As bloggers and internet entrepreneurs, we’re constantly expanding our wheelhouse and looking for fresh, creative ways to market our content. With simple SEO tools, we can get a real time look at how search strings are related to web traffic and create intelligent strategies for growing our own sites.
Aside from the typical SEO tools themselves, such as AdWords and Ahrefs, internet marketers can also get a lot out of their time by including a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with their strategy. Virtual Private Networking use is turning a corner with internet marketing, and increasingly more people are seeing both the practical and security applications between these two tools.
Here are a few ways a VPN can take your internet marketing to the next level and get your site even more traffic than before.
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Get An Insider’s Look
Perhaps the most notable—and honestly, overlooked—way a VPN can help you determine your customer’s search habits is by giving you access to a global network of servers. When you use a VPN, your IP address is hidden, and you’re given access to a list of servers all over the world.
When you connect to those servers, you literally see what users in those countries see. This is really helpful because you can get an insider’s look at real content all over the world and market internationally with more accuracy and efficacy. There’s no more guesswork; a VPN puts you right in the user’s shoes.
Take Your Work Anywhere
This is perhaps the biggest reason I use a VPN with my SEO work. It means I can use all of my tools and apps anywhere. Since a VPN hides your real IP address, you can also access any geo-restricted content, no matter where you are.
If you frequently travel for business, make sure to install a VPN before you go. Most countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, keep blocks on filter circumvention tools such as VPNs as well. However, if the software is installed before you go, you can still use it to unblock everything from Google to VoIP services.
Use Public WiFi with Confidence
On the surface, I hate the concept of public WiFi. Knowing what I know about internet security, it is just way too easy and cheap for hackers to rig something up to swipe your data, and you can literally be sitting a few booths away from them in the coffee shop.
However, working on public WiFi hotspots is often a necessary evil and undeniably convenient, so I still do it, but never without connecting to a VPN. When you’re managing a site or working online, there’s just too much at stake. If your accounts get hacked, you can lose everything, and you site could become overrun by spammers.
In addition to hiding your IP address, VPNs also fully encrypt your data, so you never have to worry about hackers (or even government snoops such as the NSA). Using military grade encryption, your data is completely secured, and nothing you do can be traced back to you.
Keep Your Activity from Being Tracked
Working online, I spend so much time on the internet that it chills my bones to think of how much information Google must have on me. While keeping your internet browsing private also involves what your cookies settings are like, a great deal that you do is also tied to your IP address.
Since your IP address provides websites with your rough location information, they can get a general idea of where you are and market to you accordingly. This means that not only are you going to see eerily relevant advertisements, but your activity will all be trackable.
Most VPNs come with unlimited bandwidth and at least two connections per account, so I don’t sweat “overusing” them. By always connecting with a VPN, I can worry less about how much of my activity is out there for the world to see, and protect my privacy from advertising tools that may try to collect that information unbeknownst to me.
My biggest reason for using a VPN is definitely the cybersecurity aspect of it. I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure your connection is secure on public networks. Aside from that though, VPNs have a valuable place in terms of getting to know your market better and are also wonderful for users that do a lot of traveling.
