Free Traffic

If your only reason for using social media or social bookmarking websites is to build backlinks to up the rankings of your own web sites then you could be in for a slap from Google and you are probably seeing no results from Yahoo or MSN.

Google is famous for allowing people to game their system (for a while) and then come down with an elbow off the top rope leaving you buried under the mat. Why does Google do this?

Because they need time to research, explore, document, theorize, whiteboard present, calculate and ultimately dominate… That’s right, Google will let you rise to the top for a while just so they can plan your take-down (and everyone else like you).

Google has its eyes set on social networks… They have some tricks up their sleeve that I will be talking about soon that will morph the Internet into a new era. They are watching to see how people “game” social media websites for the sake of increased search engine rankings.

We have noticed how much of a (huge) footprint that this type of activity leaves behind and how easily Google could slap you through the floor “when” they spot it.

Here is a list of actions that leave big footprints…

Setting up multiple profiles on the same social network all pointing to the same website.

Using software that automates the process of bookmarking your content across multiple profiles on multiple different networks.
Only bookmarking content that leads to web properties that you own.

You have little to no friends and a bunch of links to your stuff
You have bookmarked a bookmark that leads to your web property
You have more than one profile on a single social network and they all lead to web properties that you own.
These are some of the easiest to spot footprints, there are many others… Are you leaving any footprints?

The term social media and the word marketing placed together automatically leads people down the wrong path. There are many ways to market yourself in social media but using social media in a non social way (as a way to increase the link love) often leaves footprints that are easy to trace back to the source.

Here’s an example (notice all the backlinks to the site are from social platforms)

The site above used to rank in the top 5 for the term “buy nintendo wii” … we’ve been watching it (we don’t know who they are) … we’ve just been intrigued by how it moves all over the search engine results pages as Google rotates their data centers and algorithms.

Whoever owns this website is leaving a big, ugly, unnatural footprint behind. I am sure they have been making good money because they have ranked very highly between March 2008 and June 2008 for a money term. This is “proof” that you can gain high search engine rankings by creating inbound links to your website using social media but how long will it last? Their effort is already dwindling … Instead of top 5 rankings they have started sinking like a rock.

How many hours of work was put into this effort?

All this work and effort will eventually be scrapped, useless as Google seeks to remove all traces of this kind of activity. The hours of effort will ultimately have to be repeated through another endeavor. No asset is built.

In order to understand how to effectively use social media you have to put the word marketing out of your mind initially. This is not a system that can be “gamed” on a long-term ongoing basis. If you like rebuilding your business over and over again then go ahead but I like knowing that the effort I put into my business today will continue to be effective two years from now. The time I spend working today is time spent building an asset… Are you building an asset online or are you just sampling the flavor of the week?

You can use social media to build a powerful online presence, enjoy high search engine visibility, achieve trust from your industry and build a highly profitable business. You can build a business where you don’t have to go back to the drawing board over and over again. You can build a business that grows and compounds over time … A real asset.

It all comes down to you and what you are focused on. If you are focused on money then you have a long road to haul. If you are focused on providing a product or service to people (who have money) then money will come to you naturally while you build a real asset. Build true fans and you never have to worry about the money.

The impending Google shift is going to weed Bigfoot out of the crowd … They are building the largest human policed system in existence… Their employees will be … everyone … this will be the single most brilliant move that Google has made to date in weeding out spam and delivering “human voted best” content… It’s coming, are you prepared?

The moral of the story is this … Build a “real” business now or you will be squeezed out by Google and everyone else.

Posted on September 5th, 2008 by wpat
Filed under: Free Traffic