Speaking to TVC Business News anchor via Skype, the foremost economist stated that he remains optimistic about the Nigerian economy following the positive GDP report released.

In his reaction to the latest GDP report, Nevin expressed optimism and called on Nigerian citizens to go easy on the government. He stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked other economies and has presented countries with very challenging times.

“Let’s put this in perspective, it is easy to be hard on ourselves and Nigeria, but around the world, this has been the greatest health and economic challenges in our lifetime.

“In the UK, the economy shrank in 2020 by almost 10%. The year 2019 to 2020 in Nigeria is about minus 1 percent. Then from the first quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020, it increased a little bit. These are the few signs of positive happenings in the Nigerian economy. So, I am not surprised,” Nevin said.

On the Information and Communication sector and also the Agriculture sector which were key sectors responsible for the positive GDP growth, Nevin said he was elated with the success of the ICT sector which he attributed to the fact that people were working from homes. He also believed the Agriculture sector could be a lot better than it is.

Nevin also highlighted the emerging growth away from Oil-dependency portrayed by the latest GDP report.

“I mean it’s very good news. There has been a lot of emphasis on ICT. It enables other sectors to do well. It is not a big surprise because people have been working remotely.

“In terms of Agriculture, we will like to see faster growth, but there has been so much emphasis on it paying dividends. When I talk to farmers or people in the agricultural space, they tell me the crops are doing very well. I mean it’s good news and it also shows us that the rotation away from oil is real,” he said.

On the 19.76% plunge of the oil sector, the PWC chief economist highlighted the fall in oil production in the fourth quarter of 2020. He brushed aside the heavy emphasis on Oil prices reminding the audience that Oil production is equally important while analyzing the Oil sector.

“People always tend to think about the oil price but probably as important or more important in the context is the production. The production in the fourth quarter of 2020 was only 1.6m barrels a day. It is a big contraction there. So, the fact that we can grow the Nigerian economy in these very challenging health and economic times shows you the resilience of the Nigerian economy. It shows why people like me are optimistic in the medium term about the Nigerian economy,” he said.

The Recent GDP report confirms that Nigeria has exited the pandemic-induced recession. Andrew Nevin was quizzed on how the Nigerian Government can sustain the positive growth reflected by the latest GDP report.

In response, he highlighted the encouraging partnership between the private and the public sector depicted in the recent Lagos economic summit as one of the key ways to maintain positive growth in the Nigerian economy.

Tesla chief’s wealth surged back to $190 billion, as the electric car company’s shares recorded impressive gains of 6.18%, thereby putting the market value of Tesla at $712 billion coupled with the SpaceX he founded completing another funding round, pushing him atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the third time in 2021.

Such record gains pushed Musk past Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who is now worth $185 billion and had a few days ago reclaimed the title as the world’s richest person after Tesla shares plunged to record levels.

Tesla Inc stocks were on a record buying spree at Wednesday’s trading session, indicating that global investors are buying the dip following a four-day plunge that erased the world’s most valuable car company year-to-date gains.

That being said, MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor, has revealed that SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk, is exploring the merits of buying Bitcoin.

Saylor revealed that top representatives from SpaceX were among 7,000 companies represented at MicroStrategy’s recent Bitcoin seminar, which the leading business intelligence company organized to aid companies interested in buying Bitcoin as a treasury asset.

Recent reports suggest SpaceX raised another $850 million this month from a group of leading institutional investors led by Sequoia Capital.

Such investment now puts SpaceX’s valuation at $74 billion, a 60% jump from August, and helped boost Musk’s net worth by about $11 billion, according to the index.

A November 15, 2016 filing with the Federal Communications Commission revealed that the tech billionaire owned 54% of SpaceX.

Elon Musk’s current net worth of $190 billion can currently buy 106 million troy ounces of gold or 2.82 billion barrels of crude oil.

This disclosure was made by Afreximbank President, Benedict Oramah at a virtual “fireside chat” on Tuesday organized by the Africa Soft Power Project, entitled “The New Face of African Collaboration.”

According to Africa Investment Forum Senior Director, Chinelo Anohu,

“Digital platforms in Africa should scale up to take advantage of the continent’s surging demand for creative content, and the African Development Bank flagship entity is providing advisory services and investment support to creative players.

“The Africa Investment Forum was working to promote content deals as well as digital infrastructure projects to advance creative industries, including support to smaller players.

