11/08/2012 |
Guest Blog By Pete Williams
What would happen if SEO died?
In other words, what would you do if suddenly, there was no such thing as search engine optimization?
You can’t get backlinks. You can’t do keywords. You can’t do any of the traditional SEO tasks to grab that highest ranking in Google, where your site is likely to be seen.
Yet, as a small business owner, you still have to drive profitable traffic to your site. It’s still one of your core marketing tasks that can make or break your business.
So if SEO was dead, how would you do get that traffic?
Obviously, you would need a new strategy. Fortunately, there are plenty of better methods for driving traffic to your site – far outside of search engine optimization.
Today, I want to introduce you to one of the most effective ways I know to get top rankings in Google for your content without worrying about search engine optimization.
SEO Is Great But…
Again, this is a hypothetical discussion at this point. SEO still exists. And yes there are people out there searching for businesses online.
But the reality is it’s getting tougher every day to get the highest ranking in Google using traditional SEO. Google keeps changing the rules for what constitutes SEO.
So personally, I would rather skip the whole SEO process all together, and focus on alternative methods for driving traffic to your site.
One of the best ways to grow your business online is to do what I call “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
What I mean by that is you can leverage other people, other “giants” in your niche. This is a great way to attract your prospects attention and get the traffic you need without bothering with SEO at all…
Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
These giants in your marketplace have already invested years of hard work, and put blood, sweat and tears into making sure that they get traffic to their site.
They have already built a platform. They already have a following and a community. More importantly, they already have top rankings in Google.
So why not leverage that status?
Instead of killing yourself trying to get the top rankings for your blog or site, you can approach one of these high-ranking authorities in your marketplace, and ask to create content for them.
That way you can post your content on one of the top-ranked sites in Google – without having to worry about backlinks, registering your domain, or making your post “Google friendly.” You can just focus on the content itself.
A great way to start is offer to create a high-value, engaging piece of content for another person’s blog.
It doesn’t have to be a written blog post either. It can be a video or podcast – whatever that plays to your strengths.
How to Approach the Giants
Now if you’re just starting out in your business, it’s possible that you don’t know any authorities in your niche.
But even if you don’t know any giants in your niche personally, you can still approach them. You just need to approach them in the right way…
As Ed Dale often says, you need to consider: “What’s their objective?
In other words, what’s in it for them? Why would this authority want to post your content on their blog? You need to understand and support their self-interests.
Most authorities want highly engaging content for their audience. So if you’re actually creating high-quality articles and videos for their sites, that gives them value for their community.
It also shows that they have connections with intelligent people. So it helps position them as an authority.
So step 1: Create valuable content. Then deliver that content on a silver platter to the biggest giants in your industry.
This is an easy way to gain authority, traffic and attention.
It will work regardless whether SEO is alive and well for many years to come… or it dies tomorrow.
