If you’re feeling the pressure from Google’s constant algorithm updates, you’re not alone.
Many people in the SEO world have seen the traffic and income from their sites take a hit, leaving them wondering what to do next. It’s clear that relying solely on SEO isn’t enough anymore. That’s why we’re excited to bring you an interview with an SEO expert who has successfully expanded beyond Google and found new ways to drive traffic through social media, especially Pinterest!
In this conversation, they share their journey of diversifying traffic sources, from Pinterest to X/Twitter and beyond, and how you can do the same with just 45 minutes a day.
Here we go:
Question: Thank you for joining us today. Can you start by telling us a bit about your background in SEO?
Answer: For sure! I am an SEO expert with over a decade of experience. My focus areas include local SEO, e-commerce SEO, as well as niche site and blogging SEO.
Throughout the years, I’ve worked on a variety of projects, helping businesses enhance their online visibility and achieve higher search engine rankings.
In the last few years, I built and grew my own niche sites that generated an income from affiliate product sales.
Question: That’s impressive! What niches were your SEO sites focused on before you decided to pause due to the sites getting hit by the Google algorithm updates?
Answer: One of my sites was in the pet niche. This site was performing quite well before the recent algorithm changes with thousands of visitors visiting the site each day and buying recommended affiliate products on it.
Question: How did the recent Google algorithm changes impact your niche sites specifically?
Answer: The impact was significant on the pet site which used to get thousands of visitors a day, and another site which received hundreds of visitors a day, saw a drastic drop in traffic. Both sites had numerous keywords ranking in the #1 position on Google.
After the March 2024 updates, the traffic to both sites plummeted. One site is now getting only a few dozen visitors daily, while the other struggles to get ~50 visitors a day. These sites went from generating a full-time income to barely making anything.
Question: That sounds challenging. What motivated you to explore other traffic sources beyond SEO?
Answer: Several factors pushed me to explore other traffic sources. The main reason I explored other traffic sources beyond SEO is because I experienced such a major shakeup with my sites getting hit—this was after following all the Google guidelines including writing quality, useful content. It’s horrible to see your income generating blogs tank to producing nothing after putting in hard work.
Another reason was Google’s constant updates; especially in the last year, the anxiety associated with these changes, and the emergence of SGE (Search Generative Experience) stealing traffic from sites, all contributed to my decision to diversify.
I decided to explore X, Pinterest, and Facebook more thoroughly.
Question: Can you elaborate on your Pinterest strategy and why you think it has been so successful?
Answer: For certain niches, Pinterest can be a fantastic traffic source. In one niche, my team was able to get a client 12,000 outbound clicks. However, it requires considerable effort to create and post pins consistently over a few months until the Pinterest algorithm rewards you with such traffic. Also, with Pinterest, it’s really important to observe what works well in your niche aesthetically and pay close attention to that.
Seeing my impressions climb in the first month and then seeing it exponentially grow kept me motivated.
At the same time, I started talking to someone else who was also seeing success on Pinterest, which really also helped my motivation. Soon, I started seeing good success with Pinterest for both my own and clients’ sites and hired this person to work on a few Pinterest projects.
Consistency is key, so it’s important to set aside time every day to work on it or to train a VA (Virtual Assistant) to help you.
Question: What kind of content have you been posting on X/Twitter that helped you grow your following to 2,500 in three months?
Answer: On X/Twitter, I’ve been posting helpful tips, engaging questions, and responding to questions on larger accounts. The strategy can vary greatly depending on the niche, but being active and engaging with your audience is crucial.
At first I started by posting 3-6 times a day but realized I wasn’t getting many views or followers. I started interacting and leaving comments on much bigger accounts; soon, I observed more and more people started following me.
Growing this account to 2,500 people organically was a fun challenge but just like Pinterest, it required consistent action: posting three times a day plus interacting with 3-10 big accounts per day.
Question: How have you managed to grow your Instagram and Facebook accounts, and what strategies have you found most effective?
Answer: The approach on Instagram is similar to X/Twitter. I focus on posting valuable content, engaging with my audience, interacting with bigger accounts and being consistent. It’s important to understand the nuances of each platform and tailor your strategy accordingly.
