What Does Google’s Latest Algorithm Update E-A-T Mean For Your Website?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a comprehensive digital marketing process that helps increase the quality and quantity of website traffic. Businesses need to invest in SEO to ensure that their websites show up at the top of search engine results pages (SERP) when online users insert relevant keywords into search engines like Google. A higher SEO ranking means more web traffic and leads for a business. There are a variety of techniques used to improve a company’s website ranking on search engine results pages. This includes posting high-quality content on websites. In a nutshell, the better your website content, the more likely your website will show up at the top of Google’s results. How Google determines what website will show up at the top is with the use of algorithms that it has in place. These algorithms work together to determine what the best website is in terms of relevant keywords. Each year, Google updates its algorithms, making changes to how results show up on its pages, and how SEO and content are read by these algorithms. So how exactly do algorithms work? Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! How Google Algorithms Work Google algorithms are an intricate structure implemented by Google to get you the best possible results for your searches and questions on the search engine. Google uses a combination of various algorithms to determine a ranking system for relevant websites as you search. These algorithms have become more complex and smarter over the years. Google started with basic algorithms that did not have the understanding that the updates of today have. These days, Google comes up with thousands of new changes a year that they implement through algorithm updates. These changes can vary from minor to major, some being overlooked by content creators while others having a severe impact on how websites are ranked on the search engine results pages. These algorithms rely mainly on keywords. The algorithms work through websites and pages to dig out relevant keywords according to searches. According to Netcraft, there are 150 million active websites on the internet today; searching for relevant results on the internet may seem as easy as typing it into Google, but it is because of these algorithms that we are able to get what we need as a result. One of these impactful algorithm updates is the most recent Bert and E-A-T update, which had a huge impact on major websites, such as Buzzfeed, Travelocity, Men’s Health, Century21, just to name a few. Some of these websites saw losses of over 60% of their visitors within the first week of the update. So, what exactly did this update do to cause such a massive change in the way websites ranked on search pages? To understand that, let’s go through what E-A-T actually means. How often does Google release updates? Believe it or not in 2018 Google released and performed over 3000 updates without most people being aware of anything. Unless you see a big increase or decrease in traffic most people will never know what Google is doing behind the scenes. Take a look at the increase in updates Google has performed over the past few years: 2018 – 3,234 “Improvements”2017 – 2,453 “Changes”2016 – 1,653 “Improvements”2014-2015 – 1201 ” Improvements”2013 – 890 “Improvements”2012 – 665 “Launches”2011 – 538 “Launches”2010 – 516 “Changes”2009 – 350–400 “Changes” Thankfully not all of them will affect your site in a negative way. Most of the changes don’t even affect traffic or ranking as they are updates to features. The SEO INDUSTRY only gets worried when Google release a warning of a big update or change. This is exactly what Google did on 1st August 2018. Googles Search Liaison tweeted the post below, which was then retweeted by Google’s public search liaison, Danny Sullivan sparking fear into all website owners. Read their full tweet here! What did Google have to say on this update? Google said that its latest update may see some low performing sites drop in traffic levels. They said that pages that perform less well after the release of the update may not be broken but the changes to their systems will benefit pages that were previously underrated. They also went on to say there’s no ‘ Quick Fix ‘ for underperforming pages other than to provide the best content and information possible. Is this good news for you? Actually… Yes. What is means is content that gets high traffic due to their DA or URL age alone will no longer be favored by Google as it may not provide the best information to answer the search query. So, even if you’re not one of the big boy sites but provide the best information/answers to the search query you have just as much chance of ranking high in the SERPs. Great news! Now everyone is playing on a level field. What Does E-A-T Mean? Google has remained the industry leader for search engines for good reason. It has always had algorithms in place that ensure users are getting the best possible results on their searches. The E-A-T update is just assuring users that Google will continue to give them the best by finding search results based on market expertise, authority on subjects and trustworthiness of the site. Expertise Expertise is determined by your knowledge and skill in your
particular field. The content creator or the owner of the website needs to have
substantial knowledge and understanding of their content and market to be
considered an expert. To have a high level of expertise, this knowledge and
understanding need to go beyond that of competitors in the market. The understanding of your field needs to be expressed through the content on the website. Such content needs to be more in-depth and showcase more knowledge than that of competitors; this will make your website stand out as an expert. This algorithm scrutinizes your pages to see if your website shows high levels of expertise in your field compared to your competitors. Authoritativeness This refers to the credibility a website has. The
credibility of your content is determined through its reliability, as well as
knowledge. Users look for content they can trust when searching on the
internet. This trust is built through correct and in-depth knowledge of the
field in question. As a user searches through the internet for answers, they
are likely to click results from pages they trust will give them reliable
answers. For example, for answers related to food, a user is likely to trust Bon
Appetit over a random food blog since they have the authority on the
subject. The new update scours the internet to find content that is
written with in-depth knowledge, but also that has authority on the subject in
matter. Trustworthiness When trustworthiness comes into question, Google is not just
referring to the truthfulness and honesty of the content, but also the site
security. There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of content created and put
on the internet, but not all of them can be trusted. Users need to trust a website to trust its content. Many
sites give out false information or untrustworthy deals that can instantly be
picked out as having a catch. Once a user loses trust in a site, it is likely
that they will never visit it again. The algorithm combs through website backlinks and the site
itself to determine trustworthiness. The more trustworthy a website’s backlinks
are, the more credibility the site is given on Google. Income School-Expalin E.A.T Some of the leading experts in Niche Websites and Google updates are Ricky & Jim over at Income School. In the video below they answer all your questions related to the latest Googles Update BERT and why E.A.T is so important in 2019 and into the future. They run one of the most successful niche website training course called PROJECT24 where they help you reach your goal of becoming a full-time blogger within 24 months. I highly recommend you click the link below and checkout their course. If you’re not aware of Ricky and Jim’s credentials you can read all about their amazing businesses and successful website stats here >>>> Click here https://youtu.be/ix4E6x7gok0 Who Lost Out? The biggest losers with the update were YMYL websites. YMYL
stands for Your Money or Your Life; what Google classifies as a YMYL
website is any site that affects the health, happiness, safety or financial
stability of someone. This could include any pages with financial transactions
or information, medical information, legal information, news pages or public
information pages. The reason why these particular websites are targeted
through the update is an effort to protect users that are looking for trusted
expert information on their searches. Google strives to enhance customer
experience and keep people away from the thousands of pages of bad advice that
could seriously affect their lives. YMYL Websites were the biggest losers and lost traffic on a large scale like this one verywellfamily.com Though Google’s update was said to target all YMYL websites,
the ones that lost out most were sites that focused on health, fitness,
nutrition, wellness and medical advice. This does not mean that finance and e-commerce
sites didn’t lose out; these industries also saw major changes in their analytics. The biggest
losses were witnessed by websites like Prevention, Very Well
Family and Travelocity, while winners included Glass Door, Spend
With Pennies and LinkedIn. Below you can see how to use the E-A-T
update in your favor. How To Use This Google Update In Your Favor Publishing content on a website is easy: Making sure your content ranks high and is actually seen by users is not. By making sure you follow a few simple guidelines, the E-A-T update can actually work in your favor. Review Your Content Before you add any new content to your website, start by
reviewing your preexisting content. The content on your site needs to be constantly
reviewed, edited and updated. This is to ensure your content is relevant and
accurate. Any information that you have posted in previous content needs to be updated: This could include any exchange rate conversions, updates on current tax rates and so on. These updates should be done on a yearly basis, or when any major change is made that affects your field of expertise. Another way to ensure your content is relevant and adding value to your site is by removing old content that has not seen traffic over a long period of time and is no longer showing up on Google search pages. If you feel the content is relevant and helpful, try changing the title, adding more to the content, updating statistics and figures, and making sure all links to the content are working. Prove Your Expertise Google does not just look at the content on your website for
