Yes.  I do think they are overrated.

Now, pump your brakes.

I’m not saying they are completely worthless, I just think some people assume they are THE definitive answer to some massive search engine ranking increase.

The Advantages

SEO plugins can be useful when they provide additional reporting features, display errors, reminders or if they help you utilize and understand basic SEO markup, build sitemaps, etc.

For example, Yoast allows you to create breadcrumbs to help people navigate through your site.  This feature is not just beneficial for SEO, but for the user experience.

Premium Plugins

Yoast happens to be free, but there are a couple of plugins on the market that are not.

To be honest, I’ve never spent too much time researching them.  No interest.

All I can say is I suppose there could be value if they provide additional reporting, tracking, etc. and do not make unrealistic claims about what they can do for your traffic.

But whatever you do, please do not install an SEO plugin (free or paid) and expect the search engine heavens to part while flooding you with traffic overnight.

Today SEO is largely driven by social media shares, the quality of your backlinks, your Google Authority and content.  So waiting for a plugin to dramatically influence your rankings in 2013 is unrealistic.

Why I Uninstalled My Plugin

I don’t have an SEO plugin installed on this blog anymore.

Yoast was causing a conflict with my theme, which already has some fundamental SEO settings and options.  And to be honest, I never really used many of the additional settings that Yoast provides anyway.

Actually, I was a tad bit overwhelmed by all the choices.

The only settings I ever changed can be updated in my current theme, so I had redundant markup and some issues saving a few settings.

Since disabling the plugin several months ago, I’ve seen no negative impact.  As long as my posts are still getting indexed and I have the option to edit basic SEO settings that my theme provides, that’s all I need.

And I just did another check….

My organic traffic is actually a bit higher than it was last winter when I had Yoast installed.

Now, I don’t want to get into cause and effect because I think it’s really hard to know what is specifically influencing SEO today. All I’m saying is it didn’t seem to make much of a difference having a plugin installed or not.

And for the record, I wasn’t too terribly concerned with what would happen to my Google traffic after uninstalling Yoast.

Right now, only 35-40% of my blog’s traffic comes from Google… thankfully.   The rest comes from referring sites, email, social media, RSS, etc. And I’d love to get that SE percentage down to 25-30 and raise the other to 70-75.

So if this blog was more dependent on Google traffic, maybe I would have been a little more reluctant (A.K.A. afraid) to make such a change.

Having said that, I’m not convinced a plugin was making a big difference.

What About Sitemaps?

Now I do like the XML Sitemaps plugin.  I have used this since the beginning and do feel it’s necessary to keep your sitemap updated and submitted.

Most SEO plugins already has a sitemap feature, so you may not even need an additional plugin.

Yes, There’s Still Some Value

Hear me out.

I’m not suggesting you run to uninstall your SEO plugin. I just feel they are overrated when it comes to the traffic expectations — especially today.

I also think you need to be very careful when you claim or assume some tool is drastically improving your rankings when Google now uses more off-page signals like social media and select backlinks to influence SEO.

And finally… multiple plugins are not going to give you any greater benefit.  If anything, they can conflict with each other and cause a host of other problems such as duplicate tags, sitemaps and other markup issues.

Now, if you can confirm the features don’t overlap that’s one thing, but be careful of installing plugins that perform similar tasks.

What Say You?

I’m really looking forward to hearing what you have to say.  I can imagine some of you cannot even THINK of parting with your beloved plugins. 

Am I the only one who feels they are overrated?

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, I want to hear from you!

So I wanted to update you on the traffic to my hidden WordPress website I created in 2011 that I have been using to test how much organic traffic I can build without chasing backlinks.

It’s been six months since that post and the traffic has increased by roughly 50,000 page views per month and you can see the comparison screenshots below…

Email subscribers: click here to view the screenshots if you cannot view the images.

August 2012

February 2013

Since the last post in August, I’ve added roughly 20 pages.

For the record, a few people were suspicious/curious about the tool I’m using to track the traffic because they didn’t recognize the above graph.

It’s the WordPress.com Stats Plugin.  I also use Google Analytics, but the WP plugin is just more convenient to check.  So just in case you’re interested, the Google Analytics report looks about the same…

What?!?! No Backlinks???

The last post generated a bit of confusion.  People didn’t understand how I could build so much organic traffic without backlinks.

For the record, I never said this site doesn’t have backlinks.  Of course it does.  However, they were earned naturally.  The point is, I haven’t been chasing or manually building backlinks through guest posting, linking schemes, etc.

I have simply been writing content and targeting long-tail (less competitive) keywords.

I’m Not Alone

So I updated my traffic story on my forum, Website Babble, and it was good to see that other members are experiencing similar results.  Here are two replies from the thread…

From Seanguy75

Lisa this is a very cool post. Thanks for sharing your experience with this! Other than making a squidoo page early on that links to our site and literally only having our website address in one signature on one forum related to our niche, we have done no backlink building at all.

We are ranking #1 for our original keyword that I targeted at the beginning and #3 right now for another larger keyword in the niche. We are getting around 40,000-50,000 page views a month right now and hope to keep increasing this!

