Hello hackers welcome to this week’s Episode in today’s episode we are going To be talking about a problem that Pretty much affects anyone doing seo for A long enough amount of time and that is What the hell do you do with all these Pages that are not ranking that you Intended to rank for how do you fix them How do you get them back up but this Podcast episode is going to be quite a Bit further than that it’s going to be Opening the debate as well of whether we Should publish lots of content all the Time or if we should focus on more Restricted sites that are like more well Maintained and we spend more time with Updating pages etc so it’s going to be a Quite interesting podcast honestly i had The most fun recording that one that i Had in a while actually so i hope you’re Excited for this and let’s get started Hey everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast i know you missed me so I’m back on the podcast uh and i am back With mark so uh you know mark you know You know what’s coming now do i really Need to say it No No okay fine how’s it going mark There’s been a development oh so If you if those of you on youtube will See that i now have like a somewhat Nicely designed although it’s been quite Polarizing uh about 50 percent of people
Said that looks really cool maybe They’re just being nice the other 50 Have said that looks terrible My mom said that So if you think this looks terrible and If you think my mom’s an idiot then go Post a comment on youtube Tell us what you think that’s that’s a Bad thing to to prompt for but uh i mean Fine should be happy to read the Comments i think um but Okay but that’s not what today’s podcast About today’s first guest is about um i Think it’s a very common problem and i Feel like we didn’t really have Dedicated uh podcast episodes for that And the truth is because it’s kind of a Hard question to answer and people know The question because they’ve seen the Title already but that is what the what The hell do you do when you publish the Page and it’s stuck on page three and You don’t know what to do and it’s not Ranking right and I want to like even take a bit of a step Back on this because I want to look back at like the business Model of building websites right the Common wisdom is you build a website and You probably show another page and Another page and another page and Another page and eventually some of them Will work some of them will not and You’ll do okay basically and you make
Some money and it’s going to be A profitable business etc uh and usually You know the ratio of pages that are Really successful like really like top Three for your target keywords i mean it Depends on the size if you if you really Have a really good site and you’re Really competitive in your market might Be like one in three or in five pages or Something like this If you’re like an average site it’s Usually more like one in 20 or one in 10 To 20 i would say something like this Like you know nine out of 10 pages you Know they might rank on page two or Something but really they’re not what You imagine them to be when you build That page right and it’s it’s quite Frustrating etc and but usually that you You shrug it off and you keep publishing And you’re just like well okay next and Next and next and it’s fine etc The problem is that as your website Grows Um the best keywords start being behind You you’ve already published pages for Them and if your focus is on these new Pages all the time you’re essentially Spending a lot of time energy and money On keywords that are less interesting Than probably the pages you’ve already Published for and many of these pages Are not ranking uh and so that is kind Of a problem that i think needs to be
Addressed and i think with you know all The content updating stuff that needs to Be done these days etc Having a larger content inventory is Essentially a bigger liability in terms Of maintaining your website versus Having fewer pages and fixing them and Actually ranking where you intended them To rank at the beginning so this podcast Is you know i’m kind of opening with That question of like you know should we Keep the mentality of like publishing Publishing publishing or should we build Smaller sites that are more well Maintained uh and that are actually Ranking for most of the pages that we Build on them For the keywords that we intend to Rainfall and maybe just keep fighting Basically versus uh publishing you can i Don’t really have You know an answer to that Other than like i mean it’s kind of like Up to you and i think the answer is Probably as as usual going yeah it Depends somewhere in the middle Basically Uh Done all right see you next week Okay but like you know what i mean it’s Like um it’s it’s gonna be something Like that but i think it’s an important Debate to have internally on like um how Much do we go for new pages how much do
We go for fixing the pages that don’t Rank and so This podcast is going to be talking About okay what the hell do you do with All these pages that don’t rank for Their keywords uh and we all have them Like i don’t care how big of a guru you Are i’ll find pages on your site that Are not where you want them to be um so That’s pretty much it anything like on The top level you want to say before we Get into it yeah i just think that like Most people who have New newish sites haven’t necessarily Come across this problem because they’re In that mode where they’re just like Output content output content you know They’ve done their first 100 keyword Research or whatever and they’re just Trying to uh get that out there but it’s A problem that creeps up in you so very Quickly And i think that it’s maybe a lesson That we would learn starting new sites Today is to just be like try and get the Hit rate a little bit higher because What tends to happen is you look at the The low hanging fruit keywords early on Uh and so if there’s if you have a lot Of those that are not missing the mo That are missing the mark rather then um Yeah it’s not really a good thing Yeah it’s probably a bigger opportunity To get this ranking than to pick a cure
That’s like basically you’re losing the Ratio the ratio is like okay how hard is It to rank how much money can i make if I rank basically and that that ratio Kind of shrinks as you do q research no All keywords are equal and if you’re Good at keyword research you’ll find These keywords you know fairly early on A new opportunity is open as you grow in Authority et cetera but The truth is it’s even if you grow in Authority if you don’t have these easy Keywords they’re probably low-hanging Fruits that are more worth focusing on Than creating new pages and i think it’s It’s it’s really A mentality change that needs to happen For a lot of people a lot of very Successful sites have made that Mentality change and that’s why they’re Successful today as well and i think uh Like i’ve been looking a lot of very Competitive industries recently and Pages are updated monthly basically like There is someone going through that page Every month but anyway let’s go through The list let’s get started i think the First one is going to be probably the Least nice one to Hear but basically it’s just change your Target keyword or even abandon your Content to be honest and that I want to explain basically when you Select a keyword you do your q research
