How To Increase SEO Traffic for Your Clients

Search engine optimization is crucial to make your clients’ websites more visible–resulting in more traffic and opportunities to convert prospects into customers. But how do you go about increasing it for your clients?

In order to build an effective SEO strategy, the main objective should focus on boosting their online and offline traffic. 

And how does your agency showcase that the long-term investment in SEO services is benefiting your client’s bottom line? 

Although it may take months to show your clients the gains you’re getting them, your agency needs to communicate that the wait is worth it. 

Using a marketing dashboard to monitor your clients’ SEO traffic progress is one way to do it. 

In this article, we’ll unpack everything your agency needs to highlight its value while generating SEO traffic to your client’s websites.

• Explaining SEO Traffic to Your Clients

• How SEO Generates Traffic

• 5 Ways To Increase Your Clients' SEO Traffic

• When Should Your Clients Expect to See Results?

Explaining SEO Traffic to Your Clients

Every agency can vouch for the importance of SEO. Sometimes, it’s a non-negotiable for a business. Other times, it might not necessarily be a top priority for a client. 

For example, a pre-revenue SaaS business looking to attract investors may not have the time or patience to wait for the results of an organic search strategy to kick in. 

Understanding your clients’ business goals–whether they’re looking for immediate foot traffic to their physical stores or looking for sustainable long-term growth–will help you determine the right marketing strategy, including whether to focus your agency’s search marketing efforts on PPC vs. SEO.

So if an organic strategy is a right fit for your clients, there are a few things you’ll need to explain to them about SEO traffic: for one, it takes time to build up. And two, it’s worth it in the long run. And there are tried and true ways to build up SEO traffic.

“With SEO, you have to dedicate so much time to figure out what actually works and belong to communities that are also researching things. You have to be a content area expert, and it changes. If you were an expert last year and stopped paying attention, you’re not an expert anymore. The SEO we do this year is not the SEO we did last year– it’s just the way it is.” - Jens Rhoades, President of Floodlight SEO.

Explaining SEO Traffic Through SEO Analytics 

Using SEO analytics as your agency’s competitive advantage helps you stand out from the crowd. It’s also a great way to visually represent their marketing metrics and SEO KPIs to prove their investment is worth it.  

“There’s so much information you can gather from all the data available,” says Michael Gasser, Co-owner of Squeeze Marketing. “We report detailed analytics and data every month as a retention method,” he adds. 

Highlight your clients’ organic marketing strategies by using SEO tools such as a search engine rank tracker and backlink monitor. Combine them into one convenient dashboard like the one below:

Reduce time spent on client reporting and seize back billable hours with custom marketing dashboards. Start your 14-day free trial now.

Explaining to Clients Why SEO Traffic Is So Important

As time progresses, the SEO traffic you generate for your clients is often much less expensive than paid traffic–highlighting the value of hiring your agency to manage their marketing budgets. 

For example, it takes time to get a blog off the ground, but if you keep at it, the organic traffic can start to grow exponentially. As your client’s Domain Authority and SEO traffic grows over time, you should be able to reduce their paid advertising budget (or even eliminate it entirely!). 

Another way to explain the importance of SEO to your clients is to remind them that a fancy website only goes so far if no one is coming across it on the search engine results page (SERPs). To stand out from a sea of competitors, they’ll need to play the slow and steady game of SEO. 

For example, conducting an SEO competitor analysis is a worthwhile strategy to build their web traffic. This not only reveals who their competitors are and how they’re driving traffic but also points you in the direction of specific keywords to implement. 

How SEO Generates Traffic 

There are many different types of keywords but two main types of SEO strategies to help get your clients’ websites on the top of search engines: on-page and off-page SEO. 

On-page SEO vs. Off-page SEO Strategies

Knowing that on-page SEO focuses on specific factors within a client’s webpage, think about ways to increase the chances for it to appear on the SERPs. For example, creating relevant subtopics that a user may be looking for. 

Let’s say you have a real estate agent who’s noticed a decrease in clients and came to your agency for a real estate SEO strategy. Increasing their awareness and brand authority starts with the content on their website. Can you create a blog post about topics their audience is searching for or build a landing page dedicated to new homeowners? 

Here’s an example of a Chicago real estate agent’s website that answers questions new homeowners have: 

On the other hand, off-page SEO strategies are equally as important. Google and other search engines assume your client’s site has valuable content if others are referring to it. More on that later, so keep reading all the way to the end! 

