SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic

Bryan Stenslokken December 18, 2018

Driving qualified traffic to your site via organic search can be very challenging, especially in highly competitive markets. We all know SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is critical to increase organic traffic to a site, but if you’re failing to make specific optimizations then you’re missing out.

SEO Tips to Help Increase Organic Traffic

SEO is continuously changing. What worked five years ago probably won’t work with today’s search engine algorithms, but don’t panic. I got your back!

Here are some useful SEO tips that will help increase organic traffic to your site and generate more qualified leads.

  • Increase your page speed scores
  • Optimize your internal linking structure
  • Include keywords in your URLs
  • Include keywords in your heading tags
  • Include keywords in your title tags
  • Write compelling meta descriptions
  • Ensure your image alt tags are optimized

Now, let’s take a deeper dive and breakdown each of these SEO tips to get a better understanding of how they can help increase organic traffic to your site.

Page Speed

Google has been putting a heavy emphasis on page speed over the past few years. In fact, Google announced earlier this year that they’re using page speed as a ranking signal for mobile searches. Thus, it’s important to make sure pages on your site are loading fast. Take advantage of Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool to determine optimizations you can make to increase you page load time.

Internal Linking Structure

An optimized internal linking structure can have a significant impact on organic rankings. Internal links, or links that points to other pages on the same website, help spread link equity throughout important pages on your site. For example, say page A has 4 high quality external links (inbound links to you site from external sites). Those 4 external links are helping the SEO value of page A. Now, if you add internal links to page A that link to page B and page C then those internal links will take some of the link equity from page A and pass it to page B and page C. Below is a diagram to help illustrate how this works.

Internal Links Help SEO and Organic Traffic

URL Structure

URLs are a ranking factor that search engines use to help determine what a page is about. If possible, try to include keywords in your URLs. For example, say your page is about “SEO tips to help increase organic traffic“.

Here’s what an un-optimized URL would look like:

https://www.yourdomain.com/seo-tips-84756

Here’s what an optimized URL would look like:

https://www.yourdomain.com/seo-tips-to-help-increase-organic-traffic

Notice how the un-optimized URL simply says “SEO tips” with random numbers at the end. This is very general and doesn’t provide much information to search engines or users. The optimized URL clearly states what the page is about and thus will have a better chance at ranking well in organic search.

Heading Tags

Heading tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) are used to help break up content and make it easier for readers to digest. The H1 tag is usually the largest and most important heading tag when it comes to SEO. In this post, the H1 tag is “SEO Tips to Help Increase Organic Traffic“. It’s important to include keywords within your heading tags as search engines use them to help determine what a page is about.

Title Tags

A title tag is an HTML element that defines the title of a web page. Title tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements that tell users and search engines what a page is about. Title tags are the large blue text you see in the SERPS (search engine results pages). It’s important to include keywords in your title tags. Your most important keyword (the main keyword you’re trying to rank for) should be placed at the beginning of your title tag. Here’s the ideal format for title tags:

Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are HTML attributes that give succinct summaries of a page. Meta descriptions won’t necessarily help you rank higher but they can entice users to click on your search result listing and help increase CTR (click-through rate). Thus, it’s important to create compelling meta descriptions that will tempt users to click on your search listing.

Image Alt Tags

Image alt tags, also known as alt text, are used in HTML code to help visually-impaired users and search engines determine what images are about. Your image alt tags should describe your images and should include keywords you’re trying to rank for. However, be careful about keyword stuffing. Only include keywords in your alt tags if it makes sense to users.

Conclusion

Page speed, internal linking structure, URL structure, heading tags, title tags, meta descriptions and image alt tags are just a few things you can optimize to help improve SEO results and increase organic traffic to your site. I hope you found these SEO tips useful. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re happy to help!

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Bryan Stenslokken is an established SEO and Analytics expert. He graduated from one of the top-ranked private colleges in the United States, Maryville University, with a Bachelor of Science in Internet Marketing. Bryan has extensive experience working in healthcare, tourism, financial services, software and manufacturing industries.