Alternatives to SEO that Drive Traffic & Revenue

When contemplating strategies to boost traffic and increase sales, most marketers first think of SEO. 

But that’s not the only option. It’s only a piece of the pie. 

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is one of the core facets of digital marketing, and it focuses on improving your website to increase its visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). 

SEO is, indeed, a robust client acquisition channel: 

• 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. 
• 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search
• 60% of marketers say SEO is their highest-quality source of leads 
• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate

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This shows the pivotal role SEO plays in driving online traffic. It is a go-to strategy for businesses looking to boost website visibility and drive meaningful traffic to their platforms. 

So, why consider alternatives to SEO if it has proven effective?

Well, let’s face it. SEO will always be an integral part of digital marketing. 

But there are other ways to turbocharge your website traffic and drive conversions. 

Let’s examine a use case. 

If 53% of all organic traffic comes from SEO, 47% is spread across other channels. 

Neglecting these alternatives means leaving a lot of advantages (traffic, leads) on the table. And guess what? Your competitors are going after them. 

That said, considering alternatives to SEO helps you target and reach prospects who don’t use search engines to make purchase decisions.  

In addition to this, you stand to gain a competitive advantage. The SERPs is a fierce battleground, with millions of pages vying for a spot in the top 10 for the same keyword. 

If you’re a small business owner or entirely new to the game, trying to compete with the top-ranking sites may not yield positive results. These brands have built their authoritativeness on search engines over time and, as a result, amassed a high domain authority. It’ll take months or years of consistently applying the right strategies to get the same results. 

But you can leverage other channels to build credibility, connect with your audience where they are, and get more traffic to your website. 

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SEO isn’t the only path to success. Our digital marketing experts can help you explore and implement effective alternatives to drive results. Request a tailored proposal today and let us guide your growth.

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Let’s explore eight alternatives to SEO that drive traffic & revenue.

1. Content Marketing:

Content remains king! 

With increasing competition for attention and a shift in advertising channels, businesses are now turning to content marketing to drive sales and grow their brand. The best part is that content marketing isn’t restricted to blog posts. You can repurpose content into different formats to suit your audience and distribute it on other platforms. 

Here’s how.

Crafting Compelling Stories

Start with Storytelling. 

This is your unique way of communicating your brand’s message in a way that engages your target audience. This can be via case studies to display your best projects, the challenges you face, solutions, and the results you achieve. 

You can also share user-generated content like video testimonials, text reviews, hashtag campaigns on Instagram and TikTok, etc. See this example from Crocs. I love how they encouraged users to share a picture of themselves wearing Crocs with the hashtag #mycrocsera: 

Source

Of course, the best images get featured on their website. This strategy isn’t just effective in increasing reach but also helps strengthen the business-customer bond. Cool, isn’t it? 

Another great option is creating interactive content that naturally incentivizes your target audience to take action. This can be visual content like infographics or other forms like quizzes, eBooks, etc. 

Tip: If you can’t think of a topic to write about, look at your competitors’ posts to see which posts are doing well. Use SEO tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs to get a sneak peek into their strategy, especially the best-performing content and the channel garnering the highest traffic. Then, look for gaps you can leverage to get the same result. 

Leveraging Thought Leadership

Creating thought-leadership content does one thing exceptionally well – it boosts your brand’s credibility online and in your industry. 

Don’t take my word for it, though. 

64% of buyers say that a business’s thought leadership content is beneficial in accessing its capabilities and competencies compared to other marketing resources. Over 90% of C-level decision-makers affirm that thought leadership influences their decisions in a company. 

So, if you’re yet to incorporate thought-leadership content into your content strategy, there’s no better time than now. 

Tip: Use white papers and e-books in your blog or website to showcase your expertise and make your content more relevant. Have experts in your team or company share their unique ideas on how users/readers can solve their problems. 

You can also reach out to industry whales to amplify your voice, broaden your reach, and establish credibility. 

2. Social Media

Over 4.9 billion people use social media globally, which is projected to increase in the following years. With this sporadic growth, it’s safe to say social media remains one of the most powerful customer acquisition channels.  

Running a successful campaign across media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, can enhance your brand visibility, drive website visits, engage your audience better, and ultimately increase profits. 

Take, for example, the famous Dollar Shave Club ad. I believe it remains one of the most evergreen ads the internet has ever seen: 

This ad was shared on YouTube and has amassed over 10M views in the first 48 hours, coupled with 12,000 new signups. Pretty good for a new company. 

