Every business should aim to get as much traffic as possible without having to make a cash outlay every time a new visitor gets to their site. Every business should learn to create assets that help them achieve natural search engine optimization. But how do you do that? You can do that by applying the following tips:
1. Own Your Traffic
There has never been a time in the history of the world when the average business had so many options when it comes to ways to attract new visitors. Now you can drive oodles of traffic via Facebook. All you need to do is understand how to work on that platform. Many businesses are getting targeted prospects via Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many other social media sites.
Take a look at video sites. Millions of people watch Youtube videos each and every day. Many businesses have learned to take advantage of this platform to drive massive traffic to their web properties. We can go on and on by including forums, high traffic blogs (for guest posts), article directories, document sharing sites, etc. The truth is: There are so many ways to get new prospects to a business these days.
However, there is a worrying trend that is actually positioning many businesses for hard times: It is treating those platforms or sites as their very own (properties over which they have legal rights). Some businesses actually spend more on their Facebook pages than they do on their web sites. But guess what? All it takes is just one policy change from Facebook and those assets are gone forever.
Don’t ever forget this: Facebook owns every page on their site — NOT you. Youtube owns the site — NOT you! What does this mean? It means that investing in those places at the detriment of your site is unwise. But does that mean you shouldn’t use Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and other third-party platforms? No, you should. You just have to ensure you direct the traffic back to assets that you own legally.
For example, you can use Facebook, Youtube and the rest to drive visitors to your blog. Better still, you can use them to drive people to your name squeeze page. Use them to build your list. You own your blog. You own your list. Even if a web hosting company goes out of business, you still own your blog. All you’ll have to do is move to another host. You can also move to another provider if one email service shuts down its doors. You own your list!
So what does this have to do with search engine optimization? Look at the next tip:
2. Use A Strategy That Leverages Your Current Assets
What are your current assets? Well, a very popular Facebook page is an asset. A large Twitter followership is an asset. A large subscriber base at Youtube is a huge asset. However, a very popular blog and a huge list are even bigger assets. So how can you leverage each one of them to improve your SEO?
Let people on each of those assets know whenever you make a new post. Encourage them to like, tweet, pin, reblog, bookmark and share. If done right, your articles and posts will rise to the top of search engines on the strength of the links you get from your followers, subscribers and fans.
While this will keep working with both assets you own and those on other companies’ properties, the assets you won give you better control. You can do anything within the limits of the law. Here’s an example:
Let us assume you’ve just published a Kindle book. This means you are using Amazon’s platform. You can improve your book’s ranking both at Google and Amazon by encouraging your readers to leave a review. However, you can’t incentivize them if you want to do it within Amazon’s platform — Kindle. But can you do it with, say, your list or your blog readers? Yes, you can. You own those platforms.
3. Overdeliver For Greater Buzz
No matter how huge your list is you won’t get the buzz that will get the web talking about you and your company if you deliver mediocre content. Over-deliver and you’ll have raving fans. If you have raving fans all over the web then you’ve got most of your SEO done for you.
No, you don’t have to be Apple to have fanatics that adore your products and services. You just have to go a few steps farther than your competitors would. You just have to give them a little extra now and then. You just have to make them feel very special and you’ll create a buzz — If NOT immediately; on the long run.
Conclusion-
Many businesses focus on the technical aspects of SEO and forget the human angle. While those technical aspects are critical to your overall success in search engine optimization, the rules there are always changing. However, apply the tips outlined above and you’ll NOT have to adjust because of any updates in search algorithm — Your site would have been optimized just the way search engines are striving to enforce: with real human endorsements.
