SEO is not the only way to increase traffic. Here is how to become a destination and rank well, too.
how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, opened up Pubcon in Las Vegas this morning talking about what’s new with Google and what you need to know about optimizing for search. Here are the highlights from the keynote. The Basics 1. Good URLs Are Critical Illyes started by reminding everyone the importance of good URL structure and warned not to use hashtags in URLs. Typically, JavaScript frameworks are to blame for hashtags in URLs. While it may slightly increase your loading time, it’s really bad for search because no search engine will understand anything in the URL after the hashtag. For
how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
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I’m a marketer. I know more about traffic generation than most others, and I surely know more about marketing than developers.
But what if I told you that developers can generate you more traffic than an SEO or any other type of marketer?
And no, it’s not because the developer implements changes to your site… they are just able to produce more traffic.
What’s crazy about this is that it’s cheaper in the long run than paying marketers.
Most of you know that I have an ad agency, Neil Patel Digital. And although I always want more big companies to pay us, typically a developer can generate you more traffic than I (or any other ad agency) can drive.
It sounds bad, but it’s true.
Here’s what I mean…
I’ve shown you my traffic over time. You already know I get a lot of traffic, but, in case you forget, here’s my latest traffic numbers:
In the last 31 days, you’ve helped me generate 1,864,246 unique visitors and 4,764,739 pageviews. That’s not too shabby!
Even at my level, I still haven’t tapped out as only 25.1% of my traffic is repeat visitors.
Now, can you guess how much traffic I had during the beginning of the year?
808,747 unique visitors.
So how have I grown from 808,747 to 1,864,246 in 10 or so months?
Well, one thing that helped was the purchase of the KISSmetrics blog. By combining both of the blogs together, I instantly increased my traffic.
It helped me generate an extra 510,442 visitors per month.
But that’s not what I am talking about when I say developers can drive you more traffic with SEO.
There was another thing I did this year which really helped my traffic grow… more than the KISSmetrics blog purchase.
Can you guess what it is?
I bought Ubersuggest back in early 2017, and I ended up merging the tool into NeilPatel.com in February 2018.
The moment I merged the tool into NeilPatel.com, here’s what happened to my traffic (keep in mind the last month is on a partial month):
My traffic went from 808,747 to a bit more than 1,176,243 visitors a month between February and March.
The original Ubersuggest (version 1.0) doesn’t look anything like what it looks today. It looked more like this:
And…
The original tool cost $120,000 to acquire and $15,000 on development to clean up the code, add some simple features, and merge it into NeilPatel.com. In addition to that, I had API expenses that cost me around $2,000 a month.
That alone got me Ubersuggest 1.0.
Now I didn’t have to buy the tool, I could have created something from scratch like my SEO Analyzer, which I am currently redoing and merging into Ubersuggest.
The first version of the SEO Analyzer cost me around $30,000 and since then I have continually spent more to improve it.
As you can see from the graph, the SEO Analyzer has driven me 435,115 unique visitors so far this year. And those visitors generated 3,143,220 pageviews.
The best part about the SEO Analyzer is that it is easier to maintain than my blog. It only costs $1,173 a month for hosting.
All in all, tools have generated me more consistent traffic than anything else. I don’t have to worry about social media algorithms or Google updates… people just keep using them even when you stop putting effort into them.
At this point, you are probably wondering how hard it is to market these tools. Because if you pay a developer, they probably won’t just get instantly popular.
And you are right, they won’t.
But it isn’t rocket science. If you build something that is somewhat decent, it will naturally gain popularity.
All you have to do is write a blog post or two about your tool and just be patient. If you can get others to blog about your tool, it will, of course, help even more.
Just look at Ubersuggest. It has continually grown even though I haven’t done much marketing for it till the last 30 days.
As you can see during the earlier months it kept growing in popularity just because I kept it up and running.
If you don’t have an audience as I do, what I’ve found is people will mention your tool if you just email them. I know link building is tough, but not when you are giving away free tools.
You can search Google for list-based posts within your industry. Some of these lists will focus on or include other tools. Just email out people and see if they will mention your tool.
Hey John,
I love JohnChow.com and I have to say I am a huge fan for years.
