How to Get More Traffic to my WordPress Website

Be Sure Google Loves You

We’ve had clients say that “Google hates my website!” Nothing could be farther from the truth – Google is all about giving the best quality content to those searching for it. Google wants to deliver great content, fast, giving the end user a wonderful user experience. Since Google cares about that – you need to care about that. So be sure Google loves your website by doing things like:

Be sure your website is allowing Google to crawl it (submit a sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools)

Be sure you have enough content to impress your readers & Google

Be sure your content is fresh and current with the seasons / trends

Be sure that your website loads fast (Run a Test Here)

Be sure it’s a secure website

Be sure it’s mobile-friendly (Run a Test Here)

All of these are just the beginning of making sure that Google loves your website and wants to present it in the search engine results.

Talk about your Website

This might sound somewhat silly – but you’d be surprised how many clients have never put their website on their business cards, listed it on their social media accounts, forgotten to put it on their letterhead, removed it from their signage, or never even thought to list it. If you don’t talk about your website, who’s going to? Are you sending out an email blast monthly pointing customers back to your sales and services on your website? And don’t forget about the free places you can be found – You should be listing your website all over the internet – any place that has a directory, especially a local listing, should have your business on it. You can see if your brand is listed correctly by using Moz Local. Check this out >>

Speaking of Social Media

I know we’re in San Antonio and many of our small business owners say – “I can’t stand Facebook, and I don’t want to be on it!” Well – the thing is, your customers may be on it or over on Instagram or tweeting on Twitter and if they’re talking about you or looking for you – you need to be there. Google wants to see that social networking presence on your website as well. If you don’t fully understand it though – you’ll get turned around and waste a lot of precious hours for little to no results. Hiring the work out can actually be quite affordable, but you’ll want to be sure that you have a means of tracking the ROI or KPI. We offer Social Media services as low as $100 / month here at WebTegrity (not to toot our own horn, but we’re pretty great at social media!).

No matter who you get to tweet, post, share, like and pinning be sure that you have goals set and that reporting is tracked. If a social platform is not getting the results you want, adjust your approach. If you still don’t see any return – move on. Your audience is elsewhere.

Off Page Factors

So many times we stay focused on the content on our website or things that we might be doing on the computer to improve our traffic that we forget about the audience in front of us. Is there a sign in your office or store space asking people to visit your website? Are you sending out mailers that mention a special deal that can only be found on your website? Do you have an education resource blog area on your website that employees can send customers to learn about your services or read FAQs?

Get creative with how you market your website because off page factors – people typing in your website directly, are a wonderful signal to Google that you’re doing your part to send traffic to your site. It will improve your organic ranking!

Shortcut

So after reading all of this you might say, “I’m already doing all of this but it’s not working!” Unfortunately there’s no shortcuts to gaining traffic. You could pay your way there with PPC or hiring some SEO company who claims they can get you all sorts of traffic, but at the end of the day those clicks would not necessarily convert to customers for you. Traffic is all about conversion. If your website gains 10,000 visitors a month and your cash register is not seeing the increase – that traffic is not really quality.

Grow your audience slow and steady. Try to have patience in this process. Be smart about where you spend your time and always track your results. The ol’ “Build it and they will come” still rings true – but you’ve got to do your part. Use these tips to turn up the dial on your website traffic.

Search Engine Optimization #SEO is the organic / free way to rank on Google. But if you have a budget to spend you can try Search Engine Marketing. That’s the paid route to be listed on Google. Kori Ashton helps you define both of these further and decide which is better for your SEO marketing plan in 2023.

Here’s a great article to learn more
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tabid/6307/bid/1514/paid-search-vs-organic-search.aspx

Video transcript:
– When you’re looking to improve your Google rank, you’ve got a few options. Hey y’all, I’m Kori Ashton. Welcome to another WordPress Wednesday. This entire month, we’re gonna be talking about search engine optimization and I’m starting today to help you better understand the difference between SEO and SEM. Which one should you use? Ultimately, what you’re looking for is more traffic to that website. And with Google owning the majority of where traffic is coming from these days, we know that we’ve got to be able to play their game and understand what they’re looking for. Currently, they have over 8 billion searches happening per day, and on a desktop view, only 1% of that traffic clicks on page two. So, how are you getting to that page one rank? Well, there’s really only two ways to be found on Google. It all boils down to these two ways. You’ll either pay to play, right? That’s that SEM or search engine marketing side of things, where you have a set budget and you’re paying per click or per impression or there’s the organic side and that’s that search engine optimization, the organic route. But that one takes a lot of time. So, when you’re thinking about search engine optimization, that’s really where it takes longer but it might last longer. Search engine marketing requires a budget and you’ll be paying per click. Now, that might get you faster exposure but it definitely takes some strategy so that you’re not just throwing that money out the window. So, how do you know which one is best for you and your company? Asking that question is like asking you should I eat with a spoon or a fork? It really just depends on the situation. But let me help you try to answer that question. Is your situation urgent? Do you have a realistic budget? You know, I have some clients who, their keywords cost anywhere between $80 to $215 per click. So, if you are in a saturated industry, do you actually have a realistic budget to even get in there and be competitive. And do you understand those best practices when it comes to search engine marketing strategy? Let me help you try to decide. Let’s use the SEO methods if you have little or no marketing budget. Maybe you wanna craft great content to build that authority and build your legitimacy in your industry. And use SEO methods if you’re looking for that long-term return on investment. Let’s use SEM if you need a quick response, especially if you’re trying to promote something that’s time sensitive, maybe through the holidays. Or you need to direct customers to a specific sales funnel or landing page. Now, in the best of of both worlds, wouldn’t it be awesome if you could use both. Use SEO to build that authority and use SEM for urgent situations and to gain more insight or have access to some more key word tools that might help you overall. Ultimately, choosing which route to go can lead you down a path of a lot of sweat equity or a lot of budget spent. Be sure to track all of your efforts though as best as you can to help you quickly pivot as needed. Be sure to click like and subscribe. I’m gonna be doing an entire series on search engine optimization for you this month. I’ll see you next week. Bye everyone.

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FROM KORI:
Hey Y’all – Thanks for watching. Each week I’m creating videos just like this one to help you improve your online marketing. Be sure to subscribe so that you get access to each video. If you have questions about a process, product, or service that I’ve mentioned in a video, please reach out directly to the authors of that item first. If there’s a question about something specific I’ve shared, comment in the thread and I’ll reply within a day or two.

To get my attention more quickly Tweet me @KoriAshton

KORI ASHTON IS A KEYNOTE SPEAKER, YOUTUBER & BUSINESS COACH.
From freelancer to entrepreneur to c-suite, Kori Ashton has spent over twenty years in the digital marketing space. She built up a WordPress agency that sold in 2017 and spends most of her time now growing her new company Press Happi and consulting with industry brands and agencies on improving customer retention with persona-driven development.

SEO Tips & Resources –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFXUhTBPPms&list=PLEHHgcyfqqx7OjmmT1lmQvcdJWk2Z2zTJ