I’m Ranking! Am I Ranking? Who’s Ranking? What’s Ranking?
Okay, this post follows on from a few recent blog posts I’ve read and a fairly in-depth conversation I had with Lizzie yesterday.
Let me put this in a nutshell for you.
IF ←- And I mean IF
Your keyword research is on-point, and I really mean IF..
You should rank more-or-less STRAIGHT AWAY for your CHOSEN KEYWORD
OR
You should rank more-or-less STRAIGHT AWAY for another search term that GOOGLE DEEMS YOU RELEVANT FOR.
And this is EVEN with a new website.
Oh yes, even if your website is in its first week or two, IF your keyword research is good enough, you WILL rank for SOMETHING.
HOWEVER
As you will soon start to realise, and if you check under QUERIES in Google Search Console, ONE article has the ability to rank for 100s, potentially 1000s of keywords.
And it is this process of ranking for 100s and 1,000s of keywords TO ONE ARTICLE that brings you traffic.
And it is this process of ranking for 100s and 1,000s of keywords TO ONE ARTICLE that TAKES TIME!!
I honestly think the Income School guys said it best, approximately 4-5 years ago, although I have changed some of the figures below based on my own experiences.
An article written on a brand new website will take approximately 8-9 months to reach 90% of its FULL traffic potential.
An article written on an established site will take approximately 5-6 months to reach 90% of its FULL traffic potential.
An article written on an authority site will take approximately 2-4 months to reach 90% of its FULL traffic potential.
Let me explain this so it’s even easier to understand;
You write ONE article (all figures are made up/approximates, do NOT come to me telling me your articles aren’t following this trend), this ONE ARTICLE ranks as follows:
Month 1 - you rank for 1-3 keywords
Month 2 - you rank for 7-11 keywords
Month 3 - you rank for 99 keywords
Month 6 - you rank for 267 keywords
Month 12 - you rank for 1,116 keywords
ALL to just ONE article.
Are you now starting to understand the difference between ranking and an article reaching its FULL TRAFFIC POTENTIAL.
This is also why I say that “exact match keywords” simply don’t matter anymore.
Google doesn’t CARE.
Google is far more intelligent and sophisticated than the days of “exact match keywords” being a thing.
You write an article based around ONE keyword.
Over time, Google will find MORE search queries that your article is RELEVANT to and rank you for those keywords too.
This is what TAKES TIME.
This is WHAT brings an increase in traffic.
Just because you’re ranking for the main target keyword after a day or two, doesn’t make you a genius.
It simply means that your choice of longtail keyword is GOOD. Well Done, I am proud of you!
However, you WILL eventually start ranking that same article for many, many, many, many different (but related) keywords.
This is why I say to target UNDERSERVED TOPICS (not everyone else is writing about this topic… BORING!!! How many of you start a new website and then write exactly the same stuff as millions before you have? Original, Unique… hmmm. NOT so much).
This is why I say to target “search terms” that have “weak competition” on page one of Google (websites with Domain Authority UNDER 20, Quora, Reddit, Forums, Social Sites, Groups, etc.)
There may not be a great deal of traffic according to a keyword tool (honestly, THEY REALLY DON’T KNOW - ALL keywords tools will pull data from the Google Keyword Planner, as this is seen as the most “accurate” tool for search volume, as it takes data directly from Google itself - BUT Ahrefs conducted an experiment for over 72,000 keywords, over 54% of results gave the WRONG search volume for a keyword).
So, DON’T choose a keyword based on search volume/traffic.
BUT
If the keyword you have targeted makes sense.
If you have used your OWN PERSONAL JUDGEMENT and believe this is a topic that people in your niche would be interested in…
WRITE THE ARTICLE.
You should rank more-or-less immediately (as long as you’ve done your “weak sites” analysis of page one of Google).
You may not get much traffic INITIALLY.
But next month that ONE ARTICLE will rank for MORE SEARCH PHRASES.
The month after that the same ONE ARTICLE will rank for EVEN MORE SEARCH PHRASES.
You get the point.
So, if you’re NOT ranking, or your articles are NOT increasing in traffic with each month (up to the 8-9 month mark)
GUESS WHAT?
Your choice of keyword was poor.
Do NOT trust every single bit of information a PIECE OF SOFTWARE tells you.
Use your own eyes, check Google, check to see if similar topics are being discussed on social groups, forums, Q&A sites.
THIS is how you know whether a keyword is worth targeting and whether it will INCREASE IN TRAFFIC month-after-month.
