The Ultimate Guide

TO INCREASING

Organic Website Traffic

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 13 #7 Consolidate Cannibalizing Content

4 #1 Fix Your Links 14 #8 Create An Internal Linking System

6 #2 Create Quality Content (Regularly) 15 #9 Optimize Metadata and Content

8 #3 Rank In The Featured Snippet 17 #10 Build a Linkable Asset

10 #4 Answer The Right Questions 21 #11 Use Topic Clusters

11 #5 Transcribe Video Content 22 #12 Build Relationships and Promote

12 #6 Republish Old Content

i
Introduction
Increasing organic search traffic doesn’t have to be difficult,
but it does take time and effort.

Unlike paid traffic - where boosts in website visitors can be

seen within hours of posting an advertisement - organic search
traffic builds over time and requires consistently publishing
quality content.

It’s an entirely different strategy, requiring a different

mindset, and it’s one we have wholeheartedly embraced here
at Lean Labs.

We rarely run Google Ad campaigns on behalf of clients.

We rarely run social media ads on behalf of clients. And we
definitely don’t run traditional advertising campaigns on
behalf of clients (something that gets more expensive and less
effective every day).

All of our clients and brands are grown via organic search
tactics, and we favor this approach for one simple reason: It
provides real value by delivering results that compound over
time.

1
Introduction
Compared to paid traffic, which requires a continuous stream Case in point: One of our clients has gone from about 500
of revenue to generate fresh leads, organic traffic keeps organic website visits a month to more than 15,000 organic
compounding, month over month. website visits a month. This growth is attributed to nothing
more than organic traffic strategies employed on the website
Think about it: If you have a $5,000 ad budget this month, itself-no link-building, no paid traffic boosts, and no external
which buys you 5,000 clicks this month - how many clicks do content-this business is now generating 366% more leads a
you think you’ll get next month from that same budget? No month.
more than 5,000. A year from now, you may be down to 4,000
clicks as the cost per click increases. We’re going to reveal the exact tactics our team uses to
generate organic search results for our clients. Consistently
If you put that same budget toward content creation to execute the practices outlined below, month after month, and
increase organic traffic, your results will grow month over you will see a measurable lift in traffic quarter over quarter.
month, without having to increase your budget on a monthly
basis. And a year from now, you may still be only investing
$5,000 in content creation, but the content you created last
year will still generate traffic along with your new content.
This compounding effect can 10X a brand rather quickly,
without increasing ad spend to keep up with quotas.

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 12 Ways to Increase
Organic Search Traffic
to Your Website

1
#1 Fix Your Links

Evaluate Your Backlinks Many of our clients are surprised to learn that,
unfortunately, not all backlinks are good.
When a website links to any other website, it’s called a
backlink. You can begin your SEO optimization process by analyzing
backlink quality. Use a tool like Moz’s Open Site Explorer to
Every major search engine algorithm has placed significant generate a quick roundup of your backlinks.
value on backlinks when determining web rankings. The logic
being: If someone else thinks you are worth talking about, Here are some qualities of good backlinks:
others probably will too!
• They are from a relevant website within your industry.
Despite recent rumors that their importance will decrease • They are contextual (e.g. placed within the main page
in the future, Google’s own Matt Cutts has expressed that content).
while they are working on new ranking metrics, backlinks • They are coming from high-authority domains and
still remain a major ranking factor. While it is possible to trusted sources.
build organic search traffic without them, you will never be • The anchor text (highlighted clickable text) is relevant,
able to compete with the heavyweights in your industry sans and not spamming nonsense or irrelevant keywords.
backlinks.

4
#1 Fix Your Links

#1 Fix Your Links

Remove Bad Links

Once you have identified where your good backlinks are

coming from, you obviously want to do what you can to get
more of them. Additionally, you can improve your rankings
by eliminating bad ones.