Visual Appeal on Instagram

A survey by Meta revealed that 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily, and 80% of them use the platform to decide on purchasing a product. 

Posting striking images and videos of your brand’s products or services can help you attract and engage users effectively.  Moreover, Instagram offers a range of shopping features that you can use to boost online traffic and engagement. 

Conversational Engagement on Twitter

Twitter is a hub for real-time conversations, and the best way to start a conversation is through Twitter threads.

You can use threads to update your audience quickly and reply to inquiries, retweets, and send direct messages. 77% of Twitter users have a better impression of a brand when they respond to a tweet. 

Engaging with tweets increases your brand visibility on the platform and makes it easier for your target market to find you online.  

Sharing Authoritative Information on LinkedIn (if B2B)

LinkedIn is a powerful platform for networking, driving traffic, and increasing engagement, especially for business-to-business (B2B) companies. 

Sharing authoritative industry insights on LinkedIn, white papers, and thought leadership information can position your brand as a leader in your field and attract professionals seeking valuable insights.

The recent ‘Collaborative’ article feature on LinkedIn easily allows users and subject matter experts to share their opinions:

Influencer Collaborations

Partnering with social media influencers can be as effective as using traditional SEO: 

• Over 83% of the respondents of this survey still believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing
• 67% of respondents intend to increase their influencer marketing spend in 2023

[Source]

Additionally, celebrity endorsements can drive more traffic to your site, as their widespread recognition and credibility give authority to your brand’s offerings. 

This helps attract more customers, help your business grow online, increase brand trust, and, most importantly, drive profitable conversions that impact the bottom line.

3. Email Marketing

Do you know you get a $4 ROI for every $1 invested in email marketing? According to a survey conducted by Adobe, that’s 400% ROI on every dollar you spend.

Email marketing is another solid alternative to SEO for driving traffic to your website. 

A Consumer Email Survey Report from Adobe has shown that 61% of customers prefer to be contacted by brands through email. This proves that your clients prefer email marketing over other forms of digital marketing.

With the right strategy, you can use email marketing campaigns to build brand awareness,  engage your audience, and increase your website’s traffic and conversions.

Tip: To run email campaigns, you must build a subscriber list. You can generate this by offering lead magnets to clients in return for their email addresses. These could be free e-books, helpful newsletters, special discounts, case studies, or exclusive content access.

Depending on your target audience, you can use personalization techniques, like addressing subscribers by name and customizing the email content based on their preferences and behaviors. This enhances customer engagement and strengthens brand-customer relationships. 

Alternatively, you can use the A/B testing technique. This involves experimenting with different email features, like subject lines, content, and visuals, to identify the most effective strategies for boosting open and click-through rates. 

4. Social PPC Advertising

While SEO helps long-term business growth, paid ads help to get results faster. And unlike SEO, paid ads can reach your audience immediately after you hit the ‘create ad’ button.  

Let’s check out some popular paid advertising platforms.

Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram)

Over 70% of businesses get the highest ROI of any paid ad channel from Facebook and Instagram advertising platforms. 

This is because they have a broad reach and offer features that companies can customize to reach specific audiences, making them one of the more effective paid ads. 

LinkedIn for B2B Targeting

Statistics show that a LinkedIn ad can reach 14.6% of the world’s population. Running ads on LinkedIn is worth it if you run a B2B business and target an engaged audience of business professionals. 

Tip: Fortunately, each social platform offers different ad options you can choose from, including single-image ads and carousel ads. 

5. PPC Networks

Pay-per-click (PPC) networking is a top strategy for reaching target audiences interested in your products and services. Let’s check some major PPC networks you can use to drive more traffic and sales.

Google Ads

With Google processing 99,000+ search inquiries per second, the chances of your ads reaching your target are high, resulting in more traffic and revenue. Google offers different ads depending on what best suits your business needs. 

You can choose display, video, shopping, app, local, and innovative campaigns. These ads usually follow the PPC, meaning you only pay when a prospect clicks on your ad. 

Bing Ads

Bing Ads, now Microsoft advertising, is another search engine that runs ads and reaches the target audience. Bing, owned by Microsoft, has three search engines (Bing, Yahoo, and AOL.)  So when you run an ad on Bing, it is seen on all three, exposing your brand to more audiences.

