Imagine stepping away from the daily grind for a day, a week, or even a month… meanwhile, your website keeps generating revenue.
No more pausing paid ads and watching your income plummet to zero.
Sounds like a dream, right?
But, let’s face it – that’s not where you are right now.
Many ClickFunnels users focus all their time on paid ads, increasing budgets, and hoping for increased profits.
However, buying traffic is only one part of building an online business. If you focus only on ads, the constant need to manage campaigns keeps you stuck in the grind you hoped to escape.
This is where SEO comes in.
In this blog post, I’m going to show you how properly optimizing your website for organic traffic through SEO can be the key to unlocking a new stream of automated, passive income.
And the best part?
We’ll go through 10 steps to help you see results within just three months.
Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Why Paid Ads Take So Much of Your Time
It’s been challenging, hasn’t it?
You’ve poured hours, days, and weeks into building a profitable business. If you’re like most people on ClickFunnels, growing your passion or side hustle to profitability has let you quit your regular 9-5 job.
It took relentless work to get everything right.
And yet, when you’ve got a profitable funnel and you try to scale it, something isn’t working like you expected.
The need to constantly monitor your paid ads takes up all your time and energy. You thought that more ad spend, combined with your finely-tuned funnel, would finally be the moment when you could step off the gas.
But it feels like you’re back at square one.
Is it your funnel that’s the problem? Or is it something else?
You’re Not the Only One!
You’re not alone.
This is a problem many online entrepreneurs face when relying solely on paid traffic.
ClickFunnels co-founder Russell Brunson writes about this problem in his book Traffic Secrets. The introduction is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs like you avoid relying on one way of getting traffic to your funnels and offers.
At first, it seems like the answer is quick, predictable traffic.
But breaking free of this cycle is what leads to what you’re looking for consistent, scalable passive income.
5 Reasons Why You Can’t Afford to Rely Only on Paid Traffic
The root issue here is a lack of diversified traffic sources.
When all your traffic comes from paid ads, you’re at the mercy of rising ad costs, competition, and ad fatigue.
You can’t rest for a minute when this is your sole source of income.
And without an alternative source – like organic traffic – you’ll always need to reinvest in ads just to keep your sales flowing.
Here are 5 more reasons why relying on paid ads as your sole traffic source keeps you stuck:
- You’re competing for the same space: It’s very rare for a business to have no competitors online. But sometimes your product or message is so unique, that it’s easy for you to make sales at first. But sooner or later competition is going to come and you’ll be fighting to survive.
- Ad fatigue sets in: As people see your ads over and over, they’re less likely to engage, reducing your conversions. This forces you to constantly build new sales funnels and campaigns.
- Managing campaigns is a full-time job: Paid ads need ongoing attention. Whether it’s monitoring performance, tweaking bids, or updating creatives, paid traffic demands continuous input. Instead of focusing on growing your business or exploring other revenue streams, you’re trapped in a cycle of campaign management, taking up hours every day.
- No spend, no sales: With paid traffic, the moment you stop paying, the traffic dries up. This means there’s no residual benefit – each new sale comes at a direct cost. You’re stuck in a hamster wheel, where maintaining the same level of traffic requires ongoing investment, leaving no time to focus on more sustainable, organic growth strategies.
- You’re missing out on 53% of all trackable website traffic: According to Fit Small Business, 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from organic and unpaid traffic from search engines. If you’re only focusing on paid traffic, you’re never going to reach everyone in your market.
But there’s hope.
In the next section, we’ll explore how SEO can solve this problem and help you achieve the scalable, passive income you’re aiming for.
How SEO Unlocks Passive Income for Your Business
You’ve already experienced how relying on paid ads alone can drain your time and resources.
But what if you could grow traffic and sales without constantly throwing more money into paid channels?
There are a number of alternatives you might consider:
- Rely on word-of-mouth marketing
- Boost your social media efforts
- Strengthen your email marketing game
These are all valid options, but there’s one approach that stands out as particularly powerful and scalable: SEO.
In fact, a SearchEngine Journal poll found that 49% of marketers say SEO provides the highest ROI of any marketing channel. This makes SEO not just another option, but one of the most reliable ways to drive long-term results.
Why Does SEO Work So Well?
Here are 5 main reasons why SEO is a game-changer for online businesses:
- Sustainable, long-term traffic: Unlike paid ads, which stop driving traffic the moment you turn them off, SEO allows you to build a consistent stream of visitors for years. According to Ahrefs, 60% of the pages in the top 10 search results are over 3 years old. This means you can create content once, rank well, and let it generate leads or sales for years to come.
- Intent-driven traffic: Unlike paid channels like Facebook Ads, where you’re interrupting users as they scroll, people come to Google because they have a problem to solve. They’re actively searching for solutions. Organic traffic is generally more qualified, leading to higher-quality clients and better conversions.
