Having a website listed and ranked on search engines is an accomplishment in the highly competitive digital landscape. However, it can be disheartening when these sites fail to attract the expected traffic.

Understanding why this occurs is vital for website owners looking to expand their visibility and engage directly with their target audience.

In this article, we’ll look into why websites struggle with traffic issues despite their best efforts and explore strategies to overcome such obstacles.

• Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
• Technical SEO Issues
• Fresh Content
• User Experience Impact on Traffic
• FAQ: How can a website maximize its organic traffic through improved search engine rankings?

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

Failure to optimize keywords is an integral factor that prevents brands from ranking highly in search results. Search engines rely on keywords to understand the relevance of a website to specific search queries.

Target keywords must be effectively integrated into the website’s content, titles, headings and meta tags to increase its chances of ranking higher in search results and driving organic traffic.

Another critical aspect is the quality and relevance of the website’s content. Search engines prioritize high-quality and informative content that aligns with user intent. Content that does not demonstrate E-E-A-T — experience, expertise, authority and trust — risks being penalized in search engine results.

One of the best ways to start your keyword research for your brand is to begin with a topic cluster. Start by creating your pillar content. This content should be the main focus of your blog or site. For example, with Bruce Clay, our pillar content is focused on SEO. SEO is what we do, and it’s at the heart of our brand.

From here, you can focus on creating cluster content. Cluster content is content that can be hyperlinked from your pillar content.

For example, we have SEO as our pillar content and have a variety of cluster content, such as online SEO training, search engine marketing, pay-per-click marketing, content development and social media advertising.

All of these clusters are secondary to our pillar pieces, but they also all tie back to our pillar pieces. You can create multiple topic clusters for your site.

The point of creating cluster content is that you can create a web of hyperlinks between all the content within a single cluster. It all feeds back into one another.

This is a broad overview; we take it a step further by creating additional clusters for each, such as a cluster for content development where the pillar piece is the content development page, and the cluster pages are all subtopics of pay-per-click marketing.

Keywords are essential with cluster content because each piece of the topic cluster (both pillar content and cluster content) should have its own keyword focus.

Start with the high-level topic keyword for the pillar content, then move into the keyword focus for each subtopic or cluster content topic. Internally link between each page and all of the other pages.

Technical SEO Issues

Left unaddressed, technical SEO issues can damage a website’s search engine rankings.

Factors such as slow loading times, broken links, poor website structure and improper use of headers and tags can negatively affect user experience.

It’s a good habit to regularly audit your site to identify and optimize these technical aspects. Doing so will improve its performance, enhance user experience and ultimately increase organic traffic.

Optimizing title tags and meta descriptions is another important element in driving organic traffic. These elements play a significant role in conveying the relevance and value of a webpage to search engine users.

Poorly crafted or uninformative title tags and meta descriptions may lead users to overlook the website in search results. Optimizing these elements with compelling and relevant information, including target keywords, can increase click-through rates.

SERPStat ran a study where they audited 288 million pages across thousands of websites. They found the greatest technical SEO issues were mark-up-related issues at 29.56%, and meta tags at 26.62%. When it came to mark-up-related issues, a missing Twitter/X card, missing open graph and missing schema.org were the top issues.

Make sure that these are all in working order on your site. As far as meta tags are concerned, the most common issues they found were the extra-long title and the length of the meta tag description.

There are a variety of SEO tools that you can use with your site to check the length of both your meta tag title and description. Yoast SEO is a common choice for WordPress-based sites, or you can use this simple character count tool. The goal is 50–60 characters for your meta title and 150–160 characters for your meta description.

Fresh Content

Search engines value fresh and regularly updated content. A whopping 27% of all high-performing content is no more than a month old. New, ongoing content tells search engines that the site is active and hints that its content will be more relevant than sites that rarely offer new information.

So, develop a content strategy that includes generating new content and refreshing old content regularly to help attract search engine crawlers and boost rankings.

Fresh content goes beyond search engine traffic — it gives visitors to your site a reason to keep coming back. New content can keep readers interested and give them a reason to spend more time on your site.

Use your target audience avatar to determine your audience’s biggest pain points and work to create fresh content that addresses them weekly for the best results.

User Experience Impact on Traffic

User experience is essential in search engine rankings and organic traffic. When search engines determine the ranking of websites, they evaluate the site user’s experience. To do this, they look at real-time data: bounce rate, time spent on site, page load speed and whether the site is mobile-friendly.

A website with slow loading times, difficult navigation, or lack of mobile optimization may experience lower organic traffic. Optimizing the website for a smooth and seamless user experience across devices is vital.

If you’re failing to generate traffic to your website, it’s because you are not paying attention to the factors that influence search engine ranking — keyword optimization, technical SEO, content quality and user experience. Improve these areas and you will improve organic traffic, visibility, engagement and conversions.

Unhappy with your search engine ranking and traffic volume? Our SEO experts can help. Contact us for a free consultation today.

FAQ: How can a website maximize its organic traffic through improved search engine rankings?

