The pursuit of higher website traffic never ends, and for good reason, considering 81% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase or booking a service.
For SMBs, some of which have low profit margins, even a small boost in traffic can really move the needle. The opposite is also true. A drop in traffic can mean a significant decline in sales and revenue, threatening the stability of the business and in some cases, its survival.
However, despite the importance of website traffic, many small businesses make SEO mistakes that can kill their traffic and cost them their business.
This article will walk you through ways to avoid doing just that: killing website traffic and will help you protect its performance and, by extension, the entire business.
Not all website builders or website infrastructure are created equal. In fact, they vary significantly in their SEO readiness. An SEO-ready website builder should offer fundamental features like reliable hosting, automatically generated sitemaps, SSL encryption, and structured data markup, among others.
The choice of builder also affects crucial factors such as responsiveness and page load times - factors that have a direct influence over ranking. While we will explore these aspects in more detail later, it's important to note that an optimized builder can significantly improve these metrics, while a less optimized builder can really damage site ranking.
A website builder’s score in Google’s Core Web Vitals technology report, which measures loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability, is a good indicator of how well the builder performs. However, as highlighted in this Search Engine Journal article, different builders perform differently in these metrics.
Here, too, the website builder has much to do with the site’s responsiveness, and site responsiveness has much to do with the current ranking. According to Statista data showing that in the last quarter of 2023, mobile devices generated 58.67 percent of global website traffic - that’s more than half! Moreover, Google’s mobile-first indexing means that the mobile version of the site is considered the primary version for ranking purposes. Simply put, if a site is not optimized for mobile, you risk tanking its traffic (not to mention user experience).
When you choose the right website builder, most of the heavy lifting for mobile responsiveness is done for you. You get to enjoy automatically responsive templates that adjust to different screen sizes, built-in mobile preview tools to see how the site looks on various devices (‘across breakpoints’ we call it), mobile-specific customization options to fine-tune the mobile experience, and more. However, you still need to actively think "mobile-first" when creating content. Scannable content that's easy to read on small screens is key.
Another aspect of mobile responsiveness is page load time, which brings us to our next point.
Page speed is crucial. It can make or break SEO and user experience, especially on mobile, where attention spans are low. As mentioned, your chosen website builder has a lot to do with page speed, leveraging browser caching, minimizing the use of excessive scripts, optimizing CSS and JavaScript delivery, and ensuring the hosting provider offers adequate speed and reliability - but there are additional steps you can take to optimize it. For instance, heavy elements, especially those above the fold, can slow down page speed.
Also, it’s not a bad idea to regularly test the site’s mobile performance using tools such as Chrome User Experience Report, PageSpeed Insights, and Lighthouse and make the necessary adjustments to keep it running smoothly.
Related:
Beyond PageSpeed Insights: How to measure and optimize web performance
Everything you need to know about mobile page speed - Interview with our own Russ Jeffery
In the old days of SEO, there was a significant focus on ‘tricking’ search engines with keyword manipulation, often leading to keyword stuffing. While keywords are still important, the focus has shifted to creating content designed for human readers rather than search engines. While open to interpretations, Google's approach to AI-generated content further emphasizes the importance of quality content “however it is produced.”
To meet Google’s quality standards, strive to create content that establishes experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in the field (E-E-A-T) and focuses on providing genuine value to the target audience. If you’re drawing blank, try offering real-world examples, expert opinions, and actionable advice.
Unlike larger businesses or enterprises that may have a national reach, SMBs often thrive by attracting local clients seeking services or products close to home. That’s why local SEO can be a huge traffic driver for them and a way to stand out from the competition (especially as many SMBs neglect this strategy).
To start, simply claim and optimize the business’s Google Business Profile listing. GBP allows the management of how the business appears on Google Maps and local search results, including essential information such as address, phone number, hours of operation, and customer reviews. Yes, reviews can really influence local search rankings, so be sure to actively encourage happy customers to leave positive reviews on Google (as well as other review platforms).
You can also tweak the website to be ‘local-friendly,’ meaning you can incorporate local keywords in the site content and metadata (but remember, don’t force it - make it natural) - this will signal search engines that the business is relevant to local searches. You can go as far as creating location-specific pages that address local topics or events to engage users further. One thing to note is that it’s important to maintain consistency in the business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) across all online directories to improve chances of being found by potential customers in the area. That’s also true for GBP; it has to be regularly updated to enhance local search visibility (if your website builder
integrates directly with GBP - that’s even better).
Whether it’s the infrastructure you use, your site’s responsiveness, its load time, the quality of your content, or your local SEO efforts—there are absolutely steps you can take to avoid killing your website traffic. However, remember: traffic alone isn’t enough. All the visitors in the world won’t translate into sales if it’s not the right kind of traffic. While generating lots of generic content can cast a wider net, more focused content that the target audience finds genuinely valuable will make a much bigger impact. Optimizing the site for conversion is equally important, and your choice of website builder can play a significant role in this as well.