expertise, but also at who is creating the said content. They expect to see
expert content created by qualified individuals to ensure they are giving users
reliable information. When publishing content on your site, make sure it has been created
by people who have qualifications on the subject. Also, be transparent about
who created the content. Be sure to include why these creators were chosen to
be responsible for the content on your website; post about their credentials
and backgrounds. Write short summaries on biographies of your content creators to show that they specialize in the matter of the content they are writing about. This will show Google that your content is weighted and of quality. Build Authority Building authority for your website includes doing some PR. If you don’t have a PR team that can respond to media requests or bad press, you need to be able to set time aside and do it yourself. With the new Google’s algorithm update Bert including E-A-T, Google is now looking at trustworthy backlinks. You cannot just have your link show up on untrustworthy sites – this needs to be addressed in a timely manner to ensure your website does not lose its credibility. Another way to build authority is to create guest posts on trusted websites and have authoritative sites publish on yours. Send out press releases and have journalists post about it to ensure your website has value. Show Your Trustworthiness The best way to show your trustworthiness is to have an in-depth and transparent “about page” for your website. This is where your website gets a chance to convey its message and show what it is really about. You can showcase your expertise and authority on your field by providing a biography of your business: This is where you control how you want your audience to view your site. In your ‘about page’, include any credentials, awards and proof of legitimacy in your chosen field. It will show Google and your audience that you can be trusted on your subject matter. Google is trying to deliver the highest quality content to its users through its updates, so make sure your site is credible by avoiding wishy-washy content that can be lost in the vast sea of others that exist on the internet. Make your content stand out with the use of expertise, authority and trust and Google’s update might not E-A-T up your website. What Can You Do Today To Help? Refine your ‘About’ page The ‘About’ page is more important than ever. It’s a quick and effective way to show and demonstrate your expertise, authority and build trust with your readers and Google. If you are so inclined you can read Google’s Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines Section 4.3 which explains how all websites should have a good ‘About’ page that makes clear who is responsible for the information on the site and why you are qualified to publish such content. You are also advised to add your company name as well as your personal name, company address and your mission goals. Google and your readers are looking to see how you’re qualified to offer the products, services and information found on your site. Adding a good ‘About’ page is now more important than ever. Add an FAQ section to each page FAQ sections have come back into fashion with Google over the past year. Even more so now with Google’s latest algorithm update. Back in 2010-2015 FAQ’s were very popular but seemed to stop adding value to SERPs ranking after a big Google update in 2015. Now we are seeing a surge in response to FAQ sections being added to each post/page. FAQ’s serve many functions from answering common questions, saving readers time and often money and also covering natural language questions that people often ask when doing voice searches on smart TV’s, Phones and devices like Google’s home hubs and Alexa. Refresh your old content Google is honest by saying they will reward updated content that provides the best and most up to date answers to search queries from its users. Ask yourself…. How long ago did you update your oldest content? 1, 2…3 years ago? Now is your chance to make a big impact on the rankings of your old content. Refresh and update the data where possible and add at least 500 words to each piece of content. Then we suggest re-indexing it through Google Search Console to tell Google – Hey, we have updated our content. Then sit back and hopefully see an instant improvement in your rankings. Build a community As always, Google is looking for signs that you’re a presence within your niche. Building a reputation for the market you serve has never been more important. Google is looking for social media signs, authority signals and communication between you and your followers. Start today by adding an Author Bio for you or the person that you would like Google to see as the authority within your niche. Add a personal Bio to the bottom of every page and ensure you set the listing within WordPress to your name. You’ll find this in the ‘Block’ section on the righthand side of your WordPress dashboard within a post. Here is a good example of an Author Bio which is added to the bottom of every blog published Conclusion: Google’s Latest Algorithm Update Bert & E-A-T So, what does it mean for your niche site? Well, if you haven’t seen any effect on your site since the update, then your site has not been negatively affected. However, this latest update E.A.T. now gives you the chance to start building your authority within your niche. This will give you just as much chance of ranking for some of those larger keywords than the big boys out there. If you have built up some authority within your sector or niche then you’ll be just fine and will be able to compete on some big keyword search queries.
Geniuslink Review And Teardown | With Screenshots
Why am I reviewing another intelligent linking plugin? Well, GeniusLink was recommended to me by a friend who stopped using Amazons ‘Onelink’ service. So, I thought I would give it a go and show you my findings. I have used many linking software programs and apps over the past few years and had mixed results. This Geniuslink review and teardown should be interesting….. So, will this one be any better? Let’s find out! Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! Why Do You Need Linking Software? I’m sure you’ve all seen or heard of Amazons OneLink software, right? You add a piece of code to your site and when someone from a country other than the one where you added the link from ie: Amazon UK or Amazon US, they automatically get redirected to the Amazon where they live and to the product they clicked. Sounds perfect, right? Wrong…. Unfortunately Amazon’s ‘Onelink’ will send them to the Amazon in their country but more often than not to a different product. Boooo! Redirections convert way less than any direct click than the actual product. I had to re-install Amazon ‘Onelink’ to try and find you a good example. It didn’t take me long to find an Amazon Onelink that didn’t work. This is a perfect example of why I now use GeniusLink. Example: I searched for a common product – ‘Dog Bed’ – and found this lovely product on Amazon.com I was logged on with an address in the Google incognito mode and clicked the link to see if it would send me to the right product from Amazon US to my home store of Amazon in Canada (PS: I don’t live in Canada – it was just for test purposes). Here are the results: This is the lovely dog bed I wanted to purchase as a customer found on Amazon US And here is the product that Amazon sent me to over on Amazon.ca Now, I’m no dog expert but I’m sure my dog wouldn’t like to sleep in this ‘dog bed’. Poor thing! As you can see from the results which I found after 45 minutes of testing over 10 incorrect re-directions that Amazon’s own software has some issues. Anyone who gets re-directed will simply bounce from your product and website – unhappy. Building Trust I was once told in my retail training a really good piece of advice: It’s 9 time more expensive to get a new customer than it is to get a sale from the ones you have. This is so….. true. You have done all the hard work by creating a niche website, you’ve written some awesome content and you’ve hooked the customer into clicking one of your products. But unfortunately, they live in a different country and Amazon sends them to something they don’t need or don’t want. They are instantly disappointed. They may even think you’ve tricked or fooled them into buying something they don’t want. The trust you had with them has now gone forever. You now have to spend more time and money trying to find new customers or more traffic to get sales. What’s Different About GeniusLink? Geniuslink works on lots of different platforms like Youtube and WordPress websites. You no longer need to worry about broken links; with GeniusLink you can now use a link with a particular destination in mind for your entire audience. GeniusLink transcends across countries, devices, and operating systems. In short no matter in which country your customer lives when they click a link from your niche website which was made from Amazon US as an example, they will be sent to the exact product in their local Amazon Store. Making the chance of a sale more likely. Geniuslink will help send your shoppers to the page where they have the best chance of making a purchase. Therefore increasing your sales commission percentage. On one site mine went from 2.3% to over 7% which is insane. Any niche website that gets a lot of traffic and 7% Amazon Commission percentage will be smashing it and making a ton of money. That’s one benefit of Geniuslink but there’s more…. Get your 14 day free trial today! Broken Links The main reason I purchased Geniuslink was for the ‘Broken Link’ part of their software. I thought to myself after someone told me I had a broken link to an Amazon product ‘How many other broken links do I have?’ One of my niche websites in the pet market has over 250 articles and each one will have 3-4 Amazon links and it made me wonder how many of them had broken links? How many times have I sent a potential customer to a product that doesn’t exist or sent them to an Amazon 404 message? I dread to think. So I searched around for a program or plugin that would find broken links. I was shocked by how many options I had. Very little! I tested one or two but they performed really badly… And when I say badly – I mean it! Then I tested Geniuslink. After seeing an example of how their program finds the right product in all countries I was hooked. Watch their video below before you read anymore. https://youtu.be/YBeQBJ5WpQo How Does The Broken Link Checker Work? This function is very simple. Every time someone clicks a broken link you’ll receive an alert on your dashboard. Geniuslink will inform you of the link that’s broken and the website page it’s on. This makes it easier for you to jump straight over to the page and start changing the link for one that works. Maybe the product has sold? Well, simply find another seller on Amazon that has some in stock and swap out the link quickly. Yes, you have probably lost that one customer but you won’t lose any more – thanks to Geniuslink. Once you have updated the link to one that works, you can click the ‘Ignore’ button on the alert on your dashboard and it’s done. A simple way to be alerted of broken links and a simple method of fixing them. Fixing broken links is a vital part of affiliate marketing. If you think it’s boring and not worth doing just remember: All the time you put in researching your blogThe time and money you spent writing great content All that effort and expense – only to have a broken link within the content. WOW what a shame, all that hard work for nothing. As you can see from this screenshot from one of my niche websites, I have been alerted to 4 issues with broken Amazon links on the site. So, that’s 4 people who wanted to buy a product, clicked the link to Amazon and the link didn’t take them to the products they wanted – resulting in no sales. I would now, simply click the ‘Show’ button and it will tell me which products and which page they are on my blog. Easy! Quick fix! As you can see – today I had two warnings of ‘Out Of Stock Products’ Losing Revenue Another great feature is the lost revenue part of the software. Geiuslink will tell you who and where your customers are coming from and where they click so you can target them better. From the screenshot above you’ll also notice a section that warns me that I’m losing commissions because I had readers in Canada clicking my links and wanting to purchase something from my store but I don’t have a Canadian Affiliate Program with Amazon. So again, that’s a lost sale. I simply applied to Amazon’s Canadian Affiliate program, got approved after 3 sales and started to earn more revenue from there. You can do the same for all countries. Every time Geniuslink says I have missed some sales from a certain country I instantly apply for their affiliate program and start earning more. Some countries, I don’t apply for as the number of customers I would get wouldn’t be worth the time applying. In addition, Amazon may not approve my program as I’ll have little sales and may not even get the three you need to get approved. But some, like Australia and Canada, I would never have applied for and now get plenty of commissions monthly. That’s thanks to Geniuslink for alerting me to missed sales and opportunities. Get Your 14 day free trial today! How To Create Tracked Links There are a couple of ways to add affiliate links and track their progress. Geniuslink will automatically change all your affiliate links to their short links (don’t worry, it doesn’t truly override them), so if you decide to stop using Genius link they go back to normal without any issues. One of the issues with Geniuslink is that you can’t track the progress ie: number of clicks for all the links it overrides. Yes, it will inform you if they’re broken but it won’t tell you how many people clicked them. For that, you would need to add a new affiliate link to that product, generated from Geniuslink. You simply copy the URL from Amazon and enter it into the box you can see below which says “NEW”. This will generate you a short affiliate link which you can add to your product as per normal. Because the link was generated from Geniuslink you can now see global data from that link. You can track how many clicks it gets, where the link came from and when. All the data you need to target the performing post to the right people and countries. As you can see from the image below, the fish tank has 7 clicks and the fishnet has none! You can then click into each product for more information and data. Important factor: If you stop using Geniuslink and cancel your subscription, you’ll lose the link generated from Geniuslink. You won’t lose the original Amazon link but you’ll have to replace the Geniuslink manually. What Does It Cost? Geniuslink works on clicks per product not per visit to your site. So, you may have 1 million page visits but if only 3000 product links have been clicked then that’s all you’ll pay for. This is a great system as you know you’re only paying for potential customers. You can get a free 14 Day Trial by clicking this link. Prices start from as little as $9 for up to 5000 product clicks. This will cover most small niche websites. How do I know what to expect from my monthly invoice? You can keep an eye on your spend by viewing your real-time click volume and view an upcoming invoice at any time from the dashboard. You can also stay informed about link health and monitor the growth of your traffic with their mid-month performance reports! When is my bill due? You will receive your bill/invoice on the first of every month. Geniuslink will email you an invoice and then auto-bill the payment method they have on record. Of course, you won’t be billed for any traffic during your free trial and never for ‘bot’ or junk clicks. What Happens If You Want To Close Your Account? If you choose to close your account, the following will happen: Your links may no longer work.Any custom destination rules will be removed.Any affiliated links will no longer be affiliated with your IDs. The links generated through Geniuslink will no longer work but they will revert back to your Amazon or other Original Links without the need to change anything. You Can Use It Across Many Platforms Unlike other plugins and programs, with GeniusLink you pay for the clicks, not the number of sites you use it on. This means you can add links across multiple platforms WordPress, Youtube, Instagram, etc., without paying for each one separately. Just one account is all you need. Remember you only pay for genuine clicks – no matter where you place them. You don’t even pay for spammy bot clicks which is awesome. Just real customers looking to be directed to the best affiliate program. Get your FREE 14 day trial here! Would I Recommend You Buy GeniusLink? I test many products and services and many of them I simply don’t keep or buy. I like to keep things simple on my blogs and niche websites. Too many apps and plugins will slow and kill your website speed. They also open the gateway to security issues. However, Geniuslink is one that I have kept and I’m currently paying $9 a month for. Why? Because my sales have increased by targeting other countries that I wouldn’t normally have gone for. But Geniuslink showed me that I was missing out on sales from Canada and Australia. So, I quickly joined these affiliate programs and started earning far more than the $9 cost. Also, my websites mainly target USA traffic so my UK Amazon sales never really did very well. However, since Geniuslink started sending UK traffic to the correct products on Amazon UK my sales and conversions have gone through the roof. It’s up from 1-2% to 3.5% This isn’t amazing I know but it’s a massive improvement because as I say the website targets the USA. So, it’s extra money I was leaving on the table. Compared to my USA account you can see it still falls far short. Conclusion: Geniuslink Review And Teardown And Why I love Geniuslink. I mainly run niche websites so I haven’t gone into too much detail about the other benefits of Geniuslink. One of the main benefits I can see is also tracking affiliate links through other social media channels like Youtube description links and Instagram. Something that I may write about as I test more features in the coming months. So, watch out for updates. But the main reason I’m still using it is the increase in cross country sales. It will send your readers to the right product in the Amazon store nearest them and to a product that is ‘In Stock’, this will increase your sales and commissions from day one. Secondly and probably just as important, it will give you an instant report for all the links people click on that are broken. So you can fix them quickly and prevent losing sales. After all, no one will buy a product from a link that takes them to a 404 Error or an ‘Out Of Stock’ message. One of the most important parts of being an affiliate marketer is to spend your time wisely. Nothing is more valuable than your time. I make checking broken links a part of my daily routine. With Geniuslink it only takes a few minutes and will save you time and money. Check out what my daily routine involves in one of my other blogs. I hope this has helped you and if you try Geniuslink please let us know your thoughts.
Day-to-Day WordPress Tasks | Boring Or Fun?
