Why Most Online Businesses Fail?

 

Let’s talk about why most online businesses fail. It’s going to be very painful for most bloggers. And I’m going to be very honest and frank.

I’m not going to walk around the topic. I will be straight forward.

My answer is simple: Most businesses online fail because they can’t get traffic from search engines, Google, Bing and Yahoo. Primarily from Google.

And let’s talk why most websites can’t get traffic. What they can do to improve the situation with their blogs and possibly and hopefully monetize their sites.

 

 

Common reasons why most online businesses fail

As I said, I will be talking about the most common, the most obvious reason why most businesses fail online.

If you do some research online using Google search you will realize that almost all blogs write about commonly known and banal reasons, such as:

 

• Not enough commitment
• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of patience
• No business goals
• Lack of skills
• Competition
• No SEO knowledge
• No social media presence
• No video marketing
• No valuable content
• No right mindset
• Lack of action
• Addressing the wrong audience
• Not treating your business like a real business
• Lack of monetary investment
• No email marketing
• Not learning from Gurus
• Not doing market research

 

I totally agree that all those reasons can be responsible for your business failing online. Totally agree. But let’s be straight forward.

All blogs copy each other and add some new aspects to this list trying to bring something new to the table. No problem with such an approach.

In my opinion, though all those reasons are valid I strongly believe there is one common reason why most businesses fail online.

It’s because most new sites and even aged sites are struggling to get traffic from search engines. This is # 1 reason to fail online.

 

 

 

Methods that can get you the traffic… BUT

It’s no secret that aged and super popular sites get a lot of traffic from their social following or from email marketing. But what to do if your site is a brand new site?

How can you get traffic from social networks or from email marketing? When you start a brand new site you primarily rely on search engines.

And in fact, all successful websites/blogs online get 70% of their traffic from search engines. This is 100% true info.

Over time thanks to getting traffic from search engines and social networks they could build a solid email list and diversified their traffic as a result.

Also, thanks to video marketing via youtube. But what to do if your site is a brand new site? The only thing you can do is create valuable content.

Because it’s content that attracts people’s attention and it is # 1 reason why people find and visit websites using search engines, such as Google.

 

Let’s now see how each method can work for you.

 

Content strategy (SEO)

Content is king. Everyone knows about it. Content is your main traffic source. If you can produce quality content you can hope for traffic – a LOT of or very limited traffic.

All SEO experts talk about getting traffic through SEO. It’s true. All programs teaching affiliate marketing talk about content being # 1 traffic strategy.

Even Jim and Ricky from Income School proved it many times through their niche sites that content can get you a ton of traffic from search engines.

And that’s why they are actively promoting their training course on content ranking strategy. Because they are making money out of it.

It’s totally understandable. But does it work all the time? Is content a universal strategy that works equally for everyone and all the time? Nope! Will talk about this later.

 

 

Link strategy

Link strategy. Another group of experts including Brian from Backlinko talk about the importance of link strategy. It’s not far from the truth.

It’s true that backlink profile is or can be important for successful blogging. It’s still one of the most important ranking factors.

But it’s not the only or the most critical factor. Because there are MANY examples of websites getting to Google’s top without ANY backlinks.

I have many such examples on my blogs. I know many others doping the same. Income School guys are living proofs of the same.

But if you listen to Brian from Backlinko, backlink is your number # 1 ranking problem that keeps your site back from top spots on Google.

And it’s totally understandable because he is trying to promote his pricey link course.

 

 

Email marketing

Email marketing. Yes, email marketing is another great way to diversify your traffic source you should be getting to your site.

But for a brand new site starting an email marketing doesn’t make any sense. Because you don’t have traffic. How are you going to build your email list?

There is no sense to start paying for an email autoresponder until you start getting at least 200-300 visitors a day.

But those programs that promote their email course actively and aggressively try to convince everyone that email marketing should be started from the first day of launching a blog. Nope! It doesn’t make any sense.

Spending money for solo ad doesn’t make sense too. Because it’s very expensive and can eat up all your budget without even giving you positive results.

 

 

Social marketing

Social marketing also requires a ton of time to hang on social media but it must be done wisely. Otherwise you will be wasting your time.

Not all social networks work well for bloggers. Depending on your niche some networks may be useful while others totally useless.

Many bloggers complain about Facebook being absolutely useless for a blog traffic. For niches like food or travel you can use Pinterest or Instagram.

Paid advertising must be used wisely too because it can easily waste all your budget.

In short, for a brand new site it will take months and probably years to build a solid following and get quality traffic that you can monetize.

 

 

Video marketing

Video marketing (YouTube) works like SEO. It works for some people and doesn’t work at all for others.

Though it’s true that getting ranked on YouTube and driving traffic is easier than on Google. But still it’s not easy.

There are many examples of channels that produce quality and helpful video content but their traffic never explodes. At the same time some channels get a flood of traffic.

 

 

Paid advertising (PPC)

For a brand new site starting with paid advertising would be difficult. You first need to test your pages using free traffic methods and improve conversions.

Then you can start paid advertising. Since traffic will cost you money you need to promote expensive products and have your pages convert really well to turn your paid campaigns into a profit.

