SEO

By the time you’re done reading this, I assure you that you will have new strategies that are most definitely going to increase your website traffic exponentially.

SEO, as well as know, is the bread and butter to getting your website seen on Google and other internet search engines.

On an average day, Google is seeing nearly half a million searches in just a ten second span.

That’s more than 40,000 searches per SECOND!

Why would we use anything other than SEO to drive traffic? Would sound crazy, right? Wrong.

Google and other search engines, while they are great at driving traffic, are not the only effective ways to accomplish this task.

In 2018, how many people have not heard of social media, in the form of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and… here we go with Google again, Youtube.

It is the dawn of the internet all over again.

Let’s look at four methods that you can use, not involving a standard search engine method, such as Google, to boost traffic and grow your brand.

4 Great SEO Alternatives:

1. Make a YouTube channel for your business.

2. Find people to partner with who have a big social reach.

3. Reach out on social media; get involved.

4. Use forums

 

1. Make a YouTube Channel

YouTube, is one of the most used social channels in our present day (mid 2018).

In fact, look at how they rank against other streaming services, whether video or music, you can see where they stand…

As you can see, this is some solid evidence that there are plenty of potential clients to capture through YouTube. You can also see that Google is doing just fine as a company!

They say that YouTube is around 1.8B users per month now.

That means in roughly 1/3 of a year, the entire population of the world has hypothetically used the YouTube platform.

So how does YouTube help you drive traffic to your website?

Sharing.

We look at a well run business like we look at a well oiled machine.

You have your website, your social platforms, and your audience.

Other than your product or service, assuming it isn’t just posting content, you post informative content to keep your audience attentive to your brand and to educate / entertain people.

Otherwise, you would simply start to become irrelevant as time went on, since you weren’t posting and contributing to the internet society regularly (theoretically).

So, by creating a YouTube Channel for your business or brand, you are able to add value and share your content through an entirely new avenue.

Not to mention, you can share this to all of your other platforms to capture their attention as well. It’s part of that well oiled machine analogy I made earlier.

This essentially helps to not only add to your potential audience size, but also brings a new kind of value to your existing clientele.

Lastly, let’s look at a numbers break down of the usage of YouTube by Generation Z’ers:

Shopping Recommendations?

YouTube 24%

Instagram 17%

Facebook 16%

How-to Info?

YouTube 66%

A Good Laugh?

YouTube 51%

Instagram 11%

Snapchat 9%

 

This is just a small breakdown of a few different categories, but you can see how YouTube is a valuable commodity in our current day. Why would you not consider using it to drive traffic?

For information on creating a YouTube Channel, follow this link here.

 

2. Find People to Partner With (Social Media Influencers)

I know what you’re thinking… okay, how am I supposed to partner with Beyonce when I have a small time business that no one has even heard of?

Well… be optimistic. And realistic.

Let’s go back to topic number one. YouTube. Beyonce, while being a household name all over the world, is not even close to a top dog on YouTube.

This is just one example of social media, where you can find all kinds of influencers.

Look at this interesting statistic and then let’s further this discussion…

As you may already know, the best customer is a referral because you don’t have to convince them to trust you. They already do.

Same thing goes with YouTube and other social platforms…

If a subscriber or follower sees their favorite influencer tell them they use _____ brand to do _____ task, they are going to most likely already trust that brand just because their favorite influencer uses them.

Starting to see the value in this?

Speaking of value, you are reading this most likely because you have some kind of brand or business which exists solely to bring value to people in some way, form, or shape.

So… do just that. Bring value in return for value.

Think of it like this:

You reach out to a YouTube channel with 50,000 subscribers. Not huge by any means, but 50,000 people is a big group.

In the scale of SEO, a keyword with 50,000 monthly hits is a large keyword with a high dollar CPC… put that into perspective.

Anyways…

Let’s say that this hypothetical channel is an unboxing channel for technology, and let’s say that your brand does marketing.

You offer to market this channels videos and get them views through marketing, in exchange for them giving you shout-outs. Or something of the sort…

This will massively grow your brand and the best part is that you are adding value to someone else, all the while they are adding value to you. It can literally be a win win, if done correctly.

This can bring massive potential through the endless opportunities that exist on only one aforementioned platform, when there are dozens to choose from.

As time goes on, these social platforms will continue to grow and so will your options for SEO alternatives.

 

3. Start Social Media Conversations

What’s the best way to get to know someone?

Usually, it’s by reaching out and talking to them.

You have nothing to lose by doing this. In past times, you would have to go out and spread the word of your business through word of mouth communication.

Not anymore.

