The real SEO is getting backlinks. They dominate every other aspect. Getting a high rank through "natural" SEO is really hard.
I know someone who makes $12MM/year from high-ranking websites in extremely competitive keywords... and it's all about peddling links, really. The first page of results rarely has any correlation with quality (of information/product) and more than likely the correlation is actually negative. You will find content written by non-experts who mostly just summarize Wikipedia articles, but littered with unimportant info to hit keywords. Searching for a product? First page will be dominated by whoever has more $$.
I grew up with Google and it really feels like it was a different time back then. I Googled "how to make a website" as a teenager, found out about PHP and started studying PHP documentation. From there I expanded into other languages and eventually built a career. Today you Google "how to make a website" and you will be guided through a WordPress installation on a hosting website with a $5 monthly subscription. That's literally a website by the guy I mentioned making $12MM/year - he takes a cut from each referral.
Any thoughts on https://millionshort.com ?
I've seen it mentioned here. I've thought about using it for stuff, but most of my searches are programming queries which google is actually really good at. It's noticeably better than DDG for programming because it usually infers correctly which language I'm talking about. But as you said, perhaps not so good for PHP? Also I use an ad blocker, so perhaps I'm not seeing what you're seeing.
It doesn't help much. Most notably, it even removes credible sites like Wikipedia.
Programming queries are a completely different thing. I'm talking about queries like "plumber in X", "build website", "which laptop to use" etc - queries where there's a very direct path from search to money being spent. Those queries are completely littered, you can just skip 10 pages and maybe you will find some actual professionals or enthusiasts with actual information.
>Those queries are completely littered, you can just skip 10 pages and maybe you will find some actual professionals or enthusiasts with actual information.
Isn't the whole point of the linked website to do this?
> I know someone who makes $12MM/year from high-ranking websites in extremely competitive keywords... and it's all about peddling links, really.
I am curious what you mean by "peddling links"?
> The first page of results rarely has any correlation with quality (of information/product) and more than likely the correlation is actually negative.
Isn't the first page of results supposed to be more about relevance than quality?
Peddling links means networking with people who you can pay to link key words in their existing content or new content to your content. For example, I've had businesses contact me and say, "hey, for $100 we'll pay you to link these two words in your blog post to our website."
And also vice versa where you reach out to others to sell keywords in your content to them to improve their SEO.
> Isn't the first page of results supposed to be more about relevance than quality?
According to whom? What google tells you? If google made more money sending you to a web page with regurgitated content on it surrounded by adwords that would actually send you back to google to click on an ad making them more money, why would they send you to a high quality original source that was written in 1999 by someone who cared about the topic and got them zero revenue?
Sites like these are inherently fragile if they derive the majority of their revenue by trying to game SEO. Not saying there is no opportunity there, but being one algorithm update away from second page results or worse means your business has a lot of risk associated with it.
Does your friend have any other channels working profitably?
Use keyword search tool to find searches that have no high quality results. Then write a blog post for that topic and post the link casually on Reddit comments, twitter, etc. then wait a few weeks and it will be the #1 result. I have used this strategy for several years, it basically comes down to writing quality content on topics that don’t have any content.
Here's a guide from a few years ago that explains in detail how to follow the strategy. I don't bother with the really esoteric tweaks because the 95% solution is to identify keywords, write good content, and spread it around the internet.
I focus on the "long tail" because as a side-hustle entrepreneur you will never rank on the very popular keywords. You must monetize a lot of lesser-searched keywords, which in aggregate equal one very popular one, and you don't have to defend it obsessively.
You don't necessarily have to get a lot of traffic in order to generate revenue. There are potentially profitable niches that are not monetized at all.
That would be true if the number of topics in the world were constant, but new topics materialize all the time, and the popularity varies on old topics. Articles get old/outdated and are fertile ground for new articles with updated information, etc.
I'm actually surprised that this article made the homepage and has received the upvotes it has on this (typically SEO sceptical) HN forum.
Probably less than 30% of the article would be considered "effective" (e.g. the advice is specific to, and likely to materially increase SEO performance) and the rest is either unsubstantiated (semantic tags and image compression leading to SEO ranking improvements) or unrelated to actual SEO (404 pages and other "engagement" advice).
There are much better articles that break down the basics, ignore the "SEO" parroting and that are substantiated by real data (based on test and trial).
Well, hey look. They got their web page on HN and a corresponding bump in SEO cred just by hiring some folks to upvote it to the front page.
You too can be a success on the internet! Just follow these 10 tried and true techniques. For just a simple investment of $999, my system will show you what to do.
I doubt he will link anything that works. It's because of how advertising works. It's usually a zero-sum game in PPC so tips/tricks usually only work when majority of people do not know of them.
