Getting traffic from Google is a bit of a mystery to most WordPress website owners that I meet.
Honestly, SEO seems like such a complex, messy, and confusing topic that most people just give up before they begin.
Does that sound familiar? Then this post is just for you!
You have to keep in mind that Google can send you boatloads of traffic, and sometimes it takes just a little bit of work to get it. Not only that but once it starts, it continues. Not like on social media.
So, with that in mind, here are 5 simple ideas to help you get more Google traffic to your WordPress website today.
5 Forgotten Ways To Boost Your Google Traffic On WordPress
1. Make Sure Your Website Is Mobile Ready
It might seem a little strange to you that mobile plays a role in SEO and search. But if you check your analytics you will find that anywhere from 30-60% of your traffic comes from mobile devices.
Now imagine you are a visitor to a website, you are using your phone, and that website is not optimized for mobile.
Don’t you hate it when that happens? When you have to pinch and zoom to find the menu or read the text on the page. Most of the time, you probably hit that back button and go find another website, right?
Well, Google notices that. And they hate it when websites are not mobile-ready too. In fact, they push them to lower down in search results, below the ones that are.
The lesson here: make sure your website is mobile-ready. Start by taking this simple test from Google.
Related post: Improve the user experience on your website with these 7 tips!
2. Optimise your images
For a lot of websites, images are just nice to have. But if you take a close look at Google (or any other search engines) you will notice that Image Search is right next to standard search.
And, a lot of people are using it too!
What does that mean for you?
Your images could be found in search too. For exactly the things your readers, clients or customers are searching for.
Instead of wasting those amazing images you have on your site, why not take advantage of them and get found on Google image search.
I highly recommend you optimise your images for SEO and get more traffic from Google. WordPress is even set up to help you do this with ease.
Just enter the alt text for the image when you upload it, and make sure the file name is descriptive as well.
And more often than not, you will get ranked for images in no time.
Related post: How To Optimize Images And Graphics For Pinterest
3. Improve The Speed Of Your Website
Kinda like the mobile-ready thing I mentioned above, your visitors don’t really enjoy a slow website either. In fact, according to Kissmetrics:
40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load
Again, Google is onto this, and watches how users behave (on search, on their mobiles, on Chrome). And if your website is slooooooooow, they WILL hold it against you.
The first step to solving this is knowing if you have a problem.
Head over to a tool like Pingdom and test your homepage and at least one blog post, and see how fast they load.
Slower than 3 seconds? Time to contact your developer!
Related post: How to keep your website up-to-date on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis (plus free checklists!)
Discover 5 forgotten ways to boost your Google traffic on #WordPress from @madlemmingzClick To Tweet4. Improve Your Search Engine Results
This one is a bit of an industry secret, so please keep it to yourself :>
When you look through most search results you will notice there are three main elements you see
– the page URL
– the page Title (or heading)
– the meta description (a description of what the page is about)
Did you know that you have (almost) complete control over these?
In fact, if you are using one of the better WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One, it is quite easy to tune these elements right below your post. Here is what the Yoast SEO plugin provides you:
Keep them keyword-focused, sure, but also keep in mind that these are your “advertisement” on Google. Make them interesting, compelling, exciting and helpful. And think about what you would click on as a searcher!
Related post: Learn what our number 1 referral is to our website & how you can increase your website traffic too!
5. Optimise Your Keywords On Your Existing Pages And Posts
The first step in getting your content found on the search is writing content that Google (and your audience) love.
In order to do that, you have to know what the main keywords are for your page or post, and you have to also put them in the right places.
This alone can push you up in the rankings on Google and bring you more traffic in a flash. I did this once for a client during the first month of work for them and increased their Google traffic by 20%. Sometimes the results can be even more impressive!
I am guessing you would love those kinds of results, especially when it means writing zero new content?
Here’s what you need to do:
1. know what your keywords are for the piece of content
2. add them in the right places on that page or post
That means in the:
- url
- title
- heading
- meta description
- first 100 words of the content
Related post: How to get started with SEO to improve your website’s traffic from search engines.
Final Words
Getting more traffic from Google does not always have to be hard, you just need to know what to do.
Choose a few of these 5 ideas and implement them in the next few weeks and I am sure you will see improvements in no time.
