Why It's So Important to Diversify Your Traffic: Stop the Reliance on Google & Other Search Engines!

Why It's So Important to Diversify Your Traffic: Stop the Reliance on Google & Other Search Engines!
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Why You Need to Diversify Your Traffic

“NO!!! Google’s killed by traffic!”

Sound familiar? Did those words (or similar ones) flood from your lips when the search giant changed its algorithm?

All it takes is a quick tweak of its algorithms to make your traffic plummet over night, but it’s not always down to the big bad search engines. Granted, when Penguin and Panda came along a lot of websites took a hit, but you can’t blame all your traffic dips on algorithmic changes.

Were You Hit by Penguin and Panda?

It’s a given that the last thing you want to see is your traffic reduce or vanish. When you see a dip that just happens to coincide with a Google update it seems logical to point the finger in their direction. But they may not be the cause.

If a dip happens, the first place you should look is your analytics. What’s happening with your traffic sources? If they have dipped across the board (i.e. Google, Yahoo and Bing), the chances are it has nothing to do with Google. So what’s causing it?

More than likely, it will be down to your search engine optimisation strategy.

Don’t Sit Back

In the early days, you probably had a rigorous SEO strategy in place. But, as time moved on and you got busy, I’m willing to bet the strategy took a bit of a slide. But you were still getting traffic and business, so all was good – right?

The problem with sitting back and resting on your laurels is that, every day, a new kid appears on the block who is working hard on its SEO and so will stand a good chance of ranking higher that you.

As soon as your traffic starts to dip, it’s a warning sign that you need to up your game. However, relying 100% on the search engines for your traffic is a disaster waiting to happen.

Diversifying your traffic

Putting all your eggs into your SEO basket isn’t a great idea. Sooner or later things will go wrong. That’s why it’s important to spread your traffic by using:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • YouTube
  • Blogs
  • Pay Per Click
  • Email marketing
  • Newsletters

All of these will drive traffic to your website without relying on the likes of Google, Yahoo or Bing.

If you want a successful online marketing strategy, make sure you diversify and use all the tools available to you. Then, and only then, will you be able to ride the algorithm waves.

About the Author: Sally Ormond is an independent professional copywriter and owner of Briar Copywriting Ltd. For tips on copywriting, marketing and social media, you can also read her words of wisdom on Briar Copywriting’s Blog or follow her on Google+.