Uncommon yet effective SEO techniques that will double your traffic

Holding that coveted first position on Google is what we always dream of. But how do we make that dream a reality? As more businesses understand the true power of search engine optimisation, it is becoming increasingly popular and the normal stock standard SEO techniques are slowly becoming overused.

If you are looking for some quality techniques that will better set you apart from your competitors then you have come to the right place!
This blog post will investigate the most uncommon (yet still effective!) SEO techniques that will double your website search traffic. By following some or all of these steps, it is hoped that you can stand out from your competition and finally get the results you deserve.

SEO techniques that will double your website search traffic

Develop in depth articles that will engage users

Through the use of content curation you can create engaging articles that users love. Content curation is the process of finding information relevant to the topic you are interested in writing about. On your own it can be difficult to produce in depth articles. This is why you should always conduct your research beforehand.

Also, in most cases, it is one thing to have an opinion and another to support your opinion with statistics and facts. By finding information that will support your article, both users and search engines will deem your work more credible.

You should never post content that is exactly the same and someone else’s and credit it as your own.

It gives no additional value to your audience and search engines heavily frown upon this and you are likely to be penalised if caught.

There are a few various methods that you can create your own great content though content curation. By taking the information about a certain topic to the next level, you are more likely to engage users. However, this is easier said than done. You should always stick to the most reliable and credible sources in the industry as well as potentially conducting your own analysis of the area.

Make use of long tail keywords

Many individuals will vouch for short tail keywords mainly because it is easier and everyone else is doing it. However, if you want to double your traffic, then long tail keywords are where it’s at! Long tail keywords are defined as phases that are between 4 – 6 words.

There are three main reasons long tail keywords are the way to go:

1. There is less competition – not many people understand the true benefit of long tail keywords and they would rather stick to what they know.
2. Better understanding of your desired target audience – with long tail keywords you have the ability to become more specific and therefore your analysis of your keywords will give a deeper insight to your consumers.
3. Consumers are now searching for long tail keywords – consumers are now getting more specific with their search queries to ensure that the search results are more accurate.

As the graph taken from Raven Tools shows, 70% of search queries come from long tail keywords.

So, the more specific you are the great chance you have of being found!

These days consumers just aren’t searching for generic keywords that represent a brand any more. This means that businesses must change their approach to ensure consumers can still find them. Long tail keywords taken a lot more time and effort to create because it requires more research and development then short tail keywords. This means that your content needs to be diverse and not simply generic in order to support your efforts of producing long tail keywords.

Use infographics

Infographics are an easy and very effective way to increase engagement. What do you think of when you click on to a page and all you see is a mountain of words that seemingly go on forever? Nobody likes a whole essay without anything to break it up. In the past, people have used images to break up the words and create some visual stimulation, and don’t get me wrong this is still a good way to go. However, you should now spice things up a little further with infographics!

As the name alludes to, infographics are a visual representation of data information (like a chart or a graph). Infographics help to be more concise in your points and should be created with colours etc. to attract the audience’s eyes.

What do you usually look at when you first click on to a page? Your eyes are naturally drawn to colours and a colour infographic is usually what they will look at first.

Research from Neomam explains that 99% of all sensory information is typically filtered out by your brain. This means that only usually 1% of this information is given a fighting chance!

How to create infographics?

You are probably wondering how you can actually create these engaging infographics. Well, you don’t have to hire a website graphic designer or spend lots of time slaving away trying to figure out the best way! There is lots of website that help you create your very own free infographic.

I found that Canva was the easiest and most effective website to use. You can choose from one of their templates and then edit it in your own way.

Just because infographics are a good way to showcase your information, it doesn’t mean that you should go overboard.

You should always try to have a balance between words and infographics. By creating this balance you increase the chance of consumers actually being able to remember your work.

Here is what a sample template taken from the Canva website:

 

Introduce social aspects

You should always try to include social aspects into your content. For example, when writing a blog post, give your users the option to share it on different forms of social media. By giving your readers a quick and easy option to share, they are more likely to do it.

On our blog posts, readers are given the option to share on social media, as seen below:

 

The shareability of your content is really important because just one share has the potentially to reach a significant amount of different people and one of those users might read and decide to share.

This therefore will create a snowball effect and this is how things go viral. I’m not saying that your content will go viral if you include the option to share, but you have to be in it to win it right?!

