[The Secret] To How We Help Companies Gain More Traffic & Get New Customers

Many marketers struggle to attract more visitors to their website that are relevant and engaged. But we’ve found a new way to tap into the powerful forces of human nature.

You can work really hard to grow your traffic and convert web leads.

But it turns out, going with the flow is easier and more effective.

We tap into the limitless potential of your company blog. We boost traffic with weekly content while also increasing engagement and leads, We do this with a system that’s driven by something really powerful: Your audiences’ engagement patterns.

I call this The Tidal Wave Technique because it uses the natural energy of your audience's readership – their habits and collective patterns – to take your website to a whole new level.

When you ride the tidal wave, you’ll see all your essential website metrics start to rise. You’ll have a flood of organic traffic, month after month. Higher search rankings. More qualified leads. And more customers from your website.

Not only will this make it easier to reach your business goals with your website – lead generation, higher conversions, more revenue, and top-tier thought leadership status. It will also translate to more value for your audience.

You’ll be creating content and publishing in a way that resonates with their needs, wants, and habits.

And, even more amazing, when you ride the wave, you’ll find that achieving blog growth isn’t just a demanding climb up a mountain. It can also be a self-perpetuating flow. Ready to ride?

Quick Takeaways:

• When you analyze your audience’s behavior, you’ll find trends that can help increase blog traffic.
• With the Tidal Wave Technique, you can ride the wave and help your blog grow consistently.
• There are a lot of elements that feed into the perfect scenario. Keep perfecting them and you’ll see phenomenal results.

What is the ‘Tidal Wave Technique’?

The Tidal Wave is a marketing technique you can use to increase blog traffic and to get more people reading and following your blog. It applies to organic blog traffic that comes from Google search.

How does it work?

With The Tidal Wave, you optimize the frequency of your posts and the quantity of content. You do this by looking at existing web traffic data to understand when the troughs and peaks are.

By reviewing your analytics to better understand consumer behavior in your industry, you can see when to change the frequency of your posts. You’ll also be able to identify opportunities for testing and refining your content marketing strategy.

What are tidal waves anyway and what do they have to do with blog traffic?

Tidal waves are formed by the push and pull of gravitational forces. They work in the same way as all immutable forces do.

There’s a regular, predictable, and never-ending flow of energy.

We’ve found the same immutable energy flow principle when analyzing the routine our blog readers appear to have.

It’s really fascinating when you start looking into this phenomenon with your own blog audience. We’ve found that our readership undulates with the days of the week in the same way that a tidal wave ebbs and flows.

So, we decided to capitalize on this inherent flow. We’re using a force that’s already existing and riding it, just like a surfer rides a wave.

Expand this principle further, and you can do even more with your blog traffic. Take tsunami waves as an example.

Tidal waves are different from tsunami waves. Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes on the ocean floor. They are less frequent, so they are more one-off events than something that will generate an ongoing effect.

But, because they are so powerful and rare, when they do happen, they tend to create a lasting impact.

In content marketing, a tsunami wave could be likened to a Google algorithm update or a really compelling marketing campaign. You’ll see a huge in-rush of traffic. It can be pretty overwhelming with a tsunami.

Then, even after the wave has passed, you’ll still have more readers simply because the tsunami event was so huge.

A tsunami can also be destructive. You may see this type of disastrous effect if your blog is knocked down as the result of an algorithm update.

Not the most exciting outcome. But, you can use even this to your advantage if you see it for what it is. An opportunity to identify where your blog isn’t strong. Then, you can let go of what isn’t working, rebuild, and improve what you have to create a blog that was even more effective than pre-tsunami.

Who should use the tidal wave technique?

If you want to increase blog traffic, time on page, and your number of return visitors, the tidal wave is for you.

Because it’s so effective at helping marketers achieve an ongoing boost to blog traffic, it’s useful for almost any situation. As long as you already have some blog traffic, you can channel your experience and research to create the tidal wave effects.

