Boosting Website Traffic: Our Journey to 10k+ Monthly Visitors
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Content Optimization
When it comes to enhancing your website's traffic, you don't always have to create new content. Often, there is existing material that can be optimized to drive more visitors.
Last year, a B2B Communication Platform approached us with a pressing issue: despite producing a significant amount of content, their website traffic had plateaued. As a dedicated Content Marketing Agency, we decided to leverage our expertise by performing a content audit instead of suggesting they generate additional content.
The results? We managed to attract over 10,000 new visitors each month within just ten weeks by optimizing their older articles that began to rank on Google.
What Is a Content Audit?
A content audit serves as a thorough examination of your website's content—blog posts, pages, and more—to assess performance. Regular audits are essential from an SEO perspective, ideally conducted quarterly or biannually.
The primary objectives of a content audit are to:
- Identify underperforming content and enhance it for better results.
- Remove content that negatively impacts SEO.
While there are numerous factors to consider during an audit, the specifics will vary based on individual business metrics. Before starting, it’s crucial to set clear goals—be it boosting traffic, generating leads, or improving conversion rates. Focus on relevant metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and session duration.
When our client approached us, their sole desire was to increase traffic with minimal effort, alleviating the burden on their team and maximizing the impact of existing content.
Chapter 2: Conducting the Content Audit
Performing a content audit can be complex, especially when analyzing numerous pages for keyword performance. Websites with a wealth of content often need regular audits to improve their rankings.
To kick off our project, we concentrated on identifying underperforming articles. Here’s our step-by-step approach:
Analyzing Top 10 Ranking Pages
We utilized Google Search Console and Ahrefs to identify the client's top ten ranking articles. By listing these URLs and evaluating competitor keywords, we aimed to pinpoint optimization opportunities such as improving meta titles, descriptions, and backlinks.
After extensive research on competitor content, we discovered duplicate articles and 404 errors on our client's site that were hindering their rankings. We implemented 301 redirects for the 404 pages, which significantly enhanced page visibility.
Targeting Low-Hanging Pages
Next, we focused on articles ranked between positions 10 and 40—what we termed 'Low Hanging Pages.' These pieces were already recognized by Google but required optimization to climb higher.
Using Ahrefs, we identified potential articles that could easily be elevated to the top 10 rankings with minimal adjustments and backlinking efforts. This strategy had previously helped us generate over 200,000 monthly visitors for another client.
Chapter 3: Post-Audit Optimization Strategies
Once we categorized the articles into 'Top Ranking Pages' and 'Low Hanging Pages,' we employed tools like SurferSEO and RankMath to enhance both sets.
Addressing 404 Errors and Merging Duplicate Content
Duplicate content was a significant barrier to our client's success. For example, they had two blog posts targeting similar keywords—one discussing 'What is Cultural Communication?' and another on 'How To Improve Cultural Communication.' We merged these articles to eliminate redundancy, ensuring a more cohesive reading experience.
After combining duplicate content, we tackled the 404 errors by redirecting them to relevant pages, which dramatically improved traffic for numerous articles.
Optimizing Low-Hanging Pages
With our top-ranking articles optimized, it was time to enhance the low-hanging content. We followed several steps using Ahrefs and SurferSEO:
- Identified secondary keywords.
- Analyzed content scores for each article.
- Made necessary adjustments to improve scores to a minimum of 70.
- Added internal links for better navigation.
- Updated meta titles and descriptions.
After updating the content, we submitted a new sitemap to Google Search Console. We identified over 20 low-hanging pages during this phase, and within two weeks, seven of these articles ranked in the top 5 search results, adding an additional 7,000 visitors to the client's website.
Chapter 4: Conclusion and Future Steps
Our content audit ultimately led to an impressive increase of over 10,000 monthly visitors for our client. Following this success, we initiated digital PR campaigns that further boosted their business.
Many websites struggle to gain traffic, despite their persistent efforts in content creation. Regular content audits are essential for identifying what works and what doesn’t. This article aims to highlight the importance of conducting thorough content audits—a subject that deserves more attention.
I hope you found this guide informative and are inspired to implement content audits for increasing traffic and growing your business.
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