Rank Better in Google with These Content Tips

Published: Thu, 01/07/21

Organic Traffic is Still a Thing

For the past 10 years I've relied almost exclusively on organic traffic from search results for my affiliate sites and blogs.

Some might think that's crazy when there are other ways to get traffic but those other ways take time and/or money. I know because I've tried just about every method out there.

I prefer to use my time to focus on creating content.

I also figured that if I could understand what it took to rank well in Google I'd always have a way in which I could make money without spending money I might not have.

Just 5 weeks ago I started a new site as part of a course I'm running.

Getting impressions in search results (having your URLs shown to searchers) is the first step to getting free, organic traffic.

Here's a current screenshot of the impressions for this site from my Google Search Console Performance report - the first sign that organic traffic is about to kick in:

The site has 20 posts and has gone from 0 to 150 impressions in a day in the past week. It's even had clicks from those search results.

Following are 5 tips I hope help you rank better in Google.

Know Your Topic

Write about what you know.

When you write about topics you don't know well your reader can tell.

Worse, Google can tell because you leave out important questions or terms that Google - and your reader - would expect to see mentioned in a post about your topic.

You CAN research a topic to understand it better and fill in your lack of knowledge.

Just make sure that you've studied enough that you are confident you could have an intelligent discussion with someone in your target audience should they ask you a question about your post.

Add a Unique Perspective

Bring a fresh perspective, tip or idea to each cornerstone post on your site (your strongest, most important posts).

While creating a post comparing the best 5 tools for a hobby I knew I had to come up with something unique to add to the post because there were lots of posts about this same topic already on the web.

It occurred to me that people using these tools probably wanted two things from these tools - comfort and speed.

I bought the 5 tools I wanted to compare, judged the comfort of each, and timed myself using each of them to perform the same set of tasks.

This was information I'd never seen in similar posts. It was the "fresh perspective" I needed to help rank that post on the first page of Google.

You must get creative, think about your target audience and come up with information that will be useful to them no matter your topic.

Add Depth

You can only go so far when every post of your site uses a keyword as its title.

While I do think using keywords as post titles is helpful it shouldn't be ALL that you have.

Add posts that have natural titles that don't attempt to sell anything at all. The only goal should be to help your target audience with a question, problem or task.

Get to know your target audience. Who are they? What do they need? What challenges are they facing?

If I had an affiliate site about home decor I'd write posts that answered these kinds of questions:

How many colors should you use when decorating a room?
How do you pick paint colors for your bedroom when you have a history of picking the wrong colors?
Should you have the same color scheme through most of your house when you have an open floor plan?
How to pick the right shade of grey that won't look blue in bright light
How do you choose the right size and number of furniture pieces for your living room

These are the kinds of questions roaming the minds of your target audience. Help them and they'll flock to your site.

Keep Ads & Affiliate Links to a Minimum

If you have too many ads and affiliate links per post on your site it could harm your rankings.

This is especially true for a new site.

For awhile now Google has looked at the balance of content to promotional material in a post as part of their ranking algorithm.

This doesn't mean you can't have a post with 10 or more affiliate links in it but if you do you should balance that out with other posts on your site that have no links. (See "Adding Depth" above.)

Test out different ad placements and positions to try to get more clicks and sales with fewer links.

I use different styles of calls to action to test getting more clicks while keeping the affiliate link count low so I can also rank as well as possible in search results.

I do believe that once your site has aged a bit (maybe more than 6 months to a year) and has consistent traffic that you can get away with more ads and links than a new site but I have no definitive proof that's the case.

I only know that there are lots of authority sites that have lots of links and rank well. I have to assume that having earned some level of recognition in Google offsets the impact of ads and affiliate links on one's rankings.

Narrow it Down

Keep a new site very tightly focused on a narrow niche within your niche.

If you go too broad with a new site you'll struggle to rank well and get traffic.

Yes, you can have a broad site that covers everything related to cooking. That can be your long-term goal.

For the short-term, though, focus on ONE subniche within the cooking niche - even a subniche of a subniche!

For example, you might start out writing only about how to cook pasta - different kinds of pasta, different pasta dishes, different cooking utensils to use with pasta, how to make your own pasta. Everything pasta.

Keep your posts narrow, too. Don't write one post about the different kinds of pasta that exist. Instead, write one post for each kind of pasta. THEN write a post that compares all the kinds of past you've written about.

Don't write one post about how to make 5 different variations of lasagna - write one post for each variation.

Once you're doing well with your pasta posts add another subniche like "pizza". Grow your pizza category just as you did your pasta category.

As you add new subniches rearrange the categories and navigation menu on your site to accommodate those new topics.

Focus on your content, post regularly, and follow the tips above.

You'll find your posts draw more attention in Google and your traffic should grow.

Thanks!

Sincerely,

Erica Stone

erica@extremereviewer.com