4 Steps To Increase Traffic When You Can’t Have Higher Rankings
When you first look at SEO and its corresponding process, it’s actually deceptively simple. We look for the right target audience, we create and optimize our website to match the audience’s intent, we ensure that Google can find, trust, and index our website, and we eventually strive to increase traffic while having higher rankings. However, what should you do if you can’t rank any higher, but still want to gain more traffic?
SEO is not as simple as people make it out to be. There are instances where an SEO professional follows the process and executes it properly only to find out that their website can’t rank any higher than it already is. Or it attained a position on the search engine first page, but still, receives an inadequate amount of traffic. Aside from these instances, there are still many others that most SEOs are not ready for.
That’s why for today, I’ll be detailing on ways in which you can increase the relevant organic traffic you receive while not trying to rank higher. Instead, you will focus on the market itself – none of which require you to change your pages or build links. Let’s get started.
1. Neighboring Territories
This might be a business strategy, but it can also perform well when incorporated into your SEO strategy. It would be wise for you to research and find uncompetitive businesses that are in the same niche as you. You can take advantage of this because you already have an established brand, an authoritative domain, and a great website as your foundation.
Start by brainstorming for related products. Let’s say, for example, you’re working in the real estate industry, so you might think of:
- Home Insurance
- Area Guides
- Property Listings
Once you’re done creating a list, you can start on your keyword research, and find out which pages are ranking for the keywords. The difference between this and looking for keyword opportunities is that in this case, you’ll be focusing on the core landing pages of the businesses. Take a look at their domain authority, landing page quality, branded search volume, and the SEO strategies they’ve incorporated, then think about what you can do to be better.
One of the examples I’ve given is home insurance, so you might find out that most of the sites that rank for it are in the field of financial services or comparison websites. Then you notice that there are only low performing sites for area guides. That’s the time to act.
The best way to start is not to go full force. Start small – just one landing page or a white-labeled product will do. If it receives traction and gathers more followers, you can now extend your efforts because you know that it needs more in order to help your business grow to new heights.
Remember that you are already an established brand with constant engagement from your followers. If you have the capability to expand your services and be able to reach out to more people, then you can beat other, smaller brands in those areas.
2. Be Accommodating
You’ll never know if there are untapped opportunities in your field that’s just waiting for you to act. One such untapped opportunity is the potential customers that have insufficient knowledge or are intimidated by the product.
For example, your business primarily revolves around selling gadgets such phones, laptops, or desktops. Many of your potential customers will be wary of buying this kind of objects online without professional advice. This might lead to them not buying from you, or to buy similar products for a cheaper price – for the sake of reducing the risk.
Some keywords you might use are “best affordable phones”, “best gaming laptops”, or “complete desktop packages” which could encourage your visitors to spend more than they originally planned, or opt to buy online rather than buying from a local store. Pages like these could be considered as comparative or semi-editorial, but the most important aspect of creating pages like these is to make your potential customers feel like you are not imposing the sale upon them.
Purchases that are more research intensive will only give more importance to what I just stated above. If you do own a gadget selling business, you can incorporate guarantees or give potential upgrades to your products, so that any user that is not well-versed in gadget terms will have more confidence in making a purchase from your site.
Another thing you can do is to incorporate guides on your website. If you own a clothing business, then you might want to do this. This will help your visitors know what they really want from your site and will encourage them to make a purchase.
By being more accommodating, you’ll have more people interested in buying from your site, and will help you increase your sales. If you can make your potential customers feel safe in buying things from your website, and you support them by providing guides, then you might eventually change their negative perspective of buying from websites.
3. Improve Your Outreach
Conversely, if you have potential customers that are not well-versed in the objects or services you are providing, there will also be people that are enthusiasts or experts of that field. You will have to improve your outreach and be able to accommodate the needs of the enthusiasts.
The best example I could give is through websites that feature automobiles. The main feature of sites like these is selling used cars. So, we can immediately assume that there are innumerable enthusiasts all around the world that can access your site. So, here’s what you should do:
- Contact automotive enthusiasts that have a decent following
- Ask them to review or “hype-up” the cars that you are selling through videos or articles
- Make sure that the video or article that they produce is shared through all your social media channels
If you can’t contact any automotive influencers, you can:
- Make a list of all the “classic” or “rare” cars that are for sale
- Make an article or sales page about the specific car
- Share the page on your social media channels
If you’re doing it correctly and with enough effort, you will not only be building brand awareness but also increase the outreach of your website. This is not strictly an SEO strategy, but it is closely related because you’ll still be doing some things that SEOs do such as building awareness, link building, influencer outreach, increasing search volume, etc.
When you build an emotional connection between you and the enthusiasts, your site will most likely be the one that immediately comes to their mind when they look for used cars, or any other object that they could associate with your services.
4. Build Up Your Image
This may be the simplest one in the list because you’ve already done it before, and you’ll only need to do it again, but with more effort. Building up your image is important because if there are wary potential customers or enthusiasts, there will also be people that may have never heard of your brand.
The most important thing to consider here is you need to appear in their feed. So, start targeting their demographic and properly research editorial sections or branded content that they are engaging, and start your image building from there.
Key Takeaway
Basically, the key to increasing traffic when you can’t rank higher is to go into the market itself. Beat your competitors, be more accommodating, improve your outreach, and build up your image. That’s it. But, don’t be deceived because you’ll be needing to put in a lot of effort to make this work.
Remember that attaining rankings in the first page is not the end point of any SEO strategy. It’s to convert as many people as possible to be paying customers.
Can you now gain more traffic even if you’ve reached your desired rankings? Comment down below if you have any questions, and I’ll try to help.