Traffic Generation: Quality Traffic Without Google?

Online Marketing

Here’s a harsh reality:  Unless you are a big company or you have a behemoth of a budget to spend on link building, PPC and content creation, ranking on the search engine pages will be a steep uphill task.

The abrupt algorithmic changes do not help the situation either for online marketers who work hard to create and optimize their content. I’ve certainly seen a major decline in search engine traffic.

The truth is, relying on organic search engine traffic from Google alone is not a dependable strategy for visibility and lead generation.

But, is all lost?

There are other ways, other than Google, that smart marketers are using to generate traffic, gain exposure and reach out to their target audiences.

Join the conversations that matter

Contributing to important conversations in your niche is one of the best ways to establish authority and gain visibility online.

Commenting on niche-specific blogs and participating in relevant forums can help you attract considerable clicks to your own site. Of course, you need to actually read the blog posts and offer valuable comments related to the topic at hand.

traffic generationA great example of this is from my friend and top blogger Ryan Biddulph (here on the left) over at www.bloggingfromparadise.com. (I recommend checking out his site as it’s great). Ryan is probably one of the most active bloggers I know, and you’ll find his detailed and really helpful contributions on pretty much all of the authority blogs out there each week.  As a result of this he gets serious traffic to his site and at the same time builds a powerful brand. Of course, this can be replicated for whatever niche you are in.

Other than blogs, forums also offer a great opportunity to link up with like-minded people and to contribute to the conversations they are having. Alternatively, you can start a conversation too.

While some platforms allow contributors to leave a link, constant link-dropping and self-promotion will not work. It’s best to avoid that tactic.

Guest blogging is still alive

There is a lot of talk about the ‘death of guest-blogging’ but guest blogging is still one of the most effective traffic generation and link building strategies available for online marketers.

Posting on the right blogs i.e. those that already have a higher ranking and authority can generate an immense amount of attention to your own site. Most of the top niche-specific blogs and websites accept only high quality, valuable content and allow you to point at least one outbound link to your site.

But aside from the links, guest blogging enables you to establish authority in your niche. It also allows you to leverage the traffic available on a popular site and to expose some of this traffic to your service or product.

Social Media

No one can deny the popularity of social media sites. Facebook alone attracts 1.28 billion monthly active users, while 100 million users visit Twitter every day. Social media platforms are some of the most convenient channels marketers use to directly reach out to their target audience.

Both large and small brands have been able to establish massive followings simply by creating and distributing great content through social sites. This is one tactic I help many businesses manage each week as part of my job at www.jiggledigital.com and it’s super powerful. Here are some stats from a week of my previous Facebook activity (and remember, this is not paid traffic so its possible to create some major reach just with a simple Facebook page if you work at building it)

traffic generation

 

What makes social platforms so effective at generating traffic to your landing page is that you can distribute content, set up a contest, or just relay information about a product to a mass audience. The fact that you can reach out to a large audience at no cost makes it possible to draw at least a fraction of your fans and followers to that landing page or website.

Making the most of video marketing

Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google?

No one can deny the power of video as a digital marketing. But video is even more powerful as a traffic generating tool. A helpful video that is optimized using the appropriate keywords can generate a lot of views and in turn many clicks to your landing page.

Your video does not have to go viral to generate tons of traffic. Understanding your niche and the type of content that works best for that niche will help you create videos that attract and possibly convert your potential customers.

Building your email list

Emails are intimate; they are up-close and personal. It is no wonder that email marketing offers a much higher conversion rate compared to organic and paid search, and social media.

A carefully constructed email campaign can provide you with relevant leads that are higher up the buying cycle. One would argue that building your email list is the best investment you can make toward generating relevant traffic for your business.

You Can Generate Traffic Without Google..

Let’s admit it: Ranking on Google’s organic search pages is a dream come true for any marketer. But, it can take a long time to attain such a privilege, especially if you are in a crowded niche. This makes a multichannel strategy absolutely necessary to attract those potential customers that might otherwise not see you.

6 Comments

  1. Onyeka says:

    Hi Andrew,
    Thanks for a great reminder that Google is not the only ticket to blogging or online marketing success. Their ranking algorithms are so random and done by robots, anyway.

    You cannot beat the power of human connection and blogger-to-blogger networking. Apart from the moral support and potential for increased exposure, I have also learned a lot by reading other blogs.

    Reading your post and comments by other seasoned bloggers solidifies my belief in concentrating on writing great content and engaging with my readers and other bloggers.

    I look forward to more from your blog.

    • Andrew Spence says:

      Hi there Onyeka, and thanks for checking out the article.

      It’s very true that if you spend time connecting with others it will reap dividends not only in your own blogging efforts but also in the new friendships that are made. I have found that bloggers generally are really supportive of each other and I’ve made some great friendships along the way. It’s also amazing what can be achieved between a group of like minded entrepreneurs all working towards their goals.

      Hope to see you back soon!

  2. Steven Lucas says:

    Hi Andrew,
    Great to see these ideas being pushed out again. People forget they work, never try them and just declare that they don’t work at all, but like you, I am finding that that actively searching for blogs in my niche, commenting there and then following the links to the commenter’s sites and commenting there also is greatly increasing my readership. (Known as oil rig hopping).
    There is also the Google friendly bonus that you are giving yourself backlinks – even if they are nofollow, as Google likes a certain percentage of these too and adds weight to your site and page rankings.
    I’m looking forward to many more great articles like this one.
    Regards,

    Steven Lucas

    • Andrew Spence says:

      Hi Steven, thanks for the comment. Yes, traffic generation is certainly something that can be achieved in many ways. What one person says doesn’t work, another excels and gets huge results. This strategy is a really great one and if you have the time, will pay dividends.

  3. Hi Andrew,

    Thanks so much for mentioning me! I feel honored and so grateful, because really, just by sharing my thoughts for a few minutes on a number of blogs each day I’ve been able to generate some traffic and make a ton of great friends like yourself.

    The kicker is, this is really fun too. I enjoy sharing my thoughts.

    Sometimes I chat with my freelance clients who’re thinking about trying to place in search engines, and SEO, and all that good stuff. I’ll always say to aim high – goodness, I’m living in Fiji for 4 months, which would have been an absurd goal for the broke security guard I was, 5 years back – but I tell my clients that investing serious time and energy trying to reach Page 1 doesn’t make much sense.

    Trying out-fox skilled SEO masters and corporations and big brands which pay Google millions, to get noticed, is a poor strategy. Here’s a better one; make a ton of influential friends in your niche, promote them, and comment on their blogs, sharing in-depth comments at that, and you’ll be just fine on the traffic and branding front.

    Thanks SO much Andrew!

    I love your thoughts, and am happy to tweet this out.

    Enjoy your week.

    Ryan

    • Andrew Spence says:

      Hey Ryan, thanks for the comment. It is a pleasure to mention you as a great example of somebody rocking it! When you consider the budgets the top brands have, it’s always going to be a challenge to rank well. It’s possible, but tough. Building a group of influential friends sure is a great way to work, and effective too. As content becomes more and more important, those that have that experience in content writing and distribution combined with a great brand, are going to be in big time demand, if not already!

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