In today’s search climate, if you have a website that has
âcracked the codeâ ie: you rank on page one for great keywords, you have a
winning product, a site that converts traffic, then you can’t afford not to
have a backup website (or two, three, four…). What this means is if you
are dependent upon natural search engine traffic to make your living
online (and you have found a nice little cash cow niche) there are simply too
many times when a big Google algorithm change can potentially leave you out of
the money.
By having two (or more) websites ranking for the same keywords you have a much
better chance of surviving big algorithm shifts. Here is the
scenario laid out:
No backup site: your site ranks #2
on page one for "widgets" for the last year, Google makes an
algorithm tweak, you drop to page three where there is no traffic and no money
to be made. Result: You go from making
$500/day from Google âfreeâ traffic to making $0 from Google and the not as
attractive $50/day that Yahoo/MSN chip in.
With backup site:
your main site ranks #2 on page one for âwidgets for the last year. Your backup site ranks on page two, #18
overall. Google makes a big update, your
main site drops to page three and your backup site rises to #4 on page
one. Result: You go from making $500/day
from Google âfree trafficâ to $400 and you still have your $50/day from
MSN/Yahoo.
If you donât have a
backup site now you could:
1. Start a new site from scratch and start slowly building
links and rankings and wait one year to crack some rankings for real money
keywords.
2. You could purchase a competing site that is stuck on page
3 or 4 today but could be one algorithm tweak away from page one tomorrow.
I advise all of the
above but prefer to purchase the site lingering around within âstriking
distanceâ of page one. If a site is a
pure online play (no brick and mortar) and is on page 3 or 4 of Google chances
are they are not making a ton of money currently and with the right price they
would be willing to part with the site.
In summary, there are all sorts of tweaks that Google does
with their algorithm that can cause a huge shift in the rankings landscape and
devastate your cash flow. You simply
canât afford to have only one âline in the waterâ. So buy a new domain today and go out and buy
a competitors site, and when you get that done, do it again. By having multiple unique sites ranking in
the top three pages for your top keywords you give your business the best possible
chance of a continued long term cash stream.