Here is how to eliminate bad backlinks:

1. After analyzing your backlinks, organize a list of the ones

that don’t meet any of the previously mentioned criteria.
2. Email the corresponding webmasters and ask to have the
bad backlinks removed.
3. Expectedly, not every webmaster will follow through
with your request. But don’t fret; you can still submit a
“disavow report” using the Google Disavow Tool.

You may also want to consider using a paid tool like Monitor
Backlinks to organize your research and alert you once the
links have been deleted.

5
#2 Create Quality Content (Regularly)

Back in the infancy of the internet, all content was created Site pages and blog posts featuring keyword stuffing,
equal. The sophistication level of Google’s early algorithm nonsensical sentences, and poor value content, were quite
simply wasn’t savvy enough to identify bad content. Early common. Thankfully, for all of us, these practices no longer
SEO practitioners took advantage of this by creating “black go unpenalized. Practice black hat SEO today, and Google
hat” content, which was essentially, “crap content.” will eventually drop the hammer - possibly remove your site
from search altogether (yes, that actually happens)!
In essence, they used what is called a content spinner - no,
not a fidget spinner.

Content spinners are software that takes a single article,

and randomly changes words to their synonyms to create
hundreds of blog posts from a single article - each has
a smothering of different words, but the articles are all
essentially the same article.

Image credit: SEO Clerks

6
#2 Create Quality Content (Regularly)

#1 Fix Your Links

However, simply being “white hat” isn’t enough to get
ranked. You need quality content.

That means informative content of substance, which could

include:

• Helpful content. Really, the kind of content that helps.

• Relevant contextual links to authoritative sites.
• Relevant h1 and h2 tags that organize content.
• Relevant photographs (with alt-tags).

The best strategy for ranking #1 on Google today is to

deserve the ranking. Make better content than everyone
else, and rightfully deserve the top spot. Yes, it’s a longer play
than “gaming” the system, but it’s also a far longer-lasting
strategy than any gimmicks.

The good news is you don’t have to put much thought into
“following rules” when creating quality content. Simply, aim
to provide value to your audience and optimize your pages
when you are finished.

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#3 Rank In The Featured Snippet

The Featured Snippet is a fairly new Google search feature; What does this mean?
it’s a small box of “featured content” that now shows up at
the top of search page results. Google pulls this snippet from Hubspot provides this example:
the website it feels will best answer your search query. We
could, essentially, call this coveted spot “ranking zero.” Say you rank number one (the first post below the snippet) on
page one of Google for a keyword that’s searched for 10,000
This feature appears most frequently for question-related times. From the data I’ve collected, you could expect roughly
keywords, like the title of this article: How to increase organic 1,700 visits, compared to the 3,700 you might see if you landed
search traffic? the Featured Snippet spot -- and that’s just one keyword.

According to Hubspot, from a sample of just under 5,000

queries, the CTR to the HubSpot website for high volume
keywords within Featured Snippets increased by more than
114 percent.

8
#3 Rank In The Featured Snippet

#1 Fix Your Links

Here are some facts about ranking for the Featured Snippet:

• Backlinks matter much less when you are already on page

one.
• The search query should appear in a page header (h1, h2,
h3).
• The content that will appear in the snippet will be 54–58
words long.
• The content that will appear in the snippet will be taken
from the <p> tag directly below the header.
• Google prefers ‘answers’ that begin logically in the format
of how-to writing.

Use a tool like SEMrush to find the keywords you rank for
that garner Featured Snippets.

Once you identify a Featured Snippet opportunity, review

your existing content and revise it according to the
aforementioned guidelines. Expect to see results in just a
few weeks, especially if you are already ranking within the
top five search results.

9
#4 Answer The Right Questions

Another important factor of building organic search traffic Instead of putting all the responsibility to answer common
is answering the right questions within your page content. questions on the shoulders of your organization’s customer
These are usually the questions your target audience is service and sales departments, why not let a comprehensive
asking themselves as related to the product or service you article do all the heavy-lifting?
provide.
Write informative articles that answer the exact questions
This is actually the essence of how Google is supposed to your prospects ask. This should be at the heart of every
work. organic search traffic strategy.