Use heat maps

By using a heat map you will be able to better determine exactly where user’s eyes are travelling the most when they first click on to your page. It comes as no surprise that user attention spans are dropping fast. If users do not have what they want almost immediately, then they are likely to look elsewhere. This means that you have to know exactly where consumers are looking and place the most important information there in order to quickly capture their attention.

Important information that should always be included in the ‘hot’ part of the heat map include; call to action buttons, keywords, headings, brand name, logo, etc. Consumers all tend to act in a pattern, so it is important to ensure that vital information is placed where consumers can easily see it.

 

A good website that offers free heat maps is Zarget. Here, you can view, in real time, how visitors interact with your website through clicks. As well as finding out what your users like and what they don’t.

There are three main types of heat maps and they all offer different purposes:

1. Clicking heat maps – this concentrates on clicks and where your users are clicking the most on your website (this is likely to be at the call to action buttons or a ‘read more’ hyperlink).
2. Attention heat maps – this type of heat map accurately shows where people are paying the most attention and where they are just simply skimming over.
3. Scrolling heat maps – this assists in ensuring that you place the most important information in the best places.

By using all three heat maps in conjunction with each other, you will get a better overview on the best place to position the information on your website. As well as this, heat maps alsp provide data as to what consumers are looking for when they visit your website, so make sure this information is easily available to them!

Engaging and creative 404 pages

No one likes to be directed to a 404 page, especially when they really wanted the information on that website. Usually, when consumers are directed to a 404 page, they quickly become frustrated and leave, therefore contributing to your high bounce rate. However, a few businesses have cleverly decided to come up with creative and engaging 404 pages to stop consumers from simply leaving the site.

By creating something enjoyable or even funny, users could forget their anger and go back to the homepage and keep browsing on your website. The type of 404 page you create should be reflected on the type of consumer demographic that uses your website.

Below are some good examples of engaging (and funny) 404 pages:

 

Other examples:

Create a table of content

This seems like such a basic thing but creating a table of content will improve user experience. Users are more likely to enjoy your website if they are able to follow it clearly. By providing a table of content, your website will seem organised and professional. Users will also be able to find what they are looking for faster. It is recommended that each section in the table of content has a hyperlink attached to it so users can click on the section and be directed there. By creating a table of content you are showing the user how much content is included on the page as well as successfully breaking up the information in the smaller pieces.

Improve your brand management

There are a lot of different ways a business can improve their brand management. However, for the purpose of this blog, we are looking at brand management through press releases. Press releases are a unique and effective way to get more positive information about your brand out into the world. You should only use a press release when you actually have something big and important happening in your business.

Press releases make the consumers feel like they are more involved because you are including them in your process.

They can also stir up more conversation about your business because people could be asking questions and following your progress. Below are a few good reasons why you should write a press release:

1. It includes natural links that will improve your link building efforts. However, make sure that the topic is actually newsworthy.
2. It will be a vital source of new traffic. If your press release is interesting enough and it generates conversation, people will want to visit your website and read it for themselves.

Target one keyword per webpage

By only targeting one keyword per webpage you are decreasing the likelihood of keyword cannibalisation. You are already likely to be competing with a lot of other businesses in terms of keywords, so why make it harder for yourself. By choosing the same keywords for a few of your webpages, you are not only competing with others, but you are also competing with yourself.

Choosing one keyword per webpage eliminates yourself as competition and allows you to focus on pushing your page up in the rankings. Not only this, but different keywords ensures your content has variety. By mixing up your content, consumers will stay longer and are more likely to engage.

For keyword ideas use Google Keyword Planer. You might find lots of useful keywords for your website.

Update old content

Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with fresh and exciting new content, especially if you are operating in an industry that doesn’t see many changes over the years. This is where updating your old content comes in handy! The awesome advantage here is that you have already formed your opinion and you know just how many people are actually interested in the topic.

It is also a good idea to share it on social media, highlighting the changes that have been made. Sometimes, as the world develops, views and opinions change. By updating your content you can show your followers what the opinion on a topic was then and now.

Conclusion

Just because a technique isn’t very common, it doesn’t mean it’s not effective. If used correctly, the above SEO techniques can really help towards boosting your traffic. Some of these techniques don’t actually require that much effect and can really show significant improvement. So what are you waiting for? Give your SEO strategy an update today with these uncommon yet effective techniques!

 

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