Internet Marketing | Coping Without Google Traffic

The recent penalization and banning of some prominent web sites has only highlighted something that every Internet marketer should always keep in mind: Google is fickle. By this I mean that search engine traffic will always come and go and will never be 100% in your control.

If you rely on only Google for your traffic, you may be making a huge mistake. A penalty could hit you even if you did not participate in link sales, and even a few zero traffic days will hurt your earnings. Besides, even on days when traffic from the big G is great, I’m sure you could use some more from other sources.

What options do you have, then? Let’s see…

Other Search Engines

Yahoo! and MSN Live Search pop into mind first, with Ask following as the fourth largest search engine today. Taken together, these three account for approximately half the traffic Google has. Though not in Google’s league, it’s a fair number of searches nonetheless.

Remember that not being Google does not make these other search engines any more reliable. You will still be relying on search engine traffic and having little control. In addition, you are probably already listed and there may be little to do on that front. You need other options.

The Social Media

Now here’s a completely different source of traffic you should market in. The web 2.0 wave has brought many so called “social” sites into the picture. Although some of these can be seen as search engines of a kind (also known as “social search”), they are very different than their more traditional counterparts.

There are basically two ways you can go with the social media. The first are what I’d call social networking web sites. MySpace is a prime example of these. The idea is to connect with friends and make new friends. They can also be used as publishing platforms just like your blog. I’ll leave it to your imagination to find ways to monetize them.

The second category are the social bookmarking services, of which Digg and Technorati are excellent examples. The focus here is more on sharing what you’ve discovered online. This means they are easily turned to traffic and visitors to your existing web sites.

Promoting your site is as easy as submitting the link, but that does not guarantee traffic. Most of all you will need good content on your site, if you want to make it big. This is where many marketers, who abandon the social media, have made a fatal mistake. Though it’s a terrible cliché, content really is king.

Just Remember…

What you must keep in mind is that this new traffic you gain may be as uncertain - even more so - than traffic from Google. You shouldn’t simply try and replace Google with Digg in your marketing model. Instead, try to create many streams of traffic to your website.

To maximize your income you should have multiple streams of income from your website in the form of eg. contextual advertising, CPM ads and affiliate products. Likewise, to maximize your traffic you should have multiple streams of traffic flowing in from Google, other search engines and the social media.

This post was written by Sutocu - an Internet marketer, who blogs about social media marketing, and other forms of Internet marketing. He wishes you good luck with your new sources of traffic.

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