5 Tips to Increase Google Search Traffic and Improve SERP

SEO graphic to show improving SERP.

Google’s search engine has undergone many changes over time. However, one of the few things that haven’t changed is the direct relation between organic traffic and search engine rankings. Websites with prolific keywords in the Google index will appear among the top search engine results and benefit from unlimited traffic. On the other hand, good websites without visibility in their SERP (Search Engine Results Page) attract very little organic search traffic. Consider the following tips to improve your SERP and site traffic.

1. Use the right keywords

Your choice of keywords is important for SEO. Identify the best keywords for your niche and create quality content around them. This will help fuel your site’s search engine rankings and attract an audience. Unfortunately, most people make the mistake of targeting high-volume keywords, which don’t perform well. Keyword selection should be done carefully, with your website niche at the center.

2. Don’t ignore technical SEO

Most people channel their efforts on on-page SEO, ignoring technical SEO’s importance. While on-page SEO can undoubtedly boost your Google rankings, technical SEO also influences your site traffic. Technical SEO essentially involves ensuring your site is designed in a way that can easily be crawled and indexed by search engines.

Even though content remains king, your SEO efforts and other site marketing strategies won’t be fruitful if search engines can’t crawl and index site pages.

That said, below are a few elements of technical SEO:

  • Security – Google prefers websites that are HTTPS secure. If your website doesn’t have HTTPS, you should prioritize getting an SSL certificate.
  • Speed – a slow-loading website increases your bounce rate. Google algorithm also considers a website’s load speed when ranking.
  • Site user experience – you should make it easy for site visitors to find what they are searching for. Your web pages should be navigable, professional, and well-balanced.
  • Mobile optimized – with the percentage of site traffic increasing daily, your website should be optimized for mobile devices.

3. Use original images and optimize them

The importance of multimedia to Google search rankings and traffic cannot be ignored. Embedded videos, infographics, and pictures can also improve your SEO strategy and make site content engaging and interesting. However, Google prefers and ranks pages with original images higher.

While this doesn’t mean you can’t use copied images, you should incorporate original visuals where possible. That aside, you should optimize website images to leverage image search. Use alt text, add suitable titles, and upload high-resolution pictures to optimize the images.

4. Build quality backlinks

Building backlinks from high-authority sites is important for both site SEO and traffic. Backlinks not only boost your authority in your niche but also improve search engine rankings on relevant keywords. However, you should consider the following:

  • Don’t link to non-indexed websites
  • Don’t use links built from spamming
  • Ensure your backlinks are from relevant websites
  • Avoid sponsored backlinks

Always avoid toxic backlinks, as they will harm your site’s SEO ranking and bring down the trust level of your site.

5. Boost underperforming pages

Working on your underperforming pages is another effective trick that increases site traffic and SERP. If your site is several years old, chances are some pages aren’t performing as expected. Some pages that initially ranked higher may also start declining.

Identifying and working on these pages is a quick way of improving your keyword rankings. Instead of drafting, writing, editing, and publishing new content, which takes up to five hours, updating and improving already published but underperforming content takes just a few minutes.

The Bottom Line

Improving your SERP is an excellent way to boost site visitors. Increasing your site’s visibility directly increases traffic. There are many other ways of boosting your site’s search engine results and organic traffic. If working on this yourself is challenging, you should engage with an experienced agency.