How to Increase Organic Traffic: Proven Strategies for Publishers

Increasing organic traffic is a key priority for most publishers; you work hard creating your content, so of course you want more of your audience to enjoy it. More traffic means more opportunities to build engagement, drive conversions, and grow your brand – all without having to pay for ads.

But here’s the real bonus: building organic traffic can also significantly boost your ad revenue. The more organic traffic your site attracts, the more appealing it becomes to advertisers. Why? Organic visitors are often highly engaged and relevant, making your ad placements more valuable. This connection between organic traffic and ad monetization creates a win-win scenario: more impressions, more clicks, and more earnings for you.

If you’re looking for ways to increase organic traffic, you’re in the right place. In this post, we’ll walk you through ten proven strategies that can help you attract more visitors to your website organically, and increase your ad revenue in the process.

1. Create high-quality, relevant content

First things first: content is a core pillar of SEO. Without high-quality content, trying to increase organic traffic is going to be tough. But what makes content high-quality?

Great content is valuable to your audience and should align with their search intent. Focus on creating content that answers common questions or solves problems your target audience is facing. The more you help people, the more likely they are to share your content, return to your site, and increase your organic traffic.

To provide maximum value, thoroughly research topics: don't just scratch the surface. The more in-depth and comprehensive your content is, the more likely it is to rank well. Google rewards content that demonstrates expertise and offers detailed, well-researched insights.

Keyword research is still important, but keyword stuffing is a thing of the past. Instead, use valuable and relevant keywords in a natural, helpful way that provides context for your readers. This helps search engines understand what your content is about, while keeping it user-friendly.

2. Identify and address content gaps

Even if you're regularly posting content, there are always chances to increase organic traffic by filling in the gaps. Content gaps are topics you're not covering or areas where your competitors are outperforming you.

To find these gaps, start by doing a content audit. Look over your existing articles and see if there are topics you haven't fully explored or could expand on. Check out what your competitors are doing well and see if there’s a topic you haven’t covered yet. This is your chance to create fresh, helpful content that your audience is already searching for.

You can also use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to spot keywords you’re not ranking for but your competitors are. By targeting these keywords and creating content around them, you can fill in those gaps and bring more organic traffic to your site.

3. Optimize for Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important strategies you can apply to increase organic traffic. If your content isn't optimized for search engines, it’s going to be hard for people to find it, so optimization should be a continuous priority.

Ensure that every page on your website is properly optimized with on-page SEO techniques. This includes things like having relevant meta titles and descriptions, using header tags to organize your content and optimizing images with alt text. Don’t forget to include internal links to keep users navigating around your site.

You can leverage the power of long-tail keywords to maximize your visibility for relevant terms. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific search queries that often have lower competition and higher conversion rates. For example, instead of targeting "digital marketing," you could try "how to do digital marketing for small businesses."

Page speed is another key factor to consider. Users are less likely to stick around if your website takes forever to load. Plus, Google uses page speed as a ranking factor. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check how fast your pages load and optimize accordingly.

More than half of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of potential visitors. Google even uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search rankings. Review your site on mobile and optimize the experience for mobile users to maximize your site performance.

4. Leverage Link Building

Building high-quality backlinks is a key way to increase organic traffic. When authoritative websites link to your content, this tells Google that your site is trustworthy and relevant. Here’s how to build backlinks:

• Guest blogging: Reach out to other blogs in your niche and offer to write guest posts. This gives you the chance to showcase your expertise while earning a valuable backlink.
• Create shareable content: People are more likely to link to content that is highly useful or interesting. Infographics, data-driven reports and in-depth guides tend to get more shares and backlinks.
• Outreach: Find websites that have linked to similar content and reach out, asking if they’d consider linking to your piece as well. Make sure your content aligns with the search intent and offers additional value that would make their audience want to click through.

5. Use Social Media to Drive Traffic

While social media doesn’t directly impact SEO, it can help increase organic traffic in other ways. Sharing your content on social media platforms increases visibility, which can lead to more people visiting your site.

Share your content regularly on social media, posting your blog posts, articles, or new products on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. The more places your content appears, the more chances it has to be seen and shared.

Remember that social media is not just a broadcasting tool. Engage with your followers, reply to comments, and be active in relevant groups or forums to build relationships that can potentially lead to more shares and backlinks to your website. Building relationships on social media can lead to more shares and links to your website.