- Less need for constant funnel creation: With a well-optimized SEO strategy, you don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel with new funnels every month. Instead, you can create a strong, evergreen funnel that consistently pulls in organic traffic and continues working for you, month after month, without ongoing effort.
- Retargeting opportunities: Organic visitors from SEO can fuel highly effective retargeting campaigns. These visitors can be fed into new lookalike audiences on platforms like Facebook, cutting costs and improving ad performance by targeting people who’ve already shown interest in your business.
- Gain a competitive edge: Unlike paid ads, where bidding wars determine who’s seen first, SEO gives you more control. If you optimize correctly, you can secure top positions on search engines and get in front of potential clients without constantly outspending your competitors.
Now, imagine what your life would be like with a steady stream of passive traffic.
Leads or sales come in regularly without you having to spend thousands more on ads. Your time is freed up to focus on growing your business, not just maintaining it.
Of course, the common objection is that SEO takes too long to work.
That’s why we’ll break down below how to implement this SEO strategy effectively – within 3 months – so you can start seeing results sooner rather than later.
10 Steps to Optimize Your Website for SEO – and See Results in 3 Months
1. Manually Index Your Website On Google
Indexing your website on Google is the first step toward getting organic traffic. This process tells Google that your site exists, so it can start appearing in search results. Although Google can automatically crawl sites, manually indexing ensures that your new or updated pages are picked up quickly. Without this, even the best SEO strategies won’t help if Google doesn’t know about your site.
Key Tip
Create your account on Google Search Console and verify your website domain as soon as possible. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Google Analytics account first and connect that account to your website.
If adding a piece of code to your website doesn’t sound scary, then you can also verify using a meta tag.
2. Create a Coherent Site Structure
A clear site structure is vital for both users and search engines. It refers to how your content is organized, like arranging pages into categories and subcategories that make sense. If your site is confusing to navigate, search engines will struggle to rank your content. A well-structured site boosts user experience and helps Google understand which pages are most important.
Key Tip
Create a hierarchy where your homepage links to category pages, and those category pages link to detailed subpages.
3. Make Your Website Easily Crawlable
Crawlability is about making your website accessible to search engine bots so they can analyze and index your content. If search engines struggle to crawl your site, your rankings will suffer. Blocked pages or overly complex URLs can prevent crawlers from doing their job. The easier it is for bots to navigate your site, the better your chances of ranking higher.
Key Tip
Create a sitemap.xml file and submit this file to Google. Most website builders and platforms will auto-generate a sitemap file for you. With a little research, you should be able to find this file and submit it to Google Search Console.
4. Keyword Research
Keywords are the backbone of SEO. They’re the phrases people type into search engines when looking for information. Effective keyword research involves finding terms your target audience uses and incorporating them naturally into your content. Without proper keywords, your pages won’t show up for relevant searches, no matter how good the content is.
Key Tip
Focus on keywords that have high intent (i.e. the people searching for these terms are likely to buy your services) but have low competition. Usually, this means you’re looking for ‘long-tail keywords’. These terms are called ‘long tail’ because they’re over 3 words long.
For example, a ‘short tail’ keyword might be protein powder. This is a highly competitive keyword that will take years or a huge investment into SEO to rank high.
But… if you type into Google ‘protein powder for’ you find a range of long tail keywords like:
- protein powder for women
- protein powder for weight loss
- protein powder for kids
You can get even more specific by finding even longer tail keywords.
For example… if you type into Google ‘protein powder for women’ you find a range of longer long tail keywords like:
- protein powder for women weight loss
- protein powder for women over 50
- protein powder for women weight gain
The trade-off is this.
The longer the tail on your target keyword, the fewer the number of people searching for it. But you’ll find it much quicker to rank for these long-tail keywords – and if it’s very relevant to your products or services, you’ll be making sales within 3 months.
5. Meta Info
Meta information includes meta titles and descriptions, which show up in search results. These snippets play a big role in whether users click through to your site. Optimized meta info with relevant keywords can improve your click-through rate (CTR) and signal to search engines what your page is about, which can help you rank higher.
Key Tip
Keep your meta titles under 60 characters, and keep your meta descriptions between 150-160 characters. Aim to create a compelling message in the copy you write for these sections. The meta info exists to get people to click.
6. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual pages on your website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic. This includes elements like title tags, header tags, images, and internal linking. It’s essential because search engines use this information to understand what your page is about and rank it accordingly.
Key Tip
Let’s imagine you decided on targeting a long-tail keyword like ‘protein powder for women over 50’. You’d need to include this keyword in your meta info. But also include it in the main title of your webpage, and throughout the text. Make sure your main featured images are of protein powder.
7. Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals measure the overall performance of your website, including load speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Google has made these metrics a ranking factor, so websites that offer a better user experience will rank higher. Ignoring this can lead to slower rankings despite good content.
Key Tip
Regularly test your Core Web Vitals using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and aim to improve any metrics flagged as poor. If you’re DIYing your website, you may need to recruit a developer to help you improve these metrics – it will be worth the investment.