I know you are busy so I will get to the point. I noticed that you wrote a blog post called “10 Marketing Tools You Ought to Use” but I noticed that most of those tools cost money.
I recently released a free marketing tool called Ubersugget and it helps people get more traffic from Google for free. 🙂
Let me know what you think of the tool and I would be honored if you included it in your list.
Cheers,
Neil Patel
In addition to that, you can always put your tool on Product Hunt.
When I wrote a blog post about the latest release (Ubersuggest 2.0) and then I got on Product Hunt, I saw a big spike in traffic and usage.
Over time, the traffic normalized and came down… but as you can see from the graph above, the traffic is still better off than before.
Best of all, it is also causing my brand signals to go up, which is a huge factor in Google’s algorithm.
Just look at the chart from Google Trends. I am catching up to Buzzsumo and Ahrefs fast. SEMrush, on the other hand, is still crushing me.
You guys know I am crazy, or at least my friends say I am. So, in the spirit of craziness, I thought it would be fun to make Ubersuggest a good marketing tool instead of something that was mediocre.
You’ve already seen how I have cleaned up the UI and added data from sources like Facebook.
And just by doing that I got a 38.12% increase in branded traffic.
In the next few weeks, I am going to make the tool even better by adding more keyword ideas.
I am going to take concepts from Answers the Public and start showing comparison and question-related keywords.
From there I am going to add traffic estimation data on URLs, which I hope to release by the end of the year.
That way, you’ll be able to type in a URL and get data on how many visitors from Google a site is generating as well as their top keywords and pages.
And then I am going to add all of Buzzsumo’s features.
The overall goal is to keep releasing new features, and then announce them each time.
As I do this, my brand queries and traffic should increase each time. This is how I am going to grow from 1.8 million unique visitors to 3 million by the end of 2019 (that’s at least my personal goal).
It really is easier to grow your traffic by just paying a developer to create free tools than it is to pay marketers.
I know I am a bit crazy and am spending more than most people are comfortable with, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow in my footsteps.
Just go on Google and search for “scripts” within your industry. For example, if you are in the real estate industry, search for “mortgage calculator scripts”.
You can do this for any industry.
You’ll find tools that you can buy for a few hundred dollars (sometimes even for free) and use the code and just put it on your website. This will allow you to have a tool that you can release for free with little to no effort.
Now, I will warn you that you won’t do as well as me because I am spending a ton of money on development. But you will probably do better in the long run than just burning money on ads.
In an ideal world, you should release tools, do SEO, run paid ads, send promotional emails, etc. In other words, you should use all of the channels out there to grow your business. Especially leveraging developers!
So what do you think about the concept of generating traffic through developers? Are you going to start leveraging it?
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Google’s John Mueller predicts technical SEOs will run into more JavaScript in the coming years than they’ve encountered so far.
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When Google talks SEO, every word is scrutinized. Here’s what you need to do when Google communicates information to us.
You’ve done a great job of finding new ways to drive more traffic to your website. But if that traffic isn’t translating into conversions, you’ve still got plenty of work to do.
I see this common misconception in my consulting work all the time.
Businesses spend much time and effort trying to improve their organic SEO while simultaneously running PPC campaigns to get more website visitors.
There’s nothing wrong with this strategy, but increasing site traffic isn’t the only metric that matters. You also need to focus on how visitors behave after landing on your pages.
Are they converting?
If not, that traffic isn’t translating to dollars. That’s why you need to learn how to use continuous A/B testing to increase conversions.
These experiments will help give you a better understanding of how to optimize certain design elements of your website. Subtle changes can make a major impact on getting your traffic to convert.
To those of you who have never run these tests before, I recommend reviewing my guide on everything you need to know before you start A/B testing.
However, if you already know how to run A/B tests but just don’t know what you should be testing, this list is perfect for you.
In reality, the number of things you could test on your website is seemingly endless.
That said, I narrowed down the top 13 elements you should start with. You can continue to tweak these and run several tests for each component on this list.
I’ll even give you some examples and real-life data to explain how other websites improved conversions by testing specific elements.
