You spent a ton of time getting your website just right for Google. And now your site has sunk to the very bottom of the results for several key phrases.
Your traffic has plunged, and, worse, so have your profits. Sure, you know now you shouldn’t have relied so heavily on one source of website traffic, but how do you fix the problem?
If your online business has taken a hit from the Florida Updates of Google, read on for five ways to build a broader base so the next algorithm change won’t be as devastating.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT THE SEARCH ENGINES
It’s not the search engine’s job to deliver traffic to your website. Rather, a search engine strives to give the best results to each searcher. Think about your site from your visitor’s point of view. What information is that visitor looking for? And how can you make it clear up front that that’s the information you provide?
Work at providing information from your website and giving the search engines that information–don’t work so hard at convincing search engines that your site is what visitors want.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT SITE VISITORS
Each visitor to your website is worth a certain dollar amount to you. Whether or not they buy. If you don’t already know this amount, now’s the time to calculate it. With this number in hand, you can consider advertising and pay-per- click strategies that’ll bring more traffic to your website.
If you’re looking for stability, seriously consider what a visitor is worth to you and then check into pay per click advertising to bring in the right number of visitors every day.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT FOLLOW UP
You’ve been stalling and hesitating to set up a follow up program. It takes too much time, you thought. And, besides, you were getting that steady flow of new traffic. So you didn’t set up anything. And now that you’re hurting for traffic, you don’t even have a group of people you can offer a promotion to to bring them back to your site. Without a follow up program, the little traffic that’s trickling onto your website is lost forever.
Get those people to opt-in to receive updates from you so you can bring them back to your website time and again until they buy.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT WEB PROMOTION
Sure, it’s easy to hire an SEO expert and sit back and wait for the search engines to bring traffic to your website. But search engines are run by third parties over whom you have no control. And that means relying on them to bring you traffic is risky at best.
Instead, look for ways you can bring traffic to your website yourself. Publish articles on other sites, set up cross- promotions with related websites, go off line for traffic.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE
Do you think visitors should visit your site and think you’re exactly the solution they’re looking for? Without visiting your competition, considering their options, contacting your help desk, or having any questions? Good luck.
Instead, set your site up to be a friendly experience for the traffic you do get. Give each individual visitor plenty of support and resources. Not only will this increase the number of visitors who buy, but it’ll also increase the number of visitors who recommend your site to a friend.
Ultimately, the responsibility for bringing traffic to your website rests with you–not the search engines, and not your SEO expert. By taking responsibility for bringing the visitors you need in to your site each month, you’ll be able to ride out any algorithm changes, shifts in public opinion about specific search engines, and other day-to-day changes in business. Setting up these systems now will start bringing traffic to your site very quickly, and will also have lasting effects.
Copyright 2003, The Write Exposure
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