I have never done a guest post and have focused mainly on content and SEO. The SEO mainly being on page SEO. I tell my girlfriend who is actually my partner on the website now all the time about the things you recommend and how you do things. Cool post here and very encouraging for us!

It is funny, I was not expecting us to hit the top of our keyword as soon as we did so I have focused most of my efforts and research into content and basically how to get where we are now.

I told my girlfriend, wow I guess it is time for me to start researching and learning all about monetization now! We went from getting 10-40 visitors a day to 500-800 a day within a few weeks and have stayed in the upper amounts ever since. It has just been hitting me that we have enough traffic to really start doing something here now. LOL

Anyhow, most of this was done without any backlink chasing at all. I just never really got around to that. Once it became about content, it just has been about that ever since. Thank you for your ethics, your inspiration, your attentiveness to questions even though you must have a thousand or more a day and for this post!  Can’t wait to hit 100k!

From emvy548

I do have a similar experience as seanguy75.

I have a website in a hard-fought photography related niche. I posted a lot of good content based on my experience as a freelance photographer (one of my hobbies), and also some research done on the web. I did not build any backlinks for this site and let it sit – pretty much forgot about it while I got tied into various other assignments.

A few months later I noticed that my website was ranking in the top 5 results for several two-word keyword phrases with two of them being in the top three. It is a simple site with pure content and no monetization – not even Adsense on this one.

I am planning to add more content and monetize it though, hoping at the same time that its stays afloat at the top!

You can join this conversation on Website Babble here.

The Take-Home

Let me make one thing clear.  Building a business that relies solely on SEO is a dangerous game.  That is not the point of this post.

If you’ve been following me long enough, you know that my business is not SEO dependent.  This is just an experiment.  I just want to show that yes, in 2013 it is still possible to build decent traffic without chasing backlinks.

Of course, a lot of variables have to come into play (niche choice, competition, the quality of the earned backlinks, etc.) however it is still possible.  Too many people today are still targeting competitive/broad keywords and their sites are not focused enough around a central theme.

And I actually think this site would have even more traffic had I done this experiment before Google started favoring brands in late 2010.  With this experiment specifically, it is quite evident how much brands get a lift in the SERPS.

So ranking for long-tail (less competitive) keywords is where the traffic is coming from (just like Carl’s Disney site).

Having said that, I’m not complaining. Getting 150,000 monthly page views (2300 daily uniques) is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Thanks for the Feedback

I really enjoyed reading all your comments on the last post.  Many of you confirmed that you’ve experienced positive traffic results without chasing backlinks as well.

Keep the encouraging results and comments coming!

So I did some research on the best way to approach it and learned that Facebook has very strict guidelines for contests.

And if you aren’t careful, you can get your page disabled permanently.

Yes, it has happened to a handful of people over the years so be sure to read their terms.

In a nutshell, Facebook wants to remove the potential for any liabilities, and quite honestly, I don’t blame them.

So that means you are not allowed to run a contest from your wall (i.e. comment to enter or “Like” to win, etc).

If you want to host the contest from your page, you have to use one of the Facebook-approved applications like ShortStack or WildFire.  However, these apps can come with a hefty price tag if you have a large number of fans.

Here’s What You CAN Do

Now, you are allowed to promote a contest on your wall that is hosted elsewhere, as long as you make it clear that it has no affiliation with Facebook and the winner is not announced on your wall.

You also cannot use the word “Facebook” in the contest name.

The other good news is, you can require people to “like” your page to view/enter the contest.  You can set it up so non-fans will see one page, and once they “like” your page, they are given a link/access to the contest.

That’s what I did with a contest I ran on this blog.  I easily set this all up using the Static HTML iFrame tab application.

So when I promoted the contest on YouTube, this blog and other places outside of Facebook, people were required to “Like” my page before gaining access to the contest page.

Enter My 10K Fan Contest

My Facebook fans suggested that the winner of my contest should get to have a one-on-one Skype call/Google Hangout or some kind of live brain-picking or question/answer session with me.

I thought it would be fun, so the contest is officially live and will run through the end of the month.

If you want to enter, [contest closed].

In Summary

Running a Facebook contest can be a great way to gain more likes/fans, just make sure you play by the rules to protect your account.

So what about you?  Ever run a Facebook contest?  Did you use one of the pre-approved apps?  Share your experience!

After totaling up the amount of hours you spent marketing your site last week, you discover you’ve spent 4 hours on blog commenting, 3 hours posting to Facebook, 3 hours on Pinterest and 2 hours on article submissions.

It’s been at least four months since you started this routine, but you’re seeing minimal results.

You’re frustrated and starting to wonder if you’ll ever have some kind of breakthrough and you long for any signal that shows you’re moving in the right direction.

So what now?

I understand the frustration.  There’s so much information out here, it can be difficult for a new marketer to figure out where/how to start and what to focus on.

But there’s also a false belief among many who feel that if they just put in X amount of hours, they will be guaranteed some kind of income.

