If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the economic, social, and political landscape
can change extremely quickly. The fortunes of individual businesses fluctuate, too, with even the
most successful companies having years that are better than others. Despite this turbulence,
however, the importance of the Internet for business sales and service delivery has grown
consistently year on year.
Wherever there are people, there are sales to be made. The key to capitalising on the growth of the
online marketplace is, therefore, to ensure a steady and consistent increase in website traffic,
whatever the external circumstances or the current position of your business.
This article explains two evergreen web traffic growth strategies with a low entry cost and proven
results for small businesses: SEO and PPC.
SEO: Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation is probably the most famous digital marketing strategy, and involves
improving your website’s search rank on Google and other search engines for target keywords, or
search phrases. As people rarely look much further than the top few results on the first page, getting
yourself on the first page of Google is the gold standard for SEO, and preferably to sustain a position
in the top three results for multiple key phrases.
Active SEO is necessary because high rankings don’t happen on their own. Google’s search
algorithms are constantly assessing and reassessing the relative position of websites based on their
perceived relevance to search queries, and their domain authority.
Left unattended and un-updated, a webpage would steadily lose search position for target keywords
as its relevance decreased. With this drop in visibility comes decreased web traffic, so to keep your
traffic growing at a consistent rate you will need to invest in SEO long-term – and not stop when you
reach number one.
SEO is an effective growth strategy for businesses during a recession or time of uncertainty because
it is affordable, flexible, and inherently scalable. And although there are technical aspects to SEO
that can affect your rankings – including page loading time, meta tags, XML site maps, and inbound
backlinks – the best strategy for improving your search position is to invest in regular and relevant
content to address the search queries of your target personas.
How to keep your content and keywords relevant
Online content, in the form of good sales-focused web copy, regular blog articles, and expert guides,
will help you secure a good Google search position, attract traffic to your site, and boost
conversions. However, the needs, worries, and motivations of your buyer personas are not static. If
you use the same keywords and content angles year in year out, you may find a drop in traffic due to
your content losing real world relevance to your buyer personas. Consistent growth, therefore,
involves regular keyword research and re-evaluations of your persona groups and their priorities, in
order to continue to produce hard-hitting and relevant content.
High Google search positions will follow from this because strong website traffic creates a virtuous
cycle in which Google assumes that a well visited page has high keyword relevance and authority –
thus awarding a higher search position and attracting more web traffic, and so on.
PPC: Pay Per Click Advertising
SEO can be conducted on almost any budget. While most businesses find it most effective to
outsource content creation to a marketing specialist versed in SEO writing, it is possible to do this in
house if you have the time and expertise to spare.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, on the other hand, does require a sustained investment to yield good
results. If you’re looking for consistent web traffic growth whatever the weather, using PPC
alongside SEO will optimise the value of your advertising budget while giving you maximum
exposure for your target keywords.
PPC is essentially a form of sponsored search, in which a landing page is given prominence on the
Google search engine results pages (SERPs) for specified keywords in exchange for a payment per
click. The more competitive the keyword, the greater the cost. PPC content still has to be high
quality and relevant, as low-yielding content will attract a higher cost per click. Any business can
engage in PPC through Google Ads, but most find it beneficial to work with a PPC management
company or marketing agency to monitor their campaign results and ensure they are getting the
best results from their budget.
The advantage of PPC advertising is the chance it gives you to secure ‘quick win’ sales while your
cumulative investment in content marketing provides long-term benefits through SEO. It’s an
excellent way of boosting web traffic in response to an emerging need by addressing trending
concerns among your buyer personas, or for increasing brand awareness around a product launch or
event. You can also use PPC to reinforce your evergreen content, by targeting traffic towards specific
pages of your website, thereby sustaining your web traffic levels in the face of high competition.
Next steps
To find out more about web traffic optimisation strategies and which approaches are best suited to
the needs of your business and its personas, please call JDR today on 01332 343281.
Image Source: Unsplash