Are there community websites your real estate agent’s website can be linked to? Reach out to as many relevant sources as possible to build up their authority in the SERPs. 

5 Ways To Increase Your Clients’ SEO Traffic

Improve your client’s search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to their website by following these 5 SEO techniques: 

1. Target the Right Keywords

Keyword research should generally be the first step of your SEO strategy as well as your overall content strategy. The questions you want to answer with keyword research is: “What is my clients’ target audience searching for on Google?” and “Why are they searching for that?”

Knowing the exact keywords and queries their audience is using, as well as the intent behind the type of keyword,  is a crucial first step in increasing their search traffic.

One way to figure out what queries people are using is to type the keyword into Google and look at the suggestions. 

For example, if their target audience is eCommerce entrepreneurs, type in “ecommerce” and you’ll see other common search terms that are being used:

AgencyAnalytics connects to 80 + marketing channels to give your team an overview of your client’s SEO marketing strategies–in one convenient dashboard.

Here are the two of the main things your agency should report on for your clients:

• Search volume: How many searches for this keyword are run every month?

• Keyword difficulty: How hard is it to rank on the first page of Google’s search results for this keyword?

• Rankings: How are their keywords stacking up against their competitors in the SERPs? 

• Organic traffic: How much traffic are they getting organically from your SEO strategies? 

Now, you may be wondering what qualifies as “decent search volume”, although, as Brian Dean points out in his article on keyword research, that depends on your niche:

For example, a long tail keyword in the fitness niche like “best ab exercises” gets 10K-100K searches per month,” he explains. “But a long tail keyword in a B2B space like digital marketing like “best SEO software” only gets 100-1K monthly searches.

Conduct some research on the search volume for your client’s specific niche to gain a better understanding of what they should aim for.

Once you build up their domain authority, they can start going after more competitive keywords that have high search volume.

Read More: Pros & Cons of the Best Keyword Ranking Tools

2. Create High-quality Content

Google has put a lot of effort into ensuring that the best content rises to the top of its search results. As a rule of thumb, content marketing (including SEO) doesn’t work without creating great content.

Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way, but if your client wants to rank well in the world’s most popular search engine, creating high-quality content is their best bet.

Here are a few considerations:

Match Search Intent

The most important thing to consider is whether their content matches the search intent.

Will your client’s audience find what they were looking for on the first page of Google’s search results?

The four types of search intent include: 

• Informational intent: When a user is looking for information. For example, “capital of Mozambique”, “ketogenic diet”, “how to optimize a YouTube video for SEO”, etc.

• Transactional intent: When a user is searching for a product they want to buy now. For example, “Moleskine notebook”, “order pizza Barcelona”, etc. 

• Commercial intent: When a user is researching a potential purchase. For example, “top hotels London”, “best email marketing software”, etc.

• Navigational intent: When a user wants to go to a specific website. For example, “Sennheiser United Kingdom”, “Tropical MBA podcast”, etc.

When you target your client’s keyword, you want to determine and match the search intent. Otherwise, they’ll likely struggle to rank on Google. 

Here’s a helpful table on search intent:

Make It Comprehensive

Aim to create the most comprehensive resource on the topic on the internet. Once you determine search intent, your first priority should be to match it. Once that’s done, think about how to make their content even more helpful than existing results, ie, their competitors.

To accomplish this, put yourself in the shoes of the person who typed this keyword into Google:

• What are the problems that they may encounter?

• What are the most helpful tips and tricks that can make things easier?

• What additional information would they find useful?

It’s important to resist the temptation to simply pad the word count, though. Remember the search intent and ask: “what is the person who typed this keyword into Google trying to achieve?”.

Make It Better Than the Competition

Next, focus on making your client’s content better than their competitors. Not just longer–better. Many SEO practitioners mistake the Skyscraping technique as simply creating a post with more words than the competition, but more fluff will not help your client in the long wrong. More in-depth content will. Analyze the content that’s already ranking on the first page of Google’s search results and identify how to improve on it.

Here are a few ideas:

• Use proper formatting: 1-2 line paragraphs, bullet points for lists, images to break up the text, etc.

• Have more (and better) data: Back up your client’s claims with statistics whenever you can. It’s best practice to only use data that is no more than two years old.

• Add real-life examples: Tell the story of someone who’s been there, done that. Preferably with numbers, screenshots, and other relevant examples. The fact is, people love reading case studies.

