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Why You Need to Diversify Traffic Sources Beyond Google

 Renew Marketing    Internet Marketing

Why You Need to Diversify Traffic Sources Beyond Google

Google is the world’s largest search engine. As such, it directs a considerable amount of traffic to a considerable number of websites every day.

But just because Google is big doesn’t mean you should totally depend on it for traffic. If the vast majority of your traffic (say, 80% or more) comes from Google, then you risk losing that traffic (and possibly your business) whenever Google whimsically decides to update its algorithm.

Recent algorithm updates have punished everything from “over-optimized on-page SEO” to domains that match the exact words that customers are searching for. Although these updates are designed to catch those who try to artificially inflate site rankings, thousands of legitimate websites have been caught up in the process.

Other traffic sources

Diversifying traffic sources is not nearly as hard as you might think. In most cases, website owners don’t need to completely change their methods. Here are a few traffic sources that you might already be using to draw traffic to your website:

-Bing

-Yahoo

-Social media websites like Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter

-Direct links from other websites, like ‘web 2.0 sites’ or sites for which you have written a guest post

-Paid advertising

-Affiliate referral websites

Key differences between Bing, Yahoo, and Google rankings

The three major English-language search engines have a lot of things in common when it comes to determining site rankings. Each search engine places a heavy emphasis on link authority (known as PageRank on Google) and each search engine offers location-specific (i.e. local) results. Domain name plays a factor when determining relevant keywords and each search engine offers paid advertising that lets websites pay their way to the top of the first page.

But beyond that, it’s important to recognize the differences between Bing, Yahoo, and Google, which includes the following:

-Google looks at the context of keywords, but Bing does not. Searching the same keyword in two different phrases on Google could change your results, but with Bing, it’s best to use exact keyword phrases instead of relying on the search engine to do the work for you.

-If you search for an ‘ambiguous’ term that might have several different meanings, then Google will display the most popular website for that term while Bing will display a list of local websites. If your website’s name is something ambiguous – like the name of a restaurant in some city in the world – then capturing Bing and Yahoo traffic could be difficult.

-Bing and Yahoo tend to put a heavy emphasis on domain age when it comes to rankings. Bing and Yahoo also emphasize the importance of .edu and .gov websites. Although Google takes these factors into account, they’re not nearly as important when determining site rankings.

-Google hates Flash content, but Bing doesn’t seem to hate it quite as much. Apparently, websites with high amounts of Flash content have a better chance of ranking on Bing.

For in-depth analysis about the difference between Bing and Google ranking factors, click here.

No matter how well you optimize your site for Yahoo and Bing, you shouldn’t expect more than single digit percentage points of traffic coming from either search engine. But by taking some of the above factors into account, you can improve site rankings on alternate search engines and ensure your business can survive even if Google decides it doesn’t like you.

Want to diversify traffic sources in the easiest way possible? Contact Renew Marketing today for reliable internet marketing Dallas advice you can trust.