How many visitors do you think NeilPatel.com generates each month?
Maybe a million… maybe 2 million?
I bet you’re going to guess 1,866,913.
If that’s what you guessed, you are wrong. This blog actually generated 2,530,346 visitors. 1,866,913 is the number that came from search engines.
So, what’s the secret to my ever-growing Google traffic?
Sure, I have optimized my on-page SEO, I’ve built links, written tons of blog post… I’ve done all of the stuff that most of my competition has done. But doing the same stuff as your competition isn’t enough.
My secret sauce is that I optimize for user signals.
Last week, I broke down some of the user signals Google looks at, as well as providing benchmarks to aim for if you don’t want to be penalized by Google.
If you aren’t familiar with user signals, check the article I linked to above.
So, how do you optimize for user signals?
Well, I know everyone has different types of websites, so I thought I would share the process I use to optimize NeilPatel.com.
Are you showing people what they want?
Google Analytics is an amazing tool. I’m so addicted to it that I log in at least 3 or 4 times a day. Heck, I even log in on weekends.
But here’s the thing, it only tells you half the story. It gives you numbers, but it doesn’t help you visualize what people are doing and what they aren’t.
For example, here is what my main blog page looked like according to Crazy Egg:
What’s wrong with the image?
Everyone is going to the blog to learn more about marketing. Above the fold, I have a box that showcases an SEO Analyzer. But there is one big issue: it’s barely clicked compared to the drop-down that lets you filter the blog content.
The SEO Analyzer had 128 clicks versus 359 clicks to the content filtering option.
Because you didn’t care for it as much, I removed it from the main blog page. And now when you head to the blog page you can see the filtering options above the fold.
I am looking to see what you click on and what you don’t. Simple as that.
If I keep showing you something you aren’t clicking on, I am wasting the opportunity to present you with something you do want to see. Which means I either need to adjust it or delete it.
Now, let me show you my current homepage:
What’s wrong?
Go ahead, take a guess…
Well, looking at the image you’ll notice there are tons of hot spots in the footer. That’s where the navigation is. With there being all of the clicks on the navigation, I should consider adding a navigation menu bar in the header.
Are you getting the hang of how to make your website more user-friendly? Well, let’s try another one.
Here’s an element in the sidebar of my blog posts:
That element only has 1 click. That’s terrible considering that the blog post generated 10,016 visits. And to top it off, that click came from a repeat visitor.
My goal is to convert more first-time visitors into leads, which makes up the majority of my visitors, but they are the lowest percentage of my leads.
So, what did I do? I deleted that element and you no longer see it in my sidebar.
Are you optimizing for mobile?
Let’s face it, more people are visiting your site using mobile devices than laptops or traditional computers.
If that’s not the case, it is just a matter of time.
So, have you optimized your site for mobile? And no, I’m not just talking about having a responsive design because everyone is doing that these days.
If you look at the image above, you’ll notice that I removed the image of myself and a few other elements. This helps make the loading experience faster and it helps focus people’s attention on the most important elements.
Similar to the desktop version, my mobile homepage has a 24% conversion rate. When my mobile version included a picture of me above the fold, my conversion rate dropped to 17%… hence there is no picture of me.
source https://neilpatel.com/blog/more-google-traffic/
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