How do I increase my website’s traffic?

Forget link building. Forget keyword stuffing. And forget any sly tricks you may have heard to increase your website’s traffic.

Why? Because content is king.

If you want a foolproof way to increase traffic to your website—sometimes called search engine optimization or SEO because you are optimizing your website to be searched by the main search engines—by using a method that won’t get you penalized by Google, then read on.

The method I propose, which will help you stand out from the crowd, was shown me by fellow ghostwriter, Joel Mark Harris of Ghostwriters and Co. He was kind enough to show me, so I want to show you. Of course, I suspect that this method has been around for a while, but it isn′t talked about much, since SEO companies would rather you hired them than did your own SEO, perhaps.

The only catches to this method are that 1) it takes time to work, and 2) it takes work to make it happen. But good things come to those who work, and wait, right?

Here then is a step-by-step process of how to increase your website’s organic traffic.

Step one: Pick keywords that match those on your site

First, look at the keywords that your business and website use and deal with. You probably already know what they are, but in case this isn’t clear, let me use a quick example. If you were a plumber, a good keyword or keyword phrase might be, find a plumber near me, or hire a local plumber, or what is plumbing. In my field of ghostwriting, some of my keywords are, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, find a ghostwriter, what is a ghostwriter, how much does a ghostwriter cost, and so on.

Google has tools that can help you find more keywords and keyword phrases in your field, but I won’t go into them here. You can use them if you want, but you can probably come up with a few words that correspond to key topics in your business or website’s area of interest.

Step two: Search using those keywords in Google, and look at the questions being asked under “People also ask:”

Put that keyword or keyword phrase from your business or organization that you found into the search area of Google, and then click search.

As Google returns search results, it will also generate a list of frequently-asked questions that people ask about this keyword and other topics and keywords related to it. These questions will appear under the title, “People Also Ask.”

No doubt you’ve probably seen this list of questions before and may even have clicked on some of them as you looked for an answer within Google.

Well, now it’s time for you to use this Google feature to generate a topic and questions that people have already asked to find a good blog topic to write about. Again, these topics are golden because they are generated from words and phrases that people actually searched.

When you use the topics generated under People also ask, no more are you guessing what people are searching for or topics they might be needing answer for or info on. This Google feature is giving you a great list of questions and topics all for free.

Step three: Write 2200-plus word articles answering these questions

Up to now, you haven’t had to do much work. But now comes the work.

Using one of the questions you’ve found, write a 2200-plus word blog post that answers that question—as well as other related questions, if pertinent.

When you do this, you create content that corresponds to actual questions being asked by actual people.

No more writing a blog post on some subject you might love but that only a few people (or no people) are searching for on Google. This method helps ensure that whatever topic you write about is something that people have actually searched for.

Of course, you may have to do a little thought and research to write a blog post between 2200 words and 2500 words (Allegedly the ideal length of a blog post, but who really knows; Google does tend to reward longer articles over shorter ones.).

I suspect that the problem with many blogs is that their posts are too short, or that they are about whatever the author wants to talk about rather than what people are actually searching for. By all means, write about what interests you, but try to make sure that topic is also being searched. Because if your topic is too obscure or too arcane, for instance, your blog post will fall on deaf ears.

Step four: Post these articles on your site two to three times a week

After you write this post, you need to post it on your website’s blog. I won’t tell you how to set up a blog on your site—most website programs have a blog feature built in—but you do need to have a blog.

Ideally, you should post between one and three times a week. You can post more often, but if you’re writing 2200-word posts, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to produce too many good quality posts at that length anyway. Now, putting out too many posts in one week may make Google think that you’re spamming, but I am not sure. Again, if most people can manage a couple posts per week they’re doing great.

Step five: Submit your blog pages to be indexed

Okay, you can post the world’s most glorious, relevant content, stuff that everyone in the world might need to know, but until Google indexes your site, it may as well not exist. Again, if Google hasn’t indexed it yet, it isn’t searchable. Yet.

Most people will tell you that you just have to wait until Google crawls your website and adds your new pages to its ginormous directory of all web pages. This can take weeks, or even months, especially if your site is small and/or new and hasn’t produced any or much in-demand content yet.

But this is the I-want-it-now-world, and if Google has taught us anything, it is that we should have whatever we want at our fingertips—now!

Luckily for you and me, Google currently has a feature on their Google Search Console that allows you to submit a page to be indexed—or re-indexed if need be.

How to get Google to index my pages

Once you’ve posted a new page that you want Google to index (so it can be searched), go to Google’s Search Console. If you don’t have it installed, please see your website admin.

