Search engine optimization, basically known as SEO is probably the most important technique used to drive traffic to a website. It’s no secret that most web traffic nowadays comes from search engines, specifically Google, so for a website to become popular and get flooded with traffic, you’ve got to play by Google’s rules. SEO basically involves optimizing the website and adopting strategies to generate traffic from other sources so that Google recognizes the site as an authority, to rank it higher. The higher you’re ranked on Google’s search results, the more credibility you’ll have. It’s a general consensus that higher-ranked websites are more ‘legit’ compared to ones coming later. In fact, most people don’t even go past the first page. Research has shown that only 5% or so of users go past the first page of Google results. So if your adult website business doesn’t feature in the top results, just imagine the traffic you’re losing!
The interesting part about adult SEO is that it’s both similar and dissimilar to SEO done for non-adult websites. While the objective for both is to gain authority and a following, adult websites have slightly limited avenues due to untrustworthy sites and not being able to advertise as freely as other websites. Nonetheless, when done correctly, you can get similar results without too much hassle. Here are 7 things you must know about adult SEO:
Keywords Are Just As Important
Most users would just visit Google and type ‘porn’, then click on the first couple of results to get their fix of adult entertainment. The sites that appear up there are in that position because of the authority and links they’ve built up over years, so keywords are definitely important. What also happens is that users search for specifics on Google directly, so a lot of searches would look something like ‘milf porn’, ‘teen porn’, ‘interracial’ or something similar. Among the top 50 keywords searched worldwide, almost 40% of them are usually adult terms, so you can imagine how important keywords are.
Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
Just like regular websites, you need to optimize your adult website to be search engine friendly. Don’t overlook meta titles, meta tags, alt tags, custom links, link formats and everything you’d take care of on a regular website. In these basic matters, all websites are seen equally, and you need to make sure that your foundations are strong before proper marketing is attempted.
The Game is the Same
Unlike what many people would have you believe, good link building, proper keyword based content, and metas, anchor texts, call to actions and such are still the most effective way to generate adult website traffic. Black hat techniques and ‘programs’ that promise you traffic within days if you pay a monthly subscription fee are nowhere near as effective, or long-lasting. If you want to get your site up in Google’s search results, get to the grind.
Competition is Intense
One huge difference between non-adult and adult websites is the fact that there’s so much free content available. For example, you won’t find sites that stream movies for free easily, but you will easily find services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. They’re going to appear in search results over everything else shady. In case of porn, however, there are thousands and thousands of tube sites that offer high quality and unlimited porn for free. So if you want to stand out, you have to either spend years building authority while simultaneously offering great content or target niches and work on them.
The Limitations
Let’s say you run an online fashion store. It should be very easy to build and share backlinks with other fashion blogs, ecommerce sites and more. In the case of adult websites, however, the options are far more limited. Adult link building is a lot more difficult because most, if not all, mainstream websites wouldn’t touch anything adult-related with a 10-foot pole. So you’re limited to options like link sharing with other adult websites, listing on adult directories, link farms and adult-friendly social networks such as AdultNode and Reddit. You have to work around these limitations to get the best results and traffic.
Content is King
Because there’s tons of great material available for free and anyone can shoot and post videos online easily, it becomes even more important to offer something everyone else doesn’t have. As mentioned above, if you’re working on a niche that doesn’t have a lot of competition, it’s easier to find success. If not, however, then you have to work extra hard on delivering great content to your users. Regular updates of unique and relevant content is still in high demand because we all want something fresh and different.
Sharing is Caring
As we mentioned earlier, a lot of link building depends on trading and sharing links with other adult websites and communities. Associating yourself with a well-known brand will help immensely, and give users the assurance that you’re also offering high quality content like their favorite site. Plus, if you’re working on a niche that the partner website doesn’t have, you are assured most traffic because users looking for that kind of content would click on the first relevant link they see, which could be yours.
Apart from that, sharing on social media platforms that are okay with adult content also helps immensely, helping you gain followers and loyal visitors in a matter of days. The best part about social media is that if something goes viral, you get hordes of new users without really doing anything. Just focus on getting great content, and the community will pretty much do your job for you. Couple that with regular participation on adult forums and communities, and you’ve got a lot of ground covered in terms of traffic generation.
So keep these few things in mind while doing adult SEO, and in no time you should be generating traffic like a boss!