Maximizing organic traffic through improved search engine rankings is a crucial goal for any website to increase its online visibility and reach a wider audience. Attaining this objective requires an integrated strategy combining on-page and offline strategies, technical optimizations and content enhancement.

Optimizing on-page SEO is crucial for optimal search engine ranking. To do this, high-quality and relevant content is required.

Utilizing relevant keywords naturally throughout the content, optimizing meta tags, headings and improving the overall user experience can significantly boost a website’s search engine ranking. Regularly updating and refreshing content keeps it current and engaging for visitors and search engine algorithms.

Off-page SEO plays a vital role in increasing organic traffic to websites. Search engines can verify that your website is reliable by building high-quality links from relevant and reputable websites while engaging with your audience.

Creating a solid presence on social media can indirectly affect search rankings, increasing brand recognition and driving more organic traffic to your website.

Additionally, technical SEO plays a crucial role in website optimization. Ensuring that the site’s structure is user-friendly and mobile-responsive is essential for ranking well in search engines.

Optimizing page load times, implementing secure HTTPS protocols and making XML sitemaps can enhance the overall user experience and positively impact search engine rankings.

Lastly, ongoing monitoring and analytics are essential. Regularly reviewing website performance through tools like Google Analytics and Search Console can provide valuable insights.

By analyzing which keywords drive traffic, understanding user behavior and adjusting your strategies accordingly, you can continually optimize your website to maximize organic traffic and improve search engine rankings.

Optimizing a website for better search engine rankings requires a holistic approach encompassing on-page, off-page, technical and analytical aspects. By creating high-quality content, acquiring authoritative backlinks, maintaining a technically sound website and using data-driven insights to make improvements, a website can maximize organic traffic and increase its visibility in search engine results.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Maximizing Organic Traffic for a Website with Search Engine Rankings

1. Keyword Optimization: Identify target keywords relevant to your website’s content and align with user search intent. Incorporate these keywords into your website’s content, titles, headings and meta tags.
2. Content Quality and Relevance: Create high-quality content that meets the needs of your target audience. Provide them with content that delivers value. Ensure that your content aligns with user search intent and addresses their queries effectively.
3. Technical Optimization: Regularly audit and optimize your website for technical SEO issues such as slow loading times, broken links and proper website structure. Ensure that headers and tags are used correctly to provide a clear and organized content structure.
4. Optimize Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Craft compelling and relevant title tags and meta descriptions for each webpage, incorporating target keywords and accurately reflecting the content. Ensure these tags provide enticing information and encourage users to click through to your website.
5. Regular Content Updates: Implement a content strategy that regularly updates existing pages and creates fresh content. Focus on providing valuable and up-to-date information to attract search engine crawlers and keep your website active and relevant.
6. User Experience Optimization: Optimize your website for a smooth and seamless user experience. Improve page load speed, simplify navigation and ensure mobile optimization for a user-friendly browsing experience.
7. Social Media Promotion: Leverage social media platforms to promote your website’s content and attract organic traffic. Share snippets of your content, engage with your audience and encourage social sharing to increase visibility.
8. Monitor and Analyze Performance: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor your website’s performance. Analyze user behavior, traffic sources and engagement metrics to identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategies accordingly.
9. Stay Updated with SEO Trends: Stay informed about the latest SEO trends to adapt your optimization strategies. Follow reputable industry blogs, attend webinars and participate in forums to stay up-to-date with the evolving SEO landscape.

The post Why Do Sites Struggle with Traffic and What Can SEO Do About It? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

So, you’ve invested time and resources into SEO and got more targeted traffic. Without converting that traffic, what do you have to show for your hard work and investment?

You want to ensure your website is set up to maximize the value of your organic traffic. And that starts with optimizing for conversions.

In fact, SEO and conversion are two halves of a pie: SEO drives traffic to your site. Conversion optimization helps move those website visitors to action. Let’s look closer at why conversion optimization is an important part of your internet marketing program.

In this article:

• What is a conversion?
• What is conversion rate optimization and why does it matter to SEO?
• 3 steps to get started with conversion optimization
• FAQ: Why is conversion optimization important for maximizing the value of your organic traffic?

What Is a Conversion?

A conversion is when a website visitor completes a desired action that either brings them closer to a sale or to an actual sale. A conversion can be any action that moves a visitor further down the conversion funnel.

Some examples include:

• A phone call
• Filling out a form
• Clicking on a link
• Downloading a content asset
• Watching a video
• Buying a service or product
• Subscribing to a service

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization and Why Does It Matter to SEO?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a strategy to increase the percentage of website visitors that take a desired action. CRO does this by making variable changes to a webpage. The outcome? Make it perform better and ultimately boost your bottom line.

Conversion optimization is important for any website owner for at least these three reasons:

1. Potential customers are leaving you. The average website conversion is between 2% and 5% depending on the industry and device type. According to Statista, for instance, e-commerce websites in 2020 saw only 2.06% conversion rate. That means on average, about 98% of people who visit an e-commerce site leave without making a conversion.
2. You’re losing money. By optimizing and retesting the same webpage in iterations, you can improve performance. That means claiming more of the money that you lose every time a visitor bounces. Each time you make an improvement to a page, that improvement continues to perform even after the test is complete.
3. Your competitors are already testing. Top companies participate in some form of conversion testing. For instance, Google ran more than 600,000 tests to improve Search in 2020 alone. Chances are, you have already been a participant in one of these tests without knowing it.