“At AIF 2019, we had a very interesting entrepreneur scheme which saw those that were not as big get the kind of funding they needed to get beyond getting a feasibility study done.

“Data is one of the African Development Bank’s strong points. They have a fantastic research division, and what we’re trying to do is mainstream that data culled from 55 countries and distill it in such a manner that the investors can easily access the information they need.

“Support for intellectual property rights and equipping investors with the data they need to tackle negative perceptions about investing in Africa are key priorities for Africa Investment Forum.

 What you should know

• The event was held against the backdrop of the recent coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
• Discussion at the event primarily focused on the role of infrastructure and connectivity in advancing Africa’s creative industries, including film, textiles, and design.
• It is important to note that 2021 is also the African Union’s year of arts, culture, and heritage.
• In January 2020, Afreximbank set up a $500 million fund to support Africa’s creative industries.
• It is strongly believed that AfCFTA would help address some of the key challenges to boosting Africa’s creative output.
• The Africa Investment Forum, championed by the African Development Bank and its founding and institutional partners, works to accelerate the closure of the continent’s investment gaps. The Forum currently has a growing portfolio of 118 deals valued at $114 billion.

Last year, the company founded by Bill Gates reported $ 59 billion in cloud revenue . Azure, Microsoft's cloud , was the company's fastest growing product in the last quarter of 2020, generating $ 16.7 billion. This represents a growth of 34% compared to the same period of 2019.

In contrast, Amazon Web Services made about $ 45.4 billion in revenue in 2020 , while Google Cloud made $ 13 billion . Despite these figures, AWS retains the largest market share, where is the catch?

The figure given by Microsoft does not only reflect Azure sales, since in the same statement the company explained that "the acceleration in demand for our differentiated offerings boosted revenues from the commercial cloud ." In other words, the results also cover OneDrive and other services.

Credit: Canalys.com

The COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people to work, study, communicate, entertain themselves and shop online, triggering the development of the cloud. The British consultancy Canalys , specialized in technology, estimates that in 2020 global spending on cloud infrastructure was about 142,000 million dollars, which represents 33% more than the previous year.

With the advent of electric vehicles upon us and a boisterous CEO in charge, Tesla understandably garners much of the market's attention. But in terms of which stock price will likely be first to double from here, Ford may have the inside track.

How Did Ford Stock Perform in 2020?

Ford is well into a restructuring plan that began in 2018. It is designed to put the company's woeful financial performance in reverse. The multifaceted plan involves reinventing its automotive operations, creating new "must-have" vehicles, and modernizing across the business.

COVID-19 put a wrench in this transformation as new vehicle sales fell sharply industrywide. Ford's revenue declined 18.5% to $127 billion last year and earnings per share (EPS) of $0.41 were dramatically lower than the $1.19 recorded in 2019. Much of the loss was driven by a $1.3 billion shortfall in the Mobility division which involves the company's recent foray into self-driving vehicles. A huge $1.6 billion interest expense also weighed heavily and compounded the downturn in vehicle sales.

Looking ahead to Ford's 2021 performance, the outlook is much brighter. Management sees a major improvement in operating earnings from $2.8 billion to a range of $8 billion to $9 billion. The turnaround is expected to be driven by not only the absence of COVID-19 shutdowns but improving industry trends in new vehicle sales. Car buyers' reception of Ford's latest launches—Bronco Sport, Mustang Mach-E, and the new F-150—will have a material impact on 2021 results.

To reach its profit goals, Ford will, however, have to navigate the current semiconductor shortages that are plaguing global automakers. This situation threatens to lower Ford's production volumes during at least the first half of the year.

Where is Ford Stock Headed in 2021?

Its not often that a company is forced to disrupt its own business to move forward but that's exactly the case with Ford. As part of its strategic plan, it has explicitly stated the need to "disrupt ourselves".

As more and more countries establish low or no carbon emission targets, the auto industry is clearly moving past its traditional roots. And in recognition of the fact that electric vehicles are the future, Ford is plans to manufacture its own EVs into high gear. It is aiming to not simply be a tagalong, but to lead the electrification revolution in the areas it is strongest­—pickups, utilities, and commercial vehicles.

Last year Ford invested approximately $7 billion in electrification in route to ramping its investment to roughly $22 billion by 2025. Although Tesla, Nio, and others have a noticeable head start in the electric car space, Ford's biggest chance of success lies in the van and truck market. It was the first to announce plans to produce an all-electric van called E-Transit in addition to a plan to develop an all-electric version of its popular F-150 pickup truck.

