How To Increase Traffic and Drive Leads To Your Local Website

Increasingly, search engine optimization is about content

The biggest problem I hear from clients and small business owners about their digital marketing activities is that they would like to get more traffic, leads, and customers to their website. A question I often hear is ‘how do you increase traffic and drive leads to your local website?’.  The answer I give is that the most effective way to do this has in the past been with search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization or SEO is defined as the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results-often referred to as ‘natural’, ‘organic’, or ‘earned’ results. The eight hundred pound Gorilla is of course Google owning 85% of the desktop search market and almost 95% of the mobile search market in the United States.

As search engines have matured, SEO has become increasingly complex with Google alone estimated to look at over 200 different variables to determine a web page’s search engine ranking. While this information is a closely guarded secret, experts have been able to roughly determine which variables Google looks at to determine search engine rankings.

A brief history of search engine optimization

According to Search Engine Land, the history of search engines and search engine optimization over the past 25 years can be broken down into five different eras. They are as follows:

The first signs of life (1991-2002)

This era is characterized by an anything goes approach to SEO. Marketers used keyword stuffing, excessive tagging and spammy backlinks to generate high search rankings. Since search engines updates took several months to complete, SEO tactics worked for a long stretch of time.

The early days (2003-2005)

Search engines tried to level the playing field so to speak between marketers and everybody else. Google focused on penalizing back linking practices and keyword stuffing. It was also during this time when local SEO was born providing users with worthwhile information near them such as maps, locations, store hours, and mobile search results.

The Middle Ages (2006-2009)

Trends in search and user behavior brought about the need for a more reactive search experience. It was during this time that Google’s Universal Search included other content media in search results such as news, images, and video. A user-focused approach to SEO laid the foundation for a more personalized and captivated approach.

The Enlightenment (2010-2012)

Search engine rankings focused on quality and user-focused content or face penalties.   ‘Localized’ SEO results sought to organize all local information and offered new advertising opportunities. To optimize a website, marketers developed valuable and shareable content that created value for users.

The Modern Ages (2013-Present)

Personalization and privacy are in conflict with search engines and social media platforms seeking to create their own digital presence by personalizing results based on history, location, and device. There is also a shift towards relevant content and accessibility with mobile and local search. Search engines demand personalization and quality content to be competitive.

The Future

The prevailing trend since 2010 is a drive towards a more focused, personalized experience built around user intent and high quality, unique content. Search engines are now able to determine what it is that people want and search engine optimization is about providing content that meets that need.

What is the goal of SEO?

In my mind, SEO is about:

• Driving traffic to your site
• Lead generation
• Authority building

This is also the goal for the content that I create for myself and for clients. SEO is content.

Content produces results

The easiest way to improve your SEO is to focus on content is with a blog. Blogging works. Consider the following from AdEspresso:

• Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads
• Interesting content is one the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media.
• 87% of US consumers trust advice and information from blogs
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links
• Websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages
• Websites with blogs have 97% more inbound links.

Content is key for conversions as well. Also from AdEspresso:

• Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads
• Marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads

Blogging is a form of content marketing. The Content Marketing Institute found that companies who use content marketing see conversion rates that are six times higher than their competitors who don’t use content marketing.

Hopefully, I have established that it is content that will drive traffic to your website and get you leads and customers. The next question is where do you start?

How to increase traffic and drive leads to your local website

If the secret to increasing your search results, generating leads, and getting clients is creating content, why don’t more websites do it? The answer is that it takes work.

It takes time to learn what type of content your target market is looking for. It takes time to write as well as to market your content. These are things you need to learn and unfortunately, that takes time.

The bad news is that there are many websites who are willing to do the work. It used to take me 1 to 2 hours to write a 300-word blog post that would get noticed. Then, it was a 1,000 words and increasingly, it is becoming 2,000 words plus just to get noticed. It is no longer 1 to 2 hours but sometimes half a day or even more. However, I have found that the more I do it, the easier it gets.

Is it worth it? Absolutely, just look at the statistics above.

Yes, the bar for what is good content keep rising but there are still many things that you can write about. People want answers to their questions. They want authoritative answers to their problems. They want help solving their problems. If your product or service solves a problem, you have something to write about. Fortunately, questions and problems are something that is in abundant supply.

This is a proven strategy to success. There are several examples of bloggers who have emerged to be very successful in time. They started by addressing a problem that their target market was looking to solve.

Putting it all together

It is not rocket science to get started. Here is a very simple 4-step process to get you started. Once you get going, your strategy will likely change and I will write about this in the near future.

Step 1 – Set up a blog

Content marketing encompasses many different things including ebooks, infographics, and webinars. When getting started, focus on what is easy such as a blog. Blogging is one of the best content strategies and well as one of the most cost-effective as well.

When blogging, zero in on long-tail keywords and write your blog around your selection. Long-tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases that are very specific to whatever it is you are writing about or selling. When a reader or customer uses a highly specific keyword phrase, they tend to be looking for a specific item or answer to a question.

Plan your blog posts ahead of time and shoot for one or two posts a week to start. It is highly recommended that you write your content ahead of time as well so that you always have something ready to go when another commitment comes up.

Step 2 – Stick to a schedule

If you plan to do to blog posts a week, do everything you can to stick to that schedule. It will be difficult at first but the goal is to make posting a blog post a habit and this take time. If you force yourself to start, you will be successful.

Step 3 – Do other forms of content

Blogging is a way to start with your content strategy. As it becomes routine and you develop habits, try other things such as infographics, webinars, or ebooks. This will broaden your skill sets and help you stand out in the mind of your readers.

Step 4 – Share your content

A content strategy is half of content marketing. The second half is of course marketing and this is the part that most people neglect. Marketing consists of putting your content out there so that people can find it.

Sharing your content on the big social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is a great place to start. However, you should also focus on the smaller social networks and niche sites. Examples include Quora and Slideshare for slideshow presentations.

Wrapping it all up

What is outlined here is a very basic content strategy. I will write about content marketing for local SEO and more advanced strategies in future blog posts.

I hope I have shown that SEO is really in incremental process that you do over time.   Fortunately, you don’t have to produce a lot of content to start seeing success. However, you do to have to create content that people want. If you do that, you will be successful.

You also don’t have to spend years learning how to do SEO. If you learn how to do the content correctly, the SEO part will follow. While it may take work to get started, it will be worth it when things start coming together for you. I can tell you that it won’t be long once you make your routine a habit.

Hopefully, I have answered the question of how to drive traffic and increase leads to your local website.

I would love to hear your feedback and also learn about what has or has not worked for you.