I’m often asked, How many articles should I write before I start seeing X amount of traffic? or How much time before I make $X per month?

The truth is, this is not a gig that rewards you for the quantity of work or hours logged.  It’s less about how much time you spend, and more about if you’re using your time effectively and actively measuring the results.

Because if you’re not careful, you can waste massive amounts of time on busy work that gets you nowhere.

Social Media

If you’re just starting out with social media, my advice is to start with one or two sites instead of trying to master too many.  For example, if your site is visually-oriented and targeted toward women, Pinterest may be a great place to start.

And in case you haven’t heard, they recently launched brand pages, so now you can create a business page for your site by either upgrading your existing account or creating a new one.

This growing network is now one of my top 3 traffic sources for my hair website.  And it’s quality traffic that yields 4-5 page views per visit and a 50% bounce rate.

Remember, all traffic is not created equal, so it’s important to measure what people are doing once they land on your site.  Maybe you received 50 visits from a campaign, but how valuable is that traffic if 90% of the people bounce and spend less than 10 seconds on your site?  Did you set a goal? Was it met? How’s the engagement? Always measure the results so you can spend more time on what works and less time on what doesn’t.

Now just because I’m recommending you start small doesn’t mean you should ignore the rest of the major networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc.)  Test them all and see which ones fit best with your business.

In fact, I highly recommend creating accounts with all the major sites just to protect your brand and establish a presence in case someone wants to reach out.

For example, I don’t use Pinterest for this site, but I did create a business page just to grab the 2createawebsite name.

But if your site is not a fit for Pinterest, don’t feel pressure to join and post pictures just because everyone’s talking about how great it is for their site.  Pinterest may work well for someone else, but become a major time waster for you because of your niche.

For this site, I spend more time on Facebook because that’s where I see results.  I track results from links I post compared to other networks and it just makes more sense to focus there.  I also receive the best engagement.

Do I completely ignore the other networks?  No, but I prioritize my time spent based on the benefits gained.

When I posted a link to my Clickbank guide a few weeks ago on Facebook, that link instantly received hundreds of visitors.  I don’t get this kind of traffic from links I post on Twitter, but it is still very valuable to me because of the connections.

People often reach out to me with questions and I like being accessible.  So I may not see instant traffic rewards from Twitter like I get from Facebook, but being accessible still provides indirect benefits.

Understanding the roles the various networks play in your business will help you better prioritize your time and marketing.

Experiment with services like JustRetweet and find the right balance between automation (HootSuite) and manual interaction to determine what combo works best for your site.  And of course, everyone’s strategy will be different.

SEO Time Wasters

This is an area where I feel people waste too much time today. Not because SEO is a waste, but many of the strategies we used to rely on have died/are dying.

SEO is becoming more and more manipulation proof.  In other words, activities that can be easily replicated will have less impact than they did before.

Anyone can submit a bunch of articles, forum signatures, amass oodles of links through schemes, submit to numerous directories, etc.  Spending hours per week on those activities will no longer give you the same benefits you may have realized years ago.

So you could spend your day chasing backlinks or write one really solid article for a popular blog like ProBlogger or Basic Blog Tips.

Of course, the idea is to guest post on blogs that are relevant to your niche.  Check MyBlogGuest to look for potential sites.

By the way, if you want to keep up with what’s going on with SEO, subscribe to SEOMoz.  There’s always current and useful information there — especially the Whiteboard Fridays.

A couple of weeks ago they published a thought-provoking post about how anchor text may be replaced by co-citation, thus impacting SEO even more in the near future.  Definitely worth a read.

Track Results and Feed Your Brain

So in the end, measuring the results from your efforts and educating yourself on what works/what doesn’t with regards to marketing is one great way to stay focused and prevent you from spinning your wheels on activities that may leave you exhausted and feeling stuck.

Just because you are working hard doesn’t mean you’re working smart, and working smart starts with educating yourself so you can stay up on the changes in the industry.

If you are just blindly posting links everywhere and not tracking what’s working and what’s not, you could be headed down a long road of frustration.

Here are links to some useful articles that will help you stay on track and up to date with Internet Marketing today and in the future.

Search Engine Optimization

Post-Penguin SEO Link Building: The Naked (URL) Truth
How Your Social Media Reach Influences Your Google Rankings
Prediction:  Anchor Text is Dying and Will Be Replaced by Co-Citation
How Does Google Consider Sitewide Backlinks?
All Guest Posting is Not Beneficial for SEO
3 Quick Tips for Building a Solid SEO Foundation With Google Webmaster Tools
Google is Trying to Tell You Something, Are You Listening?

Social Media

40+ Tips on How to Become a Social Media Rockstar on Twitter, Facebook and Google+
The Best Times to Post to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc.
7 Social Media Tactics Your 2013 Budget Needs to Succeed
Finally Achieving SEO Value From Google Plus

Email Marketing

The Future of Email Marketing (2012 Edition)
How to Use Email Segments to Get Higher Open Rates
5 Tips to Empower Your Email Marketing

Tracking

4 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Success
5 Simple Metrics to Track Your Social Media Efforts
How to Best Use Goals in Google Analytics
Using Social Reports in Google Analytics

Need a Dose of Inspiration and Fresh Marketing Ideas?

