What Is SEO Traffic [Meaning & How To Increase It]

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is an exciting world that brings challenges and innovation to an ever-evolving industry. But while SEO has become the main staple for companies to drive organic traffic, a backdrop of updates and changes is constantly pushing the industry to new frontiers of modernization. 

While most companies and digital marketers refer to the importance of SEO as a way to increase brand awareness online, generate sufficient online organic traffic, and perhaps improve revenue turnover – Google and other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo are constantly making changes to their search ranking algorithms. 

As of late December 2021, Google managed to roll out a product algorithm update days before Christmas, and while it may have seemed typically uncommon for the leading search engine to roll out new algorithm updates during the height of the festive season, it’s something that Google, among others are constantly doing. 

So, while you were planning your holiday season, or perhaps still working with the SEO strategy you planned earlier in the year – it quite literally changed overnight. 

One strategy can’t always be followed throughout the year, as these updates are quite random and unknown until the very last minute that a search engine announces it. So whether you were noticing a change in organic search traffic from December until now or during any time last year, it’s mainly due to evolving search techniques that Google is implementing. 

With the rapid digitization and modernization of the online world, enhancing user experience, and driving initial ranking competition, search engine traffic remains one of the most important and free ways to get more clicks, subscriptions, and purchases on your website. 

Here’s a look at how SEO traffic works and the importance it holds in the digital age of the online world. 

The Importance of SEO Traffic

As we now see, search engine optimization is a vital source for the longevity and survival of a business in a hyper-digital era, but it never remains the same year after year. 

Although it constantly changes, SEO can be used as an umbrella term that encapsulates many different web practices.

Some of these you’ve perhaps encountered beforehand or are only coming to terms with as of now. For the most part, some web and technical practices can include:

• On-Page SEO modification 
• Off-Page SEO modification 
• Quality link-building strategies 
• Fresh and updated content 
• Keyword research 
• Keyword utilization 
• Search Intent 
• Key data point analytics 
• Meta descriptions 
• Title tags
• Meta Keywords and website architecture 

These are just among the most basic concepts and practices one will come across when working with SEO. Each of these, as you should know, includes both pros and cons and can be used in a variety of ways. 

When researching how to build an effective SEO strategy, it’s important to take these and other technical aspects into account, as they can ultimately help increase search volume and click-throughs to your website. 

On account of this, there’s also the Search Engine Results Page or SERP, which ranks websites according to their SEO on the first page of search engine results. 

Have you ever wondered why the websites you click on at the top of Google are there when you’ve searched for a specific keyword or phrase? Well, it’s because these sites, among others, are all using an SEO strategy or blueprint that helps them navigate the vast online world, allowing them to be ranked higher than their competitors. 

How Does SEO Earn Traffic?

Let’s say you’re a small business owner who recently opened a brick-and-mortar store and launched a website and two social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. You’ve noticed that although your walk-in customers are growing, there’s an increasing demand for online purchases from customers based a bit further away. 

Although you may have a website that displays your product offering, business hours, location, about section, and some customer testimonials, you’re still not sure how to drive more online traffic to your website. 

With SEO, you can build online traffic to your website, but let’s say that you’ve never really worked with web analytics or search engine optimization strategies and are quite unsure how SEO can earn your website traffic. 

Let’s consider the following ranking factors: 

Your URL or Website

While a website is important, it’s not the sole element that will get you noticed online. A website may contain all the necessary information, but it’s more important to consider the quality of the content and keywords found on each web page. 

Google uses crawl spiders that find themselves around the web, monitoring content and websites. This lets Google see what types of websites have high-quality and valuable content. More so, which of these websites have authoritative and trustworthy relations with the rest of their competitor websites? 

In 2018, Google launched the Medic Update, also known at the time as the E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trustworthiness). This looked to see which websites had content and information that were approved by the general online community and received a lot of attention through clicks, shares, and backlinks. 

With these types of updates, Google can physically crawl your website to see if it meets its algorithm requirements.

Backlinks

Ever read an article online to find a link highlighted, mostly in blue, that links to another source or website? Better known as backlinks, these URL links take you to a second-party website or perhaps to an internal page. While these links add value to the overall content, they are generally more commonly used to generate awareness through backlink networking. 

But just as with everything else in SEO, backlinks come with their own set of rules and common practices. While these can be complicated initially, backlinks are a sure-fire way to generate more online traffic. The more a source is credited or linked on various websites, the easier it will be for Google crawl spiders to notice websites. 

Backlinks can be built through partnerships, collaborations, research, and monitoring of which websites are using your name or mentioning your company name but aren’t linking back to your website. 

