Have you given up on Google and SEO?

I think that you can not just rely on free traffic from Google anymore. There is no guarantee and they tend to change their "rules" all the time.

There are a lot of people who rely on the search engines to get free traffic and lots of sales and one day they will be hit too.

You just have to go with the flow so to speak.

Yes, I am done with google....whatever rankings and visitors i get from them will be a bonus....

Let me pose this question to those, like myself, who are moving away from Google...what plans do you have for traffic generation?

it's a love hate relationship. Things change - especially Google. You can say forget them, you can try to find ways to get around their changes, or you can just do what they want.
I personally make new websites a lot and those new websites I'll try to optimize them for SEO as good as I can..but anything older...nope

I have recently started to focus on article syndication....and will be diving into paid traffic sources in the near future......you?

Google say they don't want people playing games, but it's clear that unless you have something amazing or compelling that will go viral or get linked to by many people then you aren't going to move up the SERPs by natural linking.

I feel like giving up, but there isn't any viable alternatives as an Amazon associate for traffic. As i've chosen this business model im sticking with it for now.

Sorry Dayne, but as much as I agree with you, there is no way I'll drop the goodies of the world's biggest search engine.

To drop it altogether is to deny my business, both online and offline.

If there are big changes? You can bet there are. If PPC is more and more our way to go? Sure is, and that is final goal from Google - to extinct SEO and make us use PPC.

But to drop it altogether? nah nah.

I haven't given up on Google, but I'm now doing more with paid traffic. Building a list has become my most important endeavor.

I'm using CPV (very inexpensive) traffic to generate traffic. I give away a FREE offer to capture the email address, and then I send the subscriber to an offer to pay for the traffic.

Hi,

Over-reliance on Google is the problem.

Google should just be one of the many "traffic" sources from the very beginning.

SEO is a great way to get traffic, but it is not the only way.
Here are a few suggestions for other traffic sources:

1: The top one at the moment is video, mainly by placing interesting/funny/useful video of YouTube, but other video sites are available

2: Getting involved in forums -you seem to be doing this already! Are you involved in forums that match your websites niche too?

3: Pay for it! If Pay per Click, or better Pay per Sale if you are selling your own product. Work out how much you earn per visitor over the time that the visitor is a customer, and you may find a margin to afford to pay for leads.

4: Press Releases. Again this seems to work better if you have something you are selling directly, but newsa hounds are always on the lookout for a new and interesting story.

5: Joint Ventures. Press releases are really a joint venture, you create a new story, and you get advertising in return. If you expand this idea you may find other agencies that you can create a win-win partnership too. Usually in a related bur not directly competing field.

I hope this help!

It seems to me that the problem is when people focus completely on google as their source of traffic.

As cliche as it sounds, if you make a good site and do quality marketing, people will come. If your content or product sucks, people not coming probably has nothing to do with google.

Google is not the problem. Reliance on them in your business is.

Google are running their business - not yours. They can do what they want.

This is why people telling you to rely on them and that they can guarantee you results have always been treading on thin ice.

Doing well in Google now is no harder than before - it's just different, but then again, it's always changed and everyone always complains when it happens - especially the people who have been wanted to short-cut their websites popularity and trick Google into listing it higher than it deserves. They were ALWAYS going to have to deal with that, and if your site is legit and in accordance with their guidelines and you have no spammy PR manipulating links then they'll usually respond to reconsideration requests if you've been slapped.

Often the slap is affecting people not because of their site but because most of their links came from sites that got slapped.

If your site is solid and you're still slapped - check your incoming links as you probably still have crap links which Google is penalising you for.

Yes, I know - every time I say Google will penalise you for incoming links, I get flamed by people saying "that can't be true - otherwise your competitors could hurt you", well I'm still saying it again now - because it's still true.

If you don't (or can't) get rid of the crap links then maybe you do have to start again and build up solid links with your site on a new domain - but it's certainly not worth giving up unless you never really valued your business in the first place.

I will never give up the fight. The amount of traffic that you can gain from Google is far too much to cast aside over the stress it can cause

No way. Some of my sites might have lost some traffic but the quality ones have gone up. I think that you just really need to focus on not just links and slapping together some content but coming up with engaging content that gets shared, linked to and talked about.

Obviously it takes more work but if you do this G will love you and you'll be on an upward path.

People will eventually give up on anything, the minute something better comes along.

BTW, only 0.84% of conversions for one of my sites comes from Google.

Probably a much better question that should be asked is ...

"How many people here really know EXACTLY where their traffic is coming from?"

I pretty much gave up on relying on Google after the Panda update last year. This latest one was even worse since one of my "good quality sites" was wiped off the face of the google earth!!

The best way is to make sure you do not have all of your eggs in Google's basket.

Make sure to diversify your traffic sources and try and aim so that any traffic Google sends to you is a BONUS rather then the only way you get visitors.

I don't really think that mini sites will survive for long. The key is to websites with many rich content pages

Let's be clear here...

I never gave up on Google -- Google gave up on me! LOL

I'm beginning to think that G is just messing with our marketing minded heads here. For one of my larger sites in a competitive niche I'm ranking great for some pages/keywords while some pages that I worked harder on have moved far back in rankings with some not to be found anywhere in the top 200.

What really ticks me off is that for the single most valuable keyword in the bunch that I held the #2 position on is now gone from the search and you know what took its place?... Someones replicated affiliate page with the ID in the url.

Give me a break here!

