- We've all lost traffic
from Google organic algorithm update
or a social media algorithm update.
In other words, these algorithms,
whether it's Google, whether it's Facebook,
they can all destroy your business.
How do you make sure you can still survive?
Because look, when these algorithm updates happen,
some business go down, but other businesses go up.
In other words, your losses
are typically someone else's gains.
Hey, everyone, I'm Neil Patel.
And today, I want to discuss how to make sure algorithm change
doesn't destroy your business.
Five sure-fire tactics.
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So tactic number one,
build up, one platform at a time.
You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
Sure, focus is important,
and the reason I say one at a time is
you don't have the time
to do five or 10 platforms, all at once.
You want to look, where is your ideal audience on?
Where's your ideal consumer on?
Your ideal persona, right?
Think about your ideal customer.
Wherever they're on, start with that channel.
Then, start with the second place that they're on,
then the third place, and then, you go from there.
In the long run, of course,
you want to take an omnichannel approach.
It's the only way to make sure algorithm
doesn't derail your business.
Yes, at first, even though you only can do one at a time,
but if you don't expand to all of them,
if that one goes down, you can be screwed.
That's why I'm a big believer in omnichannel approach.
You also want to learn how to gain traction
in one channel at a time,
and see if you can mimic that same approach
in the other platforms.
Typically, what works for one social network,
works for another.
What works for one search engine, works for another.
So you want to replicate what's working
and avoid doing the things that aren't working.
That'll save you a lot of time.
The second tactic is when a tactic
sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
You know when people tell you automated bots
to follow and unfollow people,
block out ways to build links,
automated content generation, automatic traffic generation,
whatever the heck that means.
Any time it's too easy, it's probably over-used,
it's going to get you penalized,
it's going to screw your business, in the long run.
In the short run, other people may use it,
they may get traction,
but these algorithms don't forgive and forget really easily.
So don't take a shortcut.
These shortcuts will hurt you in the long run.
And that can really derail your business,
because it's so much harder to recover
than it is to do things right the first time.
Tactic number three, you don't work for the algorithm.
You want to help humans.
It's not about pleasing Facebook.
It's not about pleasing Twitter.
It's about pleasing humans.
Facebook wants to do what's best for humans, in ideal world.
So does Google, so does Twitter, so does Instagram.
That's why you have focus your marketing on humans, right?
So, for example, what makes your audience tick?
What content formats do they like?
What topics do they love?
What are their hardest challenges?
What are their goals that they're trying to accomplish?
If you can help them with this stuff, you'll do better.
If you can't, you won't.
This will also protect you from algorithms in the long run
because you're always trying to provide value.
Algorithms want to do what's best for people.
Providing value usually means that's best for people.
You'll also want to make sure
that you're engaging with people.
Are you engaging through comments?
Are they even engaging
with your content that you're creating?
The more engagement you create,
the more protection you have.
Engagement usually means people like what you have to say,
unless you're doing something that's super-controversial,
and I don't recommend that.
Instead, do what people love, go above and beyond.
Controversial stuff creates these polarizing viewpoints.
I try not to use that too often in marketing.
The fourth tactic,
always use new features that come out.
Whether it's FAQ snippets on Google, right?
Ideally, that would be right when it comes out.
Or Google My Business has a new feature, you use that.
Or Facebook has videos now where they're going live,
or Instagram has Stories.
Whatever it may be, use the latest and greatest,
because typically, when they release these new features,
they promote them so hard in their algorithms
they give you extra love if you leverage them.
When Instagram first came out with Stories,
I was crushing it with them.
When Facebook first came out with live videos,
I was crushing with them.
It doesn't always last, but leverage what you can.
Facebook said, at F8,
they're pushing more stuff in private feeds, right?
F8's their conference.
So if you're not leveraging things like Facebook Groups,
you're not going to get as much engagement as you should.
So leverage them.
Listening to things like earnings calls
from all these big digital marketing channels
like the Googles and the Facebooks of the world.
It helps you, and tells you what they're focusing on next.
The fifth tactic is to keep testing new formats.
Never rely on what works now.
It won't always work in the future.
Algorithms always change,
people always change, competitors change.
You need to do your research.
Look at the unicorns out there.
Look at the content pieces that other players
in your niche are doing
that are out performing your content pieces.
Use tools like Ubersuggest
to see what works in your space, and what doesn't.
See what made it work, what format is it in?
What message type is it?
What captions are they using?
What gaming strategy?
Are they asking for comments?
Are they asking to tag friends?
Are they giving away stuff?
Are they doing contests?
Replicate what's working, avoid the stuff that's not.
And just because everyone's doing one type of thing,
yes, that usually mean it works now,
but eventually it'll get saturated and won't work as well.
So don't just ride or jump the band wagon
and follow everyone else, look for unique strategies
that other people aren't leveraging yet.
And typically,
these earnings calls that I discussed earlier,
or where they're going with their roadmap or features,
that'll all help you get that edge.
And when you keep looking for that,
that'll help you, even as algorithms change.
Thank you for watching.
If you need help with algorithms, check out my ad agency,
Neil Patel Digital.
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tell other people about it.
Thank you for watching.