4 Simple SEO Tricks to Boost Website Traffic

I think of my affiliate marketing website as a tiny shop in a vast, bustling marketplace. It needs to stand out, attract potential customers, and regularly pull at least a few passersby inside from the streaming crowds. I need the virtual equivalent of a brightly lit sign and a prime location.

That’s what search engine optimization (SEO) is—the bright sign that makes my shop visible amid a Times Square of choices.

Regular readers of this newsletter may recall me saying previously that organic traffic generation wasn’t scalable. Therefore, using paid methods to drive visitors to your website and sales funnels is inevitable. So, what gives with SEO? That’s an organic strategy. Who needs to “optimize” search engines when paid ads and email lists for rent give you more direct access to pre-qualified customers? You can get all your website traffic from those tactics, right?

Well, obviously, paid methods work. But affiliate marketers who regard SEO as outmoded miss an opportunity to sharpen basic skills like research, copywriting, and a better understanding of their target audience. A searcher-first perspective on organic visitors (i.e., intent, persona, and journey) won’t become obsolete anytime soon.

Making your website’s content more visible to search engines is dotting your “i’s” and crossing your “t’s.”

It’s all part of a holistic approach to increasing your appeal and professionalism, incrementally improving your odds for more earnings. Call it the “no-stone-unturned” system.

Let’s look under four stones that can boost organic traffic and, hopefully, your revenue:

1. Keyword Research. Keyword research is discovering what your customers are looking for so you can stock your shop with precisely what they want and need. To validate what you think you know (never hurts) about your target audience’s niche language, try using tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find the most-used terms when searching for information in a given niche.
   • Be sure to include long-tail keywords—these are more specific phrases that may not have huge search volumes but are more accessible to rank for and attract highly relevant visitors. For instance, instead of targeting “fitness,” you might target “best home workout equipment for small spaces.”
2. On-Page SEO Techniques.
   • Title Tags and Meta Descriptions. These are the flashy signs outside your shop. Your title tag should be catchy and include your primary keywords. Your meta description should offer a compelling reason to visit your page. Let’s use an example aside from affiliate marketing, say, keto diets. A good title would be “Top 10 Keto Diet Tips for Beginners”; the meta description could be “Discover the best tips to kickstart your tasty keto journey and see results fast!”
   • Content Optimization. It’s a given that your content should be high-quality, valuable, and relevant. So, naturally, include keywords from your research. But I do mean “naturally”—as in don’t overdo it. As you think about what your readers want to know and provide that information, the keywords should fall into place.
   • Internal Linking. This is like guiding a customer through your shop, showing them related products. Link to other relevant pages on your site to keep readers engaged and help search engines crawl your site better. If you have a blog post about keto diet recipes, link to another post about keto shopping lists. (Apparently, I’ve got keto on the brain now.)
3. Off-Page SEO Techniques
   • Backlink Building. Backlinks are like endorsements from other shops. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your site will rank. Reach out to other bloggers, write guest posts, or create shareable content that others will want to link to. (Admittedly, this is still on my to-do list.)
   • Social Media Traction. I’ll go out on a limb here and assume most readers have personal experience with social media platforms. You intuitively understand these platforms’ power to drive traffic and increase reader engagement. Which is, of course, why you should share your website content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Create posts that encourage sharing, like…ready for it: “Top 5 Keto Snacks You’ll Love,” with engaging words and images.
4. Monitor and Analyze SEO Performance. To see how well your SEO efforts are paying off, use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Track metrics like organic traffic, keyword rankings, bounce rate, and conversion rate. Regularly check these metrics to see what’s working and where you can improve.

The best training courses in affiliate marketing emphasize driving traffic as crucial to business success. I believe SEO development and management is still a key component of that traffic-driving engine. By using these “tricks”—keyword research, on-page and off-page SEO, and performance monitoring—you can accelerate your affiliate marketing results and find success down the road.

What Do You Think?

Was this topic helpful? Have you hit any snags optimizing your on- and off-page search techniques? Anything important missing from my coverage? Please share your thoughts or ask me questions in the comments section. And if you liked this post, then for heaven’s sake subscribe to my newsletter! But as long as you’re here, why not check out my additional resources and other blog posts.