Ford is also getting into the autonomous vehicle (AV) game to find a second major growth engine to complement its core gas and hybrid business. The company is also hoping the launch of new connected services sparks some growth. If it does, it would provide a nice annuity-like revenue stream that investors would find attractive and help offset some of the cyclicality in the auto business.

 Is it a Good Time to Buy Ford Stock?

So, while Ford is late to the EV and AV parties, they are better late than never. With the electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle markets forecast to reach $800 billion and $700 billion, respectively, by 2027 there remains plenty of opportunity for Ford to capture a significant slice of a combined $1.5 trillion global market.

But while the road to growth is clear, Ford's financial picture remains murky. Of course, the company had to invest in these new growth areas to stay relevant in the rapidly evolving automotive industry—and that has entailed adding to its already hefty debt balance. At the end of 2020 it carried a $24 billion debt burden that will need to be addressed over time.

And time will indeed be needed for Ford's core business to return to pre-pandemic levels not to mention for its investments in EV and AV to bear fruit. Investors that jump in now would be doing so with the understanding that the restructuring still has a way to go. But taking that leap of faith here with the $1.5 addressable market opportunity in mind may put the investor in the driver's seat to some substantial long-term capital appreciation if Ford stock continues to recover.

Will Ford or Tesla shares be the first to double from their present levels? In this David versus Goliath race, Ford's late start versus Tesla's atmospheric rise may actually earn it the checkered flag.

MarketBeat Staff

Nowadays, with so many companies forced to keep their offices closed in this time of social distancing, working from home has become the “new normal.” Research from the digital document organization app FYI has found that “improved culture” is one of the top responses when people were asked how companies can help upgrade the experience of remote work during the coronavirus crisis.

So how can you ensure that your culture survives when there’s no physical water cooler to gather around?

I often like to remind the executives I work with that even before the Covid-19 crisis hit, this was a major challenge. Larger companies with multiple locations, for example, have always found it difficult to maintain a cohesive corporate culture. It’s made even more challenging as companies extend their ecosystem to partners, third-party providers and freelancers outside of the immediate corporate structure.

Corporate culture is an essential guiding force, but how does it develop when the majority of a company's workers, providers and freelancers never set foot in the office? Data provided by Global Workplace Analytics suggests that teleworking had become quite common even prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, growing by 140 percent since 2005 – and not just from the self-employed and gig workers; 4.3 million employees now work from home at least half the time.

At the same time, the self-employed population has grown by 2.4 percent, the home-based self-employed population grew by 7.3 percent, and the telecommuter population grew by 1.7 percent.

Corporate culture when face-to-face interactions are obsolete

Collaboration in a remote environment does take some additional work – but a distributed team is really just like any other team, whether they work face-to-face or not. A recent Harvard Business Review podcast noted that successful remote work is based on three principles: Communication, coordination and culture.

Communication and coordination are easily achieved through any number of sophisticated real-time communication and social sharing tools, but the culture is what creates a real sense of trust and engagement.

Corporate culture is more than creating a friendly break room with comfortable chairs and bringing in a box of doughnuts on Friday – developing it means intentionally engaging employees, educating them, and providing venues for interactions, knowledge sharing and training. Traditionally, this has been done live, with on-site in-services or special off-site events, but this becomes problematic when a company has thousands of remote employees and partners scattered throughout multiple countries.

Those events can still take place virtually. Fortunately, virtual meeting platforms have evolved to the point where they can be highly interactive, visual, and more importantly, effectively replicate the sense of "being there." And yes, there are plenty of ways to spice up your “virtual happy hours."

Your culture begins with onboarding – and especially when remote workers are involved, interactive video conferencing sessions can be a highly effective method of engaging those workers from the very beginning.

The key to success is in the level of engagement – and rather than a one-directional webinar session, culture can be developed and maintained by ensuring that teams huddle regularly, although not so often and for so long that “Zoom fatigue” starts to set in. Finding the right balance between live and asynchronous meetings is key, as is investing in giving people easy access to the information they need to do their jobs independently.

Best practices for remote corporate culture

A 2017 study by Deloitte noted that 80 percent of survey respondents see culture and engagement as top priorities. The Deloitte report noted that traditional learning management systems are rapidly being replaced with new tools that better meet the need for interaction and participation.

