Drive Traffic to Your Site By Ignoring Google?

Most blog owners ONLY worry about the search engines and rankings, but could you drive much more traffic to your site by just ignoring the big search engines?

I have been thinking about this for a long time, and with recent changes to Google’s algorithm it seems this is an appropriate time to talk about it.  So am I crazy for thinking that you can just forget about SEO and get tons of traffic to your site?  Well first of all, I am not talking about ignoring SEO, just ignoring the search engines, and there is a big difference there.  Proper SEO involves much more than just trying to get higher rankings.

The WRONG way to do SEO: Get as many backlinks as you can and who cares if these backlinks will ever get clicked on or not.  The more the merrier.  Get these backlinks through blog networks and spinning articles and submitting them to UAW, MAN, Article Ranks and so on.  Will anyone ever click on the links in those articles to find you?  Probably not.  But who cares. right?  You are getting backlinks.  In my humble opinion, this attitude toward SEO is wrong and only makes the internet worse.

The RIGHT way to do SEO: Totally ignore whether or not Google, Bing, or Yahoo will find and rank your content.  Only focus on getting CLICKABLE backlinks.  That is, backlinks that people will be using to find you.  This could be on a guest blog post, on a podcast page, a social bookmark etc. Every time you create a clickable backlink you are also creating another doorway through which people can find you and also link to you.  If the only place your visitors find you is through the search engines, then you are probably doing it all wrong, and you are putting all of those traffic eggs in one basket.

Ask yourself this question:  What would happen to my traffic if my site were deindexed by every search engine?  If your traffic would plummet more than 95% then you are getting the wrong kind of backlinks, probably spammy ones at that.  The search engines are only getting smarter, and when they finally discover that those links you’re getting are all smelling like spam, chances are you will be left with that 5% of traffic.  This could pretty much ruin any business over night.

So let’s say you are constantly trying to get involved in different communities and you are corresponding with other blog owners.  This opens up opportunities for people to find your site and the valuable content you have waiting for them there.

And that brings up another point.  Don’t focus so much on getting people to your site.  Focus on KEEPING people at your site. Any shmo can drive huge amounts of traffic to a site, but only valuable, entertaining, and educational content will actually keep them there.  Keep a close eye on that bounce rate to see if your readers are liking what they find once they walk through the door of your site.  If they are leaving in a mass exodus, then you probably are spending too much time on getting links and not enough time on creating mind-blowing content.

So what will be the results of ignoring your place in the search engines?

• You will be more creative in finding other website owners in your niche
• You will concentrate more on making your site better
• You will end up with more backlinks because of people finding you through actual links and not a SE
• The SEs will eventually rank you higher because of the clickable links
• You will save money from buying those black hat links
• You will be more stress free because who actually enjoys creating spammy links anyway.

Well, I’m no guru in the SEO world and I have made my share of mistakes.  But I would love to hear any comments any of you have on this topic.  Did I get it wrong?  Rip into me.  Did I hit the nail on the head?  Give me a proverbial pat on the back.