Here’s a quick clue:
Y'all targeting:
Best of “keyword”
How to “keyword”
“keyword” vs. “keyword”
This is fine, but these are NOT the types of articles I would be writing until at least 3-4 months into my website’s journey.
Here’s me targeting:
Why Does “keyword”
Can I “keyword”
Should You “keyword”
Is it OK “keyword”
Why Can’t “keyword”
And you’re all wondering why I’m getting 1,000s and 1,000s of visitors to a new website within the first few months.
CHOOSE KEYWORDS THAT NOT EVERYONE ELSE IS TARGETING.
CHOOSE KEYWORDS THAT HAVE “WEAK COMPETITION” ON PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE (use your own eyes, never believe everything a PIECE OF SOFTWARE tells you, especially when ahrefs have PROVEN that 54%+ of the time, even the most “accurate” keyword tool GET’S IT WRONG).
And then using this information to write more articles THAT WILL RANK to form part of a topic cluster.
As ALWAYS:
Write for PEOPLE and STOP writing for machines (trying to please Google, trying to please an SEO plugin, trying to find “high traffic” keywords via a keyword tool)
If you’re ranking for a keyword straight away, well done, but that simply means your choice of keyword is good (as it SHOULD BE).
However, that’s not the end of the line for that article, your rankings for that one article, and the traffic you will receive to that one article.
There’s SO much more to it than that.
Thank You For Reading
Partha
p.s. My NEW 32-Day old website (yes, JUST 32 days) has already notched up 1,763 page views - that's mainly down to YOU, thank you!
Recent Comments
58
Just rereading some of your blog posts.
I have a question in relation to UGC. If UGC content on quora or Reddit is ranking for my keyword, even though the question they are answering is a bit different, should I also include the answers to the questions they are answering in my blog post as well?
Thanks
ah, you meant me, only just saw this haha! It's fun to discuss these things and quite interesting!
By the way, in the meantime, the traffic kept rising and I'm almost on 30K views per month now, fantastic!
AND I have deleted about 20 blog posts now, reading your other blog post: I Would Charge You $1000 For Doing This - Here’s How to Do it For FREE (Basic Site Audit) Had some cleaning up to do!
Another by the way: do you know what kind of 'broke' my site last summer and what we talked about in DM? Ezoïc! It took ages to get the traffic back up after that, or I'm sure that I would have reached that amount of traffic sooner!
Thanks Partha, this all makes sense for sure!
Yaaayy!!
Keep going Lizzie.
I've usually gone quite quickly from 30K visitors per month to 50K.
I would say on average 2-4 months (by publishing at least 15-20 articles per month).
Once you hit 50k a month you can apply for Mediavine, which in my mind are the best ad revenue company, plus they give you a breakdown of which articles earn the most money, but better, which articles earn the most RPM (I have some articles which earn over $100 per 1,000 visitors... find the articles with the highest RPMs and then create a topic cluster for similar "keywords" = more earnings, higher RPMs).
As soon as you get into Mediavine you should be earning at least $1,000 per month, and that obviously doesn't include your affiliate earnings.
And then that terrble Ezoic dream will be behind you forever!! LOL.
Partha
Sounds promising to get to 50K, big party this summer lol!
About the ad revenue company, I am now with Monumetrics and they are fine, they do all the work on the ads I want or do not want themselves, so I can just focus on everything else and it is now making me about 350€ per month.
They even have implemented a video that shows a list of my own Youtube videos, and it is nicely implemented on my site.
And most of all: it hardly has an effect on site speed, on contrary to Ezoïc, WOW what was that about lol!
I will surely reconsider joining Mediavine though, I have no clue if the earnings will be even larger.
Interesting also about the breakdown of which ones make the most money, would there be a huge difference as to just using Google Analytics?
Lizzy
I have heard about Mediavine, but because they work so closely with Ezoic, I thought it was more and less the same company. Is that misunderstanding?
About Ezoic, I started only in November. I was in big problems two years ago, so I forgot about them, but now it is different. I had heard from so many how that changed things, and in many cases, they were getting more dollars from that than affiliates.
So I am curious why you are not happy with them. Please understand that I am only for pure curiosity and not negativity.
But my site hasn´t had what it should have, but at the same time, it is 100% for my financial part, so I am trying to get all knowledge I can and work from that.
Some things I can change and others not; even so, one of them is important.
Just my experience, others could have a better one.
But last summer, my website was doing well and growing. So I decided to change from Google Adsense to Ezoïc.
