Things are changing quickly when it comes to getting your site to rank well on Google. A big one, as I shared a few months ago, is that 64% of visitors that use Google never end up visiting a traditional website, instead getting the answer from Google itself or from a related Google product (Maps, YouTube, etc). It’s a huge number.
In a recent video, Rand Fishkin shared another staggering statistic (via Tim Soulo from Ahrefs) — nearly 97% of web pages on the internet get literally zero traffic from Google. Here is the chart from Tim:
I’m not suggesting that you give up trying to rank on Google, as there is still huge value there, but we need to recognize the increasing inability to do so. The key to remember is that while things are shifting with Google, people are still spending more and more time online. The users are there, and the tactics through which to reach them are simply changing.
This is kind of the idea behind Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Day Trading Attention” — just go where the users are. Have a solid website as a home base, and then spend time wherever people are spending time. In Rand’s video he says:
“The big platforms, you’re gonna take all of our traffic and that is okay because I can still have influence by being present in the places where people pay attention.”
Don’t give up on Google and SEO, but if that’s your primary source of traffic it’s time to start diversifying immediately. If you need help doing that, let’s chat.