The tidal wave is also a perfect fit when you notice telltale signs that your content marketing is falling flat. For example, if your search results are dropping off. Or, if you’re seeing declining page views, social media shares, or revenue. Even if you’re simply plateauing – it’s time to do something.

What the tidal wave is not

The tidal wave is not a substitute for creating best-in-class content.

You still need to focus on SEO best practices. You still need to use a well-thought-out blogging plan to make sure you’re publishing customer-focused content.

Quality should still be at the heart of your blog creation. But, with the tidal wave technique, you won’t have to put in more effort and increase your content quality even more in order to increase traffic. You’ll simply keep doing what you’re doing.

We’ll talk more about what you can do to ensure your content creation and SEO are already at a high level later on. Then, when you combine a killer blog with the wave, that’s where you can take your blog to a whole new level with increasing traffic and readership.

Benefits of the tidal wave

What’s unique about the tidal wave technique is, you can achieve dynamic results. This is because you aren’t just getting more page views and impressions. You’re also working to increase the time your readers spend on the page and to attract more return visitors.

What this means is you’re delivering a more effective blog experience for your readership. So, they stick around. They sign up for your newsletter and come back for more. They share your posts with their network.

You aren’t simply achieving exciting blog traffic numbers. You’re using your analytics to better serve your audience. As you keep using the tidal wave and refining your timing, you’ll continue to see an increasingly positive impact on your blog metrics. And on your bottom line.

How to Use the Tidal Wave to Increase Blog Traffic

To get started with this technique, you’ll need to do some research. Look at your Google Analytics traffic metrics and figure out where your wave patterns are.

These wave patterns reveal your audience’s behavior trends. As long as you have regular blog traffic, you’ll be able to spot the patterns easily.

What we observed when looking at many of the websites we work with – especially with the blogs that post regularly – are traffic peaks on Monday and Tuesday.

Traffic usually starts to wane by Wednesday.

Then the bottom is on Saturday.

You can see the same pattern for Marketing Insider Group whether you’re looking at organic search traffic or all traffic. It’s a distinct peak on Monday and Tuesday. A trough every Saturday. Sunday traffic starts to pick up. And then the pattern starts all over again.

Take a look at the tidal wave pattern for organic search. The arrows are pointing to Monday each week.

The same pattern happens with all traffic:

Here’s a screenshot of my company's Search Console for the last 28 days. You can see that Impressions come down at the end of the week as well. And we know from looking at the blog traffic pattern, this is because fewer people are searching.

How to Ride the Wave

So, how can you leverage this wave to increase your readership?

To put the tidal wave into action, what you do is match your post publishing time to your site visits. This is the essence of the technique.

Weekly publishing times

Let’s say you normally publish eight posts every week. Typically what marketers do is spread out their blog publishing. You might post two on Monday and one every other day of the week to create a constant flow of new content on your site.

Instead of spreading out your posts evenly, ride the wave. In this case, your publishing schedule could look like this:

• Three on Monday
• Two on Tuesday
• Two on Wednesday
• One on Thursday

This is the schedule we use at Marketing Insider Group.

If you normally publish fewer blogs each week, that’s okay too. You can still use the wave effect to increase your readership. For four a week, your schedule would look like this:

• Two on Monday
• One on Tuesday
• One on Wednesday

Whatever your ideal blog posting frequency is, revolve it around your audience’s habits.

What you’re doing then is posting when there are more people searching. Take a look at the search trends for the search term ‘content marketing.’ There is always a peak in interest – and Google search activity – early in the week.

The red arrows point to Tuesday. You can see there’s always an early-week increase on Monday or Tuesday. The purple arrows show Saturday. You’ll notice there’s always a slow down at the end of the week for ‘content marketing’.

What about Friday? Should your blog really take the day off?

Friday is actually a prime day for publishing end-of-week content. To make the most out of the tidal wave, you’ll want to take advantage of this day. We’ll talk more about Friday later.

Daily publishing times

You also want to factor in the time of day. What is the best time to automate blog posts for your audience?