Affiliate marketing and owning a WordPress website is all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns, right? Well not really. There are important day-to-day WordPress tasks, which although mundane, are necessary for the health of your website. As with any business (it is a business), it has its day-to-day tasks that need to be done. My WordPress tasks involve some very boring jobs that need to be done. You have to be structured in the day-to-day running of your website. Especially as your website grows and has lots of older content. Let me tell and show you what I do on my niche websites on a daily basis. If you’re looking for screenshots of huge sums of money and lists of hundreds of products sold daily on Amazon… You’ll be disappointed. As the title suggests, my daily WordPress tasks are very boring, but essential to the success of my websites. Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! What WordPress Tasks Should You Do? There are a number of tasks I do daily. Some I do every day and some every few days. Yes, checking my sales is always one of them. Ha Ha! Here’s my daily WordPress checklist Update plugins (after checking online to see if there are any issues with the update)Comments (I don’t activate comments of many sites but I do answer the ones I have)Check emails for issues from writers (some post directly onto the site)Check posts for completed work (this is the fun part)Check Google Analytics (the fun part – most days)Yes, Check Amazon sales (sometimes fun – sometimes depressing)Check Ezoic (my ad revenue company) – Always fun!Publish any new articles (after adding links, photos and checking SEO)Update my spreadsheet (where I keep track of all my content)Share on social media (I hate doing social media)Refresh and update broken links and old content (boring, but vital)Update spreadsheet (add a date and short description of work done) As you can see my day is always busy and involves some very mundane tasks. You need to understand that affiliate marketing is not easy! Yes, it’s easy to get started and add some content and start earning some passive income. But like all businesses, you have to do daily tasks to keep it running smoothly and keep your site fresh and updated. More fool you if you ignore this advice! Honestly, if you ask me which one piece of advice I could give you to help you run your niche website smoothly it would be… Update old content every 3-6 monthsKeep an updated and extensive spreadsheet I’ll explain later in this blog why an updated spreadsheet is so important. What We All Love To Do Each Day If you’re like me I bet you check your earnings daily. Right? That’s part of the fun of owning a niche website. The thought of ‘What if…’ springs to mind. I wake up, check my affiliate programs with the hope of ‘What if one of my posts went viral?’. The hope is that Google has shown one of your posts some love and spread the word about your great content. Sometimes it’s out of your control and you could, in theory, log in to see thousands of dollars commissions from a post that went viral. Can that really happen? It can actually and I have had it happen to me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a product-related post (it was a purely informational article), so I didn’t get any sales and I hadn’t even switched on ads so I made nothing, not a cent! It was fun though. What happened? I’ll make this short, I logged onto my Google app on my phone and checked the live data to see appx 27 people on at one time! Hmmm, strange I thought. The most I had seen was about 5-9 people at any one time. I checked in 30 minutes later and still 20+ people WOW! What the hell is going on I thought? This continued for 2 days. It was an information post that was getting shared around social media and featured on a big website. To give you some perspective, the traffic on that site was around 5k a month (a new site) over the 2 days I saw 9k people visit that post. It was awesome to see, but as soon as it started it ended just as quickly. But it was an exciting 48 hours. Now imagine that on a larger scale and with a product/buyer intent article. Now we’re talking! That’s what we all dream of and wake up each day to check if it’s happened. I know I do! What Tasks I Find Boring And Why Each day, as part of my daily routine, I update and check for broken links. It’s probably the most important part of my day but I do find it boring. You may like it, but I find going over old posts and updating them and fixing issues really boring. I know it needs to be done and it adds real value to my authority and Google loves to see you taking care of your content. Finding broken links is one of the best ways you can spend your time. Broken links have a negative effect on your rankings and can cause a poor user experience. Think of it like this… You’ve done all the hard work by creating the content in the first place. You’ve got the rankings and you’re sending people to your blog. They love your content and read through the blog getting more and more excited about what you’re promoting and start to trust your opinions. They get excited and decide to buy the product only to click the link to see the product is OUT OF STOCK or worse – a 404 Error message. Arrrrrrgh! Sales lost and what’s worse, trust is broken! By updating your content you fix multiple issues. Fix broken linksBuild trust with GoogleImprove your rankingsProvide a better user experienceGet more sales Why Are Spreadsheets So Important? Once I have updated any posts, I immediately update my spreadsheet for that website. One lesson I learned pretty quickly is to have a good spreadsheet for each website. It serves many functions and can be a godsend for updating content. I use my spreadsheet for these functions: Keep track of how many articles I have publishedTracks wordcountHelps optimize Title lengthHelps with hired writersTracks updatesDisplays published datesTracks money spent on contentCan track rankings Helps organize categories An example of one of the spreadsheets I use and update daily What’s The Benefits Of Doing WordPress Daily Tasks? Like any job, there are tasks that need to be completed daily just to ensure the smooth running of your business. (my niche websites are my business) Not only can you lose revenue by not completing daily tasks – like fixing broken links – but you can spoil the user or customer experience. For instance, if the article they go to read comes up with a 404 error or loads slowly. The bigger your site gets, the bigger your daily task list will grow. Yes. All niche sites are passive to a certain extent but not 100%. Unlike a regular 9-5 job, if I don’t feel like doing any work for a day I won’t see a huge impact on my income. However, if I neglect my niche sites for a few days, it has the potential to impact my business in a negative way. So, the first thing I do every day is to attend to my daily tasks! Yes, It can be boring…. But it’s better than working for someone else, Right! Stay Focused This is a saying/phrase – I will be every day in the affiliate, marketing, and niche website world. Something that stuck with me for a long time was watching a video of 3 very successful business people (I can’t remember exactly who it was right now) and they were all asked if they had one piece of advice and to write it down on a piece of paper. What would it be? All three wrote ‘Stay Focused’. I can totally empathize with that. I’m sure you are like me; you start a website and get a few months into it then get a great idea and think, ‘Hey, that’s a great niche’ and start thinking about building another site. Right? We all do it and get distracted. I’ve done the whole social media thing. Building fan groups and posting memes and pictures which take up all day. Then by the end of the day, you realize you’ve wasted the whole day and not written any content or really done anything to build your brand and authority. In the beginning, you might get distracted in your theme and how your website looks. Spending hours, days and even months before you think it looks good enough to add content. By then you’re two months into it and have only posted one or two pieces of content. You’ll then be asking yourself why am I not making any money? I’m two months into this now. Well, actually no. You’re one or two days into it because you spent months just sorting the look of your site. If I could give you one bit of advice – Stay focused on your goal. Don’t get distracted. Turn off the TV, put down your phone and spend as much time each day as you need to reach your goal. If it’s to get X amount of content on your site then don’t let anything distract you from doing that. Set Up A Daily Time Frame Okay, most of you will be working a full-time job as well as trying to build an online business (me too for a long time). So planning your day around work and home life is critical; for a number of reasons: To stop the dreaded ‘Burn Out’More organizedGet more doneStop your partner killing youGetting too tired; which affects the quality of workReach your goal faster Having a strict time frame may seem to go against what everyone tells you about affiliate marketing that’s easy, and can be done whenever and who cares attitude. But it’s totally the opposite! I hate going to bed thinking ‘oh s##t, I didn’t get to do A or B’. That keeps me up at night. I love having a tick box list of jobs that I know will help me get to my goals and keep me on track. If I’m going to post on Facebook or other social media then I want to get on there, get it done and move off. Bish, Bash, Bosh… Job done. Move onto the next task. Not sit on there for 30 minutes looking at cute cat pictures! Google Loves Consistency This is hard to prove but Google themselves have stated not only in video uploads but also blog content, that consistent and regular publishing is rewarded. Plus your followers and readers love to know exactly when you’re going to publish new content. How many of you can’t wait to get that update or notification from your favorite blogger? I know I do. I wait with bated breath for Income School’s blog every Monday and Alex Cooper’s (WPEagle) Youtube stream every Wednesday. Well, your readers and community will feel the same about you. Publish content on a consistent basis, daily, weekly or even monthly (if you publish in bulk). Just think…. if you publish 1 blog each week, your site will have over 100 articles within 24 months. For most sites that’s enough to earn you over $1000+ every month for many years to come. Boring Business My last boss had one saying that I still think is relevant today in the online affiliate niche website world, even though he spoke about it from a retail background. He said…. Your day-to-day retail life should be boring! WOW, I thought, that sounds depressing and dull. Ha Ha Ha But actually what he says is true. What he means is that your business life should be structured, be consistent and should have rhythm and routine. If your niche website day-to-day is dramatic and stressful, then you’re doing it wrong. You should have a plan of action, a daily structure and routine and it all should go to plan. No hiccups, no drama, no headaches. My day-to-day affiliate life is planned, perfectly executed and moves forward daily with no drama. Exactly how I want it. Conclusion: My Day-To-Day WordPress Tasks My advice to you is to create a daily WordPress and affiliate marketing plan of action. If you’re just starting, it may be as simple as writing some content, updating your plugins and adding value to your brand. For bigger more authority sites it may involve a lot more, but don’t ruin all that hard work by slacking on important tasks and upkeep of your site and business. Of course, once all that is done, there’s always time for fun. After all, that’s what we are in this business for. Right? For me, it’s a few hours playing golf really badly. But if I worked a full-time job for some corporate company, that wouldn’t be possible. That’s why I love niche websites.
How To Optimize Images Quickly | Why Everyone Should Do This!
