It’s been around two decades since the dot-com bubble burst and now, online business is at its peak again. It took years for the internet to gradually mature into the multifaceted mass medium it is today; The medium that changed the communication landscape and drastically transformed how business is done. Nowadays, online strategy is an integral part of any business and organizations simply can’t afford to ignore it. Companies are aware of the need to make a presence where the information flows. Organizations of all types—e-commerce companies, manufacturers, service providers, brick-and-mortar businesses, and even nonprofits and charities—are constantly looking for effective ways to increase exposure, generate leads, and eventually convert.

Depending on a lot of factors including available budget, marketing goals, and audience behavior, there are paid and organic solutions. The best strategies include a mixture of both but for limited budgets and consistent generation of traffic, in the long run, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) implementation is the way to go. It may be a bit scary for small businesses with a tight budget, but here are some measures you can take to boost traffic to your website.

Niche Down 

Competing against the big players is a formidable task and an upside battle. Big companies spend immense amounts of resources in their search engine marketing to claim the more popular keywords. You need to narrow down your efforts to more specific targets as you can’t target everyone. To do so, first, you need to know your target market very well. Analyze your current customer base and look for common characteristics. Create a list of everyone who can benefit from your products or services, check out your competitors’ most targeted customers, and consider excluding them from your list. The idea is to channel the resources and efforts to attract audiences who are usually overlooked by your big competitors.

Another way of niching down is to target long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords usually consist of more than three words and are more specific than generic keywords. The combination of the words makes them more targeted and less competitive. You can map your target customers’ journey, identify their pain points, and select keywords accordingly. Long-tail keywords also have higher conversion rates because the result content is better in line with the customer's needs. The traffic volume may be lower, but it's of much higher quality.

Mobile Optimization

Having a mobile-friendly website is crucial in this day and age. About half of the web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Bad mobile experiences are penalized as mobile-friendliness is a ranking signal in Google and Bing’s algorithms. Mobile optimization nowadays is not a hassle anymore. With the prominent CMSs available like WordPress and Drupal for marketers and business owners, you can ensure that you are not jeopardizing half of your potential organic traffic.

High-Quality Content All-Around 

Search engines are evolving rapidly. Your technical knowledge about how the algorithms work may not be relevant in a month. It takes dedicated experts to invest heavily into keeping up with the latest changes and nuances. As a small business, you may simply not have the resources to do that. However, search engines update their algorithms regularly for one purpose: to yield the most relevant and most valuable content to users. The smartest strategy, in the long run, is to create in-depth content that delivers.

There is much debate about the ideal length of the copy. Some studies have shown that top results tend to be longer posts. However, there are hundreds of factors that affect a piece of content’s SERP rank. It’s too simplistic to merely associate ranks to word counts. The aim is to create rich, high-quality content, not lengthy thin pieces that provide no value.

Leverage Social Referrals

Social referrals marketing may not affect your organic traffic directly, but it is a powerful tool to boost traffic to your website. Social media is considered one of the most powerful marketing tools in the digital age. The low-cost high-potential nature of social media makes it perfect for small businesses to have a go at the mass market. Engaging with the target audience in a direct mutual way—when done properly—can increase awareness, build loyalty, expand reach and boost inbound traffic. Each platform has unique features that you can use in your campaigns to draw highly engaged customers to your landing page, which in turn positively affects your website ranking by increasing traffic. 

The Ongoing Effort

Organic traffic growth is not a once and for all phenomenon. It’s a living thing that needs constant care and nurture. You need to monitor carefully to see what works and what doesn’t as every business and every industry is unique in many ways. If you start to see results, it doesn’t mean your work is done by any stretch of the imagination. It means however that you are starting to grow and your options and strategies are growing with it.