Best practices in developing that culture include holding managers accountable for training, communications and collaboration, and arming them with the tools necessary to do so in a manner consistent with the expectations of digitally savvy workers.

More importantly, consistency and frequency become even more important in a remote environment, and regular interactive video meetings should be held to reinforce corporate messaging and culture, as well as to impart specific training information.

Also, because of the efficiency of video conferencing, micro-learning becomes much more possible. Unlike live training sessions that require more coordination, remote training opportunities can be held more frequently, and at the same time, become more customized to meet the specific needs of each different group of employees.

Finally, measure results – look at the social interactions, comments, and social media sharing that takes place as a result of each session; measure user satisfaction and participation, and encourage feedback and input from participants. In so doing, you will be able to create a virtual environment that is not only the "next best thing to being there," in many ways, it's better than being there.

Thriving remotely as a collective

Maintaining a cohesive company culture is a challenge, even when you’re dealing with a relatively small team all working from one location. Multi-branch teams, teams built to operate remotely, and teams forced to suddenly work from home during a health crisis have it even harder. But with the right perspective and approach, your team can remain as cohesive and invested as ever.

Victor G. Snyder

Governor El-Rufai stated this while launching the State Social Protection Policy on Tuesday, February 23.

In his words;

“Nigeria is going through trying times. We have the largest number of poor people than any country in the world. Yet, whenever a programme is designed to help the poor and vulnerable, we resort to a slot mentality in which important people are allocated slots instead of targeting those poor and vulnerable that deserve it. This is unfortunate. We must move away from slot mentality and use our social register to offer targeted support to those that truly need it.

I appeal to all my colleagues, the political elites to please drop this slot mentality and use the social register, so that, programmes targeting the vulnerable actually go to the poor and vulnerable. When we think of the poor and vulnerable, we must all remember that, the welfare of each one of us is bound up in the welfare of all of us.”

A video making rounds online captured the moment the lecturer was allegedly beaten by Banking and Finance students for reportedly collecting their answer scripts 45 minutes into a 3-hour exam.

It was alleged that the exam which was supposed to last for 3 hours was cut shut to 45 minutes for no reason, provoking the students to anger.

Watch the video below.....

Lalong in an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday February 23 said this while reacting to the backlash his counterpart in Bauchi state, Bala Mohammed, received after he said herdsmen are compelled to carry AK47 and other firearms for self-defense as the state and Federal government have failed to protect them.

While speaking in the interview this morning, Governor Lalong said an investigation by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum also showed that farmers also carry AK-47 and other firearms for protection.

 “I am not justifying anybody carrying AK47 but don’t forget in the cause of our deliberations and investigations, it was not only Fulanis that were carrying AK-47 but even farmers are also carrying AK47.

Farmers are also carrying AK47 because when you talk about them, it is just a proliferation of arms with respect to guiding and everybody trying to protect himself.

We shouldn’t allow people to have self-help. When they talk about AK47, I have not seen anybody talk about that.

But at the time there were farmers-herdsmen clashes here, we arrested people. Farmers were holding AK47 and the herdsmen were also holding AK47.

So, if you want all of them not to hold AK-47, you must put deliberate efforts towards curtailing the influx of light arms and secondly, to also find ways of taking these people away from their old ways of farming and then introduce them into the modern system.”

On the decision by some Governors to ban open grazing, Lalong said it will be difficult to implement if alternatives are not provided.

“First of all, you must provide an alternative. You don’t wake up today and say ‘No, you can’t do poultry’. If you say you are not going to do poultry, those into it will ask ‘what alternative are you giving us? This has always been my point.

Open grazing is out of fashion but what do we do as an alternative? We must be able to teach people the modern way of animal husbandry and also sensitive to them before they understand.

Otherwise, if you just wake up tomorrow and say you ban it, it will be difficult. To be honest with you, it will be difficult to implement because not everybody will understand'' he said.

Silva moved to Stamford Bridge from PSG on a free transfer last summer after eight seasons with the Ligue 1 giants.

The Brazilian won 23 honours, of which seven were Ligue 1 titles but never tasted the Champions League trophy.

The Ligue 1 champions came close to winning the Champions League last term, getting to the final last summer under current Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel but they were defeated 1-0 by Bayern Munich.

