Seven Months is the Sweet Spot
So, just a quick post today to emphasise that the process of building and ranking a website is at the mercy of Google, no matter how experienced you are!
Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you will probably know that Partha and I are collaborating on a number of projects.
We currently have four live websites, a further two in the pipeline, plus Partha has his own personal sites, one of which I occasionally make an appearance on!
We are both long-time experienced writers and Partha has been in the business for over 14 years and is a genius at keyword research.
So, you might think, that as we know what we are doing, Google would show us some love at a very early stage!
But no, it is not until the seventh month that the traffic begins to skyrocket.
And realistically, it is going to be the same for everybody.
It takes time to build up trust and authority with Google.
Once your posts are indexed, it can take at least another six months for Google to decide their final ranking position.
Until then, they may not rank at all, or their positions will fluctuate, as Google compares them to your competitors.
So, the image below is from Google Search Console, as one of our sites has just hit the seven month mark.
We started it on June 9 2022, and it is built entirely on Partha's principles!
No SEO plugin, and using only Partha's method of keyword research.
We added 57 posts in the first 3 months, and it currently has 90 posts.
The majority of these posts are 600 to 800 words.
Now, unfortunately, the image doesn't show the monthly dates, not sure if there is a problem with WA blogs, but it won't crop the image properly!
But, you can see I have set the date range to cover day one up to the current date.
And, it's slow and steady progress.
It's called the hockey stick affect, as it has a gentle curve upward, until month seven, where we are now.
As you can see, in that seven months, we have received 635,000 Impressions and 17,300 Clicks.
We expect that figure to now continue to rise, as each of our posts achieves its ranking position.
We are aiming for 150 posts by the end of March.
I hope this inspires you!
Cheers, Diane
Recent Comments
66
Hey Diane;
Not sure if you guys share Partha's website mybodyweightexercises .com. I believe I've heard him say it uses the same methods you both use elsewhere.
However, I've noticed that it has dropped from 6828 traffic in June 2022 to 349 traffic in Jan. 2023. And down from 11,393 keywords in July 2022 to 144 keywords in Jan 2023.
That's a steady decline over 6 months. Have you guys figured out why that's happened even with the recommended process in place? Is there another element that we should know about that's missing on that site?
I understand what you do with keyword research and I've been doing it myself for the past few years. It does work, with some other factors taken into consideration.
But there seems to be something else at play with that particular site, and I wondered if there are further lessons to be learned from it, if there's anything you guys want to share about it.
Thanks,
Telly
Hey Telly,
Thanks for your questions.
Firstly, I'm not entirely sure where you're getting your stats from, but I do know that platforms such as Ubersuggest, SimilarWeb, and even ahrefs and semrush, can be extremely inaccurate.
In fact, I would've long given up this business if those were the traffic figures for the specific months you've mentioned.
I've even blogged here at WA, showing my Google Analytics dashboard, showing that my highest traffic DAY (yes just ONE day) was almost 7,000 visitors in July 2022 (over 200,000 page views for the MONTH).
Plus, I don't think my MONTHLY traffic figures have been that low since I first started the website nearly 2.5 years ago.
I believe many of these traffic estimates are based on what the software believes are "good keywords", so they ignore keywords that feel have no value or no traffic, but I've clearly proven over the years that these types of keywords DO have traffic.
Anyway, that's not the point, Hahahaha, just wanted to say that the figures you've included are very, very, very, very inaccurate.
That being said, yes, there has been a decline in traffic.
I have actually blogged about this as well, and mentioned that I lost over 90,000 MONTHLY visitors.
Okay, the first "hit" was from the "Helpful Content" update in September 2022. This update seemed to remove a lot of my "secondary keywords" for articles, whereas most articles for the "primary keyword" dropped from positions 1-3 to positions 5-10.
That in itself can cause a huge drop in traffic.
Then unfortunately, I also got hit by the Spam Update in October, which further removed many, many keywords I was previously ranking for.
Okay, the main issues as I saw it was that I wasn't following my OWN advice, Hahaha!! Yep, bad, I admit it.
However, there are still plenty of articles ranking and bringing in traffic.
So, even though all articles are written in the same way, some have been affected, whereas others haven't.
The issues included, too much focus on using the "focus/primary keyword".
As I've written about since, I hardly ever the keyword again, apart from in my title.
Next, I've installed Spencer Hawes Link Whisper plugin, which while very good, can be open to absue.
This is unfortunately something that I did by overusing internal links.
Furthermore, I had too much "exact anchor text internal links" (this means that when I linked to another article I used the EXACT keyword as the link. Rea;istically, you should only do this 5-10% of the time, not the 90% + that I was using).
So, initially I have removed nearly 5,000 internal links, and changed my anchor text on nearly 600 articles (another 2,000+ links amended).
Additionally, most of my articles were pointing to different product reviews, many of which have completely died in the rankings (so, my product reviews were seen as either "unhelpful" or "spammy". To be honest, a lot of the products are no longer available or they have changed to different affiliate networks, which means that my affiliate links wwere null and void. This obviously is very bad, and also shows why you should regularly check your affiliate links).
So, I have NOW decided to completely rewrite every single article on the webiste from scratch, hence you probably aren't seeing me around as much at the moment (nearly 600 articles).
I've also conducted a full site audit and started to remove articles that never really received any traffic.
Some of them ranked, some didn't, but clearly Google feels there isn't much interest in these topics.