> I must warn you: blog topics will seem really boring. That’s normal. You’re writing for Google, not really to bring lots of value to users. (But don’t worry, they only look at the pictures )
It always makes me sad that the sad state of the web is imposed by an artificial decision.
Good article, very different from past years where repeating a keyword was useful.
"Rule #7: There is no secret. Craft amazingly good content."
So... Craft amazingly good content by hiring a freelancer on fiverr to write boring top ten blog posts that aren't intended to be read by anybody but Google?
On the one hand, I appreciate the author sharing strategies and ideas. On the other hand, this feels a lot like polluting cyberspace. By ranking your blogspam to drive sales on your dropshipping platform, or whatever, you're pushing actual good content off the first page of search results and into ignominy. It helps explain a general feeling I've had lately about the web getting worse and more generic.
> Connect your website to all the services that Google offers: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, YouTube… Google [...] created them to collect and analyze as much information about you as possible.
Or rather, as much information about the users as possible. Add Google Fonts to the mix, also the hosted JS frameworks. Anything hosted by Google that is requested via your web site is information about the visitor for Google. This is evil in its purest form, but if you are to play the game then play it in full.
> Connect your website to all the services that Google offers: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google My Business, YouTube… Google did not create them to please you. It created them to collect and analyze as much information about you as possible.
SEO is a tool. The myth is it's free. That's not so. It takes time. It's certain possible it's a tool that's not for you. That you get better marketing ROI elsewhere.
SEO is a good thing. But it's not always the best investment.
Nice content marketing piece and guide for an SEO beginner but I stopped reading here:
> all with a 95% SEO acquisition strategy
That's so wrong. Free organic traffic is great. But if you rely fully on organic traffic, it rather shows that your LTV is not bigger than your CAC and if Google or competition kills your search traffic, your business is done and/or you can't scale when your mighty SEO doesn't work anymore.
I feel like there are a few unstated assumptions in whsheet's post. Even with those, of course, no advice is universal or without exception. They do make a good point, though.
My version of the thought process is that, all else equal, SEO has three key disadvantages:
1. Attribution is often harder than some other channels, and your experimental design has to account for that.
2. There is a less direct, unitary through-line from dollars invested to dollars earned. Say you spend X dollars on various SEO improvements this month, and you get Y units of growth (conversions, revenue, etc.) that you can attribute to that SEO work. It is less reliable to assume (relative to other channels) that spending 10X on SEO improvements next month will reward you with 10Y units of growth.
3. If SEO is your dominant channel at 95%, and you ever hit the maturity in the channel, the effect of the above is can be fatal to a growth-oriented startup. However you measure your SEO-based CAC, it is probably going to be lower than the CAC of whatever your backup/next channel ends up being, and lower by a large amount. If you have to add in a lot of SEM with your SEO, CAC goes way up, and if your LTV was too precariously close to your CAC already, you are very likely to go negative on your unit economics.
#2 and #3 are what I assumed whsheet was intending as I read their post.
i have done seo since 2004 and now i'm leaving it behind for good. (reason: new google search console, amp, featured snippets and google ads the first 4 results anyway ... google lost its way a long time ago, they are internet cancer by now)
as i am leaving SEO for good, im selling my SEO book for 1€/$ (Kindle Version, i can't set it to 0)
ZERO of those users will ever care or even notice your URL. Dont waste time on that
ZERO of those users will ever type in a search string on Google to find you
MANY of those users can order from you with their phone’s native payment system, or will pull out their credit card and type it in using the crude mobile interface.
It also works really well.
Really should consider ditching a lot of last decade’s logic. And by last decade I mean that the 2020s is starting in 3 months. What even are your goals? Identifying that there are SEO optimizations doesnt mean they arent irrelevant optimizations to earning revenue. Are we still trying to drive traffic to ad supported food blogs so that 0.2% of “people” accidentally click them? Come on. You want recurring revenue from your SaaS service or reselling crap from Alibaba to hipsters at a 1,000% mark up.
I know someone who makes $12MM/year from high-ranking websites in extremely competitive keywords... and it's all about peddling links, really. The first page of results rarely has any correlation with quality (of information/product) and more than likely the correlation is actually negative. You will find content written by non-experts who mostly just summarize Wikipedia articles, but littered with unimportant info to hit keywords. Searching for a product? First page will be dominated by whoever has more $$.
I grew up with Google and it really feels like it was a different time back then. I Googled "how to make a website" as a teenager, found out about PHP and started studying PHP documentation. From there I expanded into other languages and eventually built a career. Today you Google "how to make a website" and you will be guided through a WordPress installation on a hosting website with a $5 monthly subscription. That's literally a website by the guy I mentioned making $12MM/year - he takes a cut from each referral.