As marketers, we invest a lot of our time and energy into SEO.
Considering that Google receives over 66,000 searches every second, we’d be stupid not to.
But when it comes down to it, Google and other search engines are just one of the many ways you can drive traffic to your website.
In fact, depending on your target audience and competition, Google may not even be your best traffic source.
Take Upworthy, for example.
This site, which has a reputation for sharing feel-good viral videos, gets almost 43% of their traffic from social and less than 19% from search.
Groups of consumers all use the web differently.
Some like to get their content from friends or influencers on social.
A few depend on their trusted newsletters to tell them what content they need to read.
Others use an alternative search engine like YouTube or even Facebook.
To prove that you don’t need Google to drive traffic to your website, here are six alternatives that can help boost your visits.
Create a YouTube channel
Start conversations on social
Partner with influencers
Take advantage of your email subscribers
Provide assistance on forums and question sites
Take advantage of guest posting
1. Create a YouTube channel
YouTube has 1.5 billion active users each month, making it the world’s second-largest social platform.
With 1.5 billion active users each month, YouTube is the world’s second-largest social platform.
Over 30 million users log on to watch a total of 5 billion videos each and every day.
These numbers are massive.
However, these numbers still don’t rival Google, which processes about 3.5 billion searches per day.
So, how can you drive even a fraction of the traffic with YouTube that you could with Google?
Well, the beauty of YouTube is that it allows you to share videos.
While Google does display YouTube videos as part of its results lists (Google does, after all, own YouTube), the results aren’t quite the same.
In order to appeal and reach these video-lovers, you need to create YouTube content.
Because YouTube reaches more people from the ages of 18-49 than any cable network, this is particularly true if you’re marketing to younger generations.
Gen Z’s love affair with YouTube runs especially deep.
In fact, 50% of Gen Z-ers told AdWeek they wouldn’t be able to live without the sharing site.
They also shared why.
For Gen Z-ers, YouTube is more than just a video-sharing site. Look at all of the things that they go to YouTube for:
If Gen Z’s love for videos continues as they grow older and start making new purchasing decisions, this may be a major game-changer for marketing in years to come.
Uploading videos to YouTube allows you to appear in front of customers who use the site like a traditional search engine.
Then, with appropriately-placed links, you can drive those users back to your website.
Let’s take a look at how GoPro’s YouTube channel does this.
As one of the most popular YouTube channels around, GoPro uses their high-quality videos to show what their product is capable of doing.
However, simply uploading videos doesn’t drive sales.
That’s why they also make it easy for customers to get from their YouTube channel to a product page.
Here, we have a video shot users shot with the GoPro HERO6:
Right within the first couple lines of the description, viewers have a link that will bring them straight to the product page for the GoPro HERO6.
Interested customers can check out what the new camera is capable of, then easily make their way over to the GoPro website to get additional details or make a purchase.
And this isn’t the only way GoPro pushes traffic to their website.
You can also find a link to their website and their social media profiles within their cover image.
This gives YouTube users who land on the company’s channel an opportunity to get to their website quickly.
You can also add links to your website within your actual video content.
YouTube even offers features that allow users to create interactive video ads.
These features display either over the video itself or at the end of a video, prompting viewers to make the next move.
You’ll see from this chart that both call-to-action overlays and auto end screens help drive traffic to your website.
Here’s an example of a call-to-action overlay from a HubSpot video.
YouTube features the link right within the middle of the video. HubSpot timed it perfectly so that it appears when the viewer has a thorough enough understanding of inbound marketing to start feeling enticed.
Now, let’s compare this to an auto end screen.
Here’s an example from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
This presents the viewer with a number of different options when they’ve completed a video. It includes an offer to head to the NBC website to download the show’s app.
When using either of these interactive features, be sure to provide a clear and direct value to your watcher.
Also, keep in mind that you don’t want to plaster over your video with links to dozens of content pieces.
Instead, focus on just one or two that truly support the contents of your video.
2. Start conversations on social
If you do it correctly, social can rival Google as a traffic source.
According to Sprout Social, 48% of Millennials and 48% of Gen X-ers followed a brand on social media in Q1 of 2017.
This means you have less noise to cut through to get to your target audience.
Additionally, social provides you with an opportunity to engage and entertain – something you’ll struggle to do on a search engine.
When social users scroll through their timelines and news feeds, they’re looking for just about anything that will pique their interest.
If you’re capable of providing something high-quality and interesting, they’ll click through to your site to check out more.
However, it’s important to recognize how social is changing for brands.
In 2017, social accounted for 25.6% of all site visits.
But this number is actually down from past years.
From the same study, we can see that from about the end of 2013 to the beginning of 2017, social was outperforming search for driving traffic.
Unfortunately, the changes to the Facebook algorithm led to serious declines in organic reach on the platform.
Compared to the first half of 2017, Facebook saw about a 9% drop in social media referrals in the second half of the year.
However, one social site’s loss is another’s gain.
While Facebook saw a large dip at the end of 2017, both Pinterest and Instagram saw some pretty significant jumps.
Regardless of the social networks you choose to target, you want to provide meaningful and valuable information.
Remember that users log onto social to engage with their friends – not to have someone sell them something.
You want to find ways to engage your user while they’re still on the platform.
Buzzfeed Tasty does an excellent job at this.
Within their Facebook post, they include it all.
They created a video to grab attention.
They have friendly messages that establish the viewer as their friend.
And they include not one but two links that can either push the user to buy or to check out the recipe from the video.
And they do all of that without making it feel overwhelming!
This tactic has gained the Tasty Facebook page serious attention – almost 95 million followers!
To replicate this for your own audience, know your audience and create social content that blends seamlessly into their timelines.
Another way to get a conversation started is to use Twitter threads.
Twitter threads allow you to share insights, tips, and thoughts that connect by replying to yourself – and they have the power to bring you viral attention.
Check out what happened to travel blogger Hey Ciara.
On January 1st, she started this thread.
With this one thread alone, Ciara gained over 13,000 new Twitter followers, 6,000 new Instagram followers, and a 10x increase in her blog traffic.
Threads like these provide a distinct value to followers in a relatable way.
After sharing her secrets, Ciara drops a link to a blog post on her website containing more information.
Though the engagement with the link is significantly less than the first post, it was still able to drive traffic.
She already established authority with her followers in the thread. They trust her and know that she has information worth sharing. That gives them a reason to click on the link.
Creating a Twitter thread typically takes minimal effort. However, you want to be prepared to keep the momentum going.
Know the direction you’re going to take before you begin and be ready to share images, videos, or links that support your claims.
3. Partner with influencers
There are a lot of scams on the web, making shoppers wary about who they choose to purchase from.
If they’ve never heard of a business, they’re not going to pull out their credit cards after seeing just one ad.
Before they’re ready to shop, they need to trust you.
Unfortunately, it takes time to build trust organical
source https://blog.kissmetrics.com/alternative-strategies-to-drive-traffic/
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