Study the times when people come to your site by looking at Google Analytics. If they come in the morning, publish early. If they visit in the mid-afternoon, publish then.

For ‘content marketing,’ a 3 to 5 am ET publishing time works well.

Keep in mind, different industries will have their own right timing. Also, your audience may follow patterns that vary from the norm in your industry – not to mention natural changes that are going to occur over time. So, be sure to continue tracking the search trends that are relevant to your audience, and to your own blog traffic trends.

Know Your Traffic Sources to Optimize Your Tidal Wave Timing

Is most of your organic traffic coming from Google?

Study all of your channels and traffic sources to gain a clear understanding of your audience’s behavior trends.

In rare cases, you could end up with more traffic from Facebook or another platform. This will impact your wave pattern. There are also specific external factors that can skew your tidal wave. For example, if you provide stock market data, your blog traffic is going to revolve around trading hours.

Boost your tidal wave with social media

You can give your blog traffic an additional boost with social media. Share your posts right after you publish your blog.

Save time by automating your marketing process instead of doing it manually. You can schedule your blog posts to publish at 5 am and then set your social media posts at the right time based on your industry, your audience, and the norm for your preferred social media sites.

Share your blog posts on Instagram for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands.

Use Twitter for marketing and political niches. Twitter is also prime territory if your goal is to encourage more comments.

For all B2B blogs, use LinkedIn. My good friend Jason Miller, former head of content at LinkedIn, suggests brands post once or twice per business day on the platform. You can work this into your posting schedule to boost your traffic even more.

The important thing here with riding the wave is that you keep feeding your analytics research and your experience into the equation. Pay attention to the wave patterns. Watch for anomalies, tsunami waves, and other changes.

The more you do this, the easier it is to recognize patterns. You’ll clearly see where you can tweak your timing or your strategy to achieve even better results.

Now that you have the essentials of the tidal wave technique down, let’s jump into the ‘tube ride’ and have even more fun.

Leveraging the Tube Ride: The Ultimate Surfing Move and a Powerful Strategy for Your Blog

When you have all the right conditions in the water, a wave will form a cylinder or tube shape before it breaks. When this happens, a surfer can ride the center of the barrel. They are literally riding through a moving tube of water.

Ask any experienced surfer and they’ll tell you, the tube ride is an incredible experience. And, it makes all the time and hard work they put into improving their surfing skills more than worth it.

In marketing, you can create a ‘tube ride’ when all the elements of your blog come together to achieve brilliant results.

Here’s how to do it:

Start with great content

For the tube ride and the tidal wave technique to be effective, you need to start with great content.

• As with all of your marketing, focus your blog content on what matters to your target customers. Answer their questions. Solve their problems. Offer helpful insights that are relevant to their lifestyle.
• Use thought leadership. Dig deep with your blog posts to offer expert-level information. Aim to publish the best posts out there on every topic you write about.
• To get backlinks to your blog, use the Skyscraper Technique. Having high-quality backlinks is an important part of SEO, so this technique can be excellent for boosting your search rankings. HubSpot has created a useful overview of how to use the Skyscraper. 
• Keep current SEO best practices such as E-A-T in mind when developing content for your blog.

1. Google wants to know your blog is written by an expert.
2. That it has authority in your industry, which happens when authority sites are linking to your blog or mentioning it, and when you have a lot of social media shares.
3. It also needs to be trustworthy. Google looks at factors such as transparency on your site and linking out to authority external sources to determine how trustworthy your blog is.

Adapt to consumer behavior

With great content, you have the right conditions. Now, to turn your tidal wave into a tube ride, you need to adapt to your audience.

Here’s the thing. Consumer behavior for any industry changes slowly. If you don’t notice those small, incremental changes, you may not realize your content marketing is falling apart.

It’s like the frog in a pot of water. If you put the frog in the water while it’s lukewarm, it won’t notice the slowly rising temperature until it’s too late. Ouch!

Don’t let this happen to your blog.

