We encounter several small business owners that come to us looking for help after Google has penalized their sites because of low quality and spammy SEO services. So many business owners simply hire the first company that they come in contact with or they opt for the lowest priced service assuming that all search engine optimization is created equally. This is not the case at all and selecting the wrong company can end up costing more money in the long run, as well as a possible ruined domain. We have said it before, and we will say it again…outsourced SEO needs to be avoided if you are serious about your business.
While your business needs SEO, it also needs to be diverse when it comes to online marketing. Imagine if Google one day decided to announce a brand new algorithm update that sent your website to the bottom of the search results? Would you still be receiving website traffic from other sources or are all of your eggs in one basket? While you should always want to improve your SEO, you need to make sure that your online marketing is diversified.
If you are worried about a possible Google penalty then you might have too much SEO risk, and need to consider concentrating on some additional marketing avenues to drive traffic to your website. Here are three tips to help diversify your risk.
1. Public Relations
Many small businesses forget about traditional public relations and get completely wrapped up in SEO and Google rankings. A good old fashioned press release is a great way to generate a buzz and attract website visitors. Many SEO professionals will advise against press releases for link building purposes, but there is no doubting that they can deliver real targeted website visitors when done correctly.
A high quality press release can get published on websites that receive a high volume of traffic, pushing heavy amounts of referral traffic to your website. You can also share them on social media, providing you with additional exposure and traffic. Using a press release to announce a new product or service also gives you a great “in” to approach relevant websites. This can result in additional press and more traffic.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising
Unlike SEO, PPC advertising can guarantee you relevant website traffic. Yes, you pay per visitor, but when done correctly it can help a business start to produce leads, sales, and revenue almost instantly.
It is extremely effective and it can eliminate the waiting period required with SEO. Many business owners will create ads and drop in some keywords that they think will attract buyers, only to watch the advertising budget disappear without any results to show for it. PPC requires experience and knowledge in order to create a successful campaign, along with ongoing testing and optimizing.
Several businesses will waste a high percentage of their PPC budget because of poor management. If you don’t have the luxury of a full time in-house pay per click employee you will want to consider hiring a PPC agency to handle your campaign management.
3. Conversion Rate Optimization
You could have an insane amount of organic SEO traffic and you could have an unlimited PPC budget, but all of the website traffic in the world is useless unless it is converting into leads and sales.
Every business is going to have a different goal, whether that is generating leads or capturing sales. Your website layout, offers, and funnel process will all impact your conversion rate. It is important to test several different options and collect data to improve your conversion rates.
Focusing on your conversion rate will help you convert more traffic, so in the event that your traffic slows down you will still generate leads and sales.
Google is always going to take steps to provide their users with the most relevant and high quality websites available. If you have used low quality SEO in the past then you might want to consider a SEO audit to evaluate and clean up your link profile.
Being proactive and removing and disavowing spammy links can help you avoid being penalized. Including PPC advertising and public relations outreach will help to diversify your risk, and focusing on improving conversion rates will help to make the most out of your website traffic.
Author: Jonathan Long This article originally appeared on Market Domination Media and has been republished with permission.
