I’m writing this on a cool fall morning. I was reflecting how these transition months feel strange to me, like my body is out of place, trying to adjust to the shift of temperature. Getting out of bed feels different and overall it’s just a different reality.

Maybe that “awkward” feeling is something that also happens when you are first trying to work on your website traffic. Sometimes things can feel off at the beginning and you keep wondering what you are doing wrong.

You aren’t doing anything wrong my friends! This is all part of the process of doing SEO and there are some simple steps you can take now so that over time your traffic will grow and it will be easier.

I want to clarify that this article is for a website that is already live (I’m considering doing a whole other episode on what to do be before launching your site). And by “new”, I mean a site that is 1 - 3 years old. 

If you want to listen to this information, here is episode 130 of the podcast:

I also recommend you check out Websites in 2020 (ep 129) and Starting a Blog in 2020 (ep 127). All these will help you and give you more context about what it means to grow your site traffic today.

Before diving in, I recommend two pre-steps: setting up your Google Analytics and Search Console. Both these tools are crucial to getting the awareness you need to making your site the best it can be in your industry. Like I’ve said many times, SEO is as much an art as a science and there are no hard and fast rules that are set in stone. Google is pretty cryptic when it talks about their algorithm and to date there are 200 ranking factors that Google looks at and at the end of the day it is important to focus on how valuable our content is to the humans.

Let’s dive in! 

Here are the three fundamentals when it comes to ranking a brand new site:

1) Site Structure 

2) Consistent Blog Routine

3) PR and Marketing Plan

I’ll go through each of these in details and give you specific points to focus in each one.

1) Site Structure

Site structure means when your visitor comes upon your site, it is easy to find the information they are looking for. The About, Services, and Contact page are one click away. If they want to search something specific they can easily find the search bar and it helps them find what they are looking for. The overall design is pleasing and they aren’t struggling to find buttons because colours are clashing in front of their eyes. 

Working with a Web Designer or choosing a platform that comes with pre-made designs is important since it is a way to ensure that your site design is agreeable. Check out this blog post for a list of platforms + web designers to choose from.

Structure is also about having a clean URL structure that Google can easily understand.

For example, having something like this is confusing:

• mysite.com/2019/10/03/blogs/the-blog-title

This is much better:

• mysite.com/blog/the-blog-title
  

And even better:

• mysite.com/the-blog-title

Depending on what platform you are on, you will be able to choose how the URL is structure but first think about how you want the site to be structure. The same way an architect layouts a house, you get to organize the structure of your site. If you are struggling with this, work with a Web Developer or SEO expert.

Here is a potential structure:

Having a clean structure is good SEO. Taking the time initially to setup a structure that will work toward how you are looking to grow your site will go a long way, especially in minimizing redirects and avoiding lots of 404 errors (or broken pages) in the future.

Same goes with your Categories and Tags: instead of making them up on the fly, take the time now to define how you want to use these and which ones will stay consistent throughout your business. 

Since your site is still relatively small, making these changes will have less impact on your SEO compared to when you need to change everything in the long run. 

Finally, check how each page links internally to other pages. We naturally link to other pages on our site but rarely see this as something to promote SEO. For example, the Home Page is a key page that gets lots of traffic. The About page too. Make sure these pages in particular include intentional links to your top performing blog posts and other key pages. 

Action Steps for Site Structure:

• Look at the overall structure of your site

• Check if you have any unnecessary redirects

• How are you using Categories/Tags

• Review how your pages are linking internally to each other

2) Setting a consistent blog routine

I’ve talked about blogging in the past and here I want to give specific advice for new sites.

When your site is new, Google is still figure out what your site is exactly about. That is why it’s important to write about similar themes that relate to your business so that they can understand what the content on your site is about. From a user point of view this is also useful; if you usually write about business advice and the suddenly give cat training tips, people will be confused.

Quality content always outweighs quantity but when you are starting out, ramping up the volume of blog posts can definitely speed up your results. 

I don’t like to give fixed number recommendations because for some people doing several blog posts a month is easy, while for others impossible. What is most important is to consider where are you going to be most consistent with your blogging and enjoy part of the process.

For a blog that is starting out in the small/medium business industry, launching a blog once a week is a minimum. We are talking about high quality, value packet information that your audience is obsessed with. 

They should be long form (at least 1000 - 2000 words) and make an impact on the people who are reading them. That means that they can directly take action from reading your content. 

Set a sustainable goal in the next 90 days that feels good to you and then measure the goals. 

Also, make sure the topics you choose are closely related to the product/service you are offering. So many times I see people writing about a high ranking keyword but it has nothing to do with what they are selling. 

High volume keyword may equal more traffic but not necessarily more sales. So keep that in mind. 

Action steps for blog routine:

• Set a sustainable blogging goal for the next 90 days

• Brainstorm topics that are connected with what you are selling

• Start writing!

Further reading

• How to do Keyword Research

3) Share! Have a PR and Marketing Plan

One of my favourite SEO mentors is Brian Dean and he talks about the “Publish and Pray appraoch”. And we’ve all done it (including myself): you hit publish and assume the world is going to find your stuff. Wrong! 

A crucial part of doing SEO, especially at the beginning, is very intentionally sharing your website. You should be sharing a site link to your audience, a client, or a friend at least daily.

There is a two fold part of this: 1) backlinking! Google pays attention to sites that have links coming from other sites. Pitching your site to be featured on other sites can help you increase your ranking. And 2) Human network building. It is just good business to network and find other likeminded people who appreciate your work and support what you do.

I especially recommend forming collaborations with other businesses that market to the same audience but aren’t direct competition. In my case, this is Web Developers, Web Designers, VAs, and Pinterest Marketers. If you aren’t sure who your people are, consider who else your ideal client hires and follows online.

Here are some places you can share your website:

• Social Media:

  • Facebook Groups

  • Instagram

  • Linkedin

  • YouTube

  • Twitter

• Podcasts (getting featured is awesome)

• Guest Posting (especially at the beginning, this can be helpful)

• Online Summits 

• News Sites

• Pinterest

• Email Newsletter

• Email Sequences (share your best blog post in the welcome sequence)

• Forums (ex: Quora)

• Old Clients

• New Clients

  
  
  

Remember: you don’t have to do it all! Pick 2 - 3 places and get started. Make sure to share your top content consistently and in the most automated way possible (schedule it out so that you don’t have to remember to do it).

Action Steps for your PR/Marketing Plan

4) Bonus Step! Track Progress

This is a little bonus step for those of you who want to take it to the next level and that is track your website progress.

You can’t go somewhere if you don’t know where you stand now. Same thing goes for your blog traffic. Start getting familiar with your Google Analytics and Search Console since both these tools give you crucial information to gaining traction. The Search Console can be especially helpful in identifying new keywords as you start to rank.

Set time aside each month to look at your data, make notes, and integrate into your marketing/content plan.

That’s all my friends! Let me know in the comments what you find the most frustrating about growing your site traffic right now. I’d love to know where you are struggling so I can help you.