Of course, Google is undoubtedly the most important player in the search engine landscape, and they represent the lion's share of where people go to conduct their searches. As such, it would make sense to social media marketers to focus almost exclusively on Google and figuring out how to optimize for its respective algorithms. Although Google will certainly not go away in the near future, there are other outlets where millions of people go to share and browse.
According to a Search Engine Land article, “Beyond Google” there is some value to looking at some other sites other than the search engine juggernaut. The SEL article focuses on a search engine strategy that incorporates “social media engines”, which include Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg. The advantage of having a presence on engines like these is that they are user-driven, not algorithm driven. As such, if you have high quality content, then it's possible for your content to “go viral”, to use the now-popular phrase used to describe any web content that has achieved a cult-like following.
In a more recent article published on Reve News, writer Eric Bratner notes that there is even value in moving beyond the more popular social media engines like Digg, and instead trying to sustain a presence on niche social media sites. Bratner explains:
“Sure, going hot on Digg could get you about 20,000 visitors to your page, but the quality of the traffic leaves something to be desired. The quality of traffic from niche social media sites is usually higher than from a mainstream one. In fact, Tamar Weinberg did an interesting case study to find which generates better traffic: niche or generic social media sites. According to Weinberg the trend indicates that niche traffic is better.”
Bratner goes on to explain that getting involved with niche sites will build greater authority within your industry. Considering the incredible plurality of industries out there, it's best to shoot for something more specialized if you want to remain competitive. Other benefits that Bratner includes are generating more relevant inbound links, becoming part of a community that is traditionally more supportive, and not taking the risk of putting all your efforts into one or two hugely competitive sites.
Along with looking at other venues besides Google in which to establish a presence as an internet marketer, it is also a good idea to venture beyond Google's PageRank metric. A Six Revisions article explains the weaknesses of only using PageRank. What's more, the article also gives a thorough rundown of different SEO metrics, as well as an explanation of what each offers that PR doesn't. Some of the metrics included are Domain Trust, MozRank, and
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Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post man, I know my SEO is way too Google focused but it is where most of my traffic comes from. Usually if my page is optimized for Google I see traffic from bing and yahoo also. I also submit my sites to hundreds of smaller search engines and directories for extra traffic.
My primary source of income is Google Adsense. So I admit that my SEO strategy is too Google focused. One thing more, the algorithm of Google and Yahoo to rank pages is not the same. According to my analytics, 60% of my traffic come from Google search. If I will have to optimize my pages to Yahoo, then I will lose 60% of my visitors.
I have alwasy found if you SEO you site for Google, then your site should appear at simular or better positions in the other search engines. As they use many of the same techniques and they also tend to be less stringent.
I guess just like everyone else, I must agree that SEO strategy is too google focused. At first, I tried to insist on trying yahoo but somehow something is not really right. So far, Google is still the best for SEO.
The thing is: There is nothing else to focus on but google. I recently tested to rank a keyword for 1 in bing and I got it but I just got 10 hits per day. Meanwhile I rank for this kw 4 in google and get around 400 unique visitors per day.
That says everything.
Cheers, Chris
So I admit that my SEO strategy is too Google focused. One thing more, the algorithm of Google and Yahoo to rank pages is not the same. According to my analytics, 60% of my traffic come from Google search.
Most of the people focus only on Google as it holds the biggest share. But I keep a record of my raking on Bing and Yahoo too. But yes I agree social media engines like Digg have the tendency to give you a lot of good quality traffic. Thanks for the good content
Must admit my SEO strategy is too, Google focused. The problem with niche / non-Google focused SEO is that there is little or no information on how to work on this. Since is niche specific, the strategy to use will be different for each case, and you would hardly find a tutorial on how to do SEO for your particular area.
I have always found if you focus the SEO on googles needs, then you should end up with similar if not better results on the other search engines.
The algorithm of Google and Yahoo to rank pages is not the same. According to my reports of my traffic most if nor all come from Google search. but on page efforts count for 20-30% of SEO.
Still i did not see any institute to learn the seo so everybody learns primarily from the Google or may be from other search engine then definitely the strategy that will be implemented woule be more Google focues and i also can say that my strategy as far as seo is conerned is Google focused because i learned each and everything from Google.
Every time if i nedd some information about SEO googles help me)))But your post perfect for me thanks.
P.S. Besides i am from Ukraine)))
Google is still by far the most popular, but we have noticed i am getting more traffic from Bing and it goes up every week so who knows in 5 years time, things might change.