A Highly Effective SEO Strategy To Increase Traffic

I can’t tell you the number of hours I’ve spent testing a variety of traffic generating techniques from so-called “SEO Gurus” on YouTube. Some worked, most failed.

After many years of trial and error, I can affirm that I’ve found an SEO strategy that actually works. I’m talking about the Project 24 method by Income School. This simple method has helped me generate over 500k monetizable page views to my various niche sites in less than 24 months!

This SEO strategy is easy to follow for beginners and advanced internet marketers alike. And, luckily for you, I am willing and ready to share the method of my success here today! But first, let’s dive into some SEO basics.

In this post:

• There Are Two Types of Traffic
• The Big Problem With SEO
• Exactly How to Generate SEO Traffic
• Success Story: This E-Commerce Merchant Makes $10,000 a Month
• Why I Recommend This Strategy for E-commerce SEO
• Related Questions

There Are Two Types of Traffic

Everyone wants to be in position #1 on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page) when a potential client searches for their products or services through a search engine like Google. We all know that most people click the top results and don’t bother to navigate further down the SERP for hidden website gems.

There are lots of ways to improve your ranking position, but let’s start with how you can get your site to simply appear in search engines like Google. There are two main ways to get traffic: Paid Traffic and “Free” Traffic.

Paid traffic is often referred to as SEM (Search Engine Marketing) or PPC (Pay Per Click). This method often consists of paying search engines like Google or Google Shopping, and/or social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Snapchat to display your ads—so you can generate clicks or traffic to your website.

Although SEM and PPC are great ways of increasing traffic, this isn’t always the best way to go for beginners. Why? Because they require an ongoing budget, digital marketing skills, and it can be expensive and time consuming to ensure you are generating ROI (aka return on investment — aka actually making money from your paid advertising).

On the other hand, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is often referred to as “organic” or “free” traffic. This traffic is “free” in the sense that you are not paying Search Engines or Social Media platforms per click to your website.

However, building traffic from SEO does require time and effort. To do so, you have to create the right type of content to get people interested in your site. But, using the right techniques, once you generate SEO traffic, chances are high that your increased traffic will sustain itself over a longer period of time.

The Big Problem With SEO

Simply put: the big problem with SEO is that so many internet marketers out there are still suggesting time consuming and ineffective techniques that stopped working years ago. These techniques include keyword stuffing, backlink building, article spinning, building “Amazon affiliate” type niche sites and more.

Such techniques may have worked like a charm two (or ten) years ago, but some can have detrimental consequences today! Google has changed the way they refer traffic to websites via their search engine over the years. If you’re relying on outdated techniques you’re wasting your time, money, or worse, destroying your site’s chances of ranking.

Another mistake: many bloggers and internet marketers confuse content creation with vlogging, and are actually writing about their day or about things they are interested in — instead of topics people are actively searching for. And so, thousands of small and medium businesses (SMBs) who are trying to learn how to generate traffic are wasting time on things that just don’t work.

I hate wasting my time. I hate not getting a good ROI! You probably do too. For a while, I was stuck with no path forward, wringing my hands in frustration. Then, two years ago, I discovered some new SEO techniques. New tools for my SEO toolkit, if you will. So now, I’m going to share my successes with you. Read on, SEO hunter!

Exactly How to Generate SEO Traffic

Organic traffic is the traffic you generate to your website by creating content like articles or videos, without paying per click to get traffic to your website. You should start with the “Alphabet Soup Method” to find search terms people are actually looking up. You can do this by using Google’s native Suggested Search features and running your ideas through the alphabet. And don’t worry, this cool tool is free!

Then you need to carry out Competitive Analysis to see which topics are worth writing about, and in which order. I suggest using the Content Mix to help you decide on the order. And I can’t stress enough how important that you build up E.A.T. (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust) for Google.

Let’s detail exactly how to do each of these things:

1. Carry Out Your Search Analysis

You need the right content to create a sustainable and targeted source of traffic. You may be surprised to learn that people still read blogs (you’re reading this one, aren’t you?) and that the video world is booming as far as SEO content creation with a large audience is concerned.