First: applying for Ezoic was quite complicated and getting everything installed was even more complicated, because I didn't want to overrun my site with adds everywhere.
So I thought I arranged everything, just the ones I wanted on my site.
Apparently, their algorithms took over, and I didn't notice it soon enough.
They did NOT go over this with ME, didn't discuss anything, they just did.
It slowed down my site horribly, to the point that I got a few visitors per day only. (I think that before that point, I was at about 17k visits per month).
This created an income of ZERO dollars for 2 months, so I removed the whole Ezoic thing from my website. And only about halfway September, my website picked up again. Especially after installing WP Rocket on it.
I now use Monumetrics and my website doesn't have this issue at all and they pay well.
Plus they communicate with you for about everything, they even implemented a video of my own Youtube videos, so when people click on that, it takes them straight to my Youtube channel, which I am also monetizing now.
They might have changed their strategy on Ezoïc, but I would be very carefull and keep a close eye on your website if you would choose to use them. Definitely check your Google analytics every day.
good luck!
Thank you! As I said, all info like this is so important for me as I am on an important decision time for my site.
I always hear it was so few paid-for ads, but after I heard again and again from the company, which has helped me a lot of people were getting from them (they started talking about it 3-4 years ago), I decided to give it another try.
The point is that three years ago, I had a similar feeling when I was setting things up=getting help with it.
But this time, it was very different. Because I got big help, and both WA and Ezoic helped together, a thing that I am very grateful for!
The money from Google ads was very little, and it took one month to get what I got after a year from Google.
But I was worried, not sure if I was making the right decision.
My niche has never been best in December but started well in January to the spring.
But. I was worried about how many ads are on the site like you were talking about. I talk to them (as you say, they do things but do not talk about them. But when I change things, they are quick to get in touch, too, if I need to ask).
You can control some things. Like it is five types of ads, and you can decline these types, I was quick to take vintage ads out.
But I talked with them about the ads, and they said I was seeing more than "John Smith" because their algorithm saw that I had a big interest in my site. I always, for a long time, checked Google Analytics daily and didn´t see traffic go down. It was the opposite.
But one of my (big) problems is that I let good companies build the site. But what I didn´t know about it was that they used Thrive Themes, the software I had never heard about at that time, and then the speed in the Thrive Themes on mobile is very bad! Desktop great.
And I don´t have a budget to build it again. So the speed mobile part is a huge worry for me.
Thank you for your great help. I will look at your ads company.
And good luck!
Thanks for sharing this. I am glad you wrote about this. I saved this. You provided value as always free for us. Thanks. I got a little crushed today because when I typed in the keywords, most were already written, and these sites have a higher DA than mine. My mindset became self-defeating. I can't use them because it's highly competitive. But now, I see the need to think OUTSIDE THE BOX.
Thanks Partha for your help! Keywords and keyword phrases are still something I struggle to wrap my mind around. How to construct a blog post using them?
I decide on a topic I can help my audience understand more clearly in my niche. A question they most likely have. I appreciate your suggestions above to help with that.
My question is while writing my blog post for said topic. Do I incorporate different variations of keywords/phrases into my post? I'm just trying to understand what or how to construct the blog post. I understand headings and paragraphs structure. My question is more about using the keyword/phrases within my blog post.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks
Holly
Hi there, Tradergirl
I found this article.
Hope you find it helpful.
Rachele Mastering Search Engine Optimization - Rank Higher in Google!
Hey Holly!!
Guess What?
Just For YOU: How to Write an Article for SEO in 2023 (Plus 2008 and 2015 Too) Partha
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Hi Partha,
Definitely getting into this new method of doing keyword research that you've opened my eyes to... finding a lot of gems and I'm discovering that article writing for them is so much faster than my old product reviews or "best of" posts (especially using a helpful template I built in Elementor).
My question for you, if you don't mind, is about how niches affect this all... will all niches (not just the big guns like pets, health, relationships, etc) surprise us in the traffic soaring as quickly as you've written about in the above post?
In my subniche, the data shared by the "Keywords Everywhere" and "SEO Minion" extensions usually show very little "organic search traffic for URL" on the top 5 results. 3/month, 5/month, 0/month. And this is the total on all keywords those posts rank for, if I'm understanding correctly. I did some quick research and relationship niche get 1000s/month in similar UGC-results type questions.
Thoughts? Is this method for quick traffic generation best suited for popular niches that get a ton of traffic?
Thanks!