How to build traffic using search

The first step to building website traffic will be ensuring your team has a robust search marketing plan. Research has shown that consumers use search engines differently depending upon their needs and where they generally fall in the consumer decision-making model.  Begin your research by looking into your existing Google Analytics reports to understand your consumers’ behaviours.  Generally, 93% of all web traffic starts with a “search” – so it’s likely your reports are showing you a significant portion of your website traffic is being generated by Google (which ranks as the most used search engine in Canada).  But what else does Google Analytics show you regarding how users find your website?  Understanding what your consumers are looking for will be key to determining what actions to take.  In 2015 Google introduced the “micro-moments”.  It focused on understanding consumer search behaviour and recommended key strategies to ensure companies optimized the traffic search engines were creating.  The 3 strategies were  – Be There (when consumers are searching for your programs or services), Be Useful (provide relevant content to answer consumer’s questions / queries) and Be Quick. Here are the 7 steps your team should consider when mapping out their Search strategy to drive more website traffic:

1. Understand your audience and what they might be searching for. This will enable you to develop content that answers the searcher’s query and attracts traffic to your website.
2. Ensure your site is being indexed and appearing in search engines results. Use the Google Search Console to determine if your website is being indexed correctly.
3. Optimize your site by focusing on specific keywords as you design or edit your content.  It is also important to be hyper-relevant to a specific topic, earn relevant links from authoritative sites, create share-worthy content followers post to social media platforms and ensure your website is easily navigated on a mobile phone.
4. If you are a registered non-profit in Canada, apply for a Non-profit Google Grant to access $10,000 a month for in-kind text advertising.
5. Develop a keyword strategy to determine beyond organic search results how you can invest in paid advertising to further increase traffic (how NFPs will utilize a Google Grant).
6. Leverage your keywords to ensure you appear at or near the top of search results and create headlines and descriptions that will stand out in search results to earn clicks.
7. And finally, assess your search efforts and measure results in order to improve as your website and the marketplace it operates in changes and grows

Google provide a host of tools to help train teams on their programs and services. You can find their training tools by checking out https://skillshop.withgoogle.com to learn more about optimizing search to increase traffic to your website or contact us at brand.rewire@gmail.com to inquire about our marketing and training supports.