Since we’re talking about strategies that work, I cannot close this post without giving a shout out to the BlogCastFM podcast.

Srinivas (the host) always manages to unearth successful, out-of-the-box thinkers you probably have never heard of before.

The interviews are always chock full of practical strategies and actionable advice that will shower you with fresh perspectives, ideas and inspiration.

If you ever feel like you’re stuck in a marketing rut and are growing tired of reading the same ole’ recycled tips, I guarantee you’ll learn something new with each and every interview.   Definitely make room on your iPod for this podcast.

The Wrap Up

I realize the Internet is noisy and you may feel as if you have to learn everything today. Start small.  Focus on a couple of strategies and track results as you go along.  Remember, all busy work is not effective work.

And finally, always make time for education and inspiration.  The articles above will give you a good start on the education part, and BlogCastFM has enough inspiration to get you through the next few years…

At least.

Here’s to your success!

No one can vouch for this better than blogger, Ti Roberts who gained nearly 2,000 visits, 400+ Facebook likes, 117 Retweets and more shares in just 3 weeks of re-launching her blog.

I met Ti about a year ago when she reached out to me via social media.  I would see tweets from her here and there, but one in particular got my attention.  It read…

How I Got 1,325 Unique Visitors, 159 Facebook Likes, 70 Retweets, and 89 Sugars??

So I clicked the link to see what Ti was up to.

First of all, her posts are fun to read because they are enthusiastic, bubbly and even sprinkled with some humor here and there.  Her posts draw you in and take you on a ride — especially the one about her SEO allergy.

So clearly, that’s the first thing she has going for her blog.  But what I want to focus on is how Ti is really taking advantage of social media marketing.

And when I say taking advantage of social media, I don’t mean just setting your posts to go out on autopilot via HootSuite and re-tweeting a few links here and there.  I’m talking about full-fledged engagement with actual people on networks like BizSugar, Scoop.it and others.

Ti’s Advice For You

So I asked Ti to share her three most important tips for someone who has not had much success with social media.  She’s so chock-full of advice, she upped my offer and gave me five tips instead!

Here’s what she said….

1. Don’t Skimp on Quality

Your first focus has to be on creating epic content. It’s not required that you have pages and pages of content, but you do need to have at least some content on your website that’s of high quality before you begin driving social traffic.

You want to be able to give the visitors something of value to digest so you can at least peek and sustain their interest once they arrive.  If you have truly epic content, it’ll naturally get shared and start building up some viral momentum.

I only had 2 posts on my blog when I began really focusing on driving traffic through social media. Even though I only had 2 posts, they were both high quality content that shared some extremely valuable traffic generation tips and strategies.

Those posts alone started taking on a life of their own and began building up some viral buzz. I got several comments on both of those posts, plus many of my visitors began linking back to them naturally.

It’s not about the quantity, it’s about the quality.

The time that I put into my posts definitely shows, and I always make sure that I infuse my personality into my writing. I used to damper my writing style for the purpose of SEO and because I thought it was more important to get a lot of posts published quickly.

However, I learned that it’s the time that I put into my posts and my unique personality that sets me apart. I’m no longer afraid to let my true personality show through in my writing. I regularly spend 8 to 12 hours on the post that I create (4x times longer than I used to).

There’s more leverage in just 2 high-quality post that really give value and shows your personality then 10 dry SEO’d to death posts.

2. Build Authentic Engagement

Find an active community within your niche and begin to really get involved with the culture. Authentically engage and interact with the community.

Don’t just do surface interaction because even though you’re sitting behind a computer, people can see right through it and know when you’re being fake.

Open yourself up to making true connections with the members by actually taking the time to read their content and leaving thoughtful/insightful feedback and comments.

In your comments, engage the writer and the existing community by sharing examples of how you can relate to the content through your personal experience.

I initially began to do this on BizSugar.com. I became very active within the community, doing the exact things I described above. I put myself on a set schedule and didn’t deviate from my routine.

Consistency and a high amount of quality interaction will allow you to stand out from the crowd and begin getting some recognition.

Through my activity on BizSugar, it only took me a week to get noticed and become a featured member, which naturally got me more exposure.

One thing you can count on is that you will catch the attention of the members in the community that you’re interacting with and gain their respect. This allows you to build relationships with a tribe of like-minded people who will naturally rally around you. And then you can begin to support and promote each other’s content.

3. Connect With Influencers

Don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with influencers within your niche. In my book, this is a mandatory part of gaining leverage and creditably in social media.

You can’t afford to get wrapped up in yourself or be paralyzed with intimidation when it comes to blogging and driving traffic through social media.

Connecting with influencers not only helps you rev up your traffic but it allows you to gain creditably 10x faster.

I began connecting initially by consistently leaving high quality comments on their blog posts and sharing their content with my social networks on Twitter and Facebook.