But paid traffic like PPC is a good way to get traffic because you don’t have to wait for rankings.

In fact, you pay for rankings and get to the top of search results within seconds.

 

 

 

Some facts about failing websites

Links

This is the most interesting and may be even arguable part of this research. Link advocates will be defending their link strategy.

Content advocates will be defending their content (SEO) strategy. But no one has been able so far explain or answer my questions.

Because there is no an exact formula from Google that you can take and follow and get guaranteed SEO results. Everyone knows about it and no one can argue this.

I know many sites that have zero links from authority sites and still they have pretty good rankings in competitive niche, such as MMO (make money online) and getting 1500-2000 visitors a day.

Believe me, they have done zero links. Jim and Ricky from Income School (SEO experts) do it all the time with their content. They rank without any links.

I have multiple first page rankings without any links. This is jut to prove that you can rank very well without any links even in competitive niches.

But Brian from Backlinko tries to convince everyone that link is # 1 ranking aspect. Nope! Not always. It really depends.

 

 

Content and SEO

If we talk about content, it’s also not a universal recipe for Google rankings. I have a site with 27 articles and I’m getting 20-30 visits a day.

It’s pretty good considering it’s a new site.

I have a site that has 500 pages and I’m getting around 30-50 visits a day. Can you imagine that?

I was getting 150-200 visits a day before and not it dropped to 30-50 visits a day. No manual actions form Google. Only quality content.

Many other bloggers experience the same with their blogs. Some of them have over 800 pages and get only 100 visits a day. It’s unbelievable but it’s true.

Some bloggers have been successfully doing for 10 years and one day lost all their traffic and businesses.

Though they have never done link building or any other black hat SEO. Read real message from people below.

 

 

 

 

 

Read them carefully and see how Google ranks sites.

People are frustrated, people’s businesses are destroyed for no obvious reasons.

At the start of 2018 Google announced it was going to crack down on sites that promote obvious scams.

Many sites get caught up in this because they review online make money scams and so on, and might have titles like “Is X a Scam?” But not all sites lost traffic.

Many are still getting a ton of traffic daily and raking in money. There is no answer why some sites lose traffic while others continue getting flood of traffic.

If you put those sites side by side and compare their content you will realize that there is no huge difference in the quality of their content though their rankings are so different.

Even product review sites in MMO niche that produce very standard reviews have very different rankings.

I’ve seen MANY sites promoting obvious scams and still Google ranks them in top search results and sends them a flood of traffic. Flood of traffic means flood of money.

At the very same time many other bloggers doing ethical reviews for years lose their traffic and completely disappear from search engines after YEARS OF HARD WORK.

Who can answer this question? Who can explain this? Where are all those so called SEO experts that talk about the importance of quality content and links?

Where are you? Can anyone answer all these questions? I guess no one can and even Google has no answer to this question.

Because Google ranking system is still imperfect. Though keywords are many and theoretically you can rank for many keywords, in fact it doesn’t work.

Because number of spots is very limited. Google has to offer only 10 spots on the first page. Just 10. Whatever keyword you choose, whatever niche you choose, doesn’t matter.

For the most part Google ranks same sites and throws away all other blogs. That’s why ranking a site on Google and getting traffic is like draw straws. You never know what you get.

Who knows? Maybe Google has a team that checks sites manually and decides which site to rank high and which one to throw down.

I can’t prove it but it looks like they have such a team.

Another ranking paradox is that the more content you publish the less traffic Google sends to your site.

Over time it simply starts to ignore your content. I call it a Google ranking paradox. In fact, there is nothing wrong with our sites.

This is how Google works. Google definitely favours some people (or their sites) over others, that’s for sure.

 

 

Site analytics

Even site analytics prove that sites that have same or similar analytics may differ in rankings significantly.

You can see my analytics below and analytics of another blogger who is getting a flood of traffic from Google.

You can also see a message from another successful blogger whose traffic is very different from mine.

 

 

 

 

Though our analytics are similar our rankings and traffic are very different.

Again this proves that it’s almost impossible to understand how Google measures sites and ranks them.

There is no an exact answer or an exact formula you can follow and get guaranteed SEO results.

 

 

How to improve the situation

The only way to improve the situation is continue creating content. But buy need to change your strategy!

If Google doesn’t like your website it’s extremely hard to make Google to like it. SEO experts say Google can’t like or dislike your content.

It has its ranking algorithm and if you follow its rules your content will get ranked. No. I don’t think so. I already explained it above.

But what can you then do to change the situation? I think you should change your content strategy.

If you focus on product reviews stop it. Start writing educational articles that help people in your niche. If you write educational articles stop it.

Maybe Google doesn’t like it. Start writing product reviews. Or start writing responsive articles answering questions of your audience. Maybe this will change the situation.

Or start writing pillar posts like “Ultimate list…”, “10 best products”, “Complete guide to”. Another method is to hire someone to write for you.

Maybe your writing style is causing an issue to your site. I mean change your content strategy and see what will happen.

Because Google as a search engine is looking for content. Try to give it a new type of content. This can change the situation.

But there is no guarantee that it will work for you. At least you can do it because content is the most obvious reason for ranking sites.