If you’re anything like other franchises out there, you’re probably pretty reliant on organic search and your search engine ranking to drive your business. But traffic, SEO and SEM aren’t just about the best search engine optimization tools and the hottest SEO techniques. It’s about the quality of the traffic you’re driving.
Don’t fall into the classic SEO trap of driving massive volume that doesn’t convert. Here are 7 things you can do to drive better quality traffic than ever before.
1. Focus on long tail keywords
Long tail keywords make a lot of sense when you think about them. Basically, instead of a short SEO keyword like ‘best franchises’ you focus on more specific keywords that will have less traffic but a better conversion. So in this example, you might focus on the keyword: ‘best franchises to buy in Indiana for less than $100,000.’ Sure, the search volume will be smaller, but think of that conversion rate.
2. Produce more, better content
It’s pretty simple really. If you have something interesting to say, then people are more likely to stick around. Try branching out into other content areas besides your blog – for example, an instructional video is great (especially for food franchises – recipe videos anyone?).
Stuck for ideas on what to talk about? Neil Patel’s got some tips for you, but here are some of our favorites:
- Write down every question a customer asks you then answer them on your blog.
- Research long tail keywords with Google AdWords and turn them into blog posts.
- Write guides to common processes relevant to your franchise.
3. “Borrow” competitors’ backlinks
A great way to generate better traffic is to rank better for critical SEO keywords. A good way to do that is to look at your competitors’ backlink profile with a tool like Spyglass and mimic it.
Note: a backlink is a link on another site that goes back to yours.
It’s a great way to improve your ranking and thus reach the most motivated searchers first.
4. Warm up leads with other channels
With Google Analytics you can model various channels with attribution modeling – basically, attributing part of a conversion to any channel that plays a role, rather than leaving it all to whatever channel was clicked last (aptly named last click attribution).
Anyways, most people don’t convert with just one channel. On average, a customer touches a company 6-8 times before a sale. So make sure that you’re warming up your organic search traffic with channels like email marketing, social media marketing and other forms of online advertising.
5. Get testimonials and reviews – and make sure the come up in Google
If you’re not already, start gathering and collating customer testimonials and reviews. Make sure these show up in Google as star ratings – that simple measure provides instant reassurance for customers that your product is worth the effort of further investigation and will help drive click-throughs.
6. Guest blog
Your industry likely has enthusiastic bloggers in it who are voices of authority. For food franchises, it’s food bloggers – for example, Dave’s Donut Blog might be an influential blogger for Krispy Crème franchises.
Reach out and see if they’d host a guest post. Suddenly, your name will turn up higher up search engine rankings, and you’ll get exposure to different (but highly engaged) audiences.
7. Make sure your site looks good on a phone
The worst thing you can do for your traffic quality and quantity is to provide a poor user experience. Make sure that you’re providing a solid product, regardless of what device people are browsing on. After all, the first step towards driving high-quality traffic is just getting people to give your site the time of day.
There you have it: 7 tips to get your traffic quality up and customers flowing through your e-doors. Think we missed a key strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