Then I started doing Top 7 or Top 10 list posts sharing things that I learned from them: i.e. Traffic tips, content creation tips, etc. Every time I did one of these posts, I’d always link back to them, either directly to their site or the specific blog post that I learned the tip from.

After I published my post, I always sent them a personal email as well, telling them how much I appreciate the content they shared on their blog and letting them know that I just included them and their blog in my latest post.

If the post you’ve written is any good, naturally they’ll share it with their social networks because you’ve included them. This is how you can begin getting on an influencers radar and start building connections with them.

4. Build Social Proof

Building social proof is actually simple to do. I used to think that this was the hardest thing to do in social media, but it’s really not, at least not the way that I decided to do it.

What I do to build my social proof is simply track, document and celebrate any kind of success that I had. This is what I started to focus my weekly traffic case studies around.

All I did was make note of (take screenshots) and document any kind of interaction I got on the social networks, from how many people “liked” and retweeted my posts to any notable influencers that shared my post with their social networks.

Additionally, I began to keep track of my daily marketing activities: including any blog commenting and interaction I did with influencers on their posts, as well as any mentions/comments influencers made on my blog posts.

The point of building social proof is to build trust. Collecting and documenting all of this social interaction and then compiling them into weekly traffic case studies is a fantastic way to build proof and trust very quickly.

Don’t feel that your results aren’t good enough or aren’t worthy of being shared. Your results are your own and you should celebrate them. This is how you start building your story and begin attracting an audience who’s engaging and interacting with your content.

I love doing this and as I went along I really began to look at it like an adventure – documenting and chronicling some of my most exciting and notable business moments into my cyber scrap book that is my blog.

I’ve found that building my social proof in this way has quickly gained the loyalty and trust of my readers. It’s not because I’ve had the best results in the niche, it’s because I’ve proven that I know how to produce some level of results and I’ve been extremely transparent in sharing them with my audience.

One thing that I have noticed, especially with influencers in the blogosphere is that if they see that you’re really putting a sincere effort into creating great content and building up a true business and community, they will take note and begin helping you even more.

Opportunities for even more high leveraged social proof will begin to open up to you that you never saw coming, such as my being asked by Lisa to provide tips/strategies for this blog post.

5. Show Appreciation

With blogging and driving traffic through social media, I’ve learned that it’s vital that you show your appreciation to EVERYBODY.

Not just to the influencers that interact with your content, but everyone who has anything to do with helping you expand/grow your blog and knowledge.

This is the exact approach that I’ve been taking in my business. Every post that I’ve read since the re-launch of my blog has expanded my knowledge base and has enriched my blogging experience.

From the influencers to the up and coming bloggers, I’ve taken the time to comment and interact on their posts and let them know my appreciation for their content.

Don’t be afraid to share other people’s content as well. Share it freely and endorse it even. Let your social networks see what you genuinely learned from that person and their content.

I’ve even gone as far as featuring 10 bloggers I connected with through BizSugar and sharing specific things that I’ve learned from them as a result of reading their blog posts.

This shows true commitment and helps me to always remember to edify and uplift other bloggers and show my appreciation for all that they contribute to the blogosphere.

It’s important that you never take your audience for granted. Go above and beyond to respond to every single comment that you get. Give your commenters a shout out in your posts. Do everything that you can to show your appreciation and make them feel important.

I make this a constant part of my weekly traffic case studies. I always mention every commenter I get for the week and every voter I get from BizSugar.

This is helping me build a strong culture around my blog because I realize that they don’t have to interact with my content so I want to make sure they know that they’re valued.

This is how you build a true loyal community that will continue to rally around you and share your content with their social networks.

Share Your Strategy

So how are you using social media today?  Are you an active user like Ti who consciously works to build relationships or are you a more passive user?  Share your experience and strategies!

This time there were 3 fairly big updates that rolled out over the span of 10-12 days.

So in case you missed it, here’s a recap…

On September 27/28th, Google launched an EMD update (Exact Match Domain) that targeted “low quality” (their words) sites that were ranking well primarily because of the phrase match (and didn’t have enough other signals to support and validate such a high ranking).

Google must have really set the bar high for “high quality” because when an awesome site like Traffic Generation Cafe gets hit, you can’t help but wonder what the heck is going on.

Nevertheless, a few days later, we learned there was also a Panda update around the same time…

@gregrysmith yes. 500+ algo launches/year mean 1-2 a day. I know of at least one other algo rolling out over same timeframe for example.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) September 30, 2012

That one other algo that Matt was referring to in that Tweet was later confirmed as Panda. So that would explain why the “small EMD weather report” didn’t seem so small after all.

So if you were hit and you don’t have an EMD then you were probably affected by Panda.

Then on October 8th, there was another update (Top Heavy 2) that targeted sites that had too many ads above the fold. (Top Heavy 1 launched in January.)

How Did I Fair?

With regards to my sites, I had some winners and losers. This blog won (15% traffic increase), but my static site saw a 10% drop in organic traffic.

In fact, my static site actually has 25% less organic traffic than it did this time last year. That’s the bad news.

