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No matter whether your website is a content website, an affiliate website or even an eCommerce business, your lifeline is always website visitors. Creating a great website is just the first step. Your responsibilities also include ensuring that your potential audience sees your website.
As an online publisher specializing in informational content, I like to think of my websites as magazines. As a publisher, we value creating beautiful magazines that are filled to the brim with helpful information. But if we don’t put these magazines where our readers can see them, no one will browse our glossy pages.
It’s our job to find out where the virtual newsstands are and how to get to them so that our magazines are prominently displayed.
Related: How digital marketers can prepare for the changes AI-powered search engines will bring
Search engines as newspaper kiosks
Traditionally, search engines like Google were the largest and most effective “newsstand” for online magazines.
Our readers would actively turn to a search engine and look for the information they need. The search engine – almost always Google – would then check what’s in stock and suggest a few good options. If your magazine was good enough, Google would place it prominently in the ad for this search query.
With the advent of generative AI, this relationship is rapidly changing. Google is moving to providing generative search results. After teaching it to read our magazines, it now places a robot in front of the newsstand and lets that robot answer people’s questions instead of showing them magazines.
Google’s new approach presents many problems that lawmakers and regulators should hopefully address.
Meanwhile, website owners who rely solely on Google to find website visitors are facing a growing problem.
Related: 5 Tactics to Increase Website Traffic That Are Not SEO
Diversifying traffic sources is of utmost importance
The old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is more true today than ever. In recent years, many website owners have become dependent on search engines to drive traffic to their websites.
Google was such a robust and effective newsstand that it made sense to focus marketing efforts on SEO. But now it’s time to diversify traffic sources.
Luckily we have alternatives. Here are a few actionable suggestions:
1. Social media
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Pinterest and TikTok attract billions of users every day. By offering attractive content that resonates with your potential audience, you can present your website effectively. If the content matches their intentions and interests, some of them will visit your website.
With the added benefit of your posts going viral, social media can become a major source of traffic for many websites.
2. Paid advertising
If you’re confident in your company’s return on investment per visitor, paid advertising could be a viable way to maintain it. Whether through Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or another paid channel, you could attract hyper-focused visitors who are likely to convert into leads.
3. Content marketing on other channels
For some companies, this may be a good time to explore more traditional channels. Possible options include sponsoring local nonprofits, networking with colleagues, and developing collaborations.
If you’re looking for inspiration, let me share a pre-Google story. To promote a content website on this topic, I created printed materials promoting spaying and neutering of cats. I then encouraged site visitors to print out these brochures and display them in various locations frequently visited by pet owners.
While it was difficult to track visitors, over the next few years we received messages from people telling us that they found out about our website through a brochure at their veterinarian’s office or local animal rehabilitator.
4. A newsletter
Curating your users’ emails into a robust mailing list is an essential part of website marketing today. Regardless of your traffic source, you should try to capture your visitors’ email addresses. Then take advantage of these emails by sending a newsletter.
This newsletter can be a very effective way to reconnect with your visitors and get them to visit your website again. If you have an affiliate or e-commerce website, your mailing list can be the vehicle to offer discounts, coupons, and other ways to convert visitors into customers.
And if your current traffic levels are too low to grow your mailing list effectively, you can boost your efforts through lead ads on various platforms.
Related: Improve your website visibility and dominate your competition with these powerful techniques
Search engines are not be-all and end-all traffic generators
Over the past few months, many website owners have felt the impact of Google algorithm changes and its transition to an AI-driven response engine.
As a web publisher myself and president of the Web Publishers Association, I feel their pain.
However, it’s important to remember that Google isn’t the only newsstand. Our audience walks past several newspaper kiosks every day – in the form of social media platforms. We also have the option to convert them into subscribers who will receive our magazines directly to their email inboxes.
It’s time to get creative and develop new marketing strategies and skills to find new and innovative ways to reach our audience. Rebranding a business is never easy, but that’s exactly what website owners need to do in 2024.