tool, you can find out how many
domains refer to each of the broken links you just fetched.
Step 5. Using another tool, e.g., BuzzStream, you can reach out to all of the domain owners at once, who have a particular broken link on their page. Prepare your pitch well – the way you structure your email will decide if the owner is convinced.
2. Content Re-launch
Many platforms that provide SEO tips for beginners tend to miss out this important strategy. This is primarily because it is a relatively newer tactic.
This strategy involves optimizing your previous posts and then reposting them. This strategy has proven quite beneficial for some. A great example that set a precedent for many is Hubspot.
Let us discuss in the light of their case, how they increased their traffic by 106% by using their content re-launch strategy.
In the process they refer to as ‘Historical Optimization,’ they optimize their old blog content to make it fresh and up to date. This also includes better SEO and rectifying the mistakes in the past. So how old is old content? There is no set definition, according to them. It can be a week old or a year, or even more.
I will highlight how they went about it so that you have a clearer picture of what content re-launch is and help you construct your re-launch strategy.
Upon analysis of their posts from the past, they found that their older posts were performing better than the new posts. Another surprising element of the report was that they generated 46% of their leads from the top 30 posts, which only made up 0.5 percent of their total posts.
This led them to set their goals accordingly, considering two outcomes.
- To get more leads from high traffic blogs with low conversion rates.
- To get more traffic on the blogs with higher conversion rates.
This helped them identify their re-launch strategy. They figured the lowest yielding posts despite high traffic so that they could optimize them in a way to get more conversions from them. On the other hand, they found that the posts that had high conversions did not get much traffic. They could now optimize that post to gain more traffic and generate more leads overall.
This is why it is suggested that you not only focus on the new content but also make use of the old content and optimize it to get more traffic and more leads.
The image below shows the traffic on some of their posts before and after optimization.
3. HARO
Some of us still are not aware of HARO. However, it is the most powerful means for small businesses and entrepreneurs to gain media attention and be featured in press releases.
HARO is the acronym for Help A Reporter Out. It was formed as a platform for journalists and/or reporters to interact with the experts of a field, which they had to write for. Those experts, in turn, got PR opportunities from the journalists.
HARO has turned into a business and has evolved much more. You can make an account and start getting emails full of queries from reporters of well-established news platforms. This would not only help you interact with them, but you can also place backlinks in the content that you provide them, as your contribution. This would generate more traffic to your website or whatever webpage you intend.
Remember, though it will not sound like an impressive tool at first, backlinks from media sites are the strongest, as they reflect authenticity and credibility.
Tips on HARO
Given it is a big outlet – there would be many responses to a single query. You need to plan your pitch accordingly for your response to stand out. It requires a lot of patience to utilize such a platform.
- Give them the exact response that they need, so that they do not have to edit it. When they find the content rich and useful, they will just copy-paste it along with your links placed in it.
- Address everything the reporter has asked, and do not miss out an important point. Otherwise, your response will not stand a good chance of being used by the reporter.
- Place the link wisely. An author’s bio is a good way to place a link to your organization.
Over to You
Do not undermine the potential that the worldwide web has. If you think your blog or business website is not generating as much traffic as it should, it does not mean you are in a bad business. You just have to let people know you exist, and it is never too late to do so.
If you are not already utilizing the power of blogs, do it now. They are a great way to highlight the pain points of the potential consumers and to present how your business solves them. Blogs also help your website rank higher in search results.
To begin with, you can use keyword research tools to help optimize your content. Do not let any constraints hold you back.
This is the right time, so take the first step, and you will see your business grow.
Bill Acholla is a digital marketer helping small business owners build their brand through content marketing. If you like this article, check out his business blog at Billacholla.com for more actionable marketing tips.