If you remember anything from this article it should be this: to generate traffic, you need to create content about things that people are actually searching for in search engines like Google or YouTube.

As an e-commerce merchant, you want to share information that can transform your traffic into paid customers, while still being helpful. In order to do so, you can create content such as articles (a blog) and videos (YouTube channel) that help you explain your products, or show them in action.

If you create the right blog content you can generate traffic to your site right from Google—the King of search engines. YouTube is also a search engine, and with the right video content it can also help generate traffic to your site.

But, what should you write about? Stumped? Maybe you’ve even enlisted the help of keyword tools to find topics to write about. Most keyword tools tell you how much traffic you can get for PPC advertising, rather than the actual traffic via SEO. That’s where the “Alphabet Soup Method” comes in handy. It means finding keywords by using Google Suggested Search features, and running through the alphabet.

Let’s go through the ABCs of Alphabet Soup:

2. Use The Alphabet Soup Method

The Alphabet Soup Method consists in using Google’s Suggested Search terms to get ideas about what people are actually searching for.

Let’s say your e-commerce store sells electric scooters. What you would do is type “Your Keyword Idea ‘A’” in Google (without hitting enter) and have a look at the suggestions that populate.

This gives you an idea of the type of topics people are actually searching for in the search engine. In the example above, you may notice people are looking for “Adult” electric scooters. If you sell these products you may want to cover that topic on your blog. Or even “Accessories,” which are items you may sell in your online store.

The goal is to run through the entire alphabet and jot down your ideas. So “Electric Scooter B, C, D…”

You can also add question words like “How to” to see the type of questions people are asking online to help write articles for your blog. You can add a star (*) before or after your search so Google can suggest other terms.

Also, it’s always a good idea to take a look at the suggested questions at the top of the page and suggested searches at the bottom of the search peage for even more ideas.

Another way to find topics is to use forums like Quora and Reddit. These might help give you a sense of what people are saying or searching for in your niche. You can also head over to answerthepublic.com where you can find tons of topics to write about for your blog.

3. Carry Out Competitive Analysis

Once you have some topic ideas, it’s time to carry out competitive analysis and decide which are worth writing about. Some topic ideas you have found via the Alphabet Soup Method may be too competitive, others may be low hanging fruit! You should then evaluate your topic on Google to see whether there is a lot of competition surrounding it or not.

Carry out Competitive Analysis by typing your topic ideas in Google and looking at the results. If you find a lot of high quality, relevant, long-form articles (over 3000 words) from credible or top sources in your industry, chances are that your topic is well-covered and highly competitive.

If the topic is already covered by authority or popular sites, government websites, or sites with high traffic, it may be best to leave that topic alone for now. As a new site, it will be difficult for you to out-rank well-known sites on Google using such a competitive term.

On the other hand, if you find little or no relevant information about your topic, or if the top results seem to be from forums, pdf documents, or other low-quality, short content (less than 1000 words), you may have found an excellent topic to write about! This also includes topics with little, outdated, irrelevant, or unreliable information. These topics will serve you best to start out with, and will help you rank faster and drive more traffic from Google to your site.

4. Be Sure to Follow the Content Mix

The content mix is a suggested order in which to write your blog posts. Content mix can help your content rank faster by planting an initial content “Seed” for your site. You don’t want to start with competitive topics because Google will not rank your content right away in their search engine. You need to start with short, less competitive topics and to move towards more competitive ones in the future, generating a catalog of high-quality information along the way.

What is The Content Mix?

Here is a suggested Content Mix and the order in which to write your content:

• Start with 10x Response posts: Answer a question in about 1,350 words
• Next write 10x Staples Posts: About 2,200 words, list-type posts
• Then write 10x Pillar Posts: Between 3,500 to 5,000 words depending on the level of competition.

Income School suggests you start with a Response Post. These are posts of about 1,350 words and cover question-like topics with low-competition.

Next, most on to a Staple Post. Staple Posts are longer posts (2,200+ words) on medium competitive topics. They are more detailed and usually composed of list posts, or things that are easily shareable on social media.