“At PSG, the pressure to win a first Champions League is immense. The team works around this objective, not to win Ligue 1,” Silva told FourFourTwo

“It’s no use doing a clean sweep of the domestic titles, as we did a few times, but being knocked out in the last 16 or the last eight of Europe.

“It always seemed like if that happened, the whole season was s**t – it felt over once we exited the Champions League.

“At Chelsea, however, there’s a very different atmosphere regarding European football. The club has already managed to lift that trophy, and winning the Premier League title is also one of our priorities.”

Orlu was in the news last week after residents of the community accused the state government of inviting the military to carry out an airstrike that was meant to kill them.

Speaking to state house correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari today February 23, the governor said Orlu became notorious for criminality after hoodlums hijacked the EndSARS protest.

“Well, the issue of bringing the military to Imo state? You recall, during the #EndSARS protests, a lot of properties were damaged in Imo state, police stations were burnt down, soldiers were killed, their rifles removed from them.

And immediately after the #EndSARS, we thought it was over. Then, issues of kidnapping, where you know, a Catholic bishop was kidnapped, who was killed. And these militants came out and began to shoot. We’ve lost lives, market women were killed, old women were raped in Orlu area of Imo state and they visited this serious terror on the citizenry.

And then I came here (presidential villa), pleaded with Mr. President for his support and he sent additional support by sending in police and the military also came in. And that is where we are.

It was on my invitation that the military came. And I did that because I know the situation was beyond the local arrangement, we needed help. And the help was given to us.

And as I speak to you the situation has come down to normal, people are now going about their businesses. And those caught will soon be charged to court. And all those military riffles from the army, the police, AK 47, and so on, were recovered by the people that came.

We are a government; it is our responsibility to protect lives. And while we have the Nigerian Army, Nigerian police. We had security challenges, we invited them to go to work” he said.

Governor Uzodinma denied claims that he used the military to terrorize residents of the state.

“Well, I don’t know what you mean. I told you that our initial intelligence and the efforts to control the sporadic shootings in Orlu that led to many dead, innocent women in the market, people selling food foodstuffs dead by a group of people that we were not able to identify.

Preliminary intelligence reviewed where they were in a bush. Our local police and local military went there and confronted, were repelled.

So, we discovered that the people had serious fire power. And that, of course, Nigeria, is a federation, Imo state is a federating unit, and all over the world, you have provincial police, you have federal police. So, there was a need for me to report situation and that I did and we were supported to deal with the situation

It is not about crushing anybody and those that came didn’t do any crushing. Those that came through their intelligence identified where these people were and I can tell you, all the people arrested, all the rifles recovered are intact. The people are under interrogation, not even one, not even one soldier, or one of those militants died in the process.

I must commend DCP Abba Kyari for a brilliant job he did. So, let anybody politicize it. But I have a responsibility to protect the lives of my people.”he said.

Prime vault is more like a read news to get paid platform because it also requires the sharing of some posts on social media and some other tasks.

Primevault

Since many Online Investment and earning platforms are being launched almost everyday, it’s always Recommended to read reviews about every platforms before deciding whether to join them or not. Reading reviews will give you more insights about those platforms.

DISCLAIMER: Please kindly note that we are not in any way affiliated with this platform and as such we are not paid to write this article. We are also not here to tarnish the image of this platform. You are therefore at liberty to accept or reject this reviews and your acceptance and dealings with the platform will be done at your own risk as we won’t take any responsibility of anything that happened thereof.

HOW DOES PRIMEVAULT WORKS

Primevault requires users to register on their platform with a minimum of N3,000 and a maximum of N7,000 in order to be able to perform tasks and earn on their platform. Prime vault has three membership plans which varies on their daily Earnings.

ALSO READ: BITERO INVESTMENT REVIEWS, LEGIT OR SCAM

HOW TO DESIGN YOUR OWN BLOG/WEBSITE AND MAKE MONEY FROM IT

PRIME VAULT MEMBERSHIP PACKAGES:

PREMIUM PLAN:

Registration fee: N3,000

Daily Login Bonus: N50

Task Earning: N100

Advert Sharing: N100

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Daily Login Bonus: N100

Task Earning: N150

Advert Sharing: N150

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ULTIMATE PLAN:

Registration fee: N5,000

Daily Login Bonus: N150

Task Earning: N200

Advert Sharing: N200

Refferal bonus: N1,500

All PRIME VAULT membership Package or plans valids for 30days after which a member will need  to resubscribe to continue earning.