• Cite third-party research: Try to find relevant scientific papers or trusted resources. Just make sure to actually read the publication you’re citing in full. Otherwise, you run the risk of misrepresenting the research (not to mention your client’s reputation).

• Create custom images: Find a graphic designer on websites like Upwork who create custom images for blog posts at an affordable price to save your agency’s time and resources.

• Make it unique: Regurgitating content that is already published elsewhere is playing a losing game.  Include unique insights that make your client’s content different from what is already available. 

It’s important to understand that the competition for those coveted spots on the first page of Google’s search results is fierce. This means you need to outwork everyone that’s already on it if you want your clients to stand a chance.

3. Optimize Your Clients’ Content

One way to optimize a client’s website content is with Clearscope or SurferSEO, SEO tools that help your clients rank higher on Google’s search results. These tools save your agency time by showing you how to make your client’s content more relevant.

Simply put, the better their content matches the search intent, the higher it will rank.

Clearscope’s most valuable feature is optimizing content for relevancy. Paste your client’s article into it, and it displays a score from F to A++. This score is based on word count, readability, and relevance compared to the competition.

Once you have your grade, make adjustments to improve it. For example, include more relevant terms from the list provided by Clearscope. Continue tweaking until you get an A+ or A++ in order to increase your client’s odds of ranking on the first page of Google’s search results.

4. Be Aggressive About Backlinks

Arguably, the second most important aspect of Google’s ranking factor is backlinks, as people linking to a web page indicate that the web page provides value.

The most straightforward way to get backlinks is guest posting, where you offer a free guest post to an established website in exchange for a link to your client’s website. Expect at least one link in your byline, but you may be able to place another one in the post itself.

Of course, if you want to land a guest post, you need to make sure that the article your agency offers on your client’s behalf is top-notch.

Also, keep in mind that all websites are not equal in the eyes of Google. The higher the domain authority of a website, the more valuable a link is from that website.

Use the Ahrefs Website Authority Checker tool to see if it’s worthwhile to submit a guest post to a particular website.

5. Pay Attention to Your On-Page SEO

Perform an SEO site check to crawl your client’s website to identify common SEO issues that could be preventing the site from ranking as well as it could. The best SEO audit tool identifies critical issues and groups them by severity, so you have a clear understanding of which to fix first.

When it comes to on-page content, the most obvious of them is using your target keywords in  your client’s blog post or landing page:

• Include it in the title.

• Mention it in the first 100 words.

• Use it several times in the article itself. Don’t overdo it, though. Make it natural and evenly spaced throughout the page, otherwise it may come across as spammy.

• Use it in the meta description of the post.

• Use it in the URL of the post.

• Use it in image file names, alt tags, and image titles 

All this on-page work helps make it more clear to Google what your client’s content is about.

You should also make an effort to improve the page load speed, as Google has indicated that it’s an important ranking factor.

The first step to improving your client’s page speed is to compress all images on their website with a tool like TinyJPG. 

Also, if your client’s website was built using WordPress, switching to a lightweight theme, removing unnecessary plugins, and moving to a blogging platform like, Ghost, help improve page loading speeds.

Read More: Website Audit Essentials

When Should Your Clients Expect To See Results?

Your clients will most likely be asking you how long it will take to see results with SEO. 

Here’s what your agency should communicate: 

• Within the first three months, their keyword ranking reports should show a stead increase in rankings along with a boost in impressions 

• Within the first six months, there should be traffic from Google from keywords outside their brand name.

• Within the first 12 months, there should be an acceleration in organic search traffic growth.

• Within the first two years, your client should have built up their authority in the eyes of Google and “start ranking for almost anything”. That’s when your clients should see the bulk of the SEO growth that your agency helped them achieve. 

The Takeaway

There’s no way around it: building organic SEO traffic takes time. However, once you turn your client’s blog into a traffic-generating asset, they’ll begin seeing an increase in organic traffic, including unique visitors, without much additional effort.

And all of this effort can be traced back to your agency by using SEO reporting tools. Monitor your clients' key SEO metrics in real-time in a marketing dashboard that keeps you and your clients on the same page. 

Clients want to see the progress in SEO efforts, and AgencyAnalytics makes it easy to deliver.

Use a customizable SEO report template or a Local SEO report template to highlight your agency's value. Try AgencyAnalytics free for 14 days!