How to drive more traffic with less effort using search.

Do you ever get so caught up in the content rat race?

Twitter and LinkedIn are fantastic platforms for building an audience and getting clients. This is because they’re two of few platforms where the algorithm is in your favor for starting from zero and getting traffic on your content.

This is where most people start and ideally should start. If you’re producing high quality content which is relevant to a specific niche, then you can generally grow a sizeable audience in under 12 months if you’re posting multiple times per day and engaging with other accounts.

The power of open DM’s also means it’s fairly easy to get your first client this way, You have direct access to creators and CEO’s around the world to pitch your services to. This is exactly why the internet era is so powerful.

However, there is a limitation to this method: it’s not passive.

Starting and scaling is no means easy but it’s fairly simple. The problem can come once you start to gain traction and alongside your content and outreach, you then have clients to serve.

One of the big bottle necks which all creators and businesses using content marketing will face: the content treadmill. Everyone quickly realises that creating contnet is by no means passive.

Yes you can schedule ahead of time and give yourself breathing room, but the reality is that fighting for attention on social media is ruthless. You have to constantly show up everyday with high quality content which stops users in their tracks, alongside an endless amount of other businesses trying to do the same.

There is a new trend emerging to overcome this bottleneck in 2023 and drive more traffic with less effort: optimising content for search.

You still need to produce high quality content, but the key difference on search: users are looking for answers to their problems, not entertainment. This means that you can position yourself as the solution so that customers come to you on autopilot.

This can totally change the game but allowing you to go to your ideal niche and put your content right in fron of them in a world where they’re actively looking for answers.

The benefit is that each piece of content which you create becomes an asset, acting as a piece of digital real estate which attracts traffic to your site 24/7. The opposite is true for social media where your content generally loses traction after a day and gets lost in the timeline.

Optimising your content for search also gives your an edge over your competition who are likely still relying on one traffic source and focusing on outbound. You can free up so much time and scale much quicker by optimising your existing content for search.

But where do you start?

This works best if you already have a proven offer and an active website, if not then there are a few steps which you need to focus on before this becomes relevant.

If you do have the above in place, then the following 4 step process will help you to improve your rankings and drive more traffic today.

Step 1: carry out an audit.

To know how much progress you make and understand where the problem areas are, you first need to understand what your current situation looks like. The most important metrics you want to foucs on are:

• Your copy writing: this is the biggest factor which affects your ranking on Google. Your content needs to be relevant, clearly responding to a defined search intent and written clearly to humans.

• Key word density: ensure you are ranking for sufficient keywords which are relevant to your content.

• Header tag optimisation: this is a form of technical SEO whereby your page structure tells Google exactly what your content is about so it knows where to include it in relevant searches.

Step 2: search strategy.

It’s important to get a plan in place instead of just randomly posting content and hoping for the best. The best place to start is to use tools like Google Trends to spot relevant trends related to your niche and gauge what sort of problems your target audience is having.

You can then run a keyword analysis to see which keywords are most competitive and who’s ranking for them. Take a look at the content from website who are ranking near the top for those keywords, get an understanding of which type of content does well and set out some ideas to create your own.

This is how you find the right market to play in before scaling up your traffic.

Step 3: header tag optimisation.

Having great content is step one. You then need to tell Google how great it is which allows them to display it in the best way possible to get traffic.

Imagine writing an epic novel but publishing it without a title or blurb, the bookstores wouldn’t know where to display it so it will never get seen.

The same applies to search. Without using SEO in the correct way, you won't get the traffic you deserve.

Title Tags:

H1: Tell Google what your content is about and what it should rank for.

H2: chapter headings. They’re used to broaden the relevance of your content and rank for more keywords.

H3 - H6 tags: used more frequently where needed.

These can be optimised in the code of your website for each article you publish, be sure to keep them short and concise to make sure they’re optimised for the best results.

Step 4: growth management.

Now that you’re posting great content and competing in the right place for attention, you can start to analyse the stats on a regular basis to see how your website is performing and make relevant adjustments as needed.

Software such as Surfer SEO can be a great investment for managing your SEO strategy.

Depending on the health of your current website, some changes can have an immediate improvement on your Google rankings while others will be more long-term. Either way, it’s a great investment to start making the shift towards search now and get things right from the start.

If you’re a creator or business owner looking to:

• Receive pasive leads.

• Diversify your traffic sources.

• Escape the content treadmill.

Then I can help you. If you’re curious to find out more and receive a free grow strategy audit specific to your current business, then shoot me a reply or drop me a DM on Twitter @tomscourfield1.

You can find out more about SEO and how I can help here:

https://lemonleverage.carrd.co/

Tom Scourfield.