8. Create Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to yours. They are one of the strongest ranking factors in SEO because they signal trust and authority. High-quality backlinks can boost your domain authority and improve your overall rankings. The more backlinks you have from reputable sites, the better.
Key Tip
Focus on earning backlinks from relevant, high-authority websites, and avoid spammy link-building tactics. One of the best ways to do this is by collaborating with authorities in your space – think podcast hosts, influencers, suppliers of your products, news websites, and more.
9. Create Topic Authority
Topic authority means that your site is recognized as an expert on a particular subject. This is achieved by consistently creating in-depth, valuable content that covers your niche comprehensively. Search engines prioritize websites that demonstrate expertise and authority in their field.
Key Tip
Remember the long tail keyword we looked at earlier about ‘protein powder for women over 50’? This kind of keyword is what’s called a ‘commercial’ keyword as the person searching for it is likely to buy something.
A good way to create topic authority is to look for ‘informational’ keywords. You can find these in the ‘People Also Ask’ section on Google.
For example… you might consider writing blog posts on topics like:
- Should women over 50 take protein supplements?
- What is the best source of protein for women over 50?
- Should menopausal women use protein powder?
10. Create Brand Authority
Brand authority refers to how well-known and trusted your brand is within your industry. The more people trust your brand, the more search engines are likely to rank your website higher. Building brand authority involves creating high-quality content, engaging with your audience, and maintaining a strong online presence across multiple channels.
Key Tip
This last tip is probably the most important to consider. SEO is a long-term game. Although you can get short-term benefits, we’re building up your SEO game in order to create passive income for years to come.
So here’s the key tip: only invest in SEO when you’re certain about growing your specific business for the next 5 or more years.
If you spend 6 months on SEO only to change industries or product offerings, you’re not going to build the kind of brand authority that will keep you ranking high for the long run. If you’re not sure, then keep testing out your funnels with paid ads and save this article for the future.
But what if you’re ready to scale now?
Then implement all these 10 steps and you will begin to see traffic and, ideally, sales within three months!
Why ClickFunnels is the Critical Tool for Making Your SEO Strategy Work
Imagine this: you’ve implemented the entire SEO strategy outlined above – your site is indexed, the structure is solid, and traffic is finally rolling in.
Your content is attracting visitors.
Things are falling into place.
But, despite all the benefits of proper SEO optimization, you’re still not hitting the kinds of revenue figures that would sustain your business.
Organic traffic is flowing, yet you’re not making the sales you expected.
What’s happening?
The problem is that while SEO is great for driving traffic it doesn’t guarantee conversions.
This is where ClickFunnels steps in.
ClickFunnels was designed to solve this problem by converting traffic into sales in the most effective way: a funnel.
Here are five ways ClickFunnels works to ensure your organic traffic becomes paying customers:
- Optimized Sales Funnels
- ClickFunnels helps you create optimized, step-by-step sales funnels that guide users from interest to purchase. It’s designed to maximize conversions, which is the missing piece when traffic alone isn’t enough.
- Built-In A/B Testing
- With ClickFunnels, you can easily test different versions of landing pages and funnels to see what converts best, ensuring you’re constantly optimizing for results.
- Automation
- ClickFunnels integrates with your email marketing and CRM tools, enabling you to automate follow-ups and nurture leads that don’t convert immediately, ensuring you’re capturing every potential sale.
- Templates Designed for Conversion
- ClickFunnels offers pre-built templates that are specifically crafted to convert traffic into sales, taking the guesswork out of creating effective landing pages.
- Upsell and Cross Sell Capabilities
- After a customer makes a purchase, ClickFunnels makes it easy to offer additional products or services through upsells and cross sells, increasing your average transaction value.
By using ClickFunnels, you ensure that all the benefits of your SEO strategy lead to real, tangible results.
Try Clickfunnels Free for 14 Days!
Final Thoughts: Build a Business That Works for You – Not the Other Way Around
Throughout this article, we’ve explored how SEO can be the key to sustainable, passive income.
SEO lets you get higher-quality traffic to your site without any ongoing ad spend.
We broke down a 10-step strategy for optimizing your website including site structure, keyword research, and building authority – all of which create a solid foundation for long-term success.
But even with a fully optimized SEO strategy, traffic alone isn’t enough.
You need to convert those visitors into paying customers – and that’s where ClickFunnels comes in.
By providing optimized sales funnels, built-in A/B testing, and automation features, ClickFunnels ensures that the traffic generated by SEO turns into real revenue. It’s designed to work with your SEO efforts, filling the critical gap between visitors and conversions.
Ultimately, the goal is to build a business that works for you in a way that’s scalable, automated and works without a daily grind.
Your business is supposed to free up your time – not drain it.
ClickFunnels provides the tools to make this possible, helping you build a funnel that converts and unlocks the passive income you’ve been working towards.