The Facebook Outage is a Great Reminder Why Publishers Must Diversify Traffic Sources
With Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp down most of the day October 4th, it again shed light on not only the downside of influencer-only strategies, but the importance of prioritizing your website! Websites can go down, that’s true, but through good hosting, backed-up versions, and the legal ownership, a publisher has over their content, domain, and the payment of services. Owning your content is a more reliable ‘home base’ than Facebook and Instagram accounts, and we consistently encourage partners to diversify traffic sources.
It’s no secret we focus a lot on SEO around here. And why wouldn’t we, when over 50% of the traffic to our network comes from Google organic search? It’s great to see new partners enter the SHE Media Partner Network with strong search traffic. Many of the best practices a website follows in order to align with organic search guidelines, puts them in better standing with other traffic sources, as well. Users have evolved, whether on Google search results or another web platform. They want accurate headlines, useful information, and interesting voices.
So where does the other half of our network’s traffic come from?
We know it’s best for publishers to have a healthy diversification of sources, to avoid a major loss when a particular source isn’t accessible for a day, or if a certain source updates their algorithm and you’re negatively impacted. Make sure you keep tabs on the top platforms driving traffic to SHE Media Publishers and make yourself available in these spaces if they make sense for your audience.
We’ve outlined top platforms to pay attention to:
Anyone watching traffic trends would have noticed the “COVID curve” that started mid-March and returned back to normal (whatever that is!) around the end of May. This was particularly the case for topics like recipes, DIY, home organization, streaming services, at-home workouts, and new school routines. The inconsistent traffic from Facebook was very much consistent during the first few months of quarantine.
Trouble seems to follow the brand, and it hasn’t always been the most stable of sources, but based on the traffic numbers we saw our partners receive in 2020, Facebook is still a place for community, content consumption, and building a loyal audience.
What they’ve been up to this year:
Facebook Goes Public With Its Brand Collabs Manager Tool
Facebook Just Launched a ‘Social Good’ Website for Businesses
Simple, Yet Effective Advice for Growing Your Facebook Business Page
Speaking for the general blogger community here, but it was a rough year for Pinterest. Starting in January ,with a harsh algorithm update attacking “spammers” (READ: publishers who were over-pinning) that left many bloggers with suspended accounts and a sharp decline in Pinterest impressions. Many months were spent updating and re-communicating their guidelines and recommendations, attempting to pivot the publisher strategy. From what we gather, traffic hasn’t fully returned to what it once was.
Even so, Pinterest was the 4th largest traffic driver to our network in 2020 and should remain a place where publishers put their focus. People turn to Pinterest for ideas and typically (97% of the time!) don’t have a brand in mind. We will continue to work with our partners on their Pinterest strategy and on driving traffic from the platform. If you’re still using a personal account for your blog content, consider switching over to the Business account. With it comes the ability to add rich snippets to your pins, and you also get access to additional data insights.
What they’ve been up to this year:
New Pinterest Board Tools to Try
Pinterest Predicts 2021 Trends
Story Pins
Smart News
Think of these next three (Smart News, Flipboard and Newsbreak) as News Feeds. These platforms began taking off over the last few years and have driven millions of pageviews to publishers ever since. All three are primarily app-based and require a steady stream of new content creation to be accepted. If accepted, submit an RSS feed for your content and set up your profile. Smart News and Newsbreak are heavier on the news side, while Flipboard has more content on the lifestyle side.
Apply for Smart News here.
NewsBreak
Similar to Flipboard, News Break allows you to publish articles by either manually uploading content or by providing an RSS Feed. Users access the content from an app on their phone. It’s also important to note that Smart News, Flipboard and News Break do not pull in the full article. They post a small description of the content and then link over to the full piece on the publisher’s website.
Register for Newsbreak here.
Flipboard is used by millions of people daily to discover and share stories. From either the mobile app or a Chrome extension, a user with a Flipboard account can “flip” an article into one of their pre-built “magazines”. The magazines are similar to Pinterest boards and are generally dedicated to a topic or a content vertical. Publishers who are enrolled in their program submit RSS feeds for their content to be automatically ingested into the platform. Flipboard favors publishers (and content) who are utilizing Google’s AMP page format.
Details on their publisher program here.
For all three of these news aggregate platforms, customer support remains the largest challenge for publishers. Getting direct contact is close to impossible and even if you can, response time isn’t ideal.