Now you can simply go online and start to talk to people who are potentially looking for the exact product/service that you are selling.

Imagine that?? It’s almost on a silver platter!

Take a look at this chart if you want to see first hand how many people, by generation, follow some kind of brand on social media in the first quarter of 2017…

According to Sprout Social, nearly 50% of millennials and Gen X-ers followed a brand on social media.

That’s a great ratio, no reason why your brand can’t be part of that statistic if you provide useful content for your clientele.

So, with those numbers in mind, what exactly do we mean by getting involved in social media conversations.

Just like in the world of SEO, we look at this SEO alternatives and say: keyword keyword keyword.

Do searches and browse through social platforms, such as Twitter for example, and find people who are looking for what you sell or having a problem that you know your brand can help solve.

They do this differently on different platforms.

Hashtags, keywords, retweets, videos, images, are all examples of these issues or call-outs can be found.

Creating Results shows us that nearly 84% of 18-29 year olds were on Facebook in 2013.

We can only imagine that number has gone up since then.

From 2013 to 2017, social was essentially beating out search for driving traffic. Yes… you read that right. Can you say SEO Alternatives???

Facebook saw a drop in social media referrals in contrast to the first half of 2017.

But keep in mind that just like Newtons laws of thermodynamics, matter can neither be created nor destroyed… social media users “social matter” works the same way.

One social platform’s loss, is simply another’s gain.

Platform aside, if you’re looking at any SEO alternatives, you need to bring value to the people that you reach out to.

If anything, social media gives us the ability to bring value without even having them visit our website.

You can solve problems and answer questions without ever meeting these people who are in need of YOU.

It’s all about the value that you can bring to others. Remember that.

Now, go out and start being social on social media.

 

4. Use Forums

If we go back to the concept of bringing value to people, this one sure does hit home for our fourth SEO Alternative for driving traffic.

Forums are really all about value. They are a place where people can join a community and answer questions or comment on a very specific niche.

There are forums for everything out there.

No matter what you specialize in, or your brand, there is a forum for it somewhere on the internet.

(Off subject, but if there isn’t a forum for it… well go make one!)

Back on track now, but forums… yes. They’re great.

Another hypothetical situation here. You just became the owner of a car dealership.

You find some nice automotive forums where people are looking to know more about a specific car that you might specialize in or have for sale.

Being active on a forum and answering questions or giving value by saying you might have what they’re looking for, for sale, is a way to grow your traffic with ease. Through literally just doing your job as a car salesman or dealership owner and lead generating.

When using a forum, they have these things called signatures, just like in an email.

Many users have signatures with photos of their prized possessions or items related to the forum, others have signatures that promote themselves or their business.

I’ve seen countless vendors blow up from forum use alone.

They bring value to folks through simply being present on the forum.

Easy right?

Yep. No catch to it, really.

One of the largest forums on the internet is Reddit. It is a community that is comprised of literally millions of sub forums.

Go crazy here. I promise there is one for the most wild of ideas you might have…

Reddit boasts nearly 330 Million users and is the 4th most visited site in the United States.

For comparison, Google has an average daily time on site of 7 minutes per user.

Reddit? Try nearly 16 minutes.

That gives them double the time to find you. And as you go to more specialized forums, maybe not Reddit in particular, that number can go up.

Let me put this into a clear picture for you, so you can see how bringing value and boosting your brand / driving traffic, is doable on a forum setting such as reddit, without looking like a greasy salesman.

This is helpful. This does not come off as used-car-salesman-like.

If you can begin to work your brand into forum settings such as this one, you will also be able to provide value and at the same time, drive traffic to your site through the value that you bring.

Another forum that is great for growing your business, is through Quora. Lesser on the forum side, and more on the question and answer side, there are endless ways to get your brand seen while doing what you do best: helping people in your niche.

By actively answering questions on Quora, you’re very quickly helping other people, and using your site as either a reference or a direct link to what it is they might need help with; maybe you’re able to do both!

As you can see, SEO Alternatives are not limited to simple posting on social media. You have to be creative with how you approach the many different SEO Alternatives out there, but most importantly, you have to make sure you are bringing value at the same time.

 

Conclusion

Google, while it is a fantastic tool to drive traffic to your website, is not the only tool you can use to do this.

SEO Alternatives that we have talked about in length, are great tools to help drive traffic and grow your brand.

These 4 methods can serve as starting points for diversifying how your company goes about acquiring new visitors to your site.

As time goes on and our technology and platform use change, go with the trends. Find where your clients are, conduct surveys and learn all that you can about the people that you do business with.

And remember, always bring value no matter what SEO Alternatives that you choose to use.