Keywords 

Keywords are one of the most popular words thrown around when building an SEO strategy. Basically, keywords are specific short-tail words or phrases that are high in search volume. This means that if specific words are searched more often than others and used in website content, they will be ranked higher. 

Once you can see which keywords are more searched for than others through a keyword ranking tool or platform, you are then able to include this in your website content. 

Let’s say, for example, you search for a specific term such as “hair salon.” this then delivers a bunch of businesses in your local area that are either all a hair salon or linked to the term in some other way. These websites you’re offered all make use of this specific word, which helped them to rank better in the search results. 

It’s important to note that although one word may be ranked higher than another, millions of words are searched every single day, and it’s important to generate a list of these keywords. Afterward, you can then structure your content in such a way as to include it in your website content. 

Generate Content 

Online content is everything you see, read, listen to, watch, and interact with on the web. Online content is what drives people to either search for a specific word or term or follow them on social media.

Generating content can come in different shapes and sizes, but for SEO purposes, these can include guest blogging, podcasts, social media content such as photos and videos, or perhaps infographics. 

Depending on your business niche and target audience, you can direct your content towards these audiences and ensure they can interact with it, either through clicking it, liking it, or sharing it on other platforms. 

Generating content is a major part of what drives online traffic, and the more your content is published online or viewed, the easier it will become for Google spider crawlers to notice these sudden interactions. 

Target Audiences Directly 

Your business was designed to solve a specific problem aimed at a specific group of people, your target market. In the online world, these consumers are also known as your target audience, and with SEO you can directly target your audience through ad campaigns. 

So, how do you do this? 

Well, for starters, you will need to use online tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs to see which demographic of people are searching for what online. Next, you can look at your target audience and how they’re searching for specific products or services, whether it’s by keywords or long-tail sentences through a desktop computer or mobile app. Do they use social media, and if so, how many are clicking on your website link that features in your social media bio?

Now that you have a better idea of where your traffic is coming from, you can start looking at directing your efforts toward your target audience. This can be updating your site to be more mobile-friendly or including visible CTA (Call-to-Action) buttons on your social media posts. Perhaps writing more blog posts for your website or sharing a few insider information with bloggers that share the same audience as yours. 

These are all simple, yet mainly free ways to improve target audience outreach, meaning that instead of paying for ad campaigns on search engines or social media, you’re using SEO practices to drive more organic search traffic to your site. 

5 Methods to Increase SEO Traffic

As we’ve now come to realize, SEO is not just about using the right words or photos on your website or even on social media. Remember, SEO traffic is about improving organic traffic, meaning people search for a word or your business online and automatically find your website within the first five or ten Google search results. 

To help you increase your presence online and climb the search result rankings, here are five of the best methods to increase SEO traffic. 

1. Target the Right SEO Keywords for Traffic

Using a tool such as Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, you can search for industry-specific keywords. Through this, you can then filter these keywords by Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty. 

With these specific filters, you will be able to analyze which keywords receive the most searches online each month. Keyword difficulty relates to a rank factor, between zero and one hundred; the higher the keyword rank factor, the less its search volume tends to be.

Ahrefs is one of many different keyword tools that can be used to see what different demographics of people are searching for. The most important thing to consider here is your target audience. 

Now that you have a better idea of how a list of keywords correlates to your target audience, you can now include it within your online written content. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that although keyword-rich content is important for SEO and search traffic, it should still translate into increased sales and revenue, so be sure to measure these metrics alongside as well. 

2. Create Content That Meets Search Intent

Your content is the bulk of your online presence, especially for the visual aspect of your business. Content can be many things, as we now know, but it doesn’t help to create content that isn’t receiving a lot of attention. 

For example, if you’re a bakery, content that would meet search intent can be anything from how-to guides, recipe books, tutorial videos, or even ingredient information. These all directly correlate to the business and can be shared across various platforms, as they can be visually experienced with the aid of photos, video, or music. 

Search intent should be what people are looking for online, and what they want to find answers or solutions to. It doesn’t help to publish content that is outdated or of low quality, as these tend to receive fewer hits. 

It’s important to update your content regularly, as, over time, some information, such as statistics or even scientific research, can change. Furthermore, people tend to interact a lot more easily with content that is supported by high-quality and authoritative resources such as academic research, news media websites, bloggers, or even influencers. 

3. Optimize Your On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the actual content that may be featured on each web page of your website. The more relevant and updated the content, the better the chance it has to increase traffic and overall ranking. 

To optimize on-page SEO, you will need, once again, a list of high-ranking keywords. Keyword research can be included in your content in both written and visual formats. 