The good news is my income has not dropped proportionately because of diversification and I’ll talk more about that in a bit.

But first, let’s discuss The Almighty G.

The Rumor Mill

I don’t want to spend too much time on rumors and speculation because it does no good, and no one really knows what’s going on but Google.

Some believe they are pushing down content/affiliate websites and favoring brands to force more spend on AdWords.

Whether that’s the truth or not is beyond my control.

Some people hit by the EMD update said they would change domain names and do a 301 redirect to the new name.

I’m no expert, but I personally think that’s a waste of time. Remember, Google didn’t penalize all EMD’s. They penalized the ones that didn’t have enough pre-determined “quality” signals Google looks for to support the ranking.

So even if you do create a completely new website, you still have to build it up to make it worthy to rank again, and that’s going to be much harder given that SEO seems to be changing.

I say, stick with what you have and work on diversification. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last year. It’s been a journey, but I’m having some success that I want to share and hopefully inspire you.

Email Marketing

You may remember I launched my WordPress Starter Tips for beginners several months back. This is the most success I’ve ever had with email from a conversion standpoint.

The list has been growing by about 1,100 subscribers per month and I have primarily been promoting the list in certain YouTube videos and pages on my sites.

Most of the tips are not promotional in any way. However, in some I make recommendations for WordPress themes, my WordPress ebook, etc. and it has really helped with income.

As you may know, I am having a love affair with the Genesis themes (Yes, that’s the theme this blog is now sporting). I’ve started switching more of my sites over to them, so I’ve been promoting the themes to my list, via video, etc.

(I will also be having a giveaway on this blog very soon. (Yipppeee!)

Email marketing has always been a struggle for me because it’s tough to strike the right balance between informational and promotional content. Obviously people don’t want to be pitched to all the time, but I still want to monetize the list.

So it’s been a challenge, but I’m finally seeing some results. Below is my current ShareASale affiliate earnings that have come mostly from Genesis referrals.

If you are having trouble getting conversions with traditional email marketing (something I’m just not very good at), setup some useful autoresponder tips that go out on various intervals.

Just keep the inform/promotion ratio around 90/10.

YouTube

You knew this was going to be on the list, didn’t you?

I can’t say enough about YouTube and what it’s done for my diversification. Even though my 3 channels combined earn a small salary with the YouTube Partner program, I don’t focus on that because it’s Google-dependent revenue, and who knows what could happen with that in the future.

What’s more notable is that YouTube has helped with traffic, converting sales for more affiliate products, ebooks, etc.

Multi-Site Diversification

As I mentioned in another post, I have some other small sites I’ve been working on to further diversify my portfolio, but I have been spending more of my time building up my natural hair site.

It’s growing by the month and is not Google dependent. It started out that way, but lately more visitors are coming from Facebook, Pinterest, my YouTube channel and my forum that I just launched 2 1/2 months ago.

And finally, I’m getting into the Kindle publishing game and working on a book to add to the monetization mix.

So yes, I’ve been in Diversification Land, and it’s why I’ve only been blogging every other week instead of weekly (I hope you forgive me.)

The Verdict

Now, to answer the question I posed in the title…

No, Google did not kill the content/niche site model, but I do believe it is forever changed. The days of building content sites in hopes of drumming up a ton of Google traffic are coming to a close for the most part.

Of course, there will always be ways to find some success this way, but I think it’s even more of a risky model if that’s all you’re going to focus on.

There’s nothing wrong with targeting Google, but you should definitely plan to diversify sooner than later.

Don’t Give Up

I know it’s frustrating, and I’ve heard a lot of people say they are just going to throw in the towel. I can testify that diversification is hard work, but think of how much better off you will be when you do discover a way to be less dependent on The Big G.

Keep experimenting with different strategies and hang in there!

So what about you? Were you impacted? What are you doing outside of Google to promote your business today?

It’s no secret that the default WordPress search engine leaves much to be desired.

It prioritizes recency over relevancy, which makes for some odd results at times.  And to make matters worse, some themes display full posts instead of traditional results.  I find that to be limiting for the user experience.

So the best remedy for this is to incorporate Google Custom Search into your WordPress site.

Yes, there are plugins that will improve the default search (i.e. Relevanssi) but if you are an AdSense member, you might as well use GCS so you can generate revenue from ads that are displaying in the results.

Not Many Adopters

I’ve noticed a lot of people use the GCS search box on their sites, but they host the search results on Google.com.  This is not ideal because you don’t want people leaving your site when they perform a search.

However, I understand the choice.  When Google updated GCS in 2011, they complicated the process, so many just found it easier to just use the remotely hosted results.

Well, hopefully I can simplify the process for you.

Here’s a tutorial that will show you how to setup a self-hosted WordPress search results page so you can display the results on your own site and you’ll learn how to associate the engine with your Google AdSense account.

Enjoy!

Email subbies can view the video here.

Note:  This article was updated in February, 2013 and I’ve added a screenshot of the traffic from Jan-Feb, 2013.  Traffic stats are below.