Lastly, a Pillar Post: a much longer article (3,500+ words) on a highly competitive topic. It should provide long-form, detailed, well-researched, and original content.

Create High-Quality Content

You’ve probably heard this a million times, but it is still worth repeating: Content is King! People visit websites because they want relevant, high-quality, information that answers a specific question and provides context.

What does this mean for you? Your website needs to offer quality, helpful, relevant information to your visitors. Of course, the higher you rank on Google, the more traffic you’ll get in turn. But how can you write “quality content” that will rank?

First, create an outline of your article. Fill it with unique research, making sure to have an Answer Target at the beginning, and related questions at the end. Answer Targets allow you to succinctly and directly answer the question the searcher is looking for.

This type of content organization may also allow you to get a Rich Snippet of content in Google search results. These are featured bits of an article that can allow you to rank in position 0, before any other content.

Avoid writing article reviews or “10 Best Products For…” type articles. These are becoming harder and harder to rank for as they become more popular, and often not very helpful for readers.

A better approach would be to purchase or individually test all the products you would like to suggest to your audience in a video, and actually tell them which is the best one in your opinion.

Gone are the days of link building! If you provide unique research and true value through your content, other sites will gladly link to your content, and help keep visitors trickling in years after you first uploaded it.

So, in short: Be well-informed, well-read, and honest about the topics you explore in your blog, and provide your audience as much value as possible.

Create Timeless (“Evergreen”) Content

Be very selective about the kind of content you create, so that it can offer value to your site visitors several years from now as well as today. For example, if you write about the latest cell phones, the chances that your article is still relevant in 10 years from now is very low.

Keep in mind that if you write about topics that are not evergreen, you will have to update your content every couple months or years.

If you focus on providing your audience with helpful information that may still be relevant in five or ten years from now, then you will have content that is more “evergreen” and will not need to be updated as often.

Keep Customer Intent in Mind

Customer Intent is super important in an e-commerce context. As an online merchant, your goal for generating traffic is probably to increase sales. That is why it’s important to keep your customer in mind when deciding what to write about.

Be sure that the topics you chose to cover can also be used as lead magnets to get your traffic to take action in some way—whether that be to sign up for your email updates or buy your products.

Always be as helpful as possible before trying to make a sale. Providing high-quality, non-sales information will build trust with your audience and make them more willing to engage with you when they are looking to buy. Also, make your Call to Action (CTA) buttons and links to products very clear in your articles, so that you can direct traffic where you would like them to go without confusing potential customers.

I like to use ZotaBox, a plugin that works well with Ecwid E-commerce, to add CTAs to my website.

Stay Strong Through The “Ghost Town” Phase

One other thing that I learned about with the Project 24 SEO strategy is that there is something called the “Ghost Town Phase”. This is the phase where you will not have any traffic on your website—and it can last up to 35 weeks after you plant your “Seed” of content. Yes, 35 weeks.

Many internet marketers give up or sell their blogs during this phase. However, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of being patient, persistent, and not giving up during this period. Because with this method, you really can generate 175,000+ monetizable pageviews per month in 24 months!

5. Build Your E.A.T. (Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trust)

Demonstrating Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E.A.T.) are extremely important for your blog’s success. This is because Google wants to ensure it suggests information from people who are authoritative on the topics they write about. This is especially true for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) industries like health, finance, legal, technical, news, politics and e-commerce.

Google is putting more and more focus on “E.A.T.” (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) due to legal and deontologic reasons.

For example, you will probably trust a blog offering medical advice that was written by a qualified MD, rather than a poorly written post by someone who doesn’t even work in the medical field. Google thinks of articles the same way, and is currently lowering the rankings of sites that lack E.A.T.

Building your E.A.T. involves a step-by-step process to prove to Google that you are an authoritative, trustworthy expert in your niche. The video below provides a number of topics to consider, from creating a strong “About US” page, to having all necessary legal documents and pages in order, to building overall credibility, and more.

6. Consider YouTube as a source of traffic

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, after Google (though technically, it belongs to Google!). I have been a YouTuber for quite a few years now teaching e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses and it’s my favorite way to reach out to my audience. But too many SMBs still consider YouTube a “vloggers” game, and are missing out on a huge opportunity to generate traffic, build E.A.T. and ultimately increase sales.