Niche-Specific Ad Platforms

Many other platforms offer paid advertising tools to reach specialized audiences. You can reach your target audience on YouTube, Twitter and TikTok. 

YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users, and TikTok has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it a lucrative platform to run ads to reach a massive and diverse audience, driving increased traffic and potential revenue.

6. Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations

According to Deloitte, businesses that actively engage in collaborations get 1.4 times higher revenue growth than those that don’t. This shows that strategic partnerships and collaborations drive traffic and increase revenue. 

Let’s discuss two efficient strategic partnerships and collaborations.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing generates 16% of eCommerce sales. 

This proves that it is effective for driving traffic and increasing revenue. However, the success of your affiliate marketing campaigns is only as good as your choice of affiliates. Getting it wrong yields no results at all. 

Tip: Partner with bloggers, influencers, websites, and content creators across platforms whose audience matches your target demographics. 

Then, implement competitive commission structures and incentives to motivate these affiliates to actively promote your brand and post your brand’s link on their page, creating a win-win relationship. 

Joint Ventures

Joint ventures involve driving traffic and boosting revenue by teaming up with other businesses. Combining your product with another brand’s products or services attracts a broader audience as you tap into each other audience base. This strategy has proven effective for top brands like Nike and Apple.

Nike and Apple in 2006 combined fitness tracking technology with athletic footwear. This promotion appealed to both brands’ audiences, increasing traffic and sales: 

Source

7. Public Relations

Public relations (PR) strategies help improve how people perceive your brand. 

When done well, PR increases brand visibility, traffic, and revenue. 

You can use the power of press releases and media kits to tell your brand story and capture media attention for broader visibility. 

Additionally, you can host webinars and online conferences and sponsor local events or trade shows that directly connect you with your audience.

For instance, Tesla hosted their first Battery Day event on September 22, 2020, where they shared plans to scale Lithium-ion (Li-ion) manufacturing output to 3 TWh/year.

This live-streamed conference engaged audiences and generated buzz, driving traffic and interest in Tesla’s innovations. 

PR strategies bring a personal touch, elevate brand presence, and drive traffic and revenue by creating a lasting impression. Use PR strategies to speak directly to your audience and place your brand shine in the spotlight.

8. Community Building and Engagement

Imagine the buzz and referrals flooding in as your customers become your biggest advocates.

Community building and engagement are another great alternative to SEO. You can stay above competitors in your niche by actively engaging in discussion forums like Reddit and Quora. 

Furthermore, you can drive more traffic and increase revenue by providing comprehensive and valuable answers that lead users to this site. When you answer questions on Quora and Reddit, you can include links to your website or other relevant sources. This is a low-cost, non-sales approach to getting leads. 

Additionally, you can launch customer advocacy programs through reward loyalty, initiate referral programs, and set up reward systems. 84% of consumers trust recommendations from peers. 

Thus, implementing referral programs and reward systems on the existing customer base can drive more traffic and generate more revenue.

9. Podcasting 

Driving website traffic through podcasting is a powerful way to drive traffic and boost business revenue. 

Podcasts are not just video clips; they directly link you to your audience, drawing them in with engaging content to turn them into loyal listeners (customers). 

By including links to your website in your podcast notes, you can drive traffic to your site and make it easier for your listeners to find and buy from you,

Also, collaborate with other experts. This helps to expand your network and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. 

To promote your podcast: 

• Collaborate with other podcasters by hosting joint shows and guesting on each other’s shows. By doing this, you can reach diverse audiences who can become loyal customers.
• Leverage social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This can help you reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your site. This may include sharing links to your episodes on your pages, promoting your website, and engaging with your followers.

Boost Traffic & Revenue with Expert Digital Marketing Strategies

SEO isn’t the only path to success. Our digital marketing experts can help you explore and implement effective alternatives to drive results. Request a tailored proposal today and let us guide your growth.

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Conclusion

While SEO is an effective marketing strategy, employing additional marketing strategies from our suggestions ensures you’re not relying solely on one method.

These strategies help you reach your customers wherever they are, drive more traffic to your post, and increase your revenue. 

You establish a comprehensive marketing mix by diversifying your marketing strategy with social media, PPC networks, PR, community building, and other alternatives. If you’re looking for an agency that’ll boost your brand visibility through paid ads, PPC, or other alternative forms of SEO, you’re in luck! Contact any of our experts now to know how we can help you.