Once in Search Console, do the following:

1. On the left side of the page, click URL inspection (it should be the third menu item from the top). The cursor will appear in the search field at the top if the page.
2. Paste or type in your new web page’s full address (i.e., https://www.mywebpagehere.net/example) and hit enter. A window pops up telling you whether the URL has already been indexed or not. Note: it’s likely that some of your older web pages will have already been indexed.
3. If the page you entered has not been indexed, click the Request Indexing on the upper right side of the screen. A popup appears showing you the progress of the index.
4. If Google is able to index the page (in most cases it is), you will see a notice telling you not to submit multiple requests. Click Ok to close the popup.
5. Repeat the above steps for each page you want to index.

Google limits the number of pages you can submit per day for indexing (somewhere between 10 or 15, but I can’t recall). You won’t be punished if you submit too many, but Google will give you a notice telling you that you need to wait 24 hours to submit more pages to be indexed. Merely submit your remaining page or pages the next day.

When you submit your pages to be indexed, they are indexed much faster than if you had done nothing and waited for Google to index your pages.

After Google has indexed your pages, you may still need to wait, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, for the newly indexed pages to be searched. However, because you have jump-started the indexing process, your pages should be searchable sooner than if you had merely passively waited for Google’s automated bot to crawl your website.

If you want Bing to also index your pages—and why not—then follow the procedure below.

How to get Bing to index my pages

If you have not already created a Bing profile for your website, do so by visiting Microsoft’s Bing page and following these quick steps (I have abbreviated the steps for space considerations):

1. Create or sign In to your Microsoft account by visiting the Bing Places for Business website (bingplaces.com) and signing in to your Microsoft account by clicking “Existing user.”
2. Claim or Create Your Business Listing.
3. Complete Your Business Listing Information.
4. Verify Your Business Listing.

Once you have either signed in  or created your listing, go to Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools and follow these steps:

1. On the left-hand side, click URL Submission. A new window appears.
2. On the top right, click the blue URL Submission button. A box or window should appear where you can enter multiple URLs to be listed. Note: Microsoft has a much higher limit than Google does for submitting multiple URLs for listing and can allow you to submit up to 100 URLs in one day.
3. After you are finished typing in or pasting all of your URLs that you want Bing to index, click Submit. Bing will then index your URL. You are done.
4. As with Google, Bing takes time to both crawl, index, and make sites available for searching, so I highly recommend manually submitting your site’s URLs to both Google and Bing to expedite the indexing process.
   
   Note: Bing also performs searches for Yahoo! So, once your URL is searchable via Bing it will also be searchable when people perform a Yahoo! Search.

Step six: Keep writing content/blog posts that answer questions, and keep indexing them and be patient

As you produce new web content, be it for your main pages or by new blog pages, continue to submit your pages to be indexed as soon as you have finished them.

Because this is not an overnight process, you need to be patient. These search engines will eventually index and make your pages searchable, but making sure your content is something that people want to see and making sure that these search engines index that content will help your site’s impressions and clicks go up.

Do you need help writing content for your website?

Now that you know how to increase your website’s traffic, you may be wondering how you’ll write all these articles. Maybe you don’t like to write, or maybe you can write but don’t have the time.

Never fear. Help is here if you want it. I offer a white-glove blog authoring service for $2000/month.

No, this is not cheap—nothing good ever is—but with my help your site will eventually start to gain more traffic, and that can be worth a lot more than what you’re paying me to help write your blog posts.

Concluding thoughts: where to go from here

So, that’s it. Write blog posts that answer popular questions asked on the Internet, and write them well. And put out plenty of quality content when you do so.

Again, there are lots of SEO gurus out there, like Neil Patel, who tell you, in addition to their scads of complicated directions, to create a blog and post good content, but their process is long and complicated and doesn’t tell you a surefire way to pick the right content to talk about, stuff that people are actually looking for. It’s a bit like telling someone that if they want to become a racecar driver they should buy a car with a stick shift. Not helpful.

What I like about this method is that it’s simple and repeatable and targets actual queries. Because when you use this method, you will always be writing about something that someone has already asked about—when it comes to the keyword or keywords you were searching. No need for hours of research or having to troll tons of other online content to try and figure out what to write about—Google has already done much of the work for you. Yay!

Now, if you still want to build backlinks and get others to link to your site, that’s fine. And if you want to  maximize your meta tags, titles, and descriptions, that’s great too..

But if you do only what I have talked about above, your website’s traffic will eventually grow and stay that way. Why? Because your website is doing what Google likes websites to do: providing useful, timely content.

Want help writing your blog posts, or just have a question? Contact me via the form below if you want to know more: