Strategy for organic traffic in the future

[guggi2000]

Fact is that organic traffic from Google is declining. It is difficult times for old school SEO and online marketers, but there will be opportunities. Unfortunately most threads in this forum focus on the past or present instead of on the future.

In this thread, please do NOT:
- Discuss the beautiful old days we all made money from free traffic
- Complain about Google and its practices
- Talk about spammy sites ahead of you

My questions:
1. How do we prepare?
2. How can we get more traffic without Google in a few years?
3. Will people use social search in a few years based on signals collected now?
4. What niches and types of websites will still maintain the organic strength in Search Engines?
5. Shall we shift to mobile apps instead of mobile web?
6. Shall we focus on offline marketing or PR instead of SEO?

[webcentric]

I'm generally with RedBar on the app subject. I do think they have uses but building your own app is probably not a viable option for the majority of webmasters. Still, there are apps that aggregate local information (for example) where a business can get included in the data being pushed by the app. In this sense it's a service provided to the business by the app creator as opposed to a stand-alone product maintained by the business. I think this may be a big part of the future of apps.

[nomis5]

@samwest
Thanks for the link to the wired article. So far ahead of its time but its all coming true now.

Facebook and apps are the alternative way forward from G. Both of them are scaring the shit out of G because both are totally out of their control. I truly believe that the G push for mobile responsive sites is their defence against apps for the future. Totally misguided.

Im into Facebook in my own amateur way and apps are my next big thing.

[seoskunk]

Google have slowly destroyed links on websites now links mainly occur on social networks I wouldn't be surprised to see google buy twitter just to gain some trending topics. Blogger is dead, Google plus a graveyard I think Google will need to buy there way in to social websites.

[guggi2000]

Building an app is the easy part, marketing it in the app store and making money out of it is another story.

Regarding Twitter: Maybe Twitter organic is out there but appearing in a different form than Google. While Google may send you daily 1000 visitors, Twitter might send zero during 2 months and then 40,000 in a single day. It will appear in spikes. However, I doubt the quality of visitors from Twitter.

[Nutterum]

Dealing with international organic websites selling products (I have yet to get my hands dirty with a news/adsense revenue website) only I can tell you one thing: long tail keywords and as much content behind them as possible. One of the websites I support, has over 7000 keywords organized in over 500 keyword blocks on Page 1 and behind each keyword there is a content page with good enough content to satisfy the visitor. The traffic from the pages is miniscule due to their specific nature, however combined they make a good stream of global audience purchasing the products offered.

Ranking for generic terms on Page 1 - you will need big budget and steel pants for these, but again the same principle applies and will apply in the future.

So to answer the original question, all 6 factors will be in play, though I am in the same boat as RedBar and dislike the apps bonanza flooding our devices.

[smrtl]

I think trying to be a "go to brand" in your niche is probably the priority. When I watched a Google Mobile Adwords webinar on 5th May, with their "new products (ads format)" for automobiles and financial products comparison, I suddenly realised that Google isn't necessarily doing this for the short term money, they are doing this to keep their status as a "go to brand" for information in the future. If Google loses these industries by not innovating and changing, they will soon lose the status and they will lose on the whole search ground, not just these industries.

If Google loses the battle, we will have to be prepared and promote ourselves on the next search engine, in whatever name or shape. That's very risky, so the best thing is to become a go to brand which will give us the "traffic" independence.

[webcentric]

Twitter might send zero during 2 months and then 40,000 in a single day. It will appear in spikes. However, I doubt the quality of visitors from Twitter.

I get steady traffic from Twitter (not great amounts but steady and growing amounts) and I find that for my niche, the quality isn't bad at all. My Twitter following is very focused on a particular subject for the most part so it's fairly easy to get their attention. Their engagement with the site is strong and I see direct endorsements coming out of Twitter as well (e.g. Original tweets from followers who enthusiastically endorse and link to my site). Beyond that, I've lost count of the business contacts I've made through Twitter at this point. It's a lot of work, particularly in the beginning, but it can pay off handsomely. Again, your results may vary.

[guggi2000]

@webcentric Twitter is a good tool for business development but I am not seeing how it can serve as a traffic engine sending thousands of clicks a day (unless you're in newsbiz, showbiz, etc...)

[webcentric]

I don't see Twitter as a solution in itself. Just one piece of the puzzle. I've been using it to grow an audience with my current pet project. What I'm seeing is an ever-increasing number of returning visitors who come directly to the site now. Many of these returning visitors originally found the site via Twitter but now they're just following a bookmark or whatever.