This article is a follow-up of my previous article. I highly advise you to read it before continuing with this one, otherwise you might get lost. You are right to ask after reading my previous article, that why exactly is it bad if I just appeal to the lowest common denominator of my potential visitors. Well people with lower IQ are known to have shorter attention span (from content marketing perspective it’s important because of the time spent on the webpage) and are less affluent (important for conversion rate) and are less likely to convert into loyal returning visitors, not to mention your comments section would look like a 4chan board! Nobody wants that. You want the marketing of quality.
What not to do
If your website is accurately described by the following, then you are doing something wrong. As discussed by in the previous article optimization for lowest common denominator or “dumbing-down” is in my opinion only a short-term traffic boost at best. Your fluctuating traffic and non-existent returning visitors make long-term planning impossible. Your conversion rate will suffer too and as we all know, that is much more important than the traffic itself. You dumbed down hoping for more traffic, which worked for a while but then you had to repeat it and again and again creating a “perpetuum mobile” of continuous stupification. You probably have your website and one domain and astonishing number of sub-pages within it. You might wonder whether is it a good thing from an SEO perspective. That’s a very interesting question. I would definitely not do it. This is however a very complex subject and requires it’s own discussion, as usual I will link that article here , when it’s done. UPDATE: It’s done: ”Domains, Subdomains, Subfolders, SEO and The Human Mind“ For now I only say, that if you have an already established high PR domain, ranking for many keywords then stick with it but if you are just creating your new site then definitely create separate domains for each separate specialized category. I will elaborate on this of course.
The right way, the marketing of quality
This brings us to the right way to increase your traffic, while avoiding the trap of perpetual dumbing-down. Specialization is the key but you have to specialize in many different niches and then interlink between the different websites on separate domains. Creating a mini “online empire”. Organic traffic here we go! The way on how to connect your websites and whether you should create a “mothership” website is case-dependent but I will elaborate on it in the upcoming article. There is tremendous opportunity in controlling your own website park, which you should aim for in all cases. This solves all the major problems of bad or lazy content management.
- Specialized websites: Say goodbye to the hordes of consumeridiots and welcome your new sophisticated, intelligent, polite visitors, a dream come true for every website owner. You offer value to valuable people, who also contribute and take part in content creation. Cool things are possible here. The sky is the limit and your website can even become a hotbed of innovation and the envy of all your cyber neighbors.
- Stability: We all know that seasonality is unavoidable but a stable stream of visitors make it easier to plan long-term no to mention makes you attractive for potential advertisers if your website happen to have ads on it. This is really great for your social activity since a stable stream of visitors helps creating and helps to maintain discussions.
- High conversion rate on all the websites: The holy-grail of online marketing will not be automatically yours but you are definitely one step closer to reaping the rewards of hard-work and determination.
- Myriad of cross selling opportunities: And also up-selling opportunities but the real and obvious advantage is the cross selling opportunity between complementary niches and specialized websites. Imagine someone searching for fried chicken online and ends up on your website, which delivers fried chicken however you happen to have a pizza delivery business on the side as well and you simply place a small banner linking to it on your site. BAAM! Cross selling, complementary niche, high conversion rate, satisfied consumer effortlessly.
What to do if you are heading for the wrong direction?
Let’s say you are for many of your own reasons poorly optimized and you want to change it. The bad news is that you may have to start from scratch and it is a very difficult situation, entirely dependent on your particular case and your current situation. At times like that I strongly advise calling an expert since this is an equivalent of a car engine malfunction. You probably can replace a dead battery but it is not advisable to tinker with an engine. Some things need to be handled by experts.
Keeping these simple instructions in mind you too can become a sorcerer of web traffic and can do magical things.