As you read through this guide, you’ll notice that CTA buttons will appear several times in the discussion. This makes sense since it’s the most important feature in terms of driving conversions.
Start off with the size of your CTA button.
For the most part, this button needs to be big and bold. That way, it’s obvious and jumps off the screen. The last thing you want is for someone to be unable to find your CTA button.
How big should it be for optimal conversions? The only way to know is by experimenting with different sizes. Here’s an example to show you what I mean:
As you can see, these two CTA buttons are identical. They have the same font, color, and placement on the page.
The only difference is the size.
But bigger isn’t always better. In fact, after running this experiment, it was found that the larger CTA actually had 10% fewer conversions.
There could be a number of different reasons for this, but we don’t need to get into that right now. The important thing is that this would have never been discovered without running the A/B test.
Don’t assume that your giant CTA button is ideal for conversions. Test the size so you can be sure.
Your landing pages will have different headlines. These headlines will tell your visitors exactly what they’ll find on the page.
Depending on your goals, the wording can also prompt people to take a certain action.
Plus, you want your headlines to be SEO-friendly as well. Obviously, lots of thought should go into crafting these words.
That’s why you need to learn how to increase clicks by mastering your headlines.
To do this effectively, you’ll need to run A/B tests to find out which phrasing yields the highest conversion rates. Check out this example from the Movexa website:
At first glance, the two pages look the same.
The only difference between the control and variation is the headline. As you can see, the difference is minor. All they did was add one word.
Movexa increased sales by 89% after adding the word “supplement” to the headline on this landing page.
So don’t assume your headline is perfect until you test different variations. You may be surprised with the results.
This one is more specific to ecommerce sites. But it’s an important feature that shouldn’t be overlooked.
First of all, you shouldn’t be charging your customers for shipping.
If this expense is coming out of your pocket, just include it in the base cost of each item as opposed to charging separately for it.
This added charge is the top reason for shopping cart abandonment.
But simply not charging for shipping isn’t enough. You need to display this information proudly on your website.
This way your customers won’t have to get to the checkout page to know that shipping is free.
But where do you tell them? That’s for you to find out through A/B testing.
Try different locations on the banner of your website. Maybe include it in the headline.
After you experiment with the placement, you can continue to run tests on the size, font, and color of this text as well. Try using all capital letters, or add an exclamation point to see if these variations change your results.
Let’s get back to discussing the CTA button.
Now that you know the optimal size of this button from a test I talked about earlier, you can start to experiment with the phrasing.
Obviously, the phrasing will depend on your goal. For example, a “buy now” CTA won’t make sense if you’re trying to get website visitors to subscribe to your email list.
Here’s an example from a landing page that targets visitors who need a loan:
The team tested “apply now” against “submit.” Everything else about the pages was exactly the same.
The hypothesis here was that the word “apply” implied that the visitor could be rejected from a loan, which would discourage them from converting.
On the flip side, the “submit” button makes it seem like anyone can be approved simply by filling out the form field above.
I highly recommend experimenting with CTA button phrasing on each landing page of your website. This button is too important for you to overlook.
Some websites don’t display their prices on their landing pages. Do you?
Depending on the type of business you have, your branding strategy, and the industry you’re in, you may not think this is necessary.
However, it’s possible that displaying your prices could help increase conversions. Check out this example below:
Adding the price to this landing page increased its conversions by 100%.
After adding the price, you can also run other tests to make sure it’s optimized on the page. Change the location, color, font, and size to ensure you’re getting the maximum number of conversions.
Promotional content on your landing pages gives your website visitors an incentive to buy whatever you’re selling.
In theory, these elements will drive conversions. But don’t make assumptions without testing them.
Look at the example from this case study on the SimCity website:
The original landing page had promotional information at the top of the screen, below the menu bar.
It’s simple. Pre-order the game, and you’ll get $20 off your next purchase.
An incentive like this must be good enough to get people to convert, right?
Not so fast. By eliminating this promotional content from the landing page, they saw a 43% increase in checkouts.
Websites with simple designs have higher conversion rates.
Adding too much promotional content to your pages can make it difficult for the visitor to focus on your CTA buttons. Removing unnecessary text can actually be beneficial.
