Have you ever had the feeling that no matter what kind of search engine optimization you do, you can’t seem to outsmart Google? Like seriously – its algorithms change faster than Taylor Swift would change his boyfriend! Haha but on a serious note, its algorithms are pretty tricky, that if you’re a startup business, or if you’re new in the blogging industry, getting top rankings seem impossible. I know how it feels – because I’ve been there!
Just like all the other new bloggers and website owners out there, getting top search engine rankings may be difficult to achieve, unless you’re willing to spend tons of cash on Google advertising. I’m a mom – technically speaking, this isn’t a practical move, unless of course you’re generating tens and thousands of dollars from your website every month. If that’s the case, Google advertising won’t be a problem. However, not everyone generates that huge amount of money, so I researched, looked for ways, joined various courses, attended webinars and learned that GOOGLE IS NOT THE ONLY SOURCE OF TRAFFIC!
You heard me right! As I was trying to compile the steps, I’ve realized this one thing: I can generate more traffic than I ever had with social media! Why not? People are always on social media. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and my new favorite, Pinterest.
Before we get into details, I have a couple of questions:
- How long do you use social media in a day?
- Where do you find interesting ideas, products and content?
- Would you rather read long product descriptions, or scroll through product photos and use this as a decidig factor before you’d buy a product?
If you’re like me, I’d probably do everything in Facebook, Instagram, maybe a little bit of Twitter to find products and services that interest me. Of course, Etsy is my favorite shop, and where else can I find awesome Etsy products? You guessed it right – PINTEREST!
So after all that analysis and realization, I quickly ditched Google. I knew I had to fo something else to get noticed. I started focusing on other marketing strategies that I knew would work.
I’m no guru, but, I’ve applied all the things that I’ve learned from personal experience, courses and learnings from my clients. Here’s my new marketing strategy. (I’ll briefly discuss the three platforms but we’ll mainly concentrate on Pinterest for this post.
What better way to get more fans than through Facebook ads? Okay, I know I’ve mentioned earlier that I wouldn’t pay for Google ads, but Facebook is a wee bit different. It’s cheaper, and way more effective if you are doing it right. It took me a couple of tries and split tests to understand my audience, but once I got the results I’ve wanted, I sticked with it, and repeated all the steps with all my other websites.
Once your Facebook page starts getting more fans, don’t forget to engage with them. Engagement is the key! Sure, they may not become your INSTANT customers, but you have leads! It’s about properly utilizing those fans. Think of a way thay will make them keep coming back for more of your posts.
People love visuals. It’s relaxing and sometimes, it can easily engage potential readers and customers. Utilize Instagram to promote your products. Use quotes every now and then. For some reasons, people LOVE quotes – a lot! Make use of it to attract more people. Don’t forget to do some SFS (shout out for shout out) on a regular basis. This is one surefire way to get more people visiting your IG profile.
Your website should also be in your profile. This way, you can easily direct leads.
I just used Twitter about a week ago. I know, I may have missed a lot, but better late than never! 🙂 Since Twitter is fast paced and merely concentrates on text, I figured that this is another way to focus on bringing more people to my blog.
I don’t have physical products to sell (aside from the affiliate links I have in this site), but since I like to relay information, Twitter is an awesome platform for that.
The downside with Twitter is that I can only write so little, so choosing my words carefully can make or break each tweet’s clickthrough rate. Be brief, straight to the point and concise. Don’t use flowery words. You only have 160 characters for each tweet, so make sure you make the most out of it.
- YouTube
These days, it’s more than just images and text. People also love watching videos – and it has been proven that videos generate just as good results as images and a good campaign. You have to know your craft, you have to learn to speak to your audience and deliver your message like no one does.
Today, YouTube has now been considered as another search engine. People who are looking for product reviews, recipes, or basically any other information, if they want it detailed, they’ll go to YouTube.
Building your audience through this platform can be tricky, considering that evidently, new vloggers are starting to take this platform by storm. While I’m not saying it’s impossible, it may take a bit of a time, but feasible.
To give you a headstart, you have an option to take advantage of YouTube ads. This will give you a quick boost to send your message to your intended audience. What do you need to do? Simple – learn the basics on how to run YouTube ads to achieve better success and to get your message across your audience.
Now, here’s the interesting and my most favorite part. This is actually the main reason that made me decide to quit SEO, and focus mainly on social media.
Etsy shops are on Pinterest, aren’t they? Many people are more attracted to images, and when they find something that interests them, they click the image, which gives them the option to visit the website source. Now, this is exactly what Pinterest does.
My strategy? It’s fairly straightforward. Even if you don’t have social media marketing experience, I’m pretty sure that you can pull this method off.
- I create boards, boards that resonate the theme / niche of my website. In my case, my blog is a combination of parenting, working from home and blogging, so I made some boards that will target the right audience. I have “Parenting 101”, “Blogging Tips”, “PINspiration”, “Inspiration”, “Love, Marriage and Weddings”, “Raising a Toddler Effectvely”. As you can see, these are all boards thatresonate with the blog.
- Next step is pinning! Yes – I pin a lot! You can pin from other sources, but here’s one thing that makes Pinterest so effective. You can pin your article directly to Pinterest! Choose your link, or better yet, install their pinterest app, choose an image, then choose a board that you’d like to pin it to! Make sure that when you pin, you do a combination of other sources and your website. This way, your followers won’t receive merely concentrated information. You want it to be about your followers. Give them interesting pins.
- Follow other Pinterest users which are in the same industry as you are. This will help you gain more followers = and the more Pinterest followers that you have, the more chances that your boards, pins and website will be visited!
- Overtime, I clean some of my boards. If I find some pins are clearly not of good quality (I may have missed it the first time), I delete them. There’s no reason to frown upon one pin.
- Rinse and repeat. I even do this to some of my other websites, and it’s working pretty great. I don’t even have to worry about my search engine rankings right now. What for? I get all my traffic from Pinterest and other social media platforms! Why would I compete with huge websites such as smartparenting.com, or amazon.com when small bloggers like me can reach out to a wider range of audience without having the need to please Google?
Always remember that Pinterest is all about images, images, images. Make sure that you create images that engage the audience. Compelling written content is important, but to get people to read your content, it all starts with an amazing image.
Remember, pin good images with a link to your site. This method works fairly well with blogs, to established websites offering products and services. To make Pinterest marketing more effective, be sure that you have an opt-in form. Give them something really valuable that will make them give their email address to you. Once you have a list – you can then start sending them emails, but be reasonable when to send it and what to send them.
In our next post, I’ll be talking about some tools that I use to create these images I use in my blog, and social networks. (Watch out for that!)
What are your thoughts about this? Leave your feedback in the comment, I’d love to hear it!
Aine Austria is a content creator, freelancer, entrepreneur, essential oils educator, nacho lover, and mom to an adorable daughter. She helps aspiring mom bloggers and entrepreneurs launch their blog, alongside other money-making opportunities. Aine believes that everyone has a story to tell and that their experiences and talents can be shared with the world.
Aine’s passion for writing and sharing her knowledge with others started at a young age. Growing up, she always loved to read books, write stories, and express herself through words. She strongly believes that moms can still pursue their dreams and passions while raising a family, and she aims to inspire other moms to do the same through her work.
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I Broke Up With Google!