Images can make or break a website without a doubt. A website full of images that have not been optimized will slow your site down dramatically. We examine how to optimize images quickly to enhance the speed of your site. Have you ever clicked a link then had to wait for ages for the content to load? No one wants to wait these days, especially when you’re searching content on the go from your mobile. FACT: 90% of people looking at content will bounce straight off if the content hasn’t loaded within 5 seconds. Ensuring all your images are perfectly optimized is the key to having a fast loading website with beautiful images to catch the attention of your audience. In this blog, we’ll help you optimize your images quickly and simply with one simple plugin called Shortpixel. What Is Shortpixel? Shortpixel is a simple-to-install WordPress plugin that optimizes all your old images at the click of a button. All new images you add to your site, after installing Shortpixel, will automatically be optimized for you. Shortpixel improves website performance by reducing the image size of all images either on, or uploaded to your website; without losing any quality compared to the original. Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! The plugin is simple to install and activated via an API code that you’ll receive once you purchase the software. Shortpixel is perfect for beginners and experts. There’s minimal setting up involved. It’s almost a one-click install so you don’t need to worry about installing and setting it up. Even I managed to do it within seconds! (must be easy then!) Buy Shortpixel Here! How Does Shortpixel Work? Once you have installed the free plugin – which you can use to optimize a limited amount of images – you simply select and pay for the plan you want and then add the API code that they send you. Then you simply select the BULK option and off it goes. Once you’re setup and running you have three different optimizing options to choose from: Lossy – 99.9% of WordPress bloggers use this one. It optimizes your images as small as possible without losing any picture quality.Glossy – This one keeps the quality and size of the original image more or less the same. It only compresses them very slightly to improve website performance without any loss of quality.Lossless – This one is mainly used for photography websites, where the image remains exactly the same but the overall footprint is smaller, which still helps your website run smoother. Step-By-Step Guide To Installing Shortpixel Signup for a shortpixel account herePick a plan that suits your needsPay for the plan and you’ll receive your API activation codeAdd two plugins: Shortpixel Image Optimizer & Resize image after upload pluginActivate both plugins and add your API purchase codeClick bulk process and all your old images will be reduced in size – increasing your page speed Select both plugins and one optimizes all your old images and one will automatically resize all your new ones. You only pay for one payment plan for both plugins. Click activate on both WordPress plugins once you have added them to your dashboard. Add the API purchase code Shortpixel sent you in the API KEY box and click SAVE SETTINGS. Tick the box to reduce all images to your selected size. We go for a maximum of 1024 x 1024; the software will then make all your images fit perfectly into your blog. All the same size to physically look at but with a much smaller file size making your website load faster. Then simply click Save and Go to Bulk Process. The software will then start to optimize all your current images. There’s no need to do anything from now on. Once Shortpixel has done its thing your site will run much quicker. All new images will now automatically be reduced in file size. What Type Of Images Work On Shortpixel? Shortpixel supports JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP Filetypes. The major benefit I have found is it has the ability to automatically convert PNG images to JPG. These suit WordPress blogs better. The other benefit is that Shortpixel will automatically resize the image to perfectly fit WordPress blogs. I personally set the resizing button to 850 x 850 maximum; which I find fits my blog with a sidebar perfectly. Shortpixel will also optimize and compress your PDF files and ebooks. I have found this to be a great feature on Shortpixel and I witnessed a massive reduction in file size without any difference in the quality. I also saw an increase in site speed. This plugin will also optimize your thumbnail which can affect your load speed. Many people think that because the image is thumbnail size that it will not be a large file. This is not true, behind that small thumbnail image could be a huge file size that is slowing your site down. Shortpizel will optimize all your thumbnails. Restore To Original Size Should you ever need to restore your images back to their original size and format, that isn’t a problem with Shortpixel. You can restore individual images or bulk de-compress all of them in one go. However, this is not a feature I have ever used and I can’t imagine many WordPress bloggers using this feature. ShortPixel Plans & Pricing Shortpixel offers a monthly payment service or a one off service charge which suits everyone’s budget. Most people will try the free plan first which comes with all the features but is limited to 150 bulk image compression. I would suggest going straight for one of the monthly or one-off plans. Monthly Plans Monthly subscriptions that auto-renew each month. FREE: up to 100 150 images/month5000 images/month. for $4.9912000 images/month for $9.9955,000 images/month for $29.99 One-Off Plans A one-time payment plan, choose the best plan that suits your needs. 10,000 images for $9.9930,000 images for $19.9950,000 images for $29.99170,000 images for $99 Buy Shortpixel Here F.A.Q If I stop using ShortPixel will my images remain optimized? Yes, Once optimized the images will remain optimized unless you choose to restore them. Do I have to pay monthly or one time? Shortpixel has both options available. One-time credits never expire but with monthly plans, you pay less per credit.Can You Cancel your subscription? Yes, you can cancel at any time and any remaining credits you have will still be valid.Can I add any image to my WordPress website? Yes, any image you add to your WordPress website is automatically optimized and resized to your specifications. Once I use the free 100 image credits what happens next? After you click ‘BULK OPTIMIZE’, Shortpixel will do its stuff; after 100 images have been optimized, it will stop and let you know your limit has been reached. You can then leave it at that, or purchase a plan and continue optimizing all your images. Or just take the FREE 100 images and run! Conclusion: How To Optimize Images Quickly I could go into lots of technical details about Shortpixel as it has 100’s of features. However, as a small niche website owner, I simply needed something to speed up my website. Images are the biggest killer of niche website speed. It is far too tempting to choose a lovely image and add it to your post. It looks fine and your speed seems the same. Several posts later, you’ll start to see your site slowing down. After 20-30 posts your site will be dead in the water. Unless you have individually optimized each image your site loading speed will be terrible. I used to spend literally hours optimizing each image then resizing it and then loading it into the article. WOW, I can’t believe I did that. Now, I add any image I want and forget about it. Shortpixel does all the hard work for me. Don’t waste time, buy Shortpixel. It is probably the number one plugin on my niche website. If I was given the choice of selecting one plugin that I couldn’t live without, it would be this one.
Niche Website Tools & Plugins | What Tools I Use And Why I Love Them!
Niche website tools and plugins are a vital part of running a successful niche website. Let’s look at some of the WordPress plugins I use. When I was young (a long time ago) I remember my dad owning and using some very old woodworking tools. They looked ancient and I remember asking him ‘Why don’t you buy some new tools?’. He replied… Because they do the job just fine! Then he told me a famous saying, “A bad workman always blames his tools”. I totally get it now and I have found that principle still applies today to niche websites and blogs. Whenever I start a new website there are some tools I use and add to my WordPress website before I ever write a single word. I have also learned over the years that you don’t need all the flashy tools to rank an article or be successful in the affiliate niche website world. Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! Often, simple is best! However, some tools can and must be used to streamline the process and make your business (after all that’s what it is) easier and more streamlined. I’ll run through what I use and add to my websites at the very start and something you can consider later down the line – once you start to get some traffic. Plugins and Software that will help you maximize your traffic and sales once you have become a little bit more established. Because I’m an affiliate marketer and make money via commissions please expect every link within this article to be an affiliate link. I therefore make a small commission on any link clicked when you make a purchase. It helps me pay for my golf addiction! Why You Need Plugins And Tools Some tools like themes are unavailable for most affiliate marketers and bloggers. Buying an off-the-shelf theme is the quickest way to get your site up and running unless you know how to code (which I don’t). You need plugins to get started quickly and which will give you more time to focus on what is really important – creating great content. After all, that’s why you started a niche website, right? To produce content that your reader will want to see, read and share. Plugins have been developed to make your life easier and many of the plugins available for FREE today, have cost thousands to be developed and so why shouldn’t you use them. WordPress plugins like Security plugins are necessary to protect your website from spammers and hackers. Some hosting companies provide the basic level of security with their hosting package but I would always recommend adding extra security to every site you own. Take a look at one day’s report on one of my sites to see just how many hackers have tried to access my website to do God knows what! Tools and plugins are necessary to improve or protect your website from attacks and other malicious activity. Adding too many plugins and other software can reduce the performance of your website, like adding too many ads, but you need to balance this with the positives of adding them. Would I accept a slightly slower website response time to get hundreds of dollars in ad revenue? Yes, That’s why we’re here at the end of the day. As long as the user experience isn’t compromised too much. Which Tools Can I Not Live Without? There are some tools that niche website owners have to have in my opinion. On starting a new website I install them at the point of adding a new theme that I purchase from Theme Forrest, which has a huge library of themes and plugins to help your website grow and look more professional. Below is a list of plugins and tools I simply cannot live without! Hosting – I use two – Siteground when first starting out then, SpidrwebTheme – I use x-theme on most sitesYoast SEO plugin- Rank quicker with this pluginOnesignal – Push notifications are huge these daysMailchimp – Collecting emails should never be underestimatedTablepress – Most themes have a table plugin but I still love this oneAd Inserter – Places ads, banners or anything you want easily on any or every pageAAWP – Pulls in products and API information for products on AmazonEasy table of contents – Adds a table of contents to every pageInsert Header and Footer – Easily add code to both sections without editing any codeLink Whisper – Helps with internal linkingPopup maker – Adds an attractive popup within minutesShortpixel – My number one favorite plugin – reduces image size automaticallyWordfence security – Stops those pests trying to steal your data As you can see, I use