Five unconventional search engine traffic sources using social media and communities
As an online marketer, it is essential to be able to think on your feet to avoid falling behind. In this incredibly competitive industry, uncreative solutions quickly end up growing saturated, and saturated markets become havens for spam, inflated pricing, and low quality traffic.
There is a reason for the ever-frequent failure of PPC campaigns and SEO efforts: they are too popular and competitive for most online marketers.
However, there are still some traffic assets out there that are both inexpensive, sometimes even free, and unsaturated.
These five search-based traffic sources appear in all major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing).
If you are tired of competing on the same saturated fields as every other online marketer, invest in one of these traffic platforms and enjoy near untouched traffic and marketing success. Nearly of all them involve communities and social media. Although the first and sole purpose of social media and community marketing should not be traffic generation, it certainly helps.
1) Google Image Search
Google’s standard search results are one of the toughest fields on the internet in terms of competition, with hundreds of companies throwing millions of dollars into their SEO efforts every year. Competing for a top-ten search position can be tough, but Google’s other search platforms can be used as an effective and less competitive field for traffic generation.
Google Image Search is one of those less competitive fields. With the right combination of page authority, image tagging, and on-page content, your image results can end up becoming major traffic resources.
2) Well-ranked Youtube videos
Google occasionally embeds videos within the search results, and following their buyout of Youtube in 2008, Youtube videos tend to rank more quickly and effectively than other video platforms.
If you need an ultra-quick and completely free ranking strategy, consider using Google’s very own Youtube to move into their search results.
3) Popular tweets and Tumblr Updates
Tweets are now indexed by Google, and though other search engines do not index them, can be a valuable traffic asset.
As with other search-based traffic generation methods, success with indexed tweets and Tumblr updates depends on context and keywords.
Look for valuable keywords and trending topics, and put out tweets that have the potential to rank. The relevancy of the content plays a crucial role.
4) Yahoo Answers and Google Newsgroups
Yahoo Answers was once a popular traffic resource, but it quickly fell victim to spam and shady advertising methods. Now valuable again, Yahoo Answers, Google Newsgroups, and Yahoo’s own group feature can be great sources of contextual traffic.
Post valuable discussion, contribute and you could find your signature or profile links receiving some welcome extra clicks.
5) Forum topics
Almost all of the internet’s most popular forums have open registration, allowing almost anyone to create a thread on an ultra-popular and authoritative website.
With some quality discussion under your belt, it’s possible to generate traffic by using one. Thanks to the search authority of most major discussion boards, a well crafted topic title can end up quickly appearing as a first-page result for Google search terms and related keywords.
However: remember that you have to keep it valuable. Don’t just throw your links everywhere. Participate and if it’s relevant, now and then add a link to one of your blog posts.
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