I couldn’t wait to write this post because the results I’m about to show you probably go against many of your opinions about search engine optimization today.

If you’ve been following me closely, you already know I’m not a fan of aggressive backlink building.

I’ve always found it to be a tedious task that leads to short term results for the most part.

Having said that, I’m not against SEO and focusing on the right kind of backlink building.

For example, growing your brand and building relationships by writing guest posts on high quality, relevant blogs or any kind of natural link building that abides by Google’s guidelines is fine.

I just personally don’t believe in spending loads of time chasing backlinks.

As a result, a lot of people have criticized my stance on this, stating that I never had to focus on it much because some of my sites are mature and have an advantage.

While having an early start played a tremendous role in my success, I am still finding that today, quality content in the right niche still works for SEO.

I can’t write a post like this without mentioning how risky it is to rely completely on search engine optimization — especially today.  So as you read through this, please understand that SEO should only be one part of your traffic plan.

My Little Experiment

In July, 2011 I created a new WordPress authority niche website as an experiment to see how far a website could get today by just writing content and doing absolutely no backlink building whatsoever.

To be honest, I didn’t expect the site to do well and I will reveal the traffic results below.

Some of you are not going to like this part, but I made the decision not to reveal the site to anyone (at least not yet) and my name or any other identifying details (Adsense ID, company name, etc.) are not associated with the website or domain records.

Although, I am using my picture because I just don’t like faceless websites. 

Why So Anonymous?

First of all, I don’t want any mentions/links on my sites to skew the results.  Second, I am getting tired of seeing my content scraped, copied and plastered all over the place.

Of course this is not going to completely prevent that from happening, but it will cut down a lot of it.

Being transparent has its advantages and I have no regrets because it builds credibility and a loyal following.  However, there are obvious disadvantages, and for this experiment I have chosen to keep it hush-hush. 

Pat Flynn recently wrote about this same issue on his blog where he decided not to reveal one of his newer websites after so many people tried to duplicate one of his experimental websites.  I completely understand where he’s coming from.  So I decided to take a leaf out of his book and keep this one quiet — especially while I experiment to keep the results from being skewed.

Traffic Reports

Even though I won’t reveal the site, I will at least share some statistics you may find interesting.  Here is what the traffic looked like for the past month…

Here’s an update from February, 2013.  Traffic is still increasing gradually.  I’ve added roughly 20 pages since this post was originally published (6 months ag0).

This is not a huge increase by any means, but it’s not bad considering how little time I spend on this site.

For the record, this screenshot was taken from the WordPress.com Stats plugin.  That’s what I use to easily access my traffic stats right from the WordPress admin panel.

More Things to Note

- Even though I am not actively/manually building backlinks, the site is earning them naturally through other blogs who link to various articles.  So I’m not saying you don’t need backlinks.  I’m just saying you don’t have to chase them.  Slow, natural and steady is what Google loves.

- The site has about 120 pages and posts combined, and I have no real publishing schedule/pattern.  I spend about 2-3 hours on the site per month.  Seriously.

- Most of the traffic is from Google, but it also receives quite a few visits from Facebook.  Of course, I cannot see the actual referring page on Facebook in my reports (I hate that!), but it’s probably from people sharing the content on their walls.  I do not have a Facebook business page for the site.

- I didn’t do much number crunching with keyword research. Most of the search engine traffic is from a variety of longtail phrases instead of competitive keywords.

- The site is not overly optimized.  In other words, I don’t go overboard with keyword repetition and I made sure to vary my anchor text (text inside hyperlinks) when linking internally.

- Bing and Yahoo are also drawing more traffic than usual, which I found quite interesting.  Perhaps it has to do with the niche and the audience demographic preferring Bing over Google?  I have no way of knowing for sure.

- Once again, I’ve taken the tutorial route with my approach to this website.  As you know, this has worked so well in the past, and I love teaching.  So I continue to use that style as opposed to just posting generic information and re-reporting facts.

- I’ve chosen another niche where I can use my own personal life experience with the subject to educate and inform.

- So far the site has escaped all Panda and Penguin updates.

- I did manually submit to Google and Bing/Yahoo and also created sitemaps for each engine.

- I’m not using AdSense (it’s not a good niche for CPC ads at all) but I am selling sponsor ads and monetizing with affiliate programs.

Backlinks?

As I’ve already mentioned, I have just focused on writing content instead of searching for backlinks — which is what I normally do. But what is most surprising to me is the Google traffic I’ve received compared to the minimal number of backlinks I’ve earned.

Right now, there are only a handful of sites linking in according to Google Webmaster Tools, and a couple of sites that are just scraping my RSS feed and displaying my posts.

Why Does Google Love The Site?

Could the mild success and traffic gains be a result of the penalties other sites have incurred from unnatural linking, etc?

I’m not sure.

I haven’t spent too much time observing what my competitors are doing.  The traffic growth has been very gradual but steady, and I didn’t see any major jumps in traffic with any algorithm updates.

My main goal was to see how a website would perform in Google today without doing any manual link building.