a number of plugins and tools on my sites. It looks like a lot of plugins but all of these are essential for running a niche website. They are all very well established and tested plugins and will NOT slow your website down. In fact, some of them are designed to speed up your site. As soon as I launch any new niche website I add and activate these tools within hours of purchasing my hosting. Which, by the way, is the second thing you’ll need to do after buying a domain. Should You Invest In Tools And Software? Ask any businessman if they should invest in their business and they’ll give you the answer in no uncertain terms. There’s a difference between investing and re-investing which you need to understand. Investing in your niche website The great thing about building an affiliate website is the fact that you can launch it on a very limited budget. You’ll need to invest at the start for a suitable domain name which can start at under a dollar. We use 123 Domains as they have a great library of names available from $1. Then you’ll need your hosting again which is super cheap – we use Siteground which has an awesome package called START-UP which only costs $2.95 a month. Click here for more details and price plans. Hosting and a domain name will be your initial investment. Then you’ll need a theme but you can simply use a FREE theme at first, until your website starts to get some good traffic then you should consider investing in a premium theme from ThemeForest. Once you have your domain, hosting and a nice theme added, you can then start to produce awesome content. Hopefully, after some time (building niche websites isn’t quick) you’ll start to make some affiliate sales and earn some cash. Once you start to earn some money, it will be tempting to spend it on all the things we love; chocolates, takeaways and nights out. And why wouldn’t you? We all deserve a treat from time to time, right? Or, you could re-invest back into your business. After all, it is a business and all businesses start with an initial investment but really they grow to be successful with re-investments. Re-investing in your niche website For the first year on any website I build, I always re-invest every penny I earn. I start with a budget and after 6 months (when you’ll start to see some commissions), I start to re-invest in more content. It’s simple…. The more awesome content you product the more money you’ll earn. It’s like a treadmill once you start to earn you can re-invest. The more you re-invest in content the faster your website will grow. Then rinse and repeat! In the first few months, you’ll probably only be able to buy a small blog or two. Then as the months go by you’ll be able to buy more and more. You’ll see traffic start to skyrocket and so too will your earnings. I know website owners that now earn thousands a month and what do they do? Buy 30-50 articles a month. To get to that level, of course, will take time. But you can do it! Why not? It’s not rocket science. You’ll need a little help along the way and that’s where we can help. Click here to see our price plans for a targeted keyword campaign. At the start of your investment, it’s key to find keywords and article topics that you can rank for with very little domain authority. After all, you’re a new website that Google still does not trust. WordPress Themes I Love And Where To Buy Them I started like most people with a free theme. There are many available to suit all types of niches. Elegant Themes has some amazing themes and their premium ones are simple to install and offer diversity, usability and faster load times. Click here to see their pre-made child themes which are perfect for beginners. One of the most popular themes used by thousands of niche website owners is X-Theme. This theme offers loads of payout options and all are available at just one click of a button. They come pre-made by using their child theme installations. They use four main child themes: INTEGRITYRENEWICONETHOS I personally use and love Ethos! All the demo options for you to see on all the child themes. As you can see, their child themes (pre-made themes and layouts) come with loads of examples for you to see before you decide which one suits your needs best. If you plan to do a conventional blog website then I would suggest X-Theme using the Ethos child theme. Of course, this is a paid premium theme but for appx $50 it’s worth the investment. Trust me it will be $50 well spent. Another theme that I would recommend is Acabado theme from Income School. They say it’s the fastest performing theme available that will not slow your website down. We love Income School and I’m a huge fan and have worked closely with them on one of my websites. They have an amazing course that you can follow called Project24. If you’re struggling to make a living from Niche Websites then I would suggest joining their program, it will be the best move you’ve ever made. Here’s a link to their course (Affiliate link of course) How Much Should You Spend On Business Tools? You should only spend on a business tool if it will improve your business or speed up a process. Look at interlinking articles as an example. We all know how much that can have as a positive impact on your rankings. However, interlinking manually is time-consuming and to be honest… Boring. I use Linkwhisper a wonderful plugin that allows you to interlink all your articles within a few hours (depending on how many posts you have). This tool cost me a one-off payment for 3 licenses, which I now use on three sites. It has saved me loads of time which is priceless. God only knows how long it would have taken me to add all those links manually. Months I would think. Other tools I have spent on, just aren’t worth the money. You’ll soon learn that spending money on tools you’ll never use or simply didn’t need is a waste of money. Ask yourself… How many themes have you paid for? I have paid for loads of them, only never to use them or swap out after a few months because it didn’t suit my needs. Keep it simple. Only invest in a business tool that will give you a good ROI on your investment or save you time. My Favorite Niche Website Tool There are many tools I love, some are free like Google Drive where I store my spreadsheets and track all my articles. I don’t know where I would be without this tool. Then there’s my Number One tool without a doubt…. Shortpixel Before installing Shortpixel, I had to manually optimize all my images on Canva or some other free image optimizing tool before uploading. It took forever! My Favorite Tool-Shortpixel The biggest killer of site speed is images. Images are very important; not only aesthetically but also for the user experience and ranking factors. Google will not only index and rank your words but they’ll also rank and index your images. I have gone all-in on images recently and find them popping up in Google searches constantly. TOP TIP: Your images don’t have to relate to the topic 100%. If you’re writing a post about slow website speed include a lovely image of a snail. It will instantly relate to people as something slow and people will share a great quality image. Take a closer look at Shortpixel here and their price plans (Affiliate link) Conclusion: Niche Website Tools & Plugins |What Tools I Love And Use On My Niche Websites There are many tools you simply can’t live without as an affiliate marketer. Great hosting, premium theme and performance-enhancing plugins. Oh, and not to mention security plugins like Wordfence. Just don’t splash out your hard-earned commissions on tools that you simply don’t need and will never use. Just think, every penny you waste could have been spent on a great piece of content that will bring you earnings for many years to come. These days, that’s how I look at things. If I have $50 to invest in my business, I think about how best to use it and 9 times out of 10, it’s not a plugin or piece of software – it’s content. Content is King at the end of the day. It’s what makes our commissions and earns ad revenue. Without content, we don’t have a business – Fact!
Why Are Keywords Important? How To Use Keywords Correctly
What are keywords? A question many new niche website owners will ask at some point in their affiliate journey. There’s the technical way to describe them and the layman’s way. I’ll cover both in this article to cater to everyone (I’m more of a layman myself). Why are keywords important? A keyword or focus keyword is a word or term that describes to search-engines exactly what your content is about. It is important because it helps search engines like Google guide people directly to the content that best matches their search query. A keyword can be made up of a single word or a short sentence which is often referred to as a Longtail Keyword. Many people first starting out mistake Keywords & SEO, they both do similar things ie: Direct visitors to your content. However, keywords are made up of a single focus word, phrase or term, whereas SEO is a combination of many things and is more difficult to get right. Here’s how Google describes keywords: Keywords rank in popularity, some keywords are searched millions of times a day and some, hardly ever. There’s a fine balance for choosing the right keyword for your content to enable you to rank for that specific term. We’ll go into more detail about how to rank for them in future blogs. This article is all about understanding what keywords are and how you should use them. A simple keyword guide; to help you choose the best content to target, that you realistically have a chance of ranking for. This is a service we offer at Keywordcare. We understand from experience that many people struggle to find keywords that are easy to rank for. They often waste time and money writing content that simply won’t rank, or they target the wrong keyword for their niche. If you’d like more information about our service Click Here! Types Of Keywords There are three versions of keywords and many search terms used to split them into more targeted keywords, to help the reader find the best match for their search query. Short-Tail KeywordsMid-Tail KeywordsLong-Tail Keywords Short-Tail Keywords Short tail keywords are usually made up of just one or two words maximum, which target broad topics that get high traffic. Often called Broad or head keywords. Example: Estate Agents These keywords are very competitive and are therefore difficult to rank for. Most larger websites and companies who rank for these terms have spent large amounts of money to get to page one and the coveted number one position. New websites and blogs should stay well away from these types of keywords. If you have a small dog website that specifically targets ‘Golden Retriever’, then you would not target the keyword ‘DOG’ – you will never rank for it without a huge marketing budget behind you. As you can see from the example above this short-tail keyword rules out thousands of search terms to leave a more specific term which makes it easier for Google to pick a perfect search match. Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! Mid-Tail Keywords These keywords still get high volumes of traffic but are more defined and narrowed down. They are less competitive than head keywords (short-tail keywords) but still should be considered difficult to rank for. Newbies and new domains will struggle to rank for these keywords. Example: Estate Agents In London These keywords are usually two to three words and are slightly more descriptive than head or short-tail keywords and are classed as hard to rank for. Image Credits@SEO Pressor Long-Tail Keywords These are longer terms or sentences that are very specific and easier to rank for. They are classed as low competition keywords that are less competitive, making them ideal for new bloggers and niche websites to target. Even websites less than a year old can rank for these search terms within weeks, if not days. I posted a 1000 word blog three days ago that had a search volume of 180 per month. I managed to get it to rank on position 3 on page one of Google within 72 hours. This was thanks to a long-tail keyword that was low competition. Example: Estate Agents In Covent Garden London With Low Fees Test your competitor’s website and see which keywords they rank for! (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “https://www.berush.com/static/webpack_bundles/remote.js?v=5”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, “script”, “berush-widget”)); Which Keywords Should You Use? This is a simple one to answer – Long-Tail Keywords! If your niche website is new or at least under one year old, you should focus on building your authority by trying to rank low competition keywords. Get some posts on page one of Google. Even if they don’t bring in many views at least Google can start to rank your content which will improve your Domain Authority (DA). DA is how a search engine looks at your site and determines how good or relevant your content is. This, along with other factors, will help search engines to decide how high up in the ranking your content should be shown. The higher your DA, the quicker your content will rank. How can I improve my DA I hear you say? This is a whole topic all on its own and one we’ll save for another day but to give you a quick tip… Build authority and brand within your niche. Focus solely on your drilled down niche. To use the dog example; if your site is all about Golden Retrievers then stay focused on this breed of dog. Don’t stray off topic and write articles like ‘Best small dogs’; it will not do anything to build you any authority in the Golden Retriever world. Go after low competition keywords within your niche that you actually have a chance to rank for. I would always go after a long-tail keyword that only gets 70-100 searches a month – if I knew I had a chance of ranking number one. Compared to a head keyword that gets thousands of searches a month that I know I’ll never rank for. It’s a waste of time and money trying to rank for these keywords until you have an established domain and a high backlink profile and strong DA I use Ubersuggest to find ‘low hanging fruit’, which I like to call them. Long-tail keywords with up to 200 searches a month that have poor content already ranking at number one, that I know I can beat. Even a new website can rank for these terms if you have better content and answer the search query better than what’s already out there. Still struggling to understand and find great keywords to rank for quickly?Then let us help you! Click here to read our price plans. How Do You Find Low Competition Keywords? I use a number of tools to find these easy to rank for keywords. Google search is one of the simplest and cheapest (free) options out there. Type a long-tail keyword into Google search and see what comes up. Drill down to find easier keywords to rank for. I have shown an example below. Short-tail search example: 139,000,000 search results with some very big and authoritative website ranking in the top 5 results. There is no chance that a new website will ever rank for that short-tail keyword. Ubersuggest tells us the keyword Golden Retriever gets over 450,000 searches a month. WOW! Mid-Tail Keyword As you can see from the search above, we have started to narrow the search down and the monthly search volume has come down to 8,100 so this too has the difficulty to rank. From 55 which is very difficult (Short-tail Keyword) to 31. Still difficult to rank for but you have a much higher chance of ranking for this mid-tail keyword. Long-Tail Keyword Now, we’re talking! Easy to rank for long-tail keywords with a very low difficulty rating. Yes, it only gets 70 searches according to Ubersuggest but I can guarantee this keyword ‘Golden Retriever Lifespan’ gets more than 70 searches a month. The data and numbers this type of software produces are not 100% accurate but they are a good indicator of how hard or easy a keyword is going to be. We use Ubersuggest, designed and owned by the keyword and SEO Guru, Neil Patel. We use it every day and love it! Try it yourself. We highly recommend the paid premium version. The amount of money you’ll save by using this software far outweighs the cost. Type a keyword or article idea into the box below and see the results for FREE. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “https://www.berush.com/static/webpack_bundles/remote.js?v=5”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, “script”, “berush-widget”)); Why Are Keywords Important? Adding the correct keyword to your article, blog or review is vital for Google and other search engines to understand exactly what your content is about which allows them to direct the right people to your content. If someone is searching for a Golden Retriever care guide, there’s no value for the reader and the content owner if the search engine sends them to Jack Russell Care Guide. Using the correct keywords, especially in smaller websites and new blogs, is the only way (ethically) to get the right traffic to your site. Add a specific and targeted keyword that is relevant to your topic or niche and the search engines will find your content. I would rather have 5-6 visitors a day that really want to read your content than 100 a day that just bounce instantly off because it’s not what they were searching for and it didn’t answer their question. Read Google’s perspective on keywords here! Do Keywords Still Matter In 2019-2020? In 2019-2020, keywords will play a vital role in targeting the right visitor to your site. A lot has changed in the last few years ie: Tags and the latest E.A.T (which stands for) In basic terms the Google E-A-T means: ExpertiseAuthoritativenessTrustworthiness Here’s a great video from Income School explaining better than I can what E.A.T means in 2019-2020 https://youtu.be/qgfHqjX4hzk Nothing, however, has changed as far as Keywords go. Search engines will still crawl your site and will rely on keywords to help them decide which visitors to send to your content. It’s still the same for WordPress blogs and is still relevant for video content. You’re simply telling Google… Hey, I have a great article on Golden Retrievers. Google will thank you for this and rank you higher in the listings, hopefully number 1 or even giving you the ‘snippet’. Below is what a great snippet looks like. Often the snippet can be more valuable than the number one google search result. They are sometimes called position zero on search engines. The best possible result would be the number one search position and the snippet. The only difference with a snippet and number one spot is that the snippet often changes. Google tries different snippets to see if the reader prefers one over the over. Whereas once you get the number one search result you normally keep that spot for some time. Maybe dropping to number two when your content becomes old and not updated. However, you can have the snippet one day and it’s gone the next. But they’re still great to see. I still get a thrill from seeing one of my articles gain a snippet. Should You Have Your Keyword In The Title? Adding keywords to a piece of content is like baking a cake. You need to get the correct measurements and ingredients to make the perfect cake. Too much and no one will like it, too little and no one will want to try it. It’s the same with keyword optimization. You can’t overdo it or Google will smell a rat. Google doesn’t like to be tricked. Work with Google, not against it. NEVER TRY TO TRICK GOOGLE! There are some obvious places to include your keyword so we have listed them below. These are the basics of inserting keywords. Headings and TitlesContent (First Paragraph if possible)Image file namesTitle Tags (not as relevant in 2019) but still worth doingIn the URLMeta Description Less is more in keyword optimization. Simply adding the word Golden Retriever to a 1000 word article 50 times will not help Google send any love to your content. In fact you’ll annoy Google and make it angry! Don’t do it. Stick to the guidelines that Google and other search engines have set out. It’s not a mystery, Google tells us how to add keywords which helps them find your content easier. Google goes out of their way to say ‘Hey if your content is good we’d love to share it. Help us match the right content with the right visitor’. That’s the whole point of a search engine. Can you imagine using a search engine that didn’t work? You typed in best car tires for winter and you get results for a vet? You simply wouldn’t use their search engine. So they need to match the right content with the right people, so they ask for our help. Get the basic ingredients right and you’ll be fine Keyword In Content Stuffing your content with keywords – or “over-optimizing” as it’s often referred to – can have a negative impact on your search rankings; while not targeting the right keywords at the appropriate volume will hurt your visibility as well. I get asked all the time…. ‘How many times should I mention the keyword in my article?’ I always answer… When it’s relevant and makes sense. I have some rough guidelines which I’ll simply tell you. Stop beating around the bush! Hardly anyone answers this question in layman’s terms so here you are: 1000 word blog = 3 times in the content2000 word blog = 4 times in the content3000 word blog = 5-6 time in the content I will also give you an example of ‘stuffing’ or over-optimizing a short paragraph with keywords. BAD EXAMPLE ⬇️ ” If you’re looking for a pet dog you should look at getting a Golden Retriever. Golden Retriever are beautiful dogs which are suitable for families with children. Golden Retriever have a loving nature and gentle personalities. Unlike some dogs Golden Retriever love to be around children which makes Golden Retriever the perfect family dog” As you can see from the BAD EXAMPLE above, the word has been over-optimized and repeated too many times. It has distracted away from the intention of the article. Which was to say that Golden Retrievers make great family pets. Google will now be confused as to what to rank the content for it at all. GOOD EXAMPLE ⬇️ ” There are many breeds of dogs that make wonderful family pets. One of the first pet dog breeds that springs to mind is the Golden Retriever as they make great family pets and are gentle and loving around children. Their calm personalities and loving nature makes them the ideal family pet dog ” The example above is perfect for keyword optimization. It lets Google know exactly what the content is all about. It’s about Golden Retrievers and how they make great family pet dogs. Simple and effective. The opening paragraph may also win snippets for the search term ‘Do Golden Retrievers make good family pets?’. Keyword F.A.Q Quick Answers How many times should you insert the keyword in content? Where and when it makes sense. Don’t force it. Only add the keyword if it flows with the content.Do Keywords help you rank better? Yes, however, a keyword alone will not help your content rank. Great content with good on-page SEO is also important.Should the keyword be in the title? Yes, It is a good idea but it’s not always the most important place to add the keyword.Where’s the best place to add a keyword? In our opinion, it’s the opening first few lines. Let Google know from the first second it crawls your site what your content is about and who are the best people to show it to. Is keyword research important? Absolutely, you can use a service like ours or simply do your homework – but targeting the right keywords could make or break a website. Can you target multiple keywords in one piece of content? Here’s something you may not realize. All of your content is targeting many keywords. In fact hundreds within a small blog. It’s your job to make sure Google understands which ones you want to rank for. It’s not magic or witchcraft. It’s just a matter of finding the right keyword to match your content Conclusion: Why Are Keywords Important And How To Use Keywords I hope we have cleared up some keyword myths and helped you understand the importance of targeted keywords. It’s not magic and no one can sell you a formula that will propel all your content to that number one search result on Google. You can, however, simply use some basic guidelines that will help you rank faster and higher. No magic, no witchcraft, no tricking Google, just basic keyword optimization and good on-page SEO alongside great content and you’ll do just fine. If you would like our help then please read all about our keyword research service here. Good luck and rank well!
