Is it Only About Search Engine Traffic?
11 October 2006 08:48 AM | SEO and Marketing
John Andrews asks
over at Threadwatch.org about SEO and The Curse of
Boredom.
This is something I have thought for some time. I have no illusions that the vast majority of traffic, comes via search engines, but IMO discussing the search engines and discussing SEO has become boring.
Now I am not an SEO and most of the webmasters I deal with are in the hobby categories launching science fiction, mystery, horror related websites. It seems to me that most of the webmasters in that audience have neither the time nor the desire to learn the increasingly more complicated art of SEO given the need to make a crawlable website. This is one of the main reasons MySpace is so popular.
So how do these hobby sites get traffic?
1. Links (exchanges, "affiliates", cliques, natural linking) - They have a vague understanding that links help in search engines but they know people do eventually click on links.
2. Webrings - Traffic from all sorts of webring hosts has slowed to a crawl these days but some traffic from very tightly defined rings is still important because other webmasters surf the rings so it can help in natural link development and the few visitors are pre qualified. However Webring.com is starting to go for a paid membership model which may well freeze out most webmasters.
3. Blog post links - blogs and CMS sites, RSS and the concept of constant content generation with links, is swiftly replacing the old static web page Geocities model of website. Includes link baiting.
4. Directories - once upon a time everybody knew what a web directory was. But a new generation of web users and webmasters is here who are totally ignorant that directories devoted to their topic even exist and that they can list their site in them. This is a marketing challenge for niche directory owners. With that said, a well run niche directory can generate some good traffic for sites listed.
5. Viral marketing - print your URL on your books, ebooks, print advertising, email signatures, etc.
6. Social networking - this is very similar to blogroll networking. It works because it is intuitive. The nice thing is it cuts Search engines out of the equation. The bad part is that, like blogging, it takes a lot of time. This is the area I think needs to be explored much more.
Search and Non-search traffic Combined?
I think the solution for hobby sites is going to be some sorts of combination of search engine traffic and non-search traffic (see above) working together. I am not sure what this will look like but I think it is what I want to return to talking about*, because talking about search engines alone is boring me to tears and is missing my target audience. See the demand for traffic is the constant, and if people do not, can not or will not learn how to get it from search engines they will either try other ways or give up.
Am I totally wrong, or am I right in thinking I (we) need to seriously explore web marketing by other means. Or maybe you are already there and know all about social network marketing?
* The truth is back in 1998 I used to talk about, explain and even publish a newsletter detailing most of the above methods back when search engines were not very good at finding or ranking websites. I later gave it up as search engines improved and seemed to sweep all other sources of website traffic away.
SEO has been changing reliably ever since I went solo, helping to keep back the boredom but I gotta say, innovation has sure slowed down and with this 2 horse race (Google and EveryOtherEngine). Things are feeling mighty stale.
This is something I have thought for some time. I have no illusions that the vast majority of traffic, comes via search engines, but IMO discussing the search engines and discussing SEO has become boring.
Now I am not an SEO and most of the webmasters I deal with are in the hobby categories launching science fiction, mystery, horror related websites. It seems to me that most of the webmasters in that audience have neither the time nor the desire to learn the increasingly more complicated art of SEO given the need to make a crawlable website. This is one of the main reasons MySpace is so popular.
So how do these hobby sites get traffic?
1. Links (exchanges, "affiliates", cliques, natural linking) - They have a vague understanding that links help in search engines but they know people do eventually click on links.
2. Webrings - Traffic from all sorts of webring hosts has slowed to a crawl these days but some traffic from very tightly defined rings is still important because other webmasters surf the rings so it can help in natural link development and the few visitors are pre qualified. However Webring.com is starting to go for a paid membership model which may well freeze out most webmasters.
3. Blog post links - blogs and CMS sites, RSS and the concept of constant content generation with links, is swiftly replacing the old static web page Geocities model of website. Includes link baiting.
4. Directories - once upon a time everybody knew what a web directory was. But a new generation of web users and webmasters is here who are totally ignorant that directories devoted to their topic even exist and that they can list their site in them. This is a marketing challenge for niche directory owners. With that said, a well run niche directory can generate some good traffic for sites listed.
5. Viral marketing - print your URL on your books, ebooks, print advertising, email signatures, etc.
6. Social networking - this is very similar to blogroll networking. It works because it is intuitive. The nice thing is it cuts Search engines out of the equation. The bad part is that, like blogging, it takes a lot of time. This is the area I think needs to be explored much more.
Search and Non-search traffic Combined?
I think the solution for hobby sites is going to be some sorts of combination of search engine traffic and non-search traffic (see above) working together. I am not sure what this will look like but I think it is what I want to return to talking about*, because talking about search engines alone is boring me to tears and is missing my target audience. See the demand for traffic is the constant, and if people do not, can not or will not learn how to get it from search engines they will either try other ways or give up.
Am I totally wrong, or am I right in thinking I (we) need to seriously explore web marketing by other means. Or maybe you are already there and know all about social network marketing?
* The truth is back in 1998 I used to talk about, explain and even publish a newsletter detailing most of the above methods back when search engines were not very good at finding or ranking websites. I later gave it up as search engines improved and seemed to sweep all other sources of website traffic away.
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