Traffic Triggers – Give Good Information and Don’t Copy

We all know about copyright issues – it was something you learned in your Basic English class. Don’t plagiarize and don’t take information from another place without citing your source – I can still remember my English teacher slapping her desk every time she brought this up!

The same is true on the Internet – did you know that there are ways of tracking information and content on the Internet to find out if it has been illegally used? Of course, there are legitimate ways of sharing information online, but even then, there are rules to follow.

This was an issue that Google looked at just over a month ago. They changed the rules, which was a good thing for most of us marketers, because it made things tougher. And, anytime something gets tougher, I know that it’s better for those who adapt to follow the new rules.

In a nutshell, there are valuable places to publish information about your business, your products, and your services online. They key traffic tips here are to make sure it is unique information, that it is relevant to your business, and that it is valuable to the viewer.

I’ve published articles about my services online at specific directories. Others may re-publish that information on their website, or in their marketing – as long as they cite the source and give me credit for the original publication. That’s the viral part of spreading the word about your business, and it works very well! That is how some of my keywords for marketing show up repeatedly in the first six pages of a Google search.

Unfortunately, many places online were dropping the ball at establishing and enforcing standards. Their English teacher would have probably given them an F for what they were publishing!

Google saw a lot of irrelevant, poorly written information spreading across the Internet, without the value that searchers were looking for. As a result, they adjusted their algorithm that decides where the traffic goes when people are searching online. The end result was that some businesses and other areas of the Internet lost more than 70% of their traffic within a week!

They were publishing short, copied information; that was lacking in value and authority. Now they have to adjust their marketing efforts to make up for that loss in business.

It’s best to start your traffic strategies already knowing the rules, and following those rules to the letter! If you want to understand how, visit me at one of the Chamber Marketing Lunch and Learn workshops to find out!