Has anyone ever told you that there are no tricks in SEO? Well, that person was right – but only to a point. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes when it comes to getting your business found online. There are, however, techniques you can use that your competitors aren’t. The last thing that you want to do in SEO is simply copy what your competitors are doing. If you copy your competitors, you can’t ever hope to outrank them. Combining these unusual SEO techniques with your existing marketing strategy may provide the extra push that you need to get a leg up on the competition once and for all.
Cover Current Events in Your Industry
Are you having trouble figuring out what type of content to add to your blog? One of the most effective things that you can do to generate traffic is cover current news events relating to your industry. Being an expert in your field, you have a unique perspective that can add interest to your article. In addition, if Google already considers your website an authority within its industry, your news posts will have an excellent chance of ranking well and generating traffic. The vaping merchant V2 Cigs UK uses this technique to great effect.
When you write about news events for your website’s blog, remember that your article will only generate traffic if you can bring something new to the table that isn’t already available on all of the regular news websites. When you find an event that’s worth reporting on, don’t just copy the source article and put a paragraph of commentary at the bottom. Instead, you need to think and write like a journalist. Read several reports on the event and gather as much information as possible. Consider calling the involved parties and asking for quotes. Cite your sources liberally with hyperlinks. That’s how you write a news article that ranks well on Google – and if you do it right, your work will be rewarded with natural inbound links when other writers cite you as a source.
Become a Guest Writer for Industry Publications
If you’ve ever spent any time reading about the state of traditional media, you know that print publishers are having a difficult time these days. Subscriber numbers are down for many print publications, and ad revenue is down as well. Some publications have shifted to online-only distribution because they can no longer afford the expense of printing.
If a magazine – either print or online – exists for your industry, you should consider advertising in it if the rate is reasonable. If the magazine’s reader base consists of people who are highly likely to be interested in what you’re selling, then the ad campaign can potentially be extremely profitable even if the magazine’s reader base is small.
Alternatively, consider becoming a guest contributor for the magazine. Contributing to publications as a guest writer is a great way to build up name recognition and increase the strength of your personal brand. It’s also an opportunity to link to your website and increase your site’s ranking power.
Are you not a writer? That’s no problem; many of the people who contribute guest content to publications aren’t actually writers either; they’re using ghostwriters. If you would like to hire a ghostwriter to write a magazine article on your behalf, you should expect a print-worthy article to cost a minimum of $200. Freelance writers who can produce truly professional content are often very expensive.
Try an Old-Fashioned Publicity Stunt
One of the best ways to earn organic links for your website – and potentially generate viral click-through traffic – is with a good old-fashioned publicity stunt. If you’re willing to give something fabulous away or do something that other businesses in your industry aren’t doing, you’re going to get attention. An effective publicity stunt doesn’t have to be expensive, and you don’t have to hold a product giveaway if that idea doesn’t make sense for your business.
Sometimes, holding a great publicity stunt is simply a matter of doing what your competitors haven’t thought of doing or aren’t willing to do. In 2015, the technology blog Ars Technica blew a hole through the scammy audiophile industry by disassembling a $340 “audiophile-grade” ethernet cable and finding that the value of its parts was a tiny fraction of its retail price. The stunt generated 430 reader comments and a host of organic links.
Forge Relationships With Other Businesses
Any SEO initiative ultimately has two goals. The first is the short-term goal of generating traffic, and the second is the long-term goal of attracting inbound links. The quality and quantity of your website’s inbound links can influence your site’s ability to rank for competitive terms. Publishing a successful news article, in other words, can help to improve the rankings of your site’s product pages if the news article attracts links.
One way of attracting links to your site is by posting useful, interesting or controversial content and hoping that the content earns links naturally. That’s the essence of the ideas described above. Some people have said, though, that link building should really be called “relationship building.” Sometimes, the best way to earn links is by forging relationships that benefit both parties. Once you’ve done that, the links – and the business – will flow naturally.
It’s relatively easy to form partnerships with other local businesses when you run a brick-and-mortar operation, but it isn’t so easy when you run an online business. A good way to start, though, is by identifying a product that you think deserves more attention and that you think people might be interested in buying along with one of your products as a bundle.
Suppose, for example, that your company sells artisanal cheeses. Cheese pairs well with honey and fruit. You could ask a maker of dried fruits if they’d be interested in making a deal with you. They’d sell you a batch of dried fruit at a below-wholesale price and link to your website from theirs. You’d bundle the fruit with your cheese and link to their website from yours. You’d both get links out of the deal, and you’d both get attention from consumers who might not be aware of your companies already.