Unfortunately, many, many, many, many, many, many websites got hit by these two updates, including many WA members, both new and VERY experienced.
I have been hit by Google updates before, and often I have bounced back a few months later WITHOUT making any changes.
The longest I have gone with "poor traffic" after a Google update was 11 months before things picked up and then became better than before.
This is actually "part of the game", and just like any business, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
And just like any business, just because things are going well, doesn't mean they'll always be that way.
Plus, don't forget that there are millions of blog posts added every single day, so often you can get replaced in the rankings by "newer" and potentially "better" articles (the same can obviously happen in an online business, e.g. your competitors offer a "better service/price" than you).
I will also say that sometimes there is no rhyme nor reason for losing traffic after a Google update, i.e. it just doesn't make any sense.
However, the vast majority of the time if you make adjustments in line with Google's content policies, and keep updating old articles, while adding new content, more often than not a website will bounce back.
There are very few (in fact, probably ZERO) successful people in this business who haven't been hit by a Google update.
Even the great Brian Dean, often viewed as one of the greatest SEO experts EVER, lost over 200,000 visitors per month in 2015 due to a Google update.
So, this should show that no-one is infallible.
The aim should always be not to let it dishearten you, try to work out what Google wants, and NEVER give up on the website.
I actually wrote about how to perform a very basic site audit, in which I also explain that I had been hit by these Google updates, and what I intended to do to bounce back.
Be warned, it's looooooooooong!! LOL I Would Charge You $1000 For Doing This - Here’s How to Do it For FREE (Basic Site Audit) Personally, I do feel this website will blounce back, but to get back to the level of 200,000 page views per month will probably take at least another 12-18 months.
But, in the meatime I will do everything I can to improve the situation.
A good thing is that I am seeing slightly higher traffic this month, and I have rewritten 40 articles so far in 2023 (only another 530 to go, LOL).
Hope that all makes sense.
Partha
Thank you Partha, for the detailed and prompt response. Lots of additional helpful info here.
Yes, there's lots of factors that influence traffic and ranking outside of keyword research, for sure.
I hope your hard work pays off here and you regain all of your traffic, plus more!
Updating and monitoring a website is an ongoing process that we all need to keep on top of, for sure. And easier said than done, I know!
The discrepancy with the traffic is interesting. It's from SemRUSH. I will make note of that for future reference.
Best to you,
Telly
Hi partha. Since you said that you are re writing your articles, do I still write mine the same way as how you taught us? The question in the title, first paragraph and in the h2 heading of the snippet. I have followed your methods to a tee and I hope I don’t have to write them a different way now
Hey,
As always, nothing stays the same, LOL.
I haven't changed the writing style that much to be honest.
All I've really done is remove the H2 tag straight after the introduction, but kept the answer snippet straight after.
Essentially, as most articles I write are based around ONE very specific question, it's obvious what the article is about, and therefore doesn't require ANOTHER use of the keyword (in an H2 subheading).
I just felt it could be viewed as "spam" by overusing the keyword (it's already in the title, and parts of the keyword will be in the url and also the first paragraph, so now just write completely naturally while bolding and colour highlighting the "Important bits).
The only other thing I've added is a "Key Learning Points" in bullet point form at the end of the article, which is both bolded and highlighted).
So, this is almost another answer snippet with more detials.
If you go to my exercise website, and start from January 2021, you can see that I have rewritten about 15 articles in January with this new structure... you'll see no H2 after the introduction, and a "Key Learning Points" at the end, that is the only difference.
Partha
Ok thanks I’ll start writing with your new method. Also I’m getting about 7-10 clicks a day still.
WOW! Thank you Partha! So much information I didn't know before. As always, your experience and expertise are greatly appreciated and superbly informative!
Golden nugget, Diane, and very inspiring. Your stats are looking good.
It shows well how important it is to keep working on what we do and not believe in miracles or magic.
I don´t care much about Google, but I know I am at their mercy to be ranked on their search engine and as such, I am writing my articles with a focus on good quality content for my potential audience.
Roy
Good morning Diane,
Thank you for your blog post. I hope you're doing well.
It's good to see the figures going up, it's also a good example for beginners to see that everything website-wise takes time. It will be interesting to see what the stats look like in a year's time.
Have a great day.
Roy
lol!!! Inspire me???!!! Surely you jest. This makes me feel like I'm in the preschool of affiliate marketing. :-) I am halfway through level four of training. ...treading water just to retain what I've been taught. Your post reaffirms that the road ahead is a circuitous one. But...I forge on. All the best to you and Partha.
I want to be like you when I grow up.
Hazel
circuitous
Hi, Ms. Teal. I had to look this one up.
A circuitous route is long and complicated rather than simple and direct. The cab driver took them on a circuitous route to the police station.
Thank you.
I learned something today.
Paul from Canada.
Paul - Thank you for your comment. And yup...the road ahead is not simple and direct. Oh, that it was... But, I still forge ahead knowing that success is in my future. I hope it is in yours as well.
Hazel
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Hi Diane,
This is a great post, thank you.
It's reassuring to read that even the experts, people who have been doing this for a decent length of time experience the same delays.
Being a newbie, I assumed that those in the know would progress faster because they know exactly what they are doing, but as your article explains, expert or not, we are all at the mercy of Google.
Excellent information, great visuals too, really helps to see the steady incline of traffic.
Thank you
Cherie :o)