Whether your site is a content site, an affiliate site or even an e-commerce venture, your lifeline is always site visitors. Creating a great site is just the first step. Your job also includes making sure your potential audience sees your site.

As an online publisher who specializes in informational content, I like to think of my websites as magazines. As a publisher, we care about creating beautiful magazines filled to the brim with useful information. But if we don't put those magazines where our readers can see them, no one will flip through our glossy pages.

It is our job to understand where the virtual newsstands are and how to approach them so that our magazines can be prominently displayed.

Connected: How digital marketers can prepare for the changes AI-powered search engines will bring

Search engines like newsstands

Traditionally, search engines such as Google were the largest and most effective “stand” for online journals.

Our readers would actively access a search engine and search for the necessary information. The search engine – almost always Google – would then check what they have in stock and present them with some good options. If your magazine was good enough, Google would rank it prominently for that search query.

With the arrival of Generative AI, this relationship is changing rapidly. Google is moving to providing generative search results. After training him to read our magazines, he now places a robot in front of the newsstand and lets that robot answer people's questions instead of showing them magazines.

Google's new approach has many issues that lawmakers and regulators will hopefully need to address.

Meanwhile, website owners who rely solely on Google for site visitors face a growing problem.

Connected: 5 non-SEO tactics to drive website traffic

Diversification of traffic sources is paramount

The old adage of “don't put all your eggs in one basket” is truer now than ever. Over the past few years, many website owners have relied on search engines direct traffic on their pages.

Google was such a powerful and effective newsstand that focusing marketing efforts on SEO made sense. But now is the time to diversify your traffic sources.

Fortunately, we have alternatives. Here are some actionable suggestions:

1. Social media

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Pinterest and TikTok attract billions of users every day. By providing engaging pieces of content that resonate with your potential audience, you can effectively showcase your website. If the content matches their purpose and interests, some of them will visit your site.

With the added benefit of your posts going viral, social media it can become a major source of traffic for many websites.

2. Paid advertising

If you are confident in your business return on investment per visitor, paid advertising it can be a sustainable way to keep it. Whether it's through Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or another paid channel, you can attract hyper-focused visitors who are likely to convert into leads.

3. Content marketing on other channels

For some businesses, this may be a good time to explore more traditional channels. Possible options include sponsoring local non-profit organizations, networking with colleagues and developing collaborations.

If you're looking for inspiration, let me share a story from the days before Google. In an effort to promote a website with content around the topic, I created printed materials promoting spaying and neutering of cats. I then encouraged site visitors to print these brochures and place them in various places frequented by pet owners.

While visitors were hard to track down, for years to come, we would get messages from people saying they learned about our site from a brochure at their vet's office or local pet sitter.

4. A newsletter

Curating emails from your users to a powerful mailing list is now an essential part of site marketing. Regardless of your traffic source, you should try to capture your visitors' email addresses. Then, use those emails by sending one newspaper.

This newsletter can be a very effective way to reconnect with your visitors and get them to revisit your site. If you have an affiliate or e-commerce site, your mailing list can be the vehicle for offering discounts, coupons, and other ways to convert visitors into customers.

And if your current traffic levels are too low to effectively grow your mailing list, you can boost your efforts by using lead ads on different platforms.

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Search engines are not traffic generators

Over the past few months, many website owners have felt the impact of Google algorithm changes and transitioning them into an AI-driven response engine.

As an online publisher myself and as President of the Web Publishers Association, I feel their pain.

But it's important to remember that Google isn't the only newspaper out there. Our audiences walk by multiple newsstands every day – in the form of social media platforms. What's more, we have the power to convert them into subscribers who drop our magazines directly into their email inboxes.

It's time to get creative and develop new marketing strategies and skills to find new and innovative ways to reach our audience. Running a business it's never easy, but it's what site owners need to do in 2024.