It’s 8AM and I’m enjoying a nice cup of coffee in my office.
BZZZ..
I got a text.
“Holy shit. It’s actually working!”
It’s a text from one of my friends. A while ago he asked me to get more free traffic to his website. I gave him some instructions on how to get more visitors from Google.
He wrote down every word I said.
“My traffic increased over 1300% during the last 3 weeks”
Later that week we celebrated his success with a cold beer. He paid for it, of course. When I got home that night I decided to write down every piece of advice I gave him and put it into an actionable guide.
A guide that could be used by everyone.
Use these simple 7 steps and I’m sure this guide will help you to get more traffic to your website fast.
Enjoy the read!
PS: Feel free to share this guide with friends or colleagues!
The secret to getting free more visitors from Google is all about content. Google loves to show their searchers the best content there is.
Let’s say you have an Italian restaurant and want to get more traffic to your website. All you have to do is think about what content you can create which is relevant to your restaurant.
I like to build a simple mind map about potential topics I can use later on.
Step 1: Create a mindmap on paper of with https://www.mindmup.com/
Step 2: Write down all relevant topics which are related to your business
Step 3: Split these topics into more detailed subtopics, these will be your potential ‘keywords’
Step 4: Collect all potential keywords and put them in a list
This is just a simple example I put up in 2 minutes. Create one of your own and take at least 30 minutes to make a mindmap. Make it as big as possible.
When your mindmap is done copy every potential keyword in an excel sheet. You’re ready for the next step.
By now you should have a list of at least 100 potential keywords. Now it’s time to decide which ones are good targets for your business.
To decide which keywords you should target we’ll be using a free tool called UberSuggest.
Step 1: Open Ubersuggest and select your country
Step 2: Enter your keyword and scroll down
Step 3: Copy the entire table to a new excel sheet.
As you can see, Ubersuggest shows you a few numbers on every keyword. I want you to focus on the volume and the SD.
Volume = Average monthly searches for this query
SD = Estimated competition for search results
Do this for all your keywords. By now you should have a list of 100 x 7 potential keyword ideas.
When you’re ready it’s time for the next step.
So you have a big list with potential keyword ideas. Now it’s time to decide which ones are worth your energy.
There are 3 variables you should focus on when creating your selection:
High Volume
If many people search for your keyword, you’ll get more traffic
Low SD
If little websites are targeting this keyword, you’ll rank for this keyword easier
Buying intention
If your keyword indicates that a person is willing to buy at your business, it’s a good keyword to target. The keyword ‘best italian restaurant in New york to have lunch’ would be a good keyword in our example, since it’s likely that the searcher is willing to spend money on this lunch.
Go over every keyword and use these variables to decide which keywords are good for you. Generally you want to start with +- 10 keywords for your first batch of content.
Now you’ve decided which keywords you want to target, it’s time to create the content. If you’re serious about increasing your organic traffic from Google, your content should be good.
Really good.
That’s why I recommend you to take these 6 steps and pay attention to each one of them.
Step 1: Open the pages which are currently ranking #1-5 for your keyword.
Step 2: Go to Buzzsumo and enter your keyword, open the 5 most shared articles
Step 3: Analyze them and see how you can improve on the existing content
Step 4: Create an outline of your content.
Step 5: Create a catchy headline
Step 5: Start writing the content
Step 6: Add at least 5 visuals to the content. The more relevant pictures/videos/graphs the better.
Step 7: Go over your content and include links to relevant sources. You’ll need these in chapter 5.
Quick tips to create high quality content
Use the Yoast Plugin to improve your on page SEO. Here’s a Yoast tutorial to get you started.
Include appealing images in your content. You can find free stock photos at Pexels and Unsplash.
Use lots of whitespace throughout your content. It makes it easier for your visitors to read. The SEO tips from Neil patel are a great example of a visually appealing blog.
By now you should have finalized your first piece of content.
If you followed all steps you should have linked out to a few relevant sources. If not, go ahead and do it. It’s crucial for the next step.
PS: If you want to learn about Saas SEO, this is a great guide!
Everybody likes to talk about themselves. Especially if it’s on a positive note.
In your article you mentioned a few websites. Now it’s time to give them the credits they deserve.
Find the email addresses of these websites and shoot them a quick email:
Hi awesome people of {WEBSITE},
Recently I wrote an article about {TOPIC}. And you probably feel it coming..
I wrote about you!
Here’s the link to the article: {URL}.
As you can see, I did my best to write a nice article. I would be super excited if you could share the article.
Here’s a link to share it on Twitter
Here’s a link to share it on LinkedIn
Here’s a link to share it on Facebook
It would be great if you could share it with your followers. If not, no worries!
Make it as easy as possible
To increase your odds, make it as easy as possible to share your article. Go to sharelinkgenerator.com so they can share it with 1 click.
Well done!
You found the right keywords, created your first piece of content, and you got a few people sharing it. You’re doing a great job!
Now it’s time to go for the final knockout. It’s time to let Google know you’re here.
The best way to do this is via backlinks. A backlink is essentially a vote from someone saying: ‘this website is good, I would vouch for it’. The more votes you get, the more Google trusts your website.
The best way to get backlinks fast is by stealing them from your competition.
To do this, you can use a tool called Ahrefs. It’s one of the best SEO tools I’ve ever seen. Check out this video from Ahrefs to learn more on collecting backlinks.
Congratulations, you made it to the end of this manual
You’re probably wondering how long it takes to rank #1 for your target keyword. Unfortunately there is no concrete answer to this. It depends on a few variables:
- Number of websites competing for your keyword
- Quality of your content
- Amount of backlinks to your content
- Age of your website
Getting search traffic is a long term game. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Usually it takes a few months for a keyword to rank.
However, if you’ve followed every step from this manual I’m 100% sure you’re able to grow your website to over 100,000 visitors per year.
Keep on producing content and you’ll get there. Good luck!