Prime-vault also offers a peer-2-peer system where interested members can donate any amount and expect his/her capital + 50% ROI to be paid back to him/her within a period of 24days.

There’s also an avenue for cryptocurrency Investment.

HOW TO EARN ON PRIMEVAULT:

In prime-vault, members earning by logging in to their account daily, performing tasks on the platform (sharing of posts to social media) and also be referring new users to register and become a valid members on the platform.

HOW TO WITHDRAW ON PRIMEVAULT:

As seen on their website, the Minimum withdrawal for all members is N5,000 and  a member will be able to withdraw his/her earnings once the investment durations of 30days is reached. Withdrawal is Direct to bank accounts and it takes maximum of 72hrs to be Processed and paid.

HOW TO REGISTER ON PRIMEVAULT

• Visit their website @ www.primevault.com.ng

• click on Sign up

• Fill our your Registration details and hit on Create Account.

N/B: You are required to purchase a coupon from their list of coupon agents.

This section will provide you with all you need to know about this platform and it’s legitimacy. This is based on our personal observations though.

FIRSTLY, The CEO or organizers of this platform is unknown and also no information about him/them was seen on their website. This may be seen as a RED FLAG because if unfortunately the platform shutdown, there’s no one you can held responsible for your lose.

SECONDLY, The platform is not registered with the relevant bodies in the country and also no traceable/physical addresses can be found on their website.

THIRDLY, Their source of revenues generation that will enable them sustained the platform is unknown and also nothing was said about this on their website.

FOURTHLY, The platform was launched earlier this December and no payment proof or testimonies of them was seen anywhere. this might be because the platform is still new though.

Reno asked why Nigerians will allow Sheikh Gum appear on TV  and defend  bandits.

Reno said this in reaction to Sheikh Gumi's statement during an interview on Channel's TV. Sheikh Gumi said bandits do not kill people and for those who have killed so far, it was "accidental". Gumi added that when bandits attack communities and burn houses, it is done in revenge and it's an ethnic issue, not a criminal issue.

Responding, Reno wrote: 'We must be mad as a nation, when a character like Sheikh Gumi, will come on national TV and say herdsmen don’t kill, and if they do, it is “accidental”.

'This is the same man caught on camera telling herdsmen that it is Christian soldiers that are killing them to “ignite crisis”. The man did not even apologise for telling that lie. Gumi is not a negotiator for herdsmen. He is an enabler!

"If I tell you a joke, you will laugh. If I repeat it, you may still laugh. If I repeat it a 3rd time, you will think I am mad. If we can’t keep laughing at the same joke, why does Nigeria keep crying for the same tragedy? Daily, herdsmen kill us and we just cry. Are we not mad?"

7 Reasons More Website Traffic May Not Be Better For Business

Generating more traffic to a website is one of the important aspects of organic search optimization.

After all, it’s our job as SEO professionals to do this.

It’s our role to get more eyeballs on a client’s website by implementing various technical optimizations, strategic content plans, off-page recommendations, and so on.

Every SEO report highlights organic traffic. This metric is one of the pillar key performance indicators, right?

While driving increased traffic to a website is foundational as part of a solidified organic strategy, it’s also important to remember that increased organic traffic does not necessarily translate into a net positive.

The following scenarios are examples of when driving more traffic is not better for a business.

1. Users Are Not Finding What They Are After & There Is an Intent Mismatch

This one is straightforward.

Let’s say a visitor is searching for a specific query; your site is ranking highly for that query and they click on a result that leads to a page on your website.

However, the page they reach does not match the intent of what they were looking for and they quickly leave.

This is not a positive experience for the searcher, as the result does not match the user’s intent.

We know that Google’s algorithm is constantly improving to show the results that best match a user’s query, but it’s not 100% perfect.

If a searcher is looking for something, comes to your website, generates more traffic, but then quickly leaves because the content of your site is not what they were after, this can contribute to higher bounce rate metrics, lower time-on-site metrics, etc.

These things can send negative signals back to Google’s algorithm, indicating that your website result is not the ideal one for that query or intent.

2. Your Content Strategy Is Non-Existent or Poorly Executed

Would you host a dinner party if every room in your house was a mess?

Or if you didn’t have food and drinks ready to serve in time for the event?

If your guests showed up when your house was in this state, they probably wouldn’t be writing home about your get-together, unfortunately.

Similarly, if you try to attract traffic to a website without having foundational optimizations in place, people are not going to stick around.