Instead, be adaptable and keep pivoting in ways that will help you to maintain those optimal tube ride conditions.

Try changing the frequency of your posts. Watch your analytics to see if posting more or less each week makes a difference. The reality is, what worked well four months ago might not be your best strategy right now because your audience’s behavior has changed.

• If you already have a massive blog library, try lowering your publishing frequency. Then, focus on optimizing the old posts and doing more keyword research for new posts.
• If not, try increasing your frequency. You may have to hire domain experts or a content writing service for this.

Look at your return visitors and your new visitors separately. The reason you should do this is you want to figure out if you have two different groups with unique reading habits. For example, you may find out you need to publish short-form advanced content for your repeat visitors. Your new visitors may be more interested in comprehensive evergreen content.

Pay attention to what’s going on in your industry. And, what’s going on in the world. Be sensitive to topics and come up with ways to offer hope, inspiration, and helpful tips that revolve around what’s going on.

And finally, find your balance with your blog posts. You need to focus on quality and quantity, conversions and ROI. Everything isn’t going to always go in the same direction. But, striking the best balance possible for your brand is how you’ll get your ‘tube ride.’

Double Up the Wave – And Your Blog Traffic

A ‘double up’ is a surfing term used to describe one large wave followed by a smaller wave.

As part of the tidal wave marketing technique, a ‘double up’ is when you create a small spike in traffic on Friday or Saturday. Or whichever day your blog traffic wave reaches its lowest point.

By leveraging your low traffic day to publish or share a type of content that resonates with your audience’s end-of-week mindset, you can create a second, smaller traffic spike each week.

When you double up, you’re getting even more out of your tidal wave, creating more momentum for your blog. You’re also capturing your audience when they are in a different mindset, which can lead to different results.

For example, as Neil Patel has pointed out, Mondays may get the most blog traffic, but you may see the most social shares and comments on Saturdays. This is because people have more time to browse the internet and engage. During the week, they may only have time to read your blog post, get the information they need, and move on.

Here’s how doubling up works:

Identify the day you see your weekly dip. For most blogs, this will be the end of the workweek.

Choose a fresh format that’s different than your blog post and publish or share that content on your low day. This is your ‘double up.’

Then, test. Keep refining your ‘double up’ content until you get that second wave.

Here are some ideas you can use. You can try one, two, or all of the above. Just be sure to track your blog metrics when you try something different.

Newsletter: Do you send out an email newsletter once a week? If Friday is your low day, send it on Friday to generate a traffic spike. Try sending it around 3 pm as this will give your readers enough time to look at your newsletter and click over to your blog before leaving the office.

Experiment with the time and with the layout of your newsletter. For example, you can try sending it at 1 pm instead of 3 pm for six weeks and then track what happens. This could help you reach more readers in a different time zone.

Social media: To attract the end-of-week attention, make your social media post really interesting. You can make it visually appealing. For example, post a series of images, publish an infographic or another illustration, or make your post a weekly roundup.

You can also use a different tone. It’s the end of the week, so make your social posts on Friday inspiring or even entertaining rather than your typical educational content.

Podcast series: Create a weekly podcast or vlog to talk about what happened this week in your industry. This can be a great way to engage with your audience at the end of the week when they’re not necessarily going to sit and read a blog but they’d love to listen to what you have to say.

Keep Refining Your Tidal Wave

Once you get your tidal wave going, the way to keep it moving is to continually test.

Change your posting frequency. Add a podcast to your weekly content plan. Make your newsletters shorter. Alter the look and tone of your social media posts on Mondays, Fridays, or at noon.

As you experiment, keep watching your relevant blog and business metrics. These include:

• Pages per visit
• Time on page
• Bounce rate
• Unique visitors
• Visitor to subscriber ratio
• Conversion rate

And, only commit to what you can handle. The reality is, if you try to post too much, you’ll get burnt out. You could also see your quality drop.

Find your balance. Rely on outside expert help when you need it. And never stop getting out there and riding those waves.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.

Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.