Got a question? Type it into a search bar and get an answer.

It is for this reason we spend significant time working with

our clients to identify the primary drivers of their ideal
customers:

• What are their biggest questions, concerns, and fears?

• What exact language do they use to express themselves?
• What are the most common questions received by sales
and customer service?

10
#5 Transcribe Video Content

Google is now factoring video into ranking factors. A Moz does a great job of this with their ‘Whiteboard Friday’
reported 55% of people now watch video online every day. videos.
By 2017, video will account for an estimated 74% of all
online traffic. Instead of just pasting an ugly block of text below their
videos, they intersperse the text with helpful links, images,
From a technology perspective, Google still hasn’t figured and extra information not contained within the videos
out how to understand the content contained within videos. themselves.
But that doesn’t mean an opportunity to maximize rankings
through video doesn’t exist. Essentially, their transcriptions are not an obvious ploy
to enhance SEO, but a method of improving their users’
Create full-text transcripts that accompany the embedded experience.
videos you feature, this way Google’s spyder has something
to crawl and rank. One of the most popular video transcription services is
SpeechPad. Just upload your video file, and a team member
will quickly transcribe your content for as little as $1 per
minute.

11
#6 Republish Old Content

If your blog lists your individual posts in order of the date As blog posts get older, they go deeper into the architecture
they were published, as most blogs do, then the older the of your website. Beyond the publish date itself signaling
post, the lower down the website architecture it goes. outdated content, being forgotten deep down in your
website architecture inevitably causes Google to give them
Website architecture is the planning and design of the less and less priority as time goes on.
technical, functional and visual components of a website.
Not only does it dictate how users interact with pages, but it An easy way to get around this is to routinely update your
also dictates how search engines crawl and rank pages. old blog articles with fresh content.

In general, the higher up in the website architecture Replace old links with more relevant ones, incorporate new
hierarchy, the more SEO power a page has. For this reason, findings and republish it with the current date. You improve
the homepage of most websites is usually one of the highest the on-page SEO focused on valuable keywords and bumped
ranked. the blog article up in the architecture hierarchy as well,
giving it a little more SEO juice.

12
#7 Consolidate Cannibalizing Content

This is a weird one - cannibalizing content refers to According to a study conducted by online ad network
consolidating complimentary blog articles with the goal of Chitika, the top listing in Google’s organic search results
achieving a higher organic search ranking. receives 33% of the traffic, compared to 18% for the second
position.
Say, you’ve got two blog articles covering similar topics:
• Page 1 results took 92% of all traffic from the average
• How to Make a Breakfast Taco search.
• 9 Types of Breakfast Tacos • Traffic plunges 95% for Page 2.

Both articles are ranking for the keyword “breakfast tacos.” This shows that while getting on Page 1 is a significant
Article number one is ranking #11 in organic search, and achievement, you really want to go for those top spots, as
article number two is ranking #12 in organic search. The they account for more than 50% of traffic. Thus, if you’re
savvy marketer would combine both of these articles into able to consolidate both of your articles to take the number
one massive article in order to reach for #1 ranking. one spot, you will have easily multiplied your organic search
traffic.

13
#8 Create An Internal Linking System

When marketers learn how important backlinks are to SEO, In that way, you keep readers on your site longer, and
they often immediately wonder: Where am I going to find all increase your SEO power for your chosen keywords at the
of these people to link to my website? same time. This strategy is at the core of all the content
building we do on behalf of clients at Lean Labs.
While you definitely want to garner links from high-
authority sites on the internet, you don’t have to rely on From initial website architecture conception, to editorial
them exclusively. calendar planning, we are always making strategic choices
about what to link to from where within our clients’
The easiest way to create links for the pages you want to websites. Since it can get a little confusing, we recommend
rank for is to use an internal linking system. While this visually mapping out the primary keywords you are pursuing,
doesn’t funnel in external “SEO Juice,” it does send signals to and how they relate to your site’s various pages.
Google to help put your site into context.