If you don’t have a thorough content strategy in place or are publishing poorly written content, users are not going to stick around.

If you have a site that loads at the rate of a tortoise or is not mobile-friendly, users will not stick around.

This is so important to Google that they’re launching the Page Experience update to better measure how well each webpage serves the needs of organic search visitors.

It needs to be that important to you, too.

Your SEO house should be in order, as much as it possibly can be, before you invite people over.

3. More Traffic Is Not More Valuable Than Conversions

The above two points go into a bit of a classic debate between which is more important – more organic traffic or more organic conversions?

There are many different points that can be made on both sides of this question.

However, if you ask me, I’d rather attract 100,000 visitors to a site and have 50% of them convert (what a conversion rate, right?), than 200,000 visitors and 25% of them convert.

The goal of an SEO strategy is not merely to garner more traffic.

If we stopped there, we would be eliminating one of the (if not the single) most important aspects of the role of an SEO: to drive more ROI for businesses.

If you are seeing traffic increases but that traffic is not also improving conversion rate, you are not truly achieving the best organic results.

4. The Site Is Receiving Negative Press

Traffic gains can happen for reasons you would probably rather avoid.

If your business is under scrutiny or receiving negative press, going back to your client and reporting that you saw an 80% increase in organic traffic MoM is not exactly positive.

If a recent scandal drew in a surge of visitors, you wouldn’t want to highlight that as a positive gain to a client, and also try to claim that it was due to a solidified organic strategy either.

Situational awareness of what is going on from a more holistic standpoint is key.

5. More Traffic Across All Channels Is Backfiring

If we look outside of the organic channel, we can easily identify other situations in which it’s not ideal to drive more traffic.

If you’re driving website traffic through other channels, such as paid, to a site that is not optimized – content, technical, or user experience – this can backfire.

Our counterparts in PPC could be paying a higher cost-per-acquisition and driving more traffic to a page that is quickly encouraging users to leave.

6. Traffic Is Not Human or Desirable Bot Traffic

Paying close attention to traffic sources and channels in Google Analytics is crucial.

If this traffic is not from humans but spambots instead, an increase in traffic would not be a positive movement in this case.

It’s estimated that 37% of website activity is created by bots, and less than half of this bot activity is legit.

Spambot traffic is a type of traffic that is generally illegitimate traffic sent to a site that skews and inflates traffic data.

7. You’re Wasting Valuable Resources

Sometimes, increased site traffic can strain your resources. You might have a really solid informational piece of content driving a ton of traffic, but if it’s not relevant to your audience you can end up with unintended consequences.

This goes beyond server issues to very real cost of frontline staff and customer service agents having to field calls, emails, chats, and in-person inquiries from people who aren’t likely to become customers.

Ensuring that the leads you’re driving from search are relevant and high intent is important, too.

Drive Value, Not Just Traffic

Not all traffic is the same. Not all traffic is meaningful.

While driving traffic to a website is a fundamental aspect for search engine optimization, that should come with a caveat.

Driving quality traffic to a site is a fundamental aspect of search engine optimization.

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The militants said they would target infrastructure in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja and commercial hub, Lagos.

The threat was issued in a video posted on Tuesday by Africa Independent Television (AIT).

It showed a number of men dressed in military uniform with covered faces. They danced around and brandished rifles.

The group accused the federal government of marginalising the South-South region. It also condemned the amnesty programme.

The militants lamented that oil-producing states had no schools, no potable water, no light, no hospital and access roads.

They decried the state of the Ogoni clean-up project, adding that government places politics above the people.

The militants demanded resource control for the South-South, the same way the federal government allowed Zamfara to control gold mining.

“The Nigerian government over the years has decided to handle the issues of the Niger Delta with kid gloves. They have betrayed the struggle and have left the people to their fate.

“Rather, what is visible is the presence of military gunboat and the numerous military personnel dispersed to the Niger Delta, who are killing, raping, and maiming the innocent people of the region”, one of the militants read from a paper.

The group noted that Nigeria’s territorial waters is being secured by an Israeli company, despite competent local hands.

“We are coming to destroy all your infrastructure in Abuja and Lagos…we will destroy the oil facilities both onshore and offshore in no distant time, we will be seen to be crippling the Nigerian economy.”

The militants nominated ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, to mediate between it and the federal government.

Video: https://youtu.be/zGgmYBV-ndc