What Is A Successful Article? It May Not Be What You Think!
After looking into my Google Analytics and trying to figure out which articles are doing well. It got me thinking ‘What is a successful article?’ Success is measured on so many different levels. Financial, longevity, creative and entertaining. For affiliate marketers like you and me, it’s often measured in traffic and visitors to your site. We often look at the short success stats like views and earnings. But is that how we should be looking at our niche websites? You can’t be blamed as a niche site owner to class success in a monetary sense. After all, that’s why we build niche sites, to make money. However, what got me thinking is the type of success we achieve from an article or content that can be judged in more than just a monetary value. Building a brand and a business model can eventually be more valuable than instant financial gains. Not every article I post on my niche sites makes money and not every article ranks well on Google. Start by knowing what you want and who you are, build credibility around it and deliver it online in a compelling way.– Krista Neher Does that mean they’re a failure? No, it can be the total opposite in fact. Providing content that helps build credibility and authority in my niche is priceless. Building a business has many levels; all of which are just as important as each other. The collective value is worth more than the individual parts. Are you considering placing ads on your site and making money from your traffic? If yes, Then checkout Ezoic! An amazing advertising platform for niche websites. Click here! Okay, enough of the business lingo. Basically it’s like building a Puzzle. You start with the fundamentals (the corners) and add piece by piece to make the complete picture. Without all the pieces of the puzzle (business), it simply does not work. Article ROI Once your niche website has a strong DA (Domain Authority), you can start to put a value on each article you write. The business term is ROI which means ‘Return On Investment’. I’m sure you’ve heard this term before. In affiliate marketing, it normally refers to visitors to your site that an article or piece of content you have produced compared to the cost of producing the content. So, what we’re saying is that articles that make no money and drive no traffic or very little are a failure, Right? Wrong! How can you put a number on anything you do on your website? One small action on your site could potentially lead to bigger things. That one image posted on social media (could easily) sends one of your articles or products into a mini viral frenzy. I had one once. A Pinterest image that got shared on a mega website which drove over 7000 visitors to my website within 48 hours. It was amazing to watch my live Ezoic data which shows my current visitors along with my live minute by minute earnings. This was a very new website; only 2 months old which wasn’t even out of the Google Sandbox (if you believe in that). If it wasn’t for that ‘pin’, maybe that website wouldn’t have been as successful as it was or, it may not have climbed out of the Google sandbox as quickly as it did. How can I put an ROI on that pin? You can’t, Right! It was just a piece of the puzzle that is all part of affiliate marketing. Is Money Success? Okay, this one is going to create some waves with my readers. Let me ask you a question. Why are you part of the affiliate world? Why have you built a website? To earn more money of course. I understand that, but not all people are driven by money. Most of us who build niche websites are, because that’s the whole point. To make more money to provide a better lifestyle for yourself and your family. But some people do it for other reasons. Yes, at the start it might have been all about the money but it can become something different. At what point does it turn into something different? I have no idea, but for me, the turning point happened when I told family and friends what I was spending so much of my time doing and they started to laugh. I understand their skepticism and their lack of faith in what I told them. I mean everyone thinks everything on the internet these days is a scam! I tried so hard to make people understand and believe that this is a true business model. In fact, affiliate marketing is one of the fastest business models in the world with huge companies buying into affiliate marketing. The best example I can share with you is a simple blog website built by Martin Lewis who created and ran the website MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE), which was originally designed for a cost of just £100 in February 2003. In September 2012 he sold the website to the Moneysupermarket.com group for up to £87m. Granted, Martin made money. The whole purpose of an affiliate website. However, his success did not come from a passion or drive to make money. He designed and started the website to save people money and lower their cost of living. His articles and information really helped people. He never wrote his blogs with the single thought of… ‘How can this article make me money?’. He wrote them with the reader in mind and with the sole intention to genuinely save them money. This ultimately made him millions. If Martin Lewis never made a penny by helping millions of people live a better life, would you class that as success? I know I would! Helping others enjoy a better life is success in my book Those doubters and people who laugh at me, drive me on every single day to get out of bed at stupid O’clock and work on my website. I want to prove them wrong, I want to show them I’m not mad and that affiliate marketing is a job, not a pipe dream. I also want to leave something for my children as I get older. I’m building their future, something they can look back on and say “My Dad did that”. That would be my success! Write Helpful Content I learned after many of what I called ‘failed articles’ (no such thing), that helping your reader or helping someone answer a question is the way to success. Whether that be financial, moral or supportive. I stopped chasing the money posts within a year or so of producing affiliate content. I never pick a topic anymore based on what the article or piece of content can earn. To me, that is impossible to figure out anyway. Yes, you could say that for every 1000 people who view my post I will make an EPMV of $18 (earnings per thousand visitors) – that is measurable data. Affiliate marketers love measurable data! I choose my article by asking myself…. ‘Will my readers want to read this?’ and ‘Will it help someone?’ If the answer is yes, I will produce that piece of content. I may not spend a fortune on it because I don’t have money to invest without some sort of ROI. But I will try to produce great content that helps people; which in return will help grow my business and brand. It’s a win-win for everyone! If you write content that answers a question or fixes a problem then you will eventually see the return on your investment without even trying. Some of my most valuable articles that earn me the most revenue are the ones I wrote without even thinking they would earn me so much advertising revenue. I just thought my readers would love to see the information and would enjoy the content. They did and it now gets shared every day; which is building my Domain Authority with Google, helping me to rank better. There will be some of you guys screaming at the screen right now saying… What about product reviews and selling more products? I get it, they help people find a great deal and save money for sure and there will always be a place for those types of articles. I too have articles exactly like those ones. But don’t miss my point, your first thought should be about creating helpful and informative content. Remember that film starring Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams? If you build it and it has great content…. They will come! I know that’s a bit lame, but it’s true. If you produce your content with the mindset of helping the reader, the traffic will come and along with it, the revenue. There’s a great saying in affiliate marketing – Get the traffic and the money will follow – It’s true! Without traffic and visitors to your site or blog, you’ll never make money. Visitors will only follow and come back to your niche website if they believe you’re trying to help them and not after their money. After all most affiliate website owners are not after their visitor’s money. They are after the affiliate commissions from the bigger companies like Amazon. Help them and they will help you! Build a brand Many people don’t think of websites in the same way they think of a high street store but they should. An affiliate website has the same business principles as any other business. Provide a great serviceAdd value to the end-userHave great productsBuild a loyal followingBe trustworthyBe a leader in your nicheListen to feedbackGrow and expandBe profitable For most websites, new visitors make up a huge part of the daily traffic. However, building a brand with a strong email marketing list can really help get more returning traffic to your blog. 77% are new visitors to one of my niche websites As you can see from a screenshot from one of my niche websites; that’s a whopping 77% of which are new visitors each month. To keep these new visitors coming back each month, you need to make sure you give them what they searched for; or try to answer their question in a clear and informative manner. Writing niche articles that are clearly designed and written with the user in mind, is the best way to win over your readers and build trust, authority and get more social shares. Readers/viewers are clever; they can see through all the fluff and waffle within seconds. TOP TIP: If you’re answering a question searched by someone on Google, then make sure they come away from the article satisfied and having their question fully answered. If they still need to search on Google after reading your article you have failed! Building a brand is more important than you think for affiliate niche websites. Letting Google know you’re a brand that can be trusted and people love your site is vital for growing organic traffic. Get visitors to love your site and Google will love it too. Conclusion: What Is A Successful Article? What Makes A Good Niche Article? Okay, I have gone on way too long, I know. I just want to reassure you that all your content is playing its part in building a brand and authority within your niche. It’s not always the articles that make money that are the successful ones. Who knows which article or piece of content sparks that trigger in Google to say ‘Hey, this is a great website. I’m going to start ranking their stuff better from now on’. You can, of course, have bad content, that’s content that can harm your reputation. Duplicate or plagiarized content will never trick or fool Google. Google is a clever beast and you’ll damage your brand, reputation and even risk getting a Google penalty for doing that kind of shady business. Affiliate marketing is simple. Give your visitors the best information and experience possible and they will come back time and time again. Then you’ll naturally make passive income without even trying.