On Facebook, I post niche related content that resonates or helps other people. I also engage with bigger accounts with thoughtful comments and discussions and foster discussions on my own posts as well. By doing this, I was able to grow a new, niche specific Facebook account to 2200 followers organically in 3 months.
Question: What differences have you noticed in building a following on various social media platforms?
Answer: Each platform has its own nuances and community culture. It’s important to research and understand these differences. Observing successful strategies of bigger accounts on each platform can provide valuable insights.
Also, it’s important to grow an audience on social media platforms that feels natural to you. For example, the laid-back culture on X/Twitter suited me better than LinkedIn, influencing my choice to focus on X. I later added Pinterest and Facebook.
Question: How do you plan your content for each platform? Do you have a specific schedule or strategy?
Answer: Initially, I post the same content across all platforms to gauge what works best on each social media platform.
As my following grows, I refine my strategy based on engagement and other metrics. Observing successful accounts and molding their strategies with my own ideas helps in creating effective content.
But really, this can take hours of research unless you use a handy AI tool like ChatGPT to help you research and analyze big accounts and content within your niche.
The first 90 days is all about testing various types of content: do not put pressure on yourself to create the most engaging or the ‘best’ posts during that time.
Action is better than Overthinking
Done is better than Perfect, especially when you’re just starting out.
Question: What tools or resources do you use to manage your social media accounts?
Answer: Tools like Buffer, SocialPilot, HootSuite, and Loomly can be incredibly useful for managing multiple accounts and scheduling posts and staying on top of your posting schedule.
Question: How do you measure the success of your social media efforts?
Answer: Success metrics depend on the goal. It could be engagement, sales, or simply growing a following with engaged users.
It’s important to measure the appropriate metric for your goals. For instance, having thousands of followers is pointless if they aren’t interested in your products or services.
Question: Experimenting with various social media platforms all at once sounds very time consuming. Do you have any tips on how someone with a full-time job or a business owner can build an audience on a social media platform?
It’s really important to have realistic expectations. If this is your first time growing a serious following on social media, understand that you will feel overwhelmed and a bit lost, all of which is normal.
The first 90-180 days is all about learning and growing. You can’t expect to grow a relevant audience of 10,000 in 3 months if you’ve never done anything like this before.
Once you learn foundational things like interacting with bigger accounts, how to get more followers, the types of posts your followers engage with, you can always hire a VA to help execute your social media growth plan.
If all of this sounds overwhelming, you can hire a digital marketing company to help you with a social media strategy that will work for you.
Question: Can you share some examples of how your social media following has driven traffic to your e-commerce store?
Answer: On Facebook, growing friends that love the niche as much as you do allows you to post products and get your friends to check them out.
An example could be a pet influencer account. If you have thousands of followers who follow your pet influencer account (let’s suppose you have a dog) and other dog owners follow you, you can easily make recommendations on leashes, dog food, or other dog products you are affiliated with and make money this way.
On X/Twitter, I’ve been able to drive traffic to my e-commerce store simply because my friends and followers are interested in the niche I am in (I purposely put out intentional content targeting those people). So now when I try to drive traffic to my e-commerce store, they’re naturally interested.
Question: What advice would you give to someone looking to diversify their traffic sources and grow their online presence?
Answer: Diversifying your traffic sources strategically is crucial, especially with the unpredictability of the Google algorithm.
I suggest experimenting with two social media platforms at a time, two that you vibe with the most and can see followings or communities based on your niche. Engaging with your audience AND bigger accounts is the best way to grow authentically. Once you find your winning posts and have a better understanding of the type of content that does well in your niche, you can always use ads to grow more.
Also, take time to understand the social media platform(s) and observe successful accounts.
Question: Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences. It’s been very enlightening.
Answer: Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure sharing my journey and strategies.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Darlene is a search marketer, analyst, speaker, trainer, and owner of DriveTraffic Digital Marketing. She has been working in the digital marketing industry since the mid 90s and has narrowed her specialty to SEO, Google Ads and Google Analytics. She is especially interested in Google’s new Search Generative Experience and how businesses will need to adapt to remain visible. Want to see how DriveTraffic can help? Let’s chat!
