Inbound Marketing Part 1 - the laws in the game of increasing traffic

| July 04, 2019 | | Reading time: 4 Minutes

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You don't want your content to get lost in the endless World Wide Web, but have your target audience find you? Inbound marketing makes it possible. To achieve this, you first have to generate traffic. The be-all and end-all for more traffic: creating content.

"If you build it, they will come", this quote has come true for baseball fans in the film Field of Dreams, but, unfortunately, it can’t be applied to your target group. After all, just setting up the playing field, i.e. filling a website with content, does not guarantee more visitors and traffic. High-quality content has to fulfill three requirements: relevance, regularity and purposeful formatting. In addition to this knowledge, you also need to know about the tools that drive traffic to your contents.

Increased traffic also acts as a multiplier and prompts Google & Co. to lead even more people to your playing field. Play by the rules of the most important tools and learn how to win the match of inbound marketing.

LEARN THE ROPES OF SEO

Google is constantly striving to put relevant content at the top of search results. And users trust Google. Approx. 99% click on one of the first ten search results displayed. To drive one's own content further up is achievable through search engine optimization, in short: SEO. 

Which are important values for SEO? The number of clicks, the time spent on the website and the bounce rate provide significant information about the ranking of your website.

In the end, Google and you pursue the same goal which is to deliver the right content to the right group of people. Therefore, don't ask yourself "What do I want to tell", but "What is my target audience looking for?”.

Most important for the search engine are its users intention and search behaviour. Keep in mind that texts which seem good to the human eye and mind, seem good to the machine. 

Man and machine are particularly happy about new content. To push onsite SEO, a blog can influence the Google indexing of your website and is also a delight for your visitors – provided you regularly present new, relevant and formal content. For onsite SEO, also consider the following:

  • Structure of articles: Well-structured articles are more pleasant to read, promote interest in your content and affect the time spent on the site.
  • Links within articles: With links between articles, users are guided through your website, are offered added value and, as a bonus, your rankings will increase.
  • Keywords: Rely on precise word groups, e.g. "How does inbound marketing work". There is a lot of competition for short keywords, try to pick longtail keywords.
  • Performance: Long loading times and links that lead nowhere are discouraging. Don't forget the basics: a neat website that loads quickly.

You can also improve your ranking by using offsite SEO. Link building is the process of increasing the number of qualitative backlinks to your website. Write guest contributions on blogs within your industry or post your content on specialist forums.

AUTHENTIC & SOCIAL

Just like Google, social media platforms create their own rankings and present relevant content to a larger number of people. A distinction is made between organic and paid reach. 

With paid reach, it is ensured that your ads appear in the social feeds of your target group through paid ads. On the opposite, native content are your own postings consisting of editorial content without an advertisement. Postings with a good performance, such as many likes, shares and comments, are made even more visible to your target group. This organic reach depends in part on the favor of the algorithms and in even bigger part on the commitment of your followers.

VALUE ADDED EMAILING

E-mail marketing is the key to provide interested people with updates and exciting content. Newsletters are particularly useful when leads have already been generated and a community exists. If you know the interests of your subscribers well, e-mail marketing is able to deepen customer loyalty with targeted offers. And good content in newsletters in turn drives more traffic to your website.

SMALL ADS, GREAT EFFECT

How to be at the very top of Google search query for sure? Make use of Google AdWords. When certain keywords are searched for, Google shows your website as a paid ad on the top, before showing other results. You will only be charged, when people decide to click on your website with a payment model that’s called Pay-Per-Click. The best feature of the ads: You decide who should see your content. In this way, you can narrow down your target group and respond to potential customers.

USABILITY FIRST

Easy navigation, quick loading time and user-friendly design on any device – in any case, these are the minimum requirements for your website. Increased traffic not only is a result of publishing content, at the same time the platform has to be easy to use. When examining your website in regards of user experience, pay attention to interaction interfaces. With easy-to-find contact forms, your website will feel more transparent and accessible.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

With Micro-Targeting you, your inbound marketing becomes as efficient as possible. Blog articles and more are specifically recommended or sent to individuals with corresponding interests. This means that content reaches only those for whom it is relevant. This increases the added value for users, as well as the traffic on your website. You can count on seeing the micro-targeted audience on your website more often.

TO CONCLUDE

By now, you are already aware of the importance that relevance, regularity and the purposeful formatting hold for content. As far as the third point is concerned, the purposeful formatting, be aware of which content you publish on which channels. 

Be advised to publish content tailor-made for different channels. On Facebook and LinkedIn, for example, videos are ranked much higher than text contributions. You can also get into the podcast boom, to make your page attractive.

And, of course, text of any shape is important. Postings on blogs and social media, e-mail marketing and many more possibilities are open to you. Just play by the rules of SEO and people will come to you.

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