I guess most of you guys here know that we need traffic to drive sales, revenue and even building our list. Without traffic, there is nothing much we can do even we have a great sale or landing page. Right? After have been a while in internet marketing, I think most internet marketers are utilizing the traffic from Google search. As long as their site/page are ranked well, the traffic will continue to flow. Google has launched a couple algorithm like Panda update, Penguin update, EMD (Exact Match Domain) and even DMCA update to avoid spam. However, there are so many good sites out there impacted by the updates and suffer drastic drop of traffic. In year 2011 and 2012, I was focusing on building niche sites and doing quite well. However, 80% of my niche sites suffered drop of traffic due to the new update and so do my income/revenue. In year 2013, I think we as internet marketers should change our game plan. I know that Google traffic is still important but it's time for us to diversify our traffic generation strategy (social media, facebook, etc ..). Right? Tell us about your plan for Year 2013 and do you agree that we shouldn't rely on google tarffic anymore??
Here is the plan. Since the practice of SEO has basically been stuffed from now on until the end of time, don't waste your time building websites for ranking on Google anymore because even if they do rank well, it might be for a few months at best and then you will get fucked over by another update or algorithm. So, its just money and hard effort flushed down the toilet by the Google bullies. You will have to live off the scraps of second tier PPC networks just like I am or get extremely lucky with some other venture.
One of my sites went from page 1 to page 22. I am going to give up on google and give bing a shot. Im going to do more articles and stop with just the single links on a homepage, i think thats what hurt me anyway.From what i hear you will rank better on bing with good content links like article submitting.The same keyword that google droped down is on page 3 of bing.If i spring back with google great, but im not going to worry about it anymore.
It's smart to diversify your traffic sources and never rely too much on any one source. Google happens to be one of the less reliable sources where many sites lose their traffic overnight. Still, it's too much traffic to really ignore. So I do intend to keep chasing Google traffic, but other sources will become more important to develop some level of stability.
Diversify. Look for and explore other sources of traffic - Facebook, Twitter, joint ventures, forums etc etc etc. Relying one one ultimately unreliable source (search engines) isn't a smart thing to do. And we've probably all suffered from it too.....
No one should ever have been relying on Google! Every single major update since 2000 (remember the Florida et al updates?), not 2012 have shown that! If you waited until 2012 to learn that lesson, then it was too late.
I think that while it does change frequently, Google is a major part of our strategies, and it will remain so for a long time. I use many other traffic sources, but Google always shines through as the most reliable (that is, once I'm able to adjust to the changes ).
We should always adopt to the new change with Google to maximize our profit potential since Google is the search engine leader. At the same time, we should always look for alternative way... _____________________________________________________ In information age, we should always adopt to change and the rate of change is going faster and faster. Those too slow to adopt will be out of the competition.
My plan is to utilize other traffic sources such as PPC, Social media, Banners etc to drive the majority of my traffic. This is probably preferred anyways since I have the control over the amount of traffic I get instead of playing Google's games. That being said, I certainly will continue to provide good content on my sites to appease the Google Gods but this is really more of a formality than anything. I'm not going to complain if I get traffic from Google, it's just not going to be my end goal.
I made this mistake. Completely dependant on Google. Now I try to get my traffic from as many sources as possible.
I use google, facebook, twitter, tumblr, reddit, android market, and soon the ios market. I usually try to start out with word of mouth. I work at a normal brick and mortar shop and we get heavy amounts tourists sales, BUT during the slow times we need regulars. Nothing beats a regular. I like to think of the members of my sites (or readers) who were referred to via word of mouth are my 'regular locals' and my traffic from other sources are 'tourists'. I make money from tourists but locals/regulars keep me going during hard times. Not sure if that logic should be applied to websites, but it has helped some of my near dead niche sites.
Absolutely, the social network is what is really making the game changer this past 5 years or so. Google may be great, but it keeps changing so dramatically. The social network is more steady, more fun, and more affordable.
I think the key is: "Never put all your eggs in one basket". Same goes for traffic and everything else.
facebook traffic is the worst , and you cant rely your general site traffic with . it is not converting as good as google , and not stable so the best source of visitors are search engines . I like Bing source but it is too poor to count on it as it doesnt attract alot of webmasters .. best
The strategy for 2013 is to adopt to Google's zoo. More attention to content quality, usability, less links, more social media. Something like that.
Yes, we shouldn't "too" rely on Google traffic, but google still have impact to our traffic site, it's because lot of visitor come from this big G, many webmaster hate Google's new rules, but we will still need Google, when Internet users still use the google search facility. My plan on 2013 still same as now, create and update good concept for my web, develop more community, and follow "all" search engine's rules.
Its hard to completely evade google, since they are the elephant sitting in the living room, but I'm going to sure try, forced SEO is becoming a drag.
If i can get ranked in yahoo or bing i wouldn't have to rely on google i don't want to promote my site(s) on social net... it's too over saturated...
I've spent a lot of time pondering which direction I want to focus on over the next year. Last year I did a lot of writing but I also focused on SEO. Now that Google is changing the rules almost monthly I'm working on building my list more than ever and using paid traffic for lead generation. You just can't rely on Google.
I lost my website which generating 1700-1800 dollar per month few months back... Heavily damaged in panda update.