Push Notifications
New to the list this year and a new trend that gained traction altogether were push notifications. This technology sends notifications of new content published to a user’s desktop or mobile screen. From there, the user can click directly to the content. For news sites or sites offering any time-sensitive information, push notifications can be very effective.
Pushly and PushEngage are two of the most popular providers with our network. In fact, we teamed up with Pushly to create a program exclusive to SHE Media Partners. If you’re in our network and are interested in more information on the program, reach out to support@shemedia.com today!
Newsletters
Newsletters weren’t on the list last year, but since have become our seventh-highest traffic source. Oft underrated, the newsletter audience is one of the most loyal and therefore, valuable. In their busy days, these users have chosen to sign up to receive your emails. Treat this audience kindly by only sending information, products, and content you believe will truly resonate with them. Choose your words and messaging wisely and this can be a long-term traffic source. Make sure to follow best practices for email marketing and subscriotions.
- 7 Email Marketing Strategies and Tips for 2021
- 6 Memorable Steps for Bloggers Who Want to Start Email Marketing
- Build a Newsletter Program That Will Skyrocket Your Repeat Visitors
Google News
Google allows all sites equal opportunity to be included under Top Stories and in their News Section. There are, of course, some tips to increase the chances your content will be used in these locations:
- You must be publishing news
- Your posts must have an author listed on the page
- Unique content
- Google AMP pages may be slightly favored, but it’s not a requirement
Google News can be seen in your GA account under referral traffic.
With the addition of swipe up links and link-in-bio tools, Instagram traffic is on the rise. Most link-in-bio tools have a cost associated with them, but SHE Media Partners are eligible for a free upgraded Silver account with Tap.bio. If you’re a partner and haven’t taken advantage of this yet, e-mail us today for your registration link. Another option for a free link-in-bio tool is LinkTree. If you’re not already using a tool to drive traffic from IG posts, we definitely recommend checking one out.
Content Recirculation
It’s common on publisher sites to see modules on article webpages that show a handful of content recommendations, typically relevant to the content the user is on. There are many benefits to content recirculation: additional traffic, exposure to a similar audience, links to your content to name a few.
Content Syndication
Content syndication and guest blogging can be looked at the same way: there are benefits to doing this, but oftentimes, traffic isn’t one of them. Content syndication is when you partner with another relevant site and have them post your content to their blog. There are best practices to follow, such as using the canonical tag to avoid duplicate content, but this can be a great approach to get brand exposure.
The Benefits of Content Syndication
Google Discover
Google Discover refers to a feed of content that populates on the Chrome mobile app, based on a user’s search history. To find this content feed, go to your phone, open your Chrome app as if you’re going to search for something on Google. Below the search bar, there may appear a list of content suggestions. This is Google Discover. In GA, it’s classified under referral traffic and a user is only served these suggestions when they’re logged into G-Mail. You can’t apply, nor can you optimize for, which is likely why the general interest from publishers isn’t much. It’s best to think of this as incremental Google traffic, but never to count on it. It’s just not consistent and fully tied to the chances of a reader using the Chrome app.
Twitter can be an excellent source of traffic for our news, sports, and entertainment partners, but with the heavy number of lifestyle bloggers in our network, it’s typically not a top referrer. Journalists were early adopters of Twitter and continue to be some of the most active participants on the platform.
For best practices and publisher resources, visit Twitter Media.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging refers to publishing unique content of your own onto another site. Partners frequently ask if this method is ok to use and it definitely can be. There are guidelines to follow, such as using a canonical tag and linking to the original source from the article. And make sure you’re requesting several related links back to your own site and only engage with sites you trust and would want your name associated with. Guest blogging can build your brand authority and expertise.
Best Practices for Guest Blogging
On the Horizon
Google Web Stories! “Stories”, in various video forms, have been everywhere in 2020. Instagram Stories, Story Pins, TikTok, Reels, and Google Web (formerly AMP) Stories. So far, it’s mostly been our flagship properties using Google Stories, and the traffic has been sub-par. The jury is still out on the traffic driving ability for some of these platforms but we are keeping a close watch.
Diversifying your traffic must be a priority for publishers. There is too much at stake to only perform in one area. When one platform’s algorithm update can tank your revenue, you’re too reliant on that traffic source. Since algorithm updates can be drastic, by having multiple sources drive traffic, you won’t be as panicked with each new update. If you’re a SHE Media publisher and have questions, reach out to us here.
For more information on traffic sources, check out Your Guide to Google Analytics Traffic Sources.
Originally published on May 8, 2020.
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