CRO can be the critical next step in getting the most value from your SEO traffic.

Remember: The most important metric to measure SEO success is traffic. Conversions are typically out of the scope of an SEO program and in the hands of the website publisher.

Of course, website publishers can get expert advice on how to maximize conversions and then put in place those recommendations. But it is up to you to make those changes on your site.

3 Steps to Get Started with Conversion Optimization

Get Executive Buy-In

Getting executive buy-in can be a challenge – mostly in smaller businesses. In small businesses, it’s not uncommon for the president of the company to play a big role in the website.

This gives them a “parent” complex, where they view the site as their child, and directives are often subjective. This contrasts what the website should actually be treated as: a salesperson.

The best way to counterbalance the parent mentality is through evidence and facts. Be prepared when you meet with your boss. Go in armed with case studies and examples of real-world results. A single Google search can dig up countless case studies to support your cause for conversion optimization.

One approach is the attitude of “it’s only testing.” This shows your boss that the changes you’re proposing are only temporary unless they outperform what already exists.

Need help getting buy-in from your organization? Watch our on-demand webinar 6 Successful Ways To Get Company Buy-in for SEO.

Set Goals

Ultimately, you want every page on your site to funnel visitors toward conversion.

How do you do that? Set clear goals.

To set clear goals, you need to answer these questions:

Who is your audience? A good SEO program should have done the legwork of defining who your audience is if you don’t already know. You can look at things like demographics, keyword research, and customer interviews for more insights.

Creating personas based on audience research will help you to target your actual customers, rather than people you think are customers.

Related: 3 Steps to Define Your Audience for Your SEO Program

What are the goals for your audience(s)? What do you want this segment to do? Even without testing, if you orient website changes around your audience, it will typically show some improvements. And through testing, you can increase the success of those improvements.

What are the goals for any given webpage? Understand what goals you have for any given webpage and how visitors are expected to accomplish those goals. Keep your goals and audience in mind even when designing what may seem like minor elements like an “add to cart” button or hero banner call-to-action.

Test, and Then Test Some More

A room full of executives or marketing staff could sit around for weeks thinking up new designs, navigation, headlines, images, and more; but in the end, all they will have is an educated guess at best.

In fact, many times these folks are so out of touch with actual customers that calling it an “educated guess” isn’t even valid. Only through testing can you confirm those ideas and know for sure whether they are effective.

Many site owners shy away from conversion testing because of the potential negative impact it could have. However, there is value even if the testing produces fewer conversions on a webpage than it did prior. This way, you know what not to do.

It’s important to keep in mind, though, that educated testing seldom produces negative results. Even when negative results occur, you are not bound by those results.

(Typically a test can run anywhere from a few weeks to a month, so it’s a short-term period that likely won’t have a lasting negative impact on business.)

Also, the benefits of knowing what you should not do to your site based on negative test results can justify the value of having to run that test.

Ready to increase your conversion rate on your site? Our SEO Training course will help you take website visitors and turn them into customers.

FAQ: Why is conversion optimization important for maximizing the value of your organic traffic?

Conversion optimization is an invaluable strategy for businesses seeking to maximize organic traffic. By increasing the conversion rate on the website, conversion optimization can increase visitor value from organic search. Conversion optimization plays a pivotal role in strengthening an organization’s online presence.

Organic traffic is invaluable as it comes from users actively searching for your products or services. But to be successful, conversion optimization involves more than simply visitors. To be truly effective, it involves leading users toward desired actions such as making purchases, filling out forms, or subscribing to your newsletters.

By optimizing your site for conversions, organic traffic won’t go to waste. Visitors will be empowered and encouraged to interact with your content instead of passively browsing — this results in higher conversion rates, sales increases and overall an improved return on investment from organic traffic.

Conversion optimization involves improving the user’s experience on your website. You can do this by observing user behaviors, conducting A/B tests and adding user-friendly design elements that ensure an enjoyable, seamless journey for visitors. This will ultimately cause them to stay longer, view additional pages and convert into customers.

Conversion optimization provides another great opportunity to identify potential friction points or barriers in the user’s journey and eliminate them. By analyzing data and gathering feedback from users, conversion optimization enables you to identify obstacles preventing visitors from converting and take proactive steps to address them, improving not only conversion rates but also user satisfaction and loyalty.

Businesses cannot ignore the significance of optimizing for conversions in today’s highly competitive online environment. By investing time and resources to optimize your website for conversions, businesses can maximize the value of organic traffic while simultaneously increasing revenue growth and business success. A well-optimized site not only draws visitors, but also encourages them to take desired actions that lead to greater revenues for increased business success.

Conversion optimization is essential to unlocking the full value of organic traffic. Your website can become an effective business development tool by improving conversion rates, improving user experience and eliminating barriers that inhibit conversions.

The post SEO and Conversions: Two Halves of a Pie appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..