How G could value a replicated page, a page they would most likely kick off a PPC ad campaign, with maybe 250 words of limited content on the subject ever beat the 800 or so words of well researched and informative content I had prepared is beyond me.

It feels like they are just screwing around with marketers heads for fun and games - Seriously WTF?

Diversify your traffic sources with what other warriors have already mentioned.

Because building a business that revolves around Google for traffic & revenue will be potentially disastrous judging by what Big G is constantly up to.

That way, you don't have to 'disaster manage' in the aftermath of what Google does or not every time. Because you will now have your own alternate traffic sources.

Having said that, Google can still come in handy. Even though you will now have multiple traffic & revenue sources, the ones that you will get from Google could be considered as freebies!

Don't we all love freebies!

I Have Started E Mail Marketing Instead Of Doing SEO

no, i don't just rely on Google, i do email marketing and forum posting. because i don't want to keep all my eggs in one basket.

Google with out doubt has made a lot of changes. Some of those even bring about head
aches. This is what I think though. I have worked if a few businesses over the years and
not one of them are without change. Whether it is a change in technology or just how
people see the product or service. I say this because it amazes me how many people want
to give up on Google. Frustrated with Google – sure. But unless anyone knows how to
get millions of people to give up on Google, we as IM’ers just need to adjust, yet again, I
know.

I'm branching out into paid traffic, forum traffic and content syndication.

I repackaged my best stuff on the site that got hit the hardest ... the stuff that generates the most revenue. I'll be focusing on e-mail marketing and getting traffic to that content via above-mentioned methods. Google traffic will be a bonus.

I must say it's hard to not plan new projects with organic search in mind because I've done it for so long. Now I'm having to approach my sites differently which is forcing me to put a lot more emphasis on conversion techniques and driving targeted traffic from non organic search sources. It's a learning curve, but one I hope will be well worth the investment in the long run.

I think that I'm going to try my hand at writing Kindle books. I started two new sites after Penguin, but I'm having trouble with motivation. I guess my heart isn't in it anymore.

I'm thinking about using article syndication as a tool to create lists, and then promote my main product sites will be the way to go now. This way, I don't have to worry about having a perfect site in Google's eyes (whatever that is) anymore. I can make it the way I want it.

Of course, also putting ads on other sites or doing Youtube videos, etc. will be another avenue. But at the core of it will be building that list...which I should have started from day one anyway.

Paid traffic Is what I'm getting into, you pay for what you get in this world there is no such thing as free traffic my friend.

All my sites and the sites I've worked with are ranking fine. SEO is a hard game to play as the game is always changing and you never know what will happen next.

Someone made a good point on the Micro Master Penguin analysis comments section.

Yeah, the game has changed, but it has always changed in some form. Some marketers will have to adjust their strategy but there its not time to quit, but its definitely time for SEOs to focus on quality content and social interaction. Will some of the good guys get hit next time Google decides to clean up the web? Yes. But for people like me, this is the career I chose so I'll continue to adjust while competition gets shaken out.

Wouldn't say that I have given up but with the changes they make it does make things more difficult

Hahahaha, sorry for laughing but are you guys serious? Completely giving up on Google? Google gets so much traffic that it can make you wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. Just a wild guess, but well over 50% of Gurus are where they are today because of Google.

Edit: I know some folks who make as much as 20K A DAY in just ONE NICHE from Google/Organic traffic...

Was I hit by penguin... ohh you bet, hit hard, no, let me rephrase that, 3 of my sites were absolutely destroyed. But I didn't pack my bags and leave, lol.

Giving up on the incredible riches Google and the search engines can do for you is a HUGE mistake. Yes, do not completely rely on Google for traffic if you wish, but find a way to make it a "part" of your marketing plan.

These Google changes as bad as they are have presented a lot of opportunities if you have the eyes to see... think wisely.

There is one word not being mentioned here that I think sums this up:

Monopoly

Now I'm not sure Google has enough total market share to qualify legally as a monopoly (do they?) But for our purposes it's close enough. This is really the problem. How do you deal with anybody that has enough market share to get away with whatever they want without adequate competition.

If Bing or Yahoo or anyone else were even competitive at all, this kind of stuff would be a lot more costly to Google to do.

Unfortunately, when someone has effectively a monopoly, there is not much you can do other than what people are doing. Scrounge for a bit of traffic elsewhere as much as you can. But for many of us, we seem pretty much stuck playing Google's games. That is where the traffic is and will be for the foreseeable future.

The ultimate answer is to create or support another search provider that can actually seriously challenge Google. But not likely anytime too soon.

The only way a business can succeed in the long term is to diversify. It is necessary to form as many strengths in the different areas of your market as you can. You cannot count on one area to succeed.

One of my sites and many of my client's sites did better after the update. I expect a lot of people were being propped up by public networks and the update just dropped all that.
SEO expert -Matt Carter is still right up there for the term "affiliate marketing" so SEO is not dead at all.

Why would you give up with Google? Unless half the world suddenly switches to Bing or something, Google is the place to be and Penguin is an opportunity for a lot of people. I see mini-sites still up at the top so I don't think much has changed at all actually...

In any business it makes sense to diversify, however Google has always been and will always be a great place to get traffic since they're the largest site on the net, and when you look at the return on investment versus other means of traffic buying it's still worth pursuing, you just have to spend money to make money, and that means investment in high quality backlinks, content and social signals.....

At this moment, I will stop relying on Google, now their search result is full of junk. I'm trying other alternative traffic sources.