I'm going to let you in on a little secret:
SEO isn’t the only way to get eyes on your website.
Search engine optimisation gets talked about as if it’s the default website traffic driver for every business. But it doesn’t have to be.
For some businesses, SEO is a brilliant long-term visibility plan. For others, it’s a frustrating time and money sink with very little to show for it.
When SEO tends to work well
SEO is usually a good fit if:
- You offer services in a specific location For example ‘driving instructors in Nottingham’, ‘physiotherapists in Leeds’, ‘accountants in Brighton’. Optimising for visibility in your local area is relatively straightforward, and your competition is limited.
- You have a genuinely niche service with little direct competition For example, a specialist contractor installing vibration-isolated floors for research labs. Low search volume, but almost no competition.
- You’re operating in an industry where competitors haven’t invested in SEO yet In some traditional or offline-first sectors, even basic optimisation can put you ahead quickly.
When SEO is often a poor fit
SEO is much harder to rely on if:
- You offer services nationally or globally You’re competing with a much bigger pool of businesses, often with very established sites.
- You’re in a crowded market where everyone offers broadly the same thing Coaches, consultants, designers and marketers are all competing for similar keywords.
- Your competitors have significantly larger budgets If others are spending thousands per month on SEO, content and digital PR, it’s tough to compete without similar investment.
- People don’t typically ‘search’ for what you do This is common in industries where opportunities come from networks, reputation, or being in the right circles rather than Google searches.
If you have the time, skills or budget, SEO can be a powerful visibility strategy. But it’s very easy to pour months of effort into SEO and still see little return.
The good news is that SEO isn’t the only way to bring the right people to your website.
Three alternative visibility strategies that don’t rely on search engines
The following strategies are about driving lower numbers of targeted traffic to strategic areas of your website, to get a more intentional result. This can often be far more effective than chasing rankings.
You don’t need to use all of them, but a combination of the three can often be highly effective, and can also be used to kickstart website traffic whilst you’re building up your SEO. The right choice depends on your industry, your services, and how you like to market.
Method 1: The warm-up loop
(social → website → email → website)
This is one of my favourite approaches, and I use it myself!
The key idea is that your website doesn’t exist in isolation. It works best as part of a wider digital marketing ecosystem which includes social media and email marketing.
How it works
This approach uses social media to generate interest and introduce your expertise by directing people to helpful content on your website. Not to sell - this is important. From there, you encourage a low-commitment next step: joining your email list. (Here’s the best way to do that)
You’re not pushing traffic straight to high-ticket services or expecting first-time visitors to enquire. The same applies to your actual emails when people sign up. Their job is to build familiarity and trust over time, not to pitch.
When you do mention your services, you simply direct interested readers back to your website, but this time, towards high-converting service or sales pages.
Anyone clicking through from an email to a service or sales page already trusts you and is interested in what you have to offer. This means those pages can be written for warm, informed readers, rather than cold traffic that needs persuading from scratch.
The focus shifts to growing your email list and delivering consistent value, instead of selling at every touchpoint. A useful guideline is a 70/30 split – around 70% genuinely useful, non-promotional content, earning you the right to 30% gentle direction towards paid services when it’s relevant.
Pros
- Very effective for expertise-led service businesses
- Easy to implement if you already use social media and email
- Builds long-term trust, not just traffic, and is perfect if you hate ‘selling’.
Cons
- Relies on social media for discovery
- Requires consistent, well-written email content
Method 2: The referral-ready website
(referrals, directories and partner links)
I once spoke to a guy during a networking meeting who said something along the lines of “I know my website is terrible, but it doesn’t matter, because all my business comes through referrals.”
Friends… this is not an excuse to have a terrible website. Referrals don’t remove the need for a good website - they increase it.
If your business is recommended to someone, the next step is almost inevitable: they look you up. Imagine if this potential client ends up on an outdated or amateur looking website. Imagine how much business you’d be losing because of it!
How this strategy works
This approach is built around traffic from a few different sources:
- Interested potential clients visiting your website after you’ve been recommended to them in a conversation
- Links from the websites of other businesses you’ve developed a good relationship with
- Links from credible, trustworthy business directories
The idea is to get your business name and website URL out there as much as possible through networks and directories, then to make sure your website is primed to meet these visitors exactly where they’re at and move them smoothly on to the next step towards working with you.
When referrals are your main source of website traffic, your website should assume visitors are already well into the buying journey.
They don’t need educating from scratch, they need reassurance that you’re the perfect option for them, as well as answers to all the questions they might have.
You need clear, concise service options, pricing (if appropriate) and next steps clearly laid out, as well as plenty of examples of your credibility and experience.
A practical example
One of my clients is a wedding catering company. A large portion of their high-converting traffic comes from the websites of wedding venues they’ve built relationships with.
The venue referral gets them in the door, then their website does the heavy lifting.
If their site looked dated, confusing or amateur, those referrals would just disappear.
Pros
- Trust is partially transferred through the referral
- Less persuasion needed on the website itself
Cons
- Relies on strong relationships and networks
- Can involve paid listings or partnerships
Method 3: The authority pitch
(targeted talks, workshops and events)
This approach works particularly well for expertise-based businesses that don’t yet have an audience or a network.
Instead of focusing your website solely towards potential clients, you use it to demonstrate credibility to organisations with established audiences you can tap into.
How it works
You create 1-3 very specific pages on your website, each offering a talk, workshop or webinar.
These are not just vague blurbs - you need a dedicated page for each talk which clearly explains:
- Who the workshop is for
- What it covers
- What attendees will walk away with
- Format (online or in-person)
- Pricing, if applicable
- How to book you
You then identify organisations that already serve your ideal audience and send a targeted, relevant email linking directly to the most appropriate page.
I know… the idea of sending cold emails can be daunting! But this isn’t about sending spammy messages to sell high-ticket services. It’s selective, thoughtful pitching, and quality matters way more than quantity.
Why your website really matters here
You could host your workshop pages on a generic landing page builder. But the organisations you’re pitching are likely approached all the time. They’ll click through to the rest of your site to assess whether you’re worth their audience’s attention, and your website has to position you as an established, credible expert.
Then, of course, once you’ve delivered a webinar or workshop to a room full of your ideal clients, your website needs to be ready to capture the interest that creates.
Real examples
- A workshop page for early-career academics https://theresearchbid.co.uk/the-path-to-a-lectureship-building-a-strong-academic-application/
- A talk on workplace nutrition for organisations https://deborahdavidnutrition.co.uk/workplace-diet-and-health/
Pros
- Highly targeted outreach means you can tailor the content of your workshop pages directly to the recipients of your emails
- Works well without an existing audience
Cons
- Not suitable for every industry
- Requires proactive outreach
- Best for businesses comfortable delivering talks or workshops
Think this sounds like a lot of work?
So is SEO.
SEO isn’t ‘set it and forget it’. It takes time, consistency and often a fair bit of money before it pays off.
By driving traffic via social, email, referrals and targeted promotion instead, you get analytics feedback and traction much faster.
It’s also worth remembering that visitors arriving via search engines are usually colder than those coming via newsletters, referrals or partner links, and your website will need to work a lot harder to convert them to paying clients.
Why bother with a visibility strategy?
Well, you don’t have to, of course. But in that case you may as well not bother with a website in the first place! And I’m guessing (as you’re reading this article) that you already have a website, and you want to use it to grow your business. The key thing is to work out which strategy suits you best - SEO, or one of the methods I've mentioned in this article.
If you're just getting started, I recommend working on one or two of these methods at the same time as getting the ball rolling with SEO - that way you're going to get some early visibility and results while you're waiting for the returns of your SEO efforts.