Build your site architecture on a few carefully chosen

keywords. Once you have created these anchor pages,
continue to link to them as your content library grows. As
you create more and more blog content, you will also want to
link to the same key articles, using anchor text, over and over
again.

14
#9 Optimize Metadata and Content

On-page SEO is critical to ranking. You can have the best The meta description is the short, descriptive summary you
content in the world, but if it’s not optimized for search, no see underneath each search result. If you don’t specify what
one will ever find it. you want this description to say, Google will decide for you,
usually pulling from the first few lines of content.
Here is a look at what should be optimized on blog articles
and web pages: The meta description is almost as vital as the headline. Now,
Google doesn’t currently use the meta description in their
• Page Title algorithm, at least not from a keyword standpoint. Yet, it still
• Page URL impacts your rankings.
• Meta Descriptions
How?
• Images and ALT-tags
• Headers (h1, h2, h3 etc.).
Because the purpose of the meta data is to “sell” the click.
• Page copy It’s the preview of the content of the page, and it needs to
appeal to the searcher, compelling them to click. If your meta
The page title, for instance, should have the focus keyword description is weird, disconnected, or irrelevant, searchers
used at the beginning (far left) of the page title. But the title won’t click on your result, even if you are ranked in the top
also needs to appeal to readers and build curiosity. three spots.

15
#9 Optimize Metadata and Content

#1 Fix Your Links

Now, if you’re ranked #1, but more people are clicking on #2

and #3, you will eventually fall below them in the rankings
based on nothing more than click-through rate (CTR).
And, your page, regardless of how great the content is, will
continue to fall until it reaches an equilibrium of CTR.

That’s why all this meta information is critical to ranking, and

maintaining rankings. Use the keywords in your meta data,
and make them appealing to the reader.

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#10 Build a Linkable Asset

What is a linkable asset? It’s a piece of content that is SO

valuable people can’t help but share it, link to it, and tell
others about it. As previously mentioned, backlinks are one
of the most important factors when it comes to ranking for
competitive keywords.

In 2016, SimilarWeb collected data on backlinks for the

top 100,000 Web sites for five categories: All traffic,
organic search traffic, paid search traffic, referrals traffic,
and social media traffic. The study ultimately found “The
highest correlation between all traffic groups came through
referring domains,” meaning backlinks still play a significant
role in organic search traffic.

Again, the key to attracting “referring domains” is to create

something so valuable that they want to share it with their
readers. Obviously, this is easier said than done.

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How to Strategically Build Linkable Assets

#1 Fix Your Links

1. Determine Your Audience

Before creating anything, it’s important to know who exactly Thus, while creating a 24-page report might be a valuable
you are creating it for. You may assume it to be your buyer lead generation tool, it probably won’t do anything for your
persona, but that isn’t always the case. Additionally, chances SEO. Unless, of course, you make it available on your website
are your buyer persona doesn’t actually have the kind of as an anchor page that can be indexed by search engines.
domain authority you really need to build SEO power. However, in the interest of garnering backlinks from high
authority domains, you would be better off creating a great
The biggest boosts come from news sources, educational infographic.
sources, and blogs with high readerships. For example, say
you are in financial services, and your ideal client is a high Here is a great source on How to Build Quality Backlinks
net-worth individual who is planning for retirement. Your Using Infographics.
goal is to create a linkable asset that will get picked up by
online financial publications, not future retirees.

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How to Strategically Build Linkable Assets

#1 Fix Your Links

2. Conceptualize Your Idea

Once you have determined your audience, ask yourself:

• What kind of information would they want to share?

• What sort of data would they find interesting?
• What would support what they are already doing?

Once you have an idea of how your business’ innate

resources could be valuable to your audience, you’re ready
to brainstorm a little more. Check out BuzzSumo to find out
what sort of content is getting shared within your industry.
With just a simple search, the platform can pull up the most
frequently shared pieces of content on major social channels
like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Another search resource you can turn to is Digg. While

BuzzSumo is useful for determining what is hot on social
media, Digg is more useful for uncovering obscure/creative
topics that are trending online.