Say, for example, you sell paintings, the keyword “painting” or “paintings” can be included in both your written content and web page headings. But it’s not just helpful to use these words 10 or even 100 times over, as it’s not only unnatural, but you can also optimize the content by including a video about paintings or, say, perhaps the history of paintings. 

Additionally, you can optimize your URL and the link of your website to include keywords that people tend to search for a lot. However, it’s not always as simple as that, as most businesses tend to have their business name as their URL. 

It’s also advisable to include relevant information and update the content as much as possible. If you notice people are searching for “colourful paintings” or “brightly painted pictures” more than usual, see how you can optimize your existing content to fit in with the changing search habits of users. 

These are some of the most basic and straightforward ways you can optimize on-page SEO, and it’s quite simple to do without the need for an SEO expert or digital marketing team. 

4. Blog Regularly for More SEO Traffic

Yes, even in today’s day and age, blogs can still benefit your SEO traffic, and it shows. According to statistics published by SEMRush, companies that produce blog posts tend to have 67% more leads per month. Furthermore, blogs that are regularly or routinely updated receive on average 106% more traffic as well. 

As you can see, there’s still a lot of power in blogs, and what can they do for your search engine traffic? 

But blogging doesn’t help if it’s unrelated to your business, or even your niche, for that matter. That’s why a lot of the time, companies will blog about industry-specific events. 

If you work in hospitality, you’ve most likely read or published a blog that was related to the COVID-19 pandemic or the temporary closure of restaurants in recent years. Or perhaps you operate a small online craft store, write how-to guides, or give tips on what type of craft projects you can create with your children during school holidays. 

Yet, these blogs can carry an immense amount of value for your website and traffic – why? Because they contain relevant keywords and information, they are of high quality and use credible and authoritative links, and they include visual aids such as photos or videos. 

Finally, when it comes to producing blog content, be sure that your blogs are well-written, contain quality information, and, above all, are informative. 

5. Proper Internal Linking

Internal links can be any type of link that refers a reader to a different web page or menu within your website. These links can help users navigate the layout of your website better, and find what they are looking for a bit quicker and easier. 

As a digital marketing and PR agency, we tend to use internal links as a way for our customers to find our products and services more easily when they are reading a blog post such as this.

Internal linking is a simple way to navigate your traffic across your website, as this will also show you how much time people tend to spend on your website, what type of pages they clicked on the most, and what they were looking for. 

If you notice that web visitors tend to look for your product page most of the time, this could help you create a strategy to include a link or two to your products in your blogs or perhaps on your landing page content. 

Finally, if you manage to make use of internal links, you do not only help customers or site visitors navigate your website a lot easier. But it’s also a way for Google or search engines to see and find your most important pages. 

Remember those Google spider crawlers we mentioned earlier? Those crawlers can monitor which internal links on your website are mentioned or linked to the most throughout your content and help to rank these specific pages higher in case a user searches for something related thereof on Google. 

Is Traffic Good for SEO?

While it’s not always to say that direct traffic to your website via a social media post, an ad, or a call-to-action might directly impact your search rankings on Google or search engines, it’s still an important factor within the broader scheme of your SEO strategy. 

Additionally, you need to consider how users were able to come across your website. Was it through direct traffic, such as typing in the company name or website URL in Google, or perhaps through an organic search? 

These are measurable factors that can help paint a clearer picture of the overall success of an SEO strategy, but it doesn’t mean that it can completely change or impact the rank of a website on search engine results pages. 

When Should You Expect To See Results?

Unfortunately, Search Engine Optimization takes time, both in the planning and the phasing out process. Depending on how well a strategy has been planned and oversees each element of SEO, experts suggest that SEO can take as little as 2 months before you will be able to see results. 

Of course, it should be measured against the amount of effort and time you have spent to make this work. Additionally, there’s also the fact that changes in consumer behaviour can impact the overall results in the time frame. 

With this in mind, it’s noticeable that many companies only start seeing reasonable results between 6 and 12 months. It’s a slow process, but it’s both a bit time-consuming and requires financial resources if you’re looking to get results faster. 

FAQs

Final Thoughts 

Even though the world of Search Engine Optimization is constantly evolving and changing as technology advances, it remains one of the most important drivers of website traffic for any business or company looking to improve online visibility and increase revenue through sales. 

SEO is not one thing; it consists of different practices, each with a different set of underlying challenges that must be carefully examined before one can implement it within an SEO strategy. 

Finally, when looking to improve SEO traffic, one should consider some of the simple tactics you can use before acquiring the assistance of an SEO expert or digital marketing team. While these may be a valuable asset to your business, consider how your strategy will ultimately deliver increased Return on Investment (ROI) and, above all, boost your organic traffic results. 

Walid Al-Hajj