Search is not everything

During the past years I have been able to constantly grow traffic. During this time, the percentage of search based traffic has been shrinking continuously.
Currently all Search Engines account for only 31% of traffic to one of my sites.
I get most of my traffic from referrals and returning visitors.
Above all, it appears to be important to build a strong brand recognition and get people to link to you.
During the last 1/2 year, I have focused on quality of content alone. I have not spent a minute on SEO, but my traffic kept growing even faster.
The bottom line: Don't get carried away with SEO and focus on your visitor experience. Your visitors will thank you for it and do the SEO part for you.
I have stopped chasing every little link offer and dedicated the time saved to my site.

Thought some of you might enjoy the tip above.

 

I think it really depends on your type of site though. It is imperative that you have decent SEO skills to succeed in ecommerce whereas a content site can build up regular traffic. ecommerce relies on unique traffic primarily.

 

Not that much. I have several sites and basically the rule of thumb goes:
The more traffic one of my sites gets, the less it gets from search (percentage wise).

I usually go to Amazon direct.

 

I agree with PHPGator. I get over 80% from search and view SEO as my main strategy.

 

Yeah, depending on what type of site. Example: if you had a proxy website or selling a merchandise website.. you want quick traffic for one thing or long term return visitors to your ecommerce site?

 

A Nice tip..

Generally the best SEO technique is to focus on good content and satifying your visitors. They are one in the same

Cheers
Tony

 

If i boil it down.. ive actually made more using PPC>Affiliates....
SEO is great if you have the time and effort(of course=money too!)

 

Andre is 50% correct because good content only accounts for 50%.

Let me explain. You have a site with superb content but if you do not advertise it, no one can find it. So advertising accounts for 50% also. Advertising over the internet can be free if you know how.

 

Most of my traffic comes from search, but I do agree. I think focusing trying to keep the visitors coming back for more is very important. I think that can be a tough thing to do for an ecommerce site without brand recognition or a good amount of referrals.

 

Good tip.

I want more than just the typical couple of hundred or so hits from search engines, and mostly just window shoppers.

I have an online friend who says that he gets over 50% of his traffic from search engines. Like it really meant something. Wanna know how many daily hits he gets? ... Less than 500 lol SEO is overrated.

Do the SEO, and then move on. Want real traffic? ... Do real advertising.

 

Its funny because it seems search engines, especially google are working hard to make their spiders in an automated fashion find good sites.

I believe there are 2 types of SEO:

Those alerting people to a good site, and then those optimizing a page for the sake of optimizing and fabricating content to garner search results.

The common goal for people running sites should be to make good and helpful sites, and since google is trying to find those sites anyway, you are in a way optimizing just by making a site of value.

 

Yea that is the reason the web 2.0 has open new avenues, also I think branding is one of the greatest tool to overpass the SEO.

 

Branding always stands out a company/site to a different level. SEO also has its own unique stand, bringing in new visitors. Although about 85% will be window shoppers, 15% is a great number you get. Content is king as said, but without SEO it can't go much far unless you have really unique content. Just my personal thought.

 

Let me reiterate. Initially SEO is more important to get people to your site, but at some point you can get greater return on your time if you focus on the site itself. Provided you have enough readers already, they will then do the SEO for you.

 

This is sort of true. Once you do the initial SEO, it will bring traffic. But in SEO world its said that you have to constantly work to keep the position. So you can't really get away without it. However quality control is of great importance once your site start getting attention.

 

Andre, which keywords are you showing up on in Google, Yahoo, MSN....? And on what page?

 

Same here, I mostly focus on other form of advertiment that I have control of. It seems like you don't have much control of SEO.

 

You don't have ANY control. And while you are optimizing your pages, so are thousands of others. Can all of us fit on the first couple of pages in a search?

It's the luck of the draw.

It's only the lucky ones who land on those pages who claim to be experts, or they say "Hey, this stuff works!"

What about the thousands of others who did the same optimzing, but they didn't get on?

Optimize your pages, yes, but don't focus so much on them. You'll just drive yourself freakin' batty.

They'll be comin' for ya with a net before too long.

 

I disagree with you with respect. Search engines use algorithm to determine rankings of pages for keywords. Its just not a lottery. SEO definitely requires quite a bit of skill. In many cases its a trial and error process for people like me to get the desired results.

 

It's The Only Thing That Matters