My advice: create a YouTube channel to share your knowledge. Google will also consider your blog more of an authority if you have your own YouTube videos linking to your content. The video below is an example of how I use YouTube to reach my audience, provide value, and suggest my Ecwid E-commerce Course for SMBs looking to launch an online store faster, better and cheaper than working with a third party.

Check out the video above for an example of how I use YouTube to share my e-commerce experience, build E.A.T. and provide my audience value. I don’t have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but a targeted audience of small and medium-sized businesses owners.

Success Story: This E-Commerce Merchant Makes $10,000 a Month

The SEO strategy I describe in this blog post has helped lots of businesses, but this story will probably interest you the most as an e-commerce merchant. Rick, the owner of ThinkEngraved.com spent over $20,000 by trying to outsource his traffic generation to “SEO experts,” but got no return on investment.

Then Rick discovered the SEO strategy I described above. He increased his sales to over $10k/month and stopped wasting his time and money. He managed to effectively boost the traffic and sales on his e-commerce website following these simple strategies. Watch the video below to learn more about his business and success.

Why I Recommend This Strategy for E-commerce SEO

The answer is simple: I recommend this method for e-commerce SEO because it works. As I mentioned at the beginning, this SEO strategy helped me generate 500k monetizable page views to my sites in less than 24 months.

If you’d like some guidance on how to best perform the SEO strategy described in this article, there is no better way than to turn to the course that actually created it.

The Project 24 by Income School membership includes over 20 courses on internet marketing including a blogging (SEO) course, a brand new YouTube course, a Podcasting Course, and a Photography course. A membership also includes a weekly podcast, a number of marketing tools, access to a community of like-minded members, and more.

As a Project 24 student for over 2 years now, I can say that this course exceeded my expectations and has paid for itself time and again. I personally have a course about Ecwid e-commerce for SMBs, and always recommend students head over to Project 24 to learn about SEO and generating traffic once their store is ready to launch.

I hope this information saves you hours of research and time testing outdated SEO methods! I know that I would have loved this information five years ago… But, I’m grateful to have it now, and to be able to share it with you today.

Related Questions

What is e-commerce SEO?

E-commerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization) organically makes your online store more visible in search results by creating quality, helpful, relevant content. Some of the most effective ways to create content to build SEO on an e-commerce site are: writing articles (blog), or creating videos (YouTube channel).

Is SEO important for e-commerce?

SEO is crucial for e-commerce success. Many e-commerce merchants rely on paid advertising strategies, but no longer generate traffic once they run out of marketing money, or turn off their ads. However, well-done SEO can increase organic search traffic, naturally boost SERP rankings, and become a highly sustainable source of “free” traffic in the long term.

How can an e-commerce site use SEO?

E-commerce sites can carry out SEO by starting with an Alphabet Soup search analysis on their topic, and then carrying out Competitive Analysis. E-commerce sites should also use the Content Mix to decide which order to write their articles in, and build E.A.T. (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust).

Is Ecwid good for SEO?

Ecwid is an excellent e-commerce platform for SEO. Ecwid has built in SEO features from a site map to the ability to enter custom SERP titles and meta descriptions. Ecwid is also SSL protected, built for speed and has an excellent user interface. However, it is best to have a paid plan to benefit from all the advanced SEO features Ecwid can offer.

What is a Google search result that can be found in position zero?

Position zero in Google, (P0), zero click results, or “Rich snippets” are rich content results that appear before any other organic result on the SERP. They directly answer the searcher’s question in the form of text, a table, images or a video. Being in position 0 can greatly increase a site’s chance of getting clicks.

Is it better to pay for SEO services, or to do it myself?

There is no magic SEO formula to rank #1 in SERPS and generate high traffic. Many merchants expect their sites to magically rank higher by throwing money at their “SEO problem,” and some companies promise SEO ROI for $10,000 to $100,00+ but never deliver. Be cautious when paying for SEO services and find a winning content strategy within your own organization before outsourcing.

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