Let’s face it, when it comes to generating traffic online, the quality of SEO traffic is unmatched.
When you compare it to other sources of online traffic, including PPC, affiliate marketing, email, and SMS, you’ll often find that SEO reigns supreme when it comes to average time on site, low bounce rates, and conversion rates . Those navigating through SEO organic search often take the time to make informed and more deliberate decisions – which lead to higher conversion rates and more qualified clients.
The hurdle with SEO is that it can take months or even years and incredible expertise to gain a position in Google’s top search results. However, just because you’re not ranking high in Google doesn’t mean you can’t get the best quality SEO traffic, or even occupy multiple positions — without even ranking your own website.
In this article, we talk to some industry experts and startups to find out how to drive SEO traffic whether your website ranks or not.
Check who is already on page 1
You might think that doing SEO for your company means optimizing your own website and getting it to rank, but why not consider who is already on page 1 and whether you can work with them in some way. From price comparison sites, news sites, or just individual brands, there might be a way to help them monetize traffic or collaborate in some way.
“As a broker, we do SEO more freely than other big brands and agencies,” explains Justine Gray, founder of Deedle, an online mortgage broker.
“Large corporations and banks are very nervous and bound by compliance to put a lot of content on their websites and update them regularly. But for a small team like ours, it’s easy.”
“In some ways, we’re more likely to get on page one than the big guys—so we’ve got companies of all sizes trying to work with us. They might find there’s too much internal hurdle to do SEO well for themselves, but We are willing to cooperate.”
Use top 10 lists
“Top 10 listings have a very strong ranking power on Google,” explains Sithara Ranasinghe, co-founder of health insurance site MediCompare.
“Google does prefer top 10 listings over traditional sites in some industries. If you’re searching for anything casino-related or technical stuff like email marketing or best software, you typically don’t Find a single site on page 1, but instead look at review sites or accumulator sites that list 10 different options.”
“I think Google likes this ability to serve customers more unbiasedly and to see and compare different products. So if you’re new to the market or looking to get SEO traffic, you should simply approach already on page 1 Top 10, or try creating one with a high domain authority site.”
“Some sites are really good at this, like CNet and Forbes, and they leverage their authority and strong domain names – and no matter where you rank, there’s no reason you can’t have multiple listings on page one and clean up SEO traffic.”
Use a price comparison site
Price comparison sites for mortgages, credit cards, hotel bookings, travel insurance, and even tech products have grown enormous over the past decade.
“Being a price comparison site is an advantage for Google,” explains Proper Finance’s Mark Gomer. “You target so many products, you can get backlinks across multiple industries, and you benefit from people shopping around you, which increases your overall user time on site.”
“If you implement it right, you might rank really well on some products but not on others, but in the end you can focus on what you do.”
“If we had a strong position on Google for things like mortgages or secured loans, we might work with 50 or 100 companies to help customers compare the best rates — and they could all get SEO traffic, even if they didn’t rank for any place.”
News sites utilizing high domain names
There are many SEO factors to contend with, such as good technical optimization, site speed, and quality content. But sometimes having a good backlink backlog and high domain authority is the fastest and easiest way to rank on Google and get to page 1 for key terms.
“When you look at major news sites, these are usually link magnets because they are authoritative – they often get a lot of links from other authorities like schools, universities, committees and governments,” said funding platform founder Richard A. Len explained that Capital Beans.
“So when you create a landing page on your own site, you may have to wait months or years to build authority – or you may not be able to rank at all. However, if you use this with all the right keywords and intent-driven Landing pages for your content, and put this article on a major news site like SF Gate or Forbes, and sometimes you can use their domain authority to rank pretty quickly.”
“If you take some less competitive industry or more custom long-tail keywords, they might not be used to a site with 60 or 70 domain authority on page 1, and when you come in with a new article, you would get indexed quickly as a news site and often get to page 1 in a day just because it’s on Google News.”
Last
The quality of SEO traffic is excellent and sought after, but as any SEO professional will tell you: it takes a long time to achieve, and it doesn’t always last forever.
But as our experts discuss, ranking on Google doesn’t have to be just your own website. By seeing who’s on page 1 and using sites with high domain authority to include your company, you can fill multiple positions. Given Google’s volatility, you can use these techniques to always have a certain form on page 1 at any given time.
