According to a recent BrightEdge study, over 68% of all website traffic is organic. This is a trend that has not changed for two decades. Despite this, many businesses use only advertising to drive traffic and sales. It is a wasted opportunity.
If you are looking for ways to maximize opportunities in addition to your paid marketing, this blog will help you get started. Here are three ways that you can get organic traffic.
1. Be A Guest On Other People's Platforms
There are influential content platforms - blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels - in your industry. To excel at organic marketing, you need to build a relationship with the people who run these platforms. If they like your ideas, they will let you share your insights with their audience, some of whom will want to buy your product.
Many platforms have clear rules for guest applications. To appear as a featured guest on a blog, go to the "Write for Us" page, the "Submissions" page or another page with a similar title. These pages are found in the header menu or the footer menu of most blogs. The "Write for Us" page sets the guidelines for submitting guest applications to the blog - ensure you follow the rules to a T if you want your application to be considered.
Some podcasts may publish similar guidelines on their website, but this is not as common. That's because many podcasts don't have websites. In this case, you should connect with the podcast host on social media and tell them you would like to be featured.
But how do you know which platforms accept guests? Try searching on Google with "(Your industry) blogs that accept guest posts," "Write for Us. (Your industry) blogs" or other keyword variations. While this is a good starting point, don't get stuck here. Go on to ask your network for help. This will provide answers that most search engines can't. You can repeat this same process with podcasts, but you will need to go a step further (since not all podcasts have a website).
Extend the search to YouTube, other podcast distribution platforms, social media, and online forums. Be creative in your choice of keywords - instead of searching for podcasts that accept guests, search for podcast episodes with the words "Guests" or "With" in their title and description.
Here are some tips to speed up your application:
Look for media platforms that cater to your target customers. Don't start with the obvious - mainstream media are harder to get, more expensive,,; and, in many cases, less influential than niche platforms.
Ensure that the platform accepts guests. Not all do. Look for content that was created with guest contributors.
Show the editor how you will help their audience. Propose topics that are in line with what the platform likes publishing. Resist the urge to be promotional if you are accepted.
Follow the application guidelines but go the extra mile. Network with hosts, bloggers, and journalists. Be persistent. When an opportunity comes up, they will call you first.
2. Share Better Content
A study by Zippia found that more than six million blog posts are published every day. That's a lot of content in the blogosphere alone. This matters, whether you want to use blogs or not (other alternatives are newsletters and social media), because it means that there is stiff competition for the attention of your target customers.
The solution is beating the competition. Every blog, social media post or email must be better - have more information, be more updated - than what others are offering. Share insights from personal experience to help resonate with your target audience. Use humor if you can. Content that makes people laugh has a longer lifespan and gets shared often.
More shares mean more content views, more website visits, and more sales. This is why viral content is so powerful. But how do you create this kind of content?
First, learn everything you need to know about your target customer - their fears, worries, and struggles. Without this, you cannot think like the customer - a must for creating content that resonates.
Get to know their favorite blogs, podcasts and media from the industry. Study them meticulously to find the content forms, styles, and topics that perform best. Be on the lookout for feedback in the comment section. Praise and complaints can reveal a lot of untapped opportunities.
Thirdly, make a long-term content plan. Without one, you'll run out of steam and content ideas in a few months. You'll struggle to track your results, and might even waste money. That's because it costs money to create content - there will be software costs, video production costs, employee costs, etc. A plan helps you prepare ahead and remain consistent.
Let people know that your content exists. Share it on social media, add a link to your guest posts, or refer to it on another's podcast. You can also create content with publicity in mind - for example, an interview with a micro-influencer will attract attention.
3. Optimize for Search
53.3% of all website traffic comes from Search Engine Optimization (SEO), an effective but complicated tactic for non-experts. There are HTML codes to deal with, Google penalties to avoid, and tons of contradictory advice.
But even with limited knowledge of SEO, you can still get results. Here's an example. When you become a featured guest on other platforms, you are doing SEO. If the podcast or blog links back to your website, search engines will take note of that link. Such links are called backlinks, and they are a main factor for getting high search rankings.
Creating shareable content is also a part of SEO. It can attract referrals, backlinks and higher rankings if other SEO requirements, such as on-page optimization, are met. On-page SEO starts with finding the best keywords to "target" with your content. Choosing a keyword means that you want your content to show up anytime the words are typed in a search engine. Tools like Google Keyword Planner (accessible to users of Google AdWords) and Seobility will help you find hundreds of keywords.
You may want to avoid keywords with a high keyword difficulty (KD) score. A high KD score means that a keyword is difficult to rank for. Select keywords that are easier to rank for to see results faster. You can find the KD scores of keywords on tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush.
But finding great keywords and creating content doesn't mean that the website will show up on search engines. Before that can happen, they must be able to find your site, save it in their database, and show it to searchers. The process of doing this is called technical SEO. If you don't have any experience working with websites, you should get professional support to manage this process.
Hiring someone to drive organic traffic is a smart move. Because organic traffic is not free traffic. You need to invest time and money to reap the rewards. Getting SEO results, finding a guest placement, or building buzz with social content takes time. And it takes money to produce great content, buy SEO software, and travel for live podcast appearances. Bringing in professionals means that you can focus on other aspects of the business while others do this. It also means that you will drive organic traffic faster with less spend in the long run.
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