Google

Google Traffic: Help! What should I do now?

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The real question is how do you grow your business? Yesterday is gone, today is here. Tomorrow is the opportunity. I do believe that ‘the build content and visitors will come from Google’ days are over. Google is now increasingly ranking existing traffic. In other words, if you’re already popular, expect to get found in Google, but if you’re not… well, you know the story now.

The recent updates haven’t only been about finding Spam & Unnatural links in the index, but if you peel back the layers, you will see that Google is boosting branded sites; authorship is important; following social habits; and gearing up for mobile. This is at the same time as it is coming under pressure in its advertising markets from the likes of Facebook, Microsoft, & Yahoo! Advertisi

Add the list: Build the list

I had nearly 1,000,000 (that’s six zeroes) page views… but because I didn’t follow this mantra, I ended up with 150 subscribers to my mailing list. 150 out of 1 million pvs? What does that tell you?

So I would strongly recommend adding a popover for your newsletter, and push as many of the visitors you get now to sign up for the newsletter as possible. Put your RSS content into the newsletter and make your newsletter a PDF subscription only monthly update newsletter that is ESSENTIAL to have.

You can mirror the content throughout your site…but the convenience of having it once a month far outweighs the inconvenience of searching for all the disparate content on your site. Don’t leave it to late to do that…

Take your power back from Google

One of the dangers of working the SBI system is the power that you hand over to Google without realizing it. And many webmasters are now ruing the day they made that decision …of putting Google in the position to decide the future of their business. My coffee site is a classic example of this, and something that I have not remedied yet.

Essentially, a viable site has to have a diverse and diversifying source of incoming visitors. You cannot, should not ever rely on Google for your mainstream visitors. They are fickle, they are come & go, they don’t stick around, and they don’t often return to your site… too many other options to consider. However, they are loyal to Google, so it doesn’t matter to them whatever happens to your site.

Avoid Endless P&P Reports & Tweaking

Many SEO specialists, gurus and affiliate marketers advise and sell products/services that encourage you to get back into Google’s graces by endlessly tweaking your site’s keywords, URLs, keyword density, Google algo data… whatever particular flavor they are selling that day. But search engine rankings is a game for SEO specialists whose business is SEO.

Is SEO your business? No… Your business is bring the best of your site to your visitors. That is your business. Not endlessly tweaking WordPress, PHP, HTML, GWT, or whatever acronym there is. I’m not saying “neglect these”… but your purpose should be tweaking those for the sole point of satisfying your visitors enough that they will ‘Like’ you, ‘Share’ you, Subscribe, Bookmark or Purchase from your site.

So what should I be doing?

So the ultimate question becomes not how can I get my site back in Google but how can I help my exisiting traffic LOVE my site or NEED my site to the extent that they will gladly give up time, money or effort to get it. That is branding. That is what Google is now looking for.

And with only a set number of hours in the day, then you have to ask yourself is it really worth my time hacking all these errors or would the time be better spent writing the content (for the blog or newsletter or Facebook) that my visitors/customers will LOVE? So don’t let the Google errors, the plugin problems, the niggles over CSS/HTML diminish your passion for your site.

Simplify what you need to do to serve your customers better. That’s all you need to. Let Google sweat the details. Because you have a great site, a great brand, great customer loyalty, great content… it is Google that has the troubles, the software issues, the problems… they are Google’s problems.

Don’t let Google ruin your business

Your site is what matters. When you focus on that, you will find the help that your site needs. And you will benefit your customers and visitors. Directly building your own brand & brand loyalty is the best (and perhaps the only real) alternative to letting Google run and ruin your business.

Video: Google Chrome

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It seems that Google has a new browser out… I wanted to try it but my pc at home isn’t compatible. It’s only XP SP1… So enjoy the video.

If you want to try Google Chrome, download it here. Update: I finally downloaded it and installed it. I’m adding a simple screenshot to show you the browser. I like the simple style that hides all the crap that we typically add to browsers.

chrome browser

I wonder how many similar ‘theme’s for IE and FF this will spawn!

Linking

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Increasingly, some people are concerned about the links that I have placed in posts, and may request that these links be removed. However, I freely place ALL of my links, and frown on removing links from my site. Why? Because the web is exactly that, that is its core function to link one site to another with relevance, authenticity and value to the reader.

Webspam

However, a lot of webmasters have gone out of their way to create hundreds or thousands of spammy links to their sites, such tactics worked until recently updates by Google penalized such backlinks. Spammy links are links that are obviously junk: regurgitated paragraphs, snipped content, garbage blogs, spammy comments, directory spam, … and so on. So, if you have lots of spammy links, by all means, remove them. This is not what InvestorBlogger is about. Blog links, like the links in this blog, are not spammy. InvestorBlogger has never, and never will be, a link farm; nor will we create any form of webspam.

If you’re determined to go ahead and remove links from this site, you MUST follow the guidelines outline on the following page. I will not reply to requests that are vague, rude, threatening, inappropriate, insufficiently documented… so don’t piss me off. Mind your language & tone when you contact me (and any webmaster) requesting removal.

InvestorBlogger no longer removes links except perhaps if the resource is no longer available or has become unsuitable. Reach me through the contact page.

No Follow

I am generally not in favor of using ‘no follow’ and regret the mess Google has caused with its link/search policies in the last few years, and have sought to diminish Google’s influence over this blog by removing the Adsense, Search, and Webmaster Tools from this site.

I would urge you not to let Google bully webmasters into submission, and to show your displeasure by cutting your own use of Google down. The web needs diversity, not monopoly. And Google is in danger of becoming the web, if we are not careful.