How to increase website visits in 2021
The UK has been in and out of lockdowns over the past year. We now have a better understanding of what people are looking for and how people’s habits have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Using popular tools like Google Search Trends, you can get a feel for what your audience is looking for and how you can use this information to improve your SEO and visits to your website.
According to Marketing Week, only 7% of businesses invested in marketing during the first lockdown in the UK. However, the industry has seen an increased spend on marketing activities such as SEO. If you want your business to succeed as the world returns to normal, you should focus on improving your SEO in-house or by using an agency for SEO.
Tips on how to get more traffic to your website in 2021
On-page optimisation
Start by focusing on on-page SEO and website design to increase traffic and to improve user experience.
Use tools such as Google Search Console to check for any technical errors that need fixing. Make any on-site errors a top priority. Your website must be technically sound before you improve the content, keywords, and usability of your website.
Check all current pages to ensure they are ranking in the search engines and run a full SEO audit to examine any issues that may be halting your ranking position. Review your current keywords and keyword gap analysis. Check you’ve updated the meta tags, H1 tags, title tags and alt tags with a competitive primary keyword and then look at building backlinks to these pages to help increase your authority.
Don’t forget to test the usability of your current web design; this will include looking at the user journey. Focus on internal linking, call to actions, navigation, and if needed, updates on how your business is responding to the current pandemic.
Take advantage of new opportunities
In 2020, many people changed their daily habits. Most businesses enforced a work-from-home policy, which most offices still have in place. This meant many search habits changed, too.
Look at current Google Trends and run keyword research to look for new opportunities. The information provided by Google Trends can help to create blog posts and valuable content or update existing pages with relevant information.
Check and run polls on social media to see what your target audience is writing about, understand their concerns and write long-form content offering advice to help find a solution. Use on-page optimisation and index the new blog on Google Search Console to ensure Google can crawl any new blog posts and rank the article for relevant key search terms.
Focus on local SEO
According to Deloitte, 59% of people in the UK have used local businesses more over the past year. And with more workplaces offering flexible working, many people will continue to work from home, which means they’ll be utilising local places for takeaways and essentials items.
With people more interested in what’s local to them, this has seen a surge in local Google searches. To help increase your chances of being found in local search, improve and update the following:
- Update opening times and restrictions on Google my Business and Bing places as well as various other social channels.
- Create local posts
- Update relevant pages with announcements or temporary changes
- Use structured data and product feeds to keep users updated
Update online pages with relevant updates
If your services have had to change because of COVID-19, then you will need to update the content to reflect these changes and what is currently in place. For example, if your business organises events throughout the year, but they have gone virtual because of COVID-19, update users on what has changed and what they should expect moving forward.
As soon as you make any changes to your business, you should update your site or Google My Business account accordingly with the new information. Give clear communication to avoid any confusion. Ensure messaging is consistent throughout all other channels, such as social media.
Update high-performing blog posts
Give high-performing blog posts refresh. Usually, the best performing blog posts are articles written a while ago and have had time to build authority and creep up the search engine ranking positions. However, if the content is out of date, it’s unlikely this content will convert. Keep it relevant by updating any industry changes and edit the call to action for this type of content to perform better.
The main takeaway is to ensure you are constantly updating and communicating any business changes by adding new content to your website, updating out-of-date search engine business profiles and social media accounts with those changes. Use your blog section by creating high-quality content and offering advice to your target audience.
All of this combined will help to see your business through 2021 and into 2022. Keep above your competition by using this time to focus on your SEO activities and start to improve your visibility on Google.