You have always heard people telling you to connect your website to Social Media in order to get extra traffic to your website. They might have also shown you the stats of how they got 10,000 visitors in less than a week on their brand new website. If you believe them then it is the biggest mistake you have made. I’m going to share my first-hand experience of how Social Media Traffic can penalise your website in Google’s search ranking.
I lost $125 for Crap Traffic
On March 2017, I lost a total of US $125 from my google Adsense account. When I further investigated to find the root cause of this deduction, I came to realise the truth which is hidden from most of us. My Adsense account was penalised for ‘Invalid Adsense Traffic’. This was a new term for me. I tried contacting google for the same but there was no response from their side. I searched the entire internet and found out that Social Media Traffic is responsible for all of this.
That month was good for BMA in terms of traffic and revenue. And just after the month, I saw a heavy deduction of $125 dollars on my AdSense account. This deduction was because of Social Media traffic which Adsense guys call as ‘Crap Traffic’. If this crap traffic continues to grow on your website, your website could be penalised by google for Invalid Traffic Source. You would never want to have this crap traffic on your website.
But Sharing is Loving, Isn’t?
Yes, sharing is loving but I just found out that Google keeps track on the sharing pattern as well. If the share is authentic based on the content then that share counts and put value to your article but when the share is just to promote your blog and people from your close circle or when people from your close circle visit your website from the shared link, then the traffic generated is termed as ‘Crap Traffic’.
Google believes, when you share your article link directly in your circle and generate traffic from that source then that traffic is of no use to them. This could also put you in trouble. Sooner or later google will penalise for such an act and your AdSense account will be blocked. If you are someone who shares your new article link with everyone in your circle then stop doing it right now. This is working against you. You are seeing high traffic instantly but it will all go just like that. You must find new ways to promote your articles.
Think before you share
This has become my new mantra. Anytime when you write a new article, don’t just share it among your circle or among your friends and family. Rather plan a strategy to make people share your link in their timelines. You must not share your blog URL directly.
Once you have published your article then it is time to find sources for it. Sources from where you can generate potential traffic and users on your new article. There are many sources where you can talk about your blog without getting penalised. If you have read the article I linked above about ‘How I lost US $125 for Invalid Traffic’, ?then you will know why does google term this traffic as Crap. It’s all about profit and if your article is of no profit to google, it will simply affect your ranking.
SEO over Social Media
Always think in long terms. If you have created a useful and powerful content which you think has the capability to rock among the people then you would definitely want to have Organic Traffic for your article. Social Media traffic is fast and temporary and doesn’t put a value on your link. On the other hand, SEO starts slow and increases drastically and stays longer. You would definitely choose the later one for your website. Everyone loves organic traffic and if they found your traffic useful, Voila! You have got yourself a subscriber. This will increase your blog life and boost your confidence. Always prefer SEO over Social Media traffic.
If you are just starting, you must read Basics of Writing an Article for better search engine score. These are small things that have long term impact on your website. Always pay attention to the details and follow these basic techniques for creating articles. You must always write for Human and optimise for bots. If you are doing both the things perfectly then there is no-one stopping you. Just focus on creating awesome content and optimise it to the best of your knowledge.
Conclusion
Always aim for organic traffic and avoid social media traffic by direct link sharing. Never think that you are smarter than google because Google is here before you and he might have evolved more than you can possibly think. So, just stick to the best practices and keep on experimenting. As I read on BlogTyrant that respect googles terms and condition but never be afraid of it. Keep on experimenting because that is the only way you can explore and learn about google’s search algorithm. The more you experiment, the more you know and better you become. So, keep experimenting and focus on creating awesome content.
How do you generate traffic for your website?
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Be my aficionado 🙂