For websites that are struggling to get organic traffic from Google Search, there are three main areas to focus on, according to Danny Sullivan, search liaison at Google.
- Keep creating quality content and do what you think is best for your readers.
- Diversify your traffic sources and promote your content across multiple channels.
- Build a dedicated audience that you reach out to in person, or via email and social media.
None of this is new, none of this is easy, and none of this advice is going to make people happy.
What this basically means is that if you want your SEO efforts to be successful in Google searches, you should think about more than just Google and SEO.
Its meaning. The days of SEO hacks and loopholes are fast coming to an end, the future of SEO will be won by those who focus on all the key SEO elements and play the long game.
Why we care. Google's advice is always just “create useful content” and people continue to be frustrated by it. But Google can't tell you everything you need to know to create useful content, and it can't help you evaluate it. It's your job to find ways to grow your audience. Hoping that Google Search will send you traffic or awareness is not a strategy.
Create great content. Creating content that resonates with your intended audience is crucial, but it's not the only factor, according to Sullivan.
- “As I've said before, I think everyone should focus on doing what they think is best for their readers. I know it can be confusing when you get so much advice from so many different places, plus you hear about what Google is or isn't doing, but Google just wants to focus on your content. When in doubt, refocus. That's your touchstone.”
Sullivan cited advice from Mike King, CEO of iPullRank.
“Create great content and promote it well. I'm kidding, but I'm serious. Google keeps giving us that advice, but we hesitate to do it as it's not actionable. For some SEOs, it's out of our control. When we look at these features that give Google an advantage, it's clear that creating better content and promoting it to an audience that resonates with you has the biggest impact on these metrics. Link and content feature metrics certainly help a lot, but if you want to win on Google in the long term, you need to keep creating something worthy of ranking.”
– Algorithm Secrets: Google Search Internal Engineering Documents Leaked
Websites affected by recent Google algorithm updates may see some improvement with upcoming Google core updates, but as we've said before, Sullivan acknowledges that this could be a Google issue.
- “As we've noted here, some of these cases are due to us, not the site, and it's also possible that some of us who release future updates are doing a better job in some of these cases.”
Diversify your traffic sources. Avoid relying on a single source of traffic, namely Google Search. Multiple sources of traffic can be beneficial, but again, this doesn't guarantee SEO success. As Sullivan says:
- “Regarding the question of off-site efforts, what I knew before I worked at Google Search and from my experience while I was on the search rankings team, is that I believe one of the ways to be successful in Google Search is to think beyond it.”
- “A great site with content that people love gets traffic in a variety of ways: people visit the site directly, they come through email referrals, they come through links from other sites, they get mentioned on social media.
- “This doesn't mean you should get a ton of social media or email mentions, because those things will magically make you rank higher in Google (which, as far as I know, doesn't happen). It just means you're more likely to be building a regular site that's targeted to people, not just Google. And our ranking system tries to reward good quality content that's made for people.”
Grow your audience. Prior to joining Google, Sullivan ran two other websites, including Search Engine Land, both of which he started from scratch, but which he built into highly visible, authoritative, trustworthy and profitable organizations.
How does this work? Sullivan gave a personal example.
- “I love hiking. A few years ago, while looking for information on a particular hike, I came across a great solo hiking site and signed up for the newsletter. Now I'm a regular, connected customer, so to speak.
- “In a way, search is a great introduction to building long-term relationships with your readers and customers.
- “My main goal has always been to connect with them once they arrive – their emails, their feeds, their social media.
Another reply added, “It's good to develop multiple ways to reach your audience. Having an email list and social accounts is not difficult or expensive; it's a marketing technique that has been around for years.”
Different signals. It’s the eternal chicken-and-egg problem in SEO: Google doesn’t rank your content, so people can’t find your great content.
Given the Google leak and revelations about Navboost, and user interactions (clicks) affecting rankings, Sullivan said, “If that was all that mattered, no one would be ranking in the first place.”
- “[B]Because how do new sites (including yours that were new at one point) get viewed? In fact, we use a variety of ranking signals that include (but are not limited to) “aggregated and anonymized interaction data”…”
Sullivan's post. You can see them at X – here , here , here and here .