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How to Strategically Build Linkable Assets

#1 Fix Your Links

3. Determine Format

By reviewing the most popular content around your subject Here are some other content formats you could try:
matter, you can also better determine what format will most
likely get back linked. We previously mentioned infographics, • Videos • Checklists
but that isn’t your only option. Based on who you desire • Case studies • Interactive guides
backlinks from, another format may be just as (if not more) • Reports/Studies • Tools/Software
advantageous. • Slideshares • Quizzes/Surveys
• Tutorials • Memes
• Podcasts • Charts
• Illustrations • Lists

Once you have created your content, make sure it focuses on

your desired keyword and that it is easy for others to link to.

20
#11 Use Topic Clusters

Another key strategy we use on behalf of our clients is • Where to find the best tacos in San Antonio?
building topic clusters around keywords. In addition to • How to make the best breakfast tacos
creating an internal linking system, this is probably one of • Which city makes the best tacos?
the most important things we do to increase organic search
• The 10 best breakfast taco recipes on the planet
traffic. Obviously, no SEO strategy would be complete
without your basic keyword research.
The more content we create around “the best tacos,” the
more relevance Google will assign us in its rankings. As we
See our post on keyword research best practices here.
continue writing about tacos, we’ll continue linking between
However, using Google’s keyword tool to identify the
various posts for that keyword phrase. The number of
language prospects are using when searching is only part
clusters a business utilizes will obviously depend on how
of the equation. Strategizing at a higher level involves not
many keywords they are trying to rank for, but we usually
only writing for those keywords, but also grouping them into
recommend 3-4 major topic clusters.
topic clusters.

Within those topic clusters, you can also infuse other related
Topic clusters are groupings of similar content for
keyword phrases, including longtail keywords that are often
organizational purposes. Let’s return to our previous
much easier to rank for. Again, this is a long-term strategy;
example of tacos and assume our primary topic is, “The Best
it’s not something that happens overnight. But, when you
Tacos.” On our foodie website, we will want to create several
work the strategy consistently over time, you will see
articles that tie back to this topic cluster, including:
compounding results.

21
#12 Build Relationships and Promote

Remember the linkable assets we mentioned earlier? Chances are, no matter what your specialty, there is an
online publication who could use your expertise. Offer
Once you have spent significant time building a piece of yourself as a resource and see what happens. You just might
content, it’s important to promote it. Without doing so, your be surprised.
content might not gain the kind of traction it deserves.
Note: Don’t be lame and try to automate this process. You
One of the best things you can do before publishing a major can’t automate a relationship, no matter what new spam tool
piece of content is to get featured somewhere else. Whether hits the market. The Lean Labs team gets emails daily from
it’s being interviewed for a podcast, getting quoted on an someone wanting to “connect” that all come from the same
industry blog, or guest posting on a major news source, it will spam tool. The sad thing is, some of the emails come from
inevitably help drive fresh traffic to your site. Unfortunately, legitimate businesses - their marketers are just lazy.
finding these opportunities can sometimes be challenging for
someone without a ton of credibility behind their brand. It’s spam. Stop it!

But everyone has to start somewhere. The key here is not to

wait to start building relationships!

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Grow Your Organic Search Traffic Now

As you can see, getting organic search traffic isn’t that

mysterious. It simply requires repeating a series of actions
consistently over time. Unfortunately, this is why most
businesses haven’t succeeded with it. They haven’t grasped
that it does work when done correctly.

Not only has organic traffic proven to convert better than

traffic from other sources, but it also ends up significantly
reducing the cost of customer acquisition over time. And
who doesn’t love that?

However, it’s important to remember that building

organic traffic is only one part of creating a scalable, lead
generation system. Creating content for every stage of the
buyer’s journey, gating that content, and building ongoing
relationships with prospects is what ultimately generates
results.

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Want Lean Labs to go to work on
building your website traffic?
Let’s Talk