This was a comment left on one of the recent blog posts on Flippa and I thought it would make for a good discussion.
“Proper web businesses don’t rely on Google for the bulk of their traffic.”
I’d be interested to hear other’s opinions on this.
Several sites, preferably in different niches, that use different methods to drive traffic to the sites.
So a BBQ site that relies on Google, and a WoW site that relies on return traffic to it’s forums, and a site that sells an e-book on dating that relies on PPC, etc…
Of course, good luck actually doing that, learning how to get the most of one type of traffic source for one niche is hard enough. Trying to learn multiple ways well and in different niches is damned hard.
The site it happened to wasn’t huge, it was only receiving about 6k UV’s per month. But one day ALL the traffic dropped to about 5 visits per day, a fairly significant reduction! It was basically wiped from Google’s SERP’s.
As I said, it wasn’t a large site, nor was it delivering much in the way of $, so I just left it and focused on other sites. About a month later traffic started returning and the site started showing up in the SERP’s again.
This was a cheap lesson to learn. If this site had been getting 50k UV’s and selling physical stock I would have been in trouble.
This leads to my next question:
What constitutes a diversified website portfolio?
This hasn’t happened to me yet, fortunately. What happened, Luke, and what other sources of traffic did you fall back on?
Thanks for the input guys.
IMO, “Proper Web Businesses” shouldn’t rely solely on Google for traffic and therefore revenue.
I’ve experienced first hand what happens when Google decides to demote a site’s search results (aka Google Slap). It’s no fun, and if I’d been relying on that traffic as a source of income I would have been in trouble.
I’ve come to appreciate the value of a brand and believe that building brand equity is a powerful long-term strategy. More powerful that for example, keyword domains.
My 2 cents.
I really think it depends on where the business is in terms of its growth stages.
Early on businesses often rely on google to drive traffic since it’s a quick an easy way to get started (either paid and/or SEO).
That said, what I would consider a “proper web business” is one that’s been around the traps at least long enough to know how much a client is worth to them.
With this number a “proper web business” can acquire as much traffic as it can from all sources as long as it’s at a cost lower than the profit they’ll make from the new client.
I think we can all agree it’s never a good idea to rely 100% on one traffic source since what happens if that traffic source changes the rules or worse dries up completely.
Start with google… and then expand.
Dave Jenyns
<snip>
The only thing I would take from that is that your traffic should not rely on just one source in case that source stops.
And I think that’s exactly what the poster meant. BTW, the poster is FruitMedley, one of the most respected posters in this section of Sitepoint and someone with a huge amount of experience buying websites. He would make a good mentor for someone like Luke who’s relatively new to this business. And he is very generous with helping people.
but relying on Google’s formula to bring you 80, 90 or 100% of your traffic is a little scary
Yes, but when your business is building new sites to sell on Flippa you need to have something to boast about. You can’t easily build site age or profit, but you can get some quick Google rankings. It therefore makes sense to try and promote Google rankings & traffic as valuable assets.
The only thing I would take from that is that your traffic should not rely on just one source in case that source stops. Get from as many sources as possible to protect your business.
What I also find scary about relying on Google is that your positioning is not in your hands but Googles, so whenever they change their formula so can your results. One day you are ranked 1, the next you are 12.
Not to say you need to rest on your laurels when you are 1, but relying on Google’s formula to bring you 80, 90 or 100% of your traffic is a little scary.
Having also played the affiliate game for a few years now I can see the benefit with investing in sites that live off Google, but their success can come and go with the weather.
For me personally, it doesn’t make a sound business strategy. If the product and the service is good, the traffic should one day be 100 per day and the next 10. Relying on the search engine can do this. You can’t afford to have all your marketing eggs in the one basket.
but relying on google alone is a very weak marketing strategy
I love free Google traffic. Hey, it’s really cool. But would I bet my life savings on a site that is completely reliant on Google? You are absolutely correct. It’s a weak strategy. In fact, it may be more of a crossing of the fingers than a strategy. As someone put it elsewhere, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas so SEOs and anybody who stands to gain from talking up sites that are reliant on free traffic (like many Flippa sellers) have a vested interest in playing the risks down.
And, boy, are there risks! I put a detailed reply together but it has a lot of links and some very “forthright” comments and I wasn’t sure if it would get hacked down here so I posted it in the other forum.
Suppose it comes down to the type of business you are in but my experience so far has shown that Google traffic can only deliver so much.
