Algorithms are programs used to automatically ferret information from the web, organize it, and do something with the results. Like what Google does to ranks websites.
A lot of SEO (search engine optimization) experts will have as long of a conversation as you'd like (and then some) about how Google's algorithm works and how you can set your web presence up to set off all the right bells and whistles to get Google to rank you.
Our eyes start glazing over after about 5 minutes talking about SEO
Most people I've worked with end up wondering if there is an easier way to understand how Google ranks their sites.
I always answer the question by stating that they are asking the wrong question. And that's because Google reacts to what people react to favorably. The Google algorithm is just a tool to efficiently scour the web for the signals that people are sending out on social and other sites.
Google has changed the algorithm to track conversations and live data generated by verified people on social networks and their own sites. So the answer to all questions regarding how to get more traffic for your blog is this: people.
SEO is done by getting people talking about your site on social and on other important websites in your market
Proper internet marketing, by today's standards, is done by you showing up on other sites in your market, and then getting the people who follow those sites to engage with your site, your Facebook, G+, and Twitter profiles, and turning that activity into engaged followers.
When you begin to focus your marketing on people, you start thinking differently about the content you create for your ideal crowd. The time you're saving not doing complicated SEO can be and should be applied to putting content in front of your ideal crowd more often.
Broadening The Definition Of “Web Presence” And Where Your Traffic Comes From
When you think of your entire web presence as your website, your social profiles, and content/links that you place on high traffic sites, you're thinking like a person who's finally starting to “get” the new marketing game.
I tell clients to look around their market and find the most important sites and picture what they would do if they owned one of them. I have them picture just what would happen if they we able to get on a big stage for a day in front of one of those big crowds.
- Can you imagine the traffic that would result?
- Can you imagine the SEO benefits?
- Can you imagine how much better your marketing would be if you did this regularly?
- Then compare heavy SEO marketing versus doing content marketing focused on engagement, which often gets bigger results faster.
Pick a site, study the kind of content that has resonated with the readers (likes, tweets, +1's, and shares along with high comment counts) and design a piece of content that should really drive engagement and traffic with that audience.
The Readers Do Your Marketing For You…
With this marketing method, the people will send your popularity soaring and your SEO score will just fill itself in as a byproduct. Readers will be sending lots of valuable signals that the algorithms pick up and use to take a new, fresh look at not only your domain's relevancy in the market, but your entire web presence.
This results in:
- Bigger, better social marketing through higher engagement on social networks.
- More direct traffic straight from social and the site(s) you appear on.
- Higher rankings in Google, and all without doing a single technical SEO trick.
Not only that, but as you change your marketing to focus on your ideal crowd, you will increase the amount of your ongoing traffic (direct traffic from the sites and from Google rankings you've picked up). And your traffic spikes will get bigger as you leverage your past blogging gigs to get even bigger ones.
If this has been clear to you, you might be feeling a bit more positive about your marketing strategy and traffic prospects going forward. I didn't have to say a word about how to manipulate search engines from a traditional SEO perspective. We're talking about turning on your ideal people, thus influencing them to do your SEO for you.
That's a lot more like what we all got into blog marketing for in the first place. This paradigm shift helps you get back to what you like about blog marketing while also making you much more effective at driving targeted traffic to your site.
