How to increase website traffic through Google

Think of the last time you manually typed a complete URL into your web browser. For most people, getting to a website is instead a matter of clicking a link — most commonly on a search engine results page (SERP).

For better or worse, Google has positioned itself as the arbiter of the internet. Depending on your source, the company commands a 90%+ share of the search market. It follows that the single most important factor in increasing traffic to your website is making it as visible as possible on Google — across both organic results and, increasingly, the AI-generated answers now sitting above them.

Doing that well rests on your willingness to partner with an expert in the field, and your ability to choose the right one.

Companies that drive traffic to your website

There are a variety of service providers that aim to drive traffic to their clients' websites. Choosing the best one is about working out which is most relevant to your situation.

• Website developers — if you need to create or overhaul your website to make it as alluring to Google as possible, you'll need a web dev team.
• Digital marketers — the experts in advertising, digital marketers utilise paid strategies across Google, social media and other platforms to get in front of your target customers and send them to your site.
• SEO experts — it's the job of SEO experts to get your site on the first page of Google, ideally at the top, for relevant keywords and phrases.
• Digital agencies — combining all the expertise above, "full service" digital agencies often sell themselves as a one-stop shop for your search needs.
• Growth partners — consultants that represent the evolution of the digital agency. Organisations like us use deep strategic and technological expertise to do more than simply drive traffic — we turn sites into lead and sales generation machines.

What services increase website traffic in Google?

Increasing your website traffic from Google is quite simple in theory — the difficulty lies in the fact that everyone, including your competitors, is trying to do the same thing. Success comes down to two strategies that are similar in their outcome, yet entirely distinct in their methods.

• Organic — search engine optimisation (SEO) aims to make your website as alluring as possible to Google through strategies that cover both the front and back end. This takes time and investment, but the results — ranking high on the SERP — are more than worth it.
• Paid — pay-per-click (PPC) advertising offers far more instant gratification. This is where you bid for an ad placed atop the Google SERP and pay Google when someone clicks on it.

Traffic from Google must be earned — if you aren't getting much of it, your competitors are simply playing the Google game better than you are.

Why isn't my website getting visits from Google?

In a marketplace where your competitors understand the importance of search, traffic from Google has to be earned. There's a wealth of possible reasons you might be missing out, including:

• Your site isn't indexed — type your URL into Google to find out whether it's listed at all.
• Your site doesn't rank well — the vast majority of people never click through to the second page of Google, so you need SEO to get you onto the first.
• You're not making use of PPC — paid Google advertising is a critical part of a complete search strategy, not an optional extra.

How do I improve my Google SEO ranking?

While it requires investment and patience, SEO is the single most important element of your digital marketing strategy. And in a field as competitive and often confusing as SEO, the first step is finding an expert you can partner with.

Find a partner that uses real technology to establish your current SEO position and how to improve it. Make sure they can back up their words with evidence, and that they report on metrics tied directly to sales revenue or ROI — not just rankings. Ask any prospective partner:

• Can you tell me the size of my online opportunity, relative to my key revenue streams?
• Can you tell me where to invest, how much to invest, and the likely ROI?
• Can you provide key metrics like cost of acquisition per lead or sale?
• Can you provide accurate sales forecasting for each revenue stream?

What steps to follow to improve SEO?

The steps you'll need to take will be entirely unique to your situation. Start by getting a clear handle on the current state of play — once you've found an experienced, well-respected agency with a proven track record, get them to run a SWOT audit that identifies your search strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

SEO is a constantly changing channel that works 24/7/365, so you need to commit to investing in it every month. With the help of your SEO partner, focus that investment on areas like:

• Keyword research
• Content optimisation
• Website performance analysis and enhancement
• Aligning your website with real customer search behaviour

What steps to follow to improve local SEO?

Local search has become an ever-greater focus for Google in recent years, and for good reason — 46% of Google searches are for local information, and 88% of local searches on mobile end with a call or visit to the business within 24 hours.

Setting up a Google Business Profile helps you capture this opportunity by ranking for queries with local intent. Do the keyword research and fill out every field in a way that captures local search visits.

Extend your reach and SEO footprint by listing your business on respected local directories, keeping your name, address and contact details consistent everywhere. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews on Google and other review sites, and use Local Business structured data to get featured in rich results.

Or, if that all sounds like a lot, partner with an expert who can guide you through it — or simply take care of it for you.

What steps to follow to improve paid search?

PPC advertising is a simple enough concept, but far harder in practice. Success takes thorough keyword research to understand the terms worth targeting, and careful strategy to make sure your ads achieve both reach and ROI. As with SEO, the first step is finding an expert partner.

Look for a PPC partner that uses technology to drive strategy, has a proven track record, and reports on metrics tied directly to sales revenue or ROI. Ask them:

• How will you get a sense of the keywords I should be targeting?
• How much should I invest in PPC, and what can I expect in terms of ROI?
• What key metrics will you report on — CPC, CTR, cost of acquisition per lead or sale?
• When can I expect to see results?

Turning visibility into revenue

At Growth Partners, our DigitalArchitect® system is built to answer every question above — and more — empowering your marketing team, whether internal or external, with the information they need to succeed. By strengthening your search strategy through both organic and paid channels, and increasingly across the AI engines shaping how people search today, we turn your website into a genuine lead generation machine.

Ready to enhance your search strategy? We're ready to help.