Having being invovled in the marketing of a well know online backup service, we relied entirely on google to develop brand awareness and bring traffic to our site. From time to time this was supplemented by great reviews in PC mags etc.
In order to broaden the number of key words we were ranked on, I started writing a blog and kept writing. This helped but traffic only again grew so much. The site had a PR score of 6 within 12 months so whatever we did via the web we did right. We even ranked 1 for Online backup.
The product grew and sales grew but it should have grown more. The product needed mass marketing and distribution via channel. Without these channels I could see a ceiling of growth that was going to take a long time to break through.
Google is great if the traffic you are after is actually searching for a solution (and searching online) and is then going to buy. But if they don’t know they need you and they need someone to tell them, then it is limiting. Also if they aren’t searching online, then how are you going to attract them.
When I did some analysis on the total potential customers searching on words relating to backup and online backup in Australia, I quickly found what my potential max traffic was and I was a little disappointed. Given the number of PC’s out there that crash daily, relying on Google to bring them to me was not going to work on its own.
Again it depends on the type of business, but relying on google alone is a very weak marketing strategy. Certainly this is what I found in the PC software game.
Obviously, not a very fair statement.
There’s lots of tremendously profitable businesses that rely on “demand harvesting” through SEO & PPC as their core strategy. As long as its all white hat and no particular keywords make up the majority of the traffic, it wouldn’t turn me off at all from buying a website or company.
I’m not really sure what is meant by “proper web business”.
In general, I would say that you should try to get where SE traffic is simply gravy. Relying too heavily on any external forces is unwise IMO, but I’m not sure I’d say improper (the more I think about it, the less sense/use that particular judgment has to me).
Starting out, SE traffic might be hugely important, but it won’t build reputation or repeats. Gets them in the door, but that’s about it.
Relying almost exclusively on it has encouraged spamming, black hat and style driven sites o’ plenty. Competition is very definitely a two edged sword. That said, if the web had no dark side, what would we b**ch about then?
Edit: damn willi knows this cold! I think I might just wander over to his linkification!
That’s a very very broad comment…
Firstly, there are only a couple of reasons to have a website:
- Lead Generation (Get the phone to ring, ppl to walk into your bricks ‘n’ mortar store, or fill our a contact form)
- E-commerce site
- Online Membership site. (To me this includes forums sites like this)
The only one of those three types, that I will accept that “shouldn’t rely on Google” is the 3rd - membership sites, as you want your members coming back and back and back. (More on that below)
If you are building either a lead generation (for a real-world business) or e-commerce site - Google is where you want the bulk of your online traffic coming from - not the sole source of traffic, but definitely the most.
Google is where the consumers are these days - Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cCZ0DHcBQ
I have sites that make $200,000 per month, and the vast bulk of that traffic comes from Google - I would consider that a proper website/ web-business.
Having said all that, we have to also discuss/define what a webusiness actually is ?
If you really break it down - there is no such thing as a webusiness, unless you are in the business of creating websites…
What most people refer to as a webusiness… is a business with only one source of customer - the web.
(Yeah, their entire delivery mechanism is online with things like membership sites, or clickbank products – but the membership site is the product… and business shouldn’t be about the product… it should be about traffic and conversion)
So called "online entrepreneurs’ need to wake up and realise they are a business owner, who has chosen only one source of traffic (read:customer) for their business.
If that’s the market you want to play in fine… but you are leaving a lot of business on the table.
… if you really want to turn your “online hobby” into a REAL business, then you have to look at your marketplace as more than keywords.
People who are passionate about guitars, running, cross-stich or soccer skills, love this 24/7 … not just when they are on Facebook or in Gmail…
They subscribe to the magazines, read the books and buy stuff at the local mall.
So you need to market to that hungry crowd with direct response mail, joint-venture mailings, even publicity and magazine advertising…
If you are paying 25c per click driving traffic to a opt-in (squeeze page) with a conversion rate of 20%; that’s a cost of $1.25 per email address; right…
Well, you can buy contact details of ACTUAL BUYERS in almost every niche for a lot less that that form places like SRDS…
So if you are a real business owner; you would investigate all the areas of your marketplace and focus on where you can get the best ROI… and often, it’s not Google PPC !!!
Just cos it’s easy, doesn’t mean it’s right
I could really write for ages on this topic, but let me get off my soapbox …
[I]I actually did a presentation on this a few years back and have since given it around the world (Lukie, you heard it too … and I’m assuming why you wanted me to weigh in on this thread.) … you can grab a copy of that original presentation on my blog http://bit.ly/dvQA1d[/I] (no opt or anything)