Friends, are you excited for Spring? We are too, and we’re especially eager because it means we’re launching something new soon.
While we aren’t ready to share all of the details yet, I can say this new thing is for people who both love to learn and love to gamify their business growth. But it isn’t for people who are too busy to, say, eat breakfast, because they’re doing things like managing a massive team and looking into stock options. (But even if you are in that second category, you really should eat some breakfast, k?).
But enough of that for now. Let’s talk about TRAFFIC.
Traffic Matters.
It’s common sense right? The more people who see your portfolio and read your blog the more potential clients and fan-girls you will have. Every single piece of content that you produce should be geared toward increasing traffic to your website. There is a lot of effort to increase followers and likes and subscribers, but in a very poignant article Lauren from Elle & Co argues that site traffic is the most important stat to track. I am in complete agreement.
Here are 3 easy, super effective, tips for MASSIVELY increasing your site traffic–and you can do it all the next time you post to your blog.
Headlines don’t matter. Said no one ever.
Learn how to write informative, actionable, awesome headlines.
Alyssa Martin said in a recent post about clickable headlines that On average, 8 out of 10 people will read your headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest… which makes headlines the most important thing you’ll write.
I am not a writer but do understand the importance of writing clear, actionable headlines. Here is my PRO TIP on how to write effective ones.
The free blog post headline analyzer will score your overall headline quality and rate its ability to result in social shares, increased traffic, and SEO value.
It can also make time disappear like Facebook, so there, you have been warned. It is also worth noting that the highest score that I have ever received with the Headline Analyzer is 75. If you ever get higher, please contact me immediately and tell me what and how you did it. It is now a personal mission of mine that I am determined to WIN.
I have only recently discovered this tool and plan on updating the headlines in the library of my archives so that they are all clear and more SEO Friendly.
Do effective keyword research.
SEO keywords and phrases in your post content make it possible for people to find your amazing website by web searches.
The goal when writing new content for your site is to use words and phrases that people are searching for.
Here is my PRO TIP for keyword research is Google Keyword Planner. I created a quick video on how I use it to research words be sure to watch it. Note, you will need to set up an account with Adwords to use the Planner…do that first!
You will see in the video that the Keyword Planner provided many synonyms and word combinations about the given blog topic, it is important to include those somehow in your blog post and in the Yoast SEO Plugin, both of which will help with the SEO of your post and website.
Use alt tags for the images you use on your website.
I am bringing you back to the basics here, one that I think is often overlooked but can make a big difference in the overall SEO Score of your site. ALT TAGS.
The purpose of ALT TAGs is to describe what’s on the image and the function of the image on the page. The alt tags are used by screen readers and browsers used by visually impaired people to tell them what the image is all about.
Each image should have an alt tag, it isn’t required but is helpful. The alt tags are also used and by the bots “reading” your site. In an article by Google about images, has a heading, “Create great alt text.” Since Google thinks having great alt text is important we should too!
I love the YOAST SEO plugin, here is a super rad article on how they rate alt tags so that you can get a green light and not an orange light.
There you have it, 3 effective and easy things that you can start doing today to increase the organic traffic to your site. Google Analytics Can Be So Overwhelming. So many numbers and charts and graphs. I get it. But the data is important. And if you want for your business to grow you must track the right numbers.
Interested in seeing what factors are at play in the data you see in your Analytics dashboard? Grab a free SEO audit right now–seriously, click this right now–and you’ll instantly have an action plan of where you need to improve!