I’m not saying you need to completely trash all of your promotional content. I’m just trying to show you that you have to run experiments to see if it’s worth including.
No, you’re still not done testing your CTA button.
Now that size and phrasing are taken care of, it’s time for you to find the best location on the page for this button. You’ll need to run lots of experiments with this.
Typically, your CTA should always be above the fold. Make sure it’s clearly visible at all times.
But test different locations on the page. Try the middle, left side, right side, or even slightly off-center to the right. Try every location.
Experiment with two CTA buttons. Keep running these tests until you find a winner.
Your website shouldn’t always have a plain white background with no images. You need to use visual elements to improve your marketing strategy.
But don’t just pull a picture out of thin air and assume it will make your website better.
Use A/B tests to find out which images convert the best. Here’s an example of how Highrise experimented with images on its website:
Michael had nearly 5% more conversions than Jocelyn.
This may seem marginal, but depending on the amount of traffic to a website, it could be the difference in tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a year.
How do website visitors find what they’re looking for on your pages?
Typically, navigation menus are the best way for them to jump from page to page. However, if these menus are too complex, it can hurt your conversions.
Remember, keeping things simple is always your best bet.
Take a look at what happened when Yuppiecheif removed the navigation menu from its homepage:
As a result of this design change, Yuppiechef was able to increase conversions by 100%.
If it worked for them, it could work for you as well.
Even if you don’t want to remove your menu completely, you can experiment with other elements of it. Change the color, size, placement.
Consider removing some of the options to keep people focused on converting.
Earlier we talked about the importance of free shipping.
But you can test other elements of your value proposition as well. Here’s a look some of the other key phrases that give consumers an incentive to shop online.
By highlighting these other benefits on your pages in the form of a value proposition, you’ll be able to drive more conversions.
Refer to my guide on how to create a highly effective value proposition if you want to learn more about this concept.
As I said before, your CTA needs to stand out and be obvious in order for it to be effective.
That’s why the color of this button is so important.
Sure, you want the color scheme of your website to be visually appealing, but that doesn’t mean your CTA button should blend in with everything else.
A blue CTA button on a blue background will get lost in the shuffle. And a color like bright yellow will be difficult to read.
So what colors work the best? Run tests to find out.
Here’s an example testing green and red CTA buttons:
Usually, we associate green with go and red with stop. So you could assume that the green CTA button would outperform the red one.
But the results of this test were surprising, which is why we shouldn’t make assumptions.
The red CTA button got 21% more clicks than the green one.
On an ecommerce website, the design of your product pages will have a major impact on conversions.
Since these conversions will ultimately translate to dollars, you need to prioritize these A/B tests because a mistake here could be costing you money.
Here’s an example from Smartwool socks:
At first, they tried to highlight certain items on their product page.
But after transitioning to a uniform grid system with an A/B test, they saw a 17% increase in the average revenue per visitor.
Try this as well.
Experiment with the number of products you display on the screen at once.
If you have a grid, test rows of three compared to rows of five. Or maybe two columns instead of three columns.
Test the size of your product icons.
After running numerous tests, you’ll be comfortable knowing you have the optimal design for the most important pages on your website.
Test the length of form fields on your landing pages.
For the most part, shorter form fields have higher conversion rates.
But as you can see from this graphic, that’s not the same across the board.
Right now, if you have six form fields and you can get that down to four, you could assume your conversions will increase based on this graph.
However, some of you may need to have longer form fields if you need to collect lots of information from your customers.
If you look at the data above, it implies that a form with 28 fields won’t perform as well as a form with 40 fields.
So there are certain instances when shorter isn’t always better. Run an A/B test on these forms until you get this figured out.
When it comes to the design elements of your website, you should never make assumptions.
Instead, create a hypothesis, and run A/B tests to test it.
As you can see from the list I’ve created, the CTA button has a huge impact on your conversions. But there are other elements that should be tested as well.
Don’t stop after one test.
You should always be taking steps to improve your design, drive conversions, and ultimately increase your profits.
What elements of your website are you trying to improve with A/B tests?
how I went to number one on Google for a competitive term by just getting people to click my page
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