Traffic: Stop Thinking in Numbers, Start Thinking in Words

Recently I’ve been writing down the frequently asked questions from my SEO clients. Here’s a few you may recognize:

• How much traffic do I need to make $10,000 a month in revenue?
• How do I get people to click like on my Facebook page?
• Why is no one following me on Twitter?
• Are the only people online successful because they are famous?
• How many links do I need to hit page one on Google?

These questions are asked on nearly every incoming call. Sure, the keywords and markets are different, but it’s my job to manage the clients’ expectations and to give them the facts. Most of the callers just want straight answers, but every once in a while, one of them will listen and start to understand what you really have to do to achieve good search rankings. I know that the community on ProBlogger is full of great listeners and learners, so here’s my advice from are three years of SEO knowledge.

Forget the numbers look at graph shapes

Okay, you can use numbers as a guide, but unless you’re starting a magazine or advertisement-driven website, why are you worried about figures? The difference in sales you’ll generate from 5,000 visitors a month or 10,000 per month is very small. Trust me—it is!

What you need to do is look at the graph shape for the past six months. Is it going up in the right direction?. If it’s not, see where your best source of traffic is, and look to add content to that source. For instance, if your Facebook page brings in 500 hits a month, add a couple of photographs a week, and maybe a video or two.

Look at integrating share buttons after a transaction

A fresh visitor doesn’t know you, but a buyer probably does. I read ProBlogger for two years before I gave Mr Rowse any cash, but when I purchased his audio book from iTunes I recommended the product afterwards on Twitter to 5,000 people.

I think that’s much more powerful, in terms of buying traffic, than quickly sharing a story. Have a chat to your web designer about this. integrating a share button after a transaction on your blog may take five minutes of coding and be cheaper than you thought!

Build your story

It’s surprising how many of the business owners I speak to are scared of the Internet. When I suggest they should have a photograph and a brief story about themselves on their sites, they shy away from the idea.

Look at every successful business out there, and you’ll quickly see a trend: there will be a face attached to the logo on the company’s website and other media. In most cases, a short story is included to make the owner more memorable. An example is GaryVaynerchuk—from his story, you quickly get to know he’s a family guy, wine expert and loves the New York Jets.

I always ask my clients to start slow and build up to that—maybe begin with name and photo, or even an illustration of their faces. Over time, as they become more comfortable, build up to mentioning their hobby or hero, for example. It’s a great exercise that will improve your whole website. I’m working on mine at the moment!

Imagine you’re the visitor

We’ve all seen thousands of websites. So these days when we visit a site, what goes through our minds? “Nice logo? Not interested.” (Well, maybe graphic designers are.) “Blog posts? Not that great.” Most bloggers aren’t that great at writing compelling posts, and good content on its own isn’t going to stop a visitor pressing the Back button.

My advice is to think of it like this: your mission is to keep a brand new website visitor on your site for two minutes. I’ve found that’s a pretty good incentive to get a client to make the changes I’ve mentioned here. Try that for yourself, and let us know how you go in the comments.

David Edwards is the founder of www.asittingduck.com and now working as a freelance consultant, finally!