You can also leverage the power of influencer marketing to boost your organic performance. Influencers have large followings that trust their opinions. Partnering with influencers in your niche to share your content can drive a significant amount of organic traffic to your site.

6. Focus on User Experience (UX)

Google increasingly prioritizes user experience as a ranking factor. If users visit your website and quickly leave, that signals to Google that your content isn’t meeting their needs, which can be addressed by improving on-page SEO. To improve user experience:

• Improve navigation: Make sure your website is easy to navigate. A clear, intuitive layout helps users find what they’re looking for quickly and reduces bounce rates.
• Create a clean, attractive design: A website that looks cluttered or outdated can deter visitors. Keep your design simple and modern, with easy-to-read fonts, clear calls to action and a mobile-friendly layout.
• Reduce bounce rates: If people land on your site and leave right away, that’s a sign that your content or user experience isn’t meeting their expectations. Make sure your content is engaging, your page loads quickly and your site is easy to use.

7. Update And Repurpose Old Content

Not all of your content is going to be evergreen (relevant, valuable, and timely for an extended period of time), but a lot of it can be updated and reused. If you have older posts that still get organic traffic but are a bit outdated, take the time to refresh them.

Make sure the data and examples in your old content are still relevant. If a post mentions statistics, case studies, or trends, check if those are still current or if new information should be added.

You can also get creative by repurposing high-performing content into other formats. Take a popular blog post and turn it into video content, an infographic, or a podcast episode. This not only helps keep your content fresh but also expands its reach across different channels.

8. Optimize For Featured Snippets

You’ve probably seen those brief summaries of information at the top of search engine results pages — those are called Featured Snippets. If you're aiming to boost your organic traffic and visibility on Google, they’re something you definitely don’t want to overlook.

When your content appears in a featured snippet, it often takes the top spot in search results, above even traditional organic listings. This can significantly increase your click-through rates (CTR), attracting more visitors to your site. Featured snippets provide concise, well-structured answers to specific queries, so optimizing your content for them can help you secure a position at the top!

Here’s how to optimize your content for featured snippets:

• Target Question-Based Queries: Focus on common question phrases in your niche and provide short, clear answers early in your content.
• Structure with Lists or Tables: Use numbered steps or tables to organize information, as Google often pulls from these formats.
• Be Clear and Concise: Provide brief, direct answers (40-50 words) using key search terms.
• Use Header Tags: Organize content with H1, H2, etc., to help Google identify relevant sections for snippets.
• Optimize for Long-Tail Keywords: Target specific, detailed long-tail keywords to increase your chances of appearing in snippets.

9. Don't Forget "People Also Ask" And FAQ Sections

In addition to optimizing for featured snippets, focusing on the "People Also Ask" (PAA) box and FAQ sections can help increase organic traffic. The PAA box shows up with questions related to the original search question, and it gives you more chances to rank higher in search results.

Here’s how you can take advantage of this:

• Identify common questions: Research and find questions related to your content, then make sure your answers are clear and to the point.
• Include an FAQ section: Add an FAQ section to your page with questions people frequently ask in your area.
• Write concise answers: Keep your answers short, simple, and easy for search engines to find.

10. Monitor Performance And Analyze Data

Once you’ve put all these strategies into action, it’s time to see how they’re performing. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to track your traffic, rankings and user behavior.

Keep an eye on how your target keywords are ranking. If something isn’t working, it might be time to tweak your content or optimize it further.

You can also A/B test different variations of titles, CTAs and landing pages to see what resonates best with your audience.

Identify patterns in your organic traffic. Are there particular topics that are drawing more visitors? Use this information to double down on content that’s working.

Key Takeaways For Publishers

Increasing organic traffic isn’t something that happens overnight. It requires a combination of creating high-quality content, addressing content gaps, SEO optimization, building links, improving user experience and constantly monitoring performance and making improvements based on the available data. By focusing on these strategies and consistently providing value to your audience, you'll see steady growth in your organic traffic over time.

Remember, organic traffic growth is a long-term game. Stay patient, keep experimenting, and most importantly, keep putting your audience first.

By focusing on long-term strategies and consistently offering valuable, relevant content, you’ll not only attract more visitors but also boost engagement and ad revenue. Need help figuring out how to take your ad monetization strategy to the next level? Our AdOps experts are here to help — let’s talk!