💀 With Google traffic dead, what’s next?
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Affiliate Disclaimer: This article may contain affiliate links, if you click a link and make a purchase I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more. Hey Reader Heads up: This article was a newsletter that originally went to my email list, long before it ever shows up on this blog. You can join other folks in getting my newsletter content every week and before you'll find it here! Subscribe today 👇 Last week, I told you about how it’s clear that Google essentially hates the small publisher these days. In my opinion, and that of many SEO experts, Google has made it very clear what lies ahead—a search engine focused on “real” businesses or their own priorities via ads, shopping, etc. On the one hand, Google has had it rough with dealing with the entire size of the internet tripling, quadrupling (or more?) in the last 1-2 years. Thanks to AI content. It can’t handle sourcing, indexing, and prioritizing that much stuff with accuracy. On the other hand, Google doesn’t give a shit about the small publisher (why would they?) and has to throw the baby out with the bathwater to have some kind of solution to this mess. But there is hope. It’s just going to take a completely new approach to digital marketing. And that’s what we are looking at here, the job role as an “SEO” really is dwindling. It’s becoming a role for agencies and big budgets. If you have a blog business and want it to thrive in the new age of search, then it’s a smart move to diversify massively away from wishing and hoping for Google to accept your site as an authority. You’ve probably seen some marketers already doing this in the last couple of years, with varying success and unique strategies. Those are strategies like:
If you’ve stuck around on my newsletter for the last year or so, you might remember how I was able to grow a Facebook page to 5K+ followers/likes organically. It was a pretty decent strategy using vertical video (Reels) which were being organically boosted like crazy when it hit the right note. But, obviously, this doesn’t translate to traffic or money. I was aiming to hit Facebook monetization but turns out you can’t do that when most of your Reels’ content is repurposed footage from copyright holders… Lessons learned. It was also time-consuming or costly with a VA making video content daily and requiring regular reviews & check-ups. But that hasn’t put me off Facebook entirely, in fact, it’s a potential traffic source I’m planning to focus on once again this year because it fits my niche well. Only this time with a different strategy for building organic reach with simpler media (images/gifs) and focusing on trying to encourage occasional click-throughs to my site with clickbaity link post content. With Mediavine Journey (ads monetization at 10K sessions+) releasing last week, I can likely get one of my sites onto it and work on an organic wheel of Facebook traffic > Landing page monetized with MVJ ads. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where the traffic is coming from as long as you get it to earn something. The Facebook page currently sits at around the 6K followers mark. I plan to post regularly every single day using a post scheduler, while progressively increasing the number of posts each day. Most of that content will be purely to bait engagement, gain more reach, and build followers to the 15-20K range. Once it’s there, I should be able to start getting creative with new no-indexed site posts made specifically for social clickbait. It’s going to be an experiment in changing that top-level priority with content marketing. It’s something I think many of us will have to do, as soon as possible. If you want to follow my experiment closely… You should sign up for the Conversion Collective. More details about it soon. What are your strategies for diversifying away from Google traffic? Drop me a reply, I want to know what’s working for you or your plans. ~~~ If you enjoyed this newsletter, please do “add to contacts” and drop me a reply to tell me what you think (it helps with email deliverability). If you don’t get any value from this, unsubscribe. Until next time — Joe |