Google seems to be less concerned about the quantity of your backlinks and more interested in the quality, diversification and how natural your backlink patterns are.

After all, the Penguin update really decreased the SEO influence of many types of backlinks.

To Sum it Up…

Don’t get me wrong.  The moral of they story here is not to just focus on SEO to build a business.  I was just trying to make a point that you can still receive good traffic from Google without obsessing over backlinks and just focusing on quality content.

There’s nothing wrong with targeting the engines for traffic.  I mean… you have to start somewhere, right?  As I mentioned, you just need a plan to diversify beyond SEO if you want longevity.

As I continue to emphasize, my overall business is not SEO dependent thanks to my forum, multiple YouTube channels, residual income, social media (especially Facebook), my email list, offline consulting (occasionally) etc.  I’ve diversified my income and traffic sources to give myself a great deal of stability.

I hope you are planning to do the same.

Also, finding the right niche and angle is key too.  Yes, the Net is incredibly saturated with websites, but a lot of the content out here is poor quality and created with minimal effort.

I don’t exactly buy the “net-is-too-saturated” claim as a reason for failure.  This experiment definitely proves that.

So the door is still wide open for high quality, useful websites.  The angle you take is what will set you apart and get you going in the right direction.

Never underestimate the power of establishing your unique position in a well-defined niche!

All promoted posts will show up as a “Sponsored Listing” in your fan’s feeds.

Statistics have already proven that Facebook users generally ignore ads, and GM recently pulled their campaign due to poor performance.

Granted, this is a little different than a regular ad because the post will be showed to people who already “Like” your page, but anytime the word “Sponsored” is used, it has a promotional feel to it.

So I don’t know about you, but this announcement didn’t make me do any happy dances.

Why Use It?

If you have a Facebook page, you’ve probably already noticed a limited percentage of your fans actually see your posts.  In fact, Facebook admitted that brand page content is only viewed by 16% of your fans on average.

This is due to many reasons – users not logged in when you post, they get lost in the shuffle of other posts and pages people “Like”, etc.

And of course, the skeptic in me can’t help but wonder if they are now ensuring your posts are shown to a limited number of people to encourage more ad spend.

Let’s face it.  At the end of the day, it’s about making money – anything to help their ailing stock, right?

According to FB, not only will this feature ensure more post visibility by giving it a sponsored label, but when your fans interact with the promoted post, it will be shown to their friends as well.

Is it Worth It?

Post promotion has its place, but I wouldn’t just haphazardly use it without a solid plan.

Say you’re having a huge promotion or contest for UK residents only.   Since you can target the post, you may consider testing it out for something like this because you can reach more relevant people.

You also have to consider the fundamentals of marketing.  More views is not necessarily better if you struggle with fan interaction and engagement to begin with.  Just like pay-per-click marketing or any kind of paid advertising, your content needs to convert for the campaign to be successful.

So if your paid Facebook post gives you 50% more views, but your engagement (likes, comments or whatever you’re measuring) shows minimal results, technically that campaign was a failure.

So I wouldn’t throw any dollars into any advertising until you have a real plan in mind and understand that the basic rules of marketing and engagement still apply.

So tell me.  Would you ever pay to promote your posts on Facebook?  Have you tried it yet?  What are your thoughts about this in general?  I’d love to hear from those who’ve tried it.

This has been in the works for some time, but the Senior Vice President of Engineering, Amit Singhal, made a more official announcement last Wednesday when he introduced the world to Google’s Knowledge Graph (GKG).

It has already started rolling out in the U.S., so if you haven’t witnessed it yet, it’s on the way to a local browser near you.

What this means is Google is going to start showing more of its own content in the results.

The idea behind the technology is Google wants to take the search terms people use and provide answers and additional facts related to the query.

Google has compiled over 3 billion facts into its database they will use.  So you can expect the search giant to dole out more direct answers to searches rather than displaying results to sites that have the answers.

If you think about it, Google has already been doing this in some form.  For example, when you type in a math equation, you will get the answer.  Search for the population of any city, state or country and Google will tell you the number.

So this isn’t completely new, but their knowledge base is going to get larger and Google will become smarter and smarter.

According to Danny Sullivan, they have gathered facts on the following topics…

• Actors, Directors, Movies
• Art Works & Museums
• Cities & Countries
• Islands, Lakes, Lighthouses
• Music Albums & Music Groups
• Planets & Spacecraft
• Roller Coasters & Skyscrapers
• Sports Teams

So What Does This Mean For Content Publishers?

Singhal claims most publishers won’t have anything to worry about, but admitted some will lose out.  Obviously if your site gets found for a lot of fact-based searches that Google now has in its database, you may lose on some queries.

For example, if your site is ranked #1 for the long-tail search, “How many moons are on Mars?”, and Google has that number in its Knowledge Graph, it will display its answer above your site, leaving less of a reason for a searcher to look any further.

So I see those kinds of fact-based searches being impacted the most.

Exactly how this is going to affect content publishers in the long-run remains to be seen.  We’ll just have to wait and see!