You’re like you’re an href so you’re an Sm rush or whatever uh you run out of Credits apparently on ahrefs so you just Have to You know like apparently you had to Switch to something else so you had to Pick the keys you searched anyway you Picked the keyword you looked at the Serps you saw you know a bunch of like The r40s 50s ranking for that keyword Etc you’re like okay i can probably rank On the first page of google for that Keyword competition is not too tough i Can write about this etc And so you do that and then after that You write that content and sometimes it Takes time to get the content together And then published and edited et cetera Could take like now by the time your Article starts ranking it’s gone through All that process You know it’s four five six months later Sometimes like or even if you’ve waited Until you looked at it it’s been a year Since you looked at that keyword right And you hope you re-google that query And the serps are completely different There’s a bunch of dr 75 sites ranking And it’s like it’s much more competitive And you’re here with your dr40s and You’re like well I don’t really qualify for like if i was Looking at this sub today i would Probably not select that keyword anymore
And so there there is a there is a bit Of that especially with updates right Google does shuffle the results when There’s big updates And uh you might often find for example That something that was a long tail Query that had a bunch of like smaller Sites ranking now is associated to a Bigger topic so maybe you had let me Take an example like I’ve been looking at the vpn is recently So like best vpn for Max For intel max for example because now Macs have changed processors so Something like this so that would be a Long term query uh people might search For um but maybe Maybe before there was specific pages Ranking for that because it’s a fairly Technical topic but now google’s like oh this it’s all the same anyway and Then best vpn for max top results has Basically taken over that keyword and You can’t rank for that so what do you Do here well there’s really two cases One the page has links and you should Probably salvage these links in some way Because links are are rare and expensive Or it doesn’t have links if it has links Then the answer the question is can you Target a lower competition variation of A keyword so can you find another Long-tail variation of that keyword to
Re-branch that page too we maybe rework The content a bit and target that uh It’s quite rare to be honest because now Google tends more to take these Long-term keywords and associate them With this parent keyword like i did with The example for the vpn format for Example it’s quite rare but it can Happen And if that’s not the case then My recommendation and if you have no Chance of ranking is to 301 that page to The most related page you have on your Website that could use a bit of a boost In terms of links because at least you This link equity that does nothing Because you have no chance of ranking Starts doing something Uh for another page and i think that’s That’s a better use of resources Basically Uh question on that so this like serp Aggregation or whatever it’s called yeah Um in the vpn niche specifically I mean something i noticed there is you You have like all these different vbn Companies and they basically are very Very similar offering very similar Services but whether you’re using a pc a Mac uh it’s kind of the phone or Whatever doesn’t mean Doesn’t make much much difference at all So i can kind of understand where Google’s coming from where it’s just
Like well let’s just find the the best v Overall vpn article um and then rank That first for all of these terms or for For a lot of them at least i can i can Understand that does that play out the Same in other industries and other Niches I mean it again it will depend because Like for example for your example i Could counter it for example if you use An apple device they have specific Processors and if the application is Optimized for it you get much better Battery life so if the vpn app is not Written for That new code base uh it’s translated And it uses much more battery so like as A as an apple user i would enjoy having My vpn app to be properly written so That it doesn’t eat my battery for Example so in that case you could argue That there is not enough case to be made You know so that gives you an example so Similar examples can happen in the Industries like is there an actual Distinction for that subcategory you’re Trying to create big sometimes search Volume doesn’t mean there is a Differentiation in terms of the product Like you would you explained for the vpn And sometimes it does I don’t know if like in this case like Google still definitely ranks best vpn For max pages above base vpn for example
Or base vpn for android above by vpn or Something and so I think it’s it’s led by search volume More than it’s led by like actual Product differentiation you know it’s Like it’s led by how people search to be Honest uh and i don’t think google Actually understands why is a vpn yet You know um but i don’t think that they Did i don’t think the the argo is at This point where actually conceptually Understands what is a vpn it’s just Using the top results and such Search results etc like uh So yeah in my case Uh maybe one day um but i don’t think i Don’t think it’s there yet it’s not that Smart yet Uh So that’s basically it so you can use And if it doesn’t have links then really You need to ask yourself the question Today should i spend my time on that Keyword or should i spend my time Somewhere else and 99.9 of the time the Answer if that’s up is definitely that Competitive is going to be you should Plan you spend your time somewhere else And you should probably consider Deleting that page or just leaving it You can leave it if you want it’s not Going to hurt um but you’re just gonna It’s just gonna be another page that Doesn’t rank on your website basically
So it kind of depends on like how ocd You are about your website Um but uh but that’s that’s pretty much Step one it’s not exactly the most fun To hear but Um the 301 can can make a difference Actually we’ve done several on a tory Hacker In the past six months and we’ve seen Really good results from redirecting Pages that had lots of links but didn’t Rank for com keywords we couldn’t take Let’s be honest um and uh and two pages That were more doable for example so um For example like here’s an example of a Page we still have on a toy hacker that We should do we should do these two and It’s still not done i was checking Before the podcast it’s the best keyword Tools page right so when i wrote that Page we were actually like top three for Like a few years actually Um But Now if you google that query and i’ve Actually made the screenshot for the Editor so he can overlay this Yeah even backlinko is number five now He’s the r90 right um so that gives you An idea of like i mean with the r70 Something so we’re okay but we’re not We’re not that big for this industry And uh and that’s so that’s definitely An example of such case where it’s like
Probably shouldn’t waste our time uh Creating best qr2 and it’s kind of a Shame because I believe my analysis of kyoto would be Better than pretty much everything That’s ranking Um but google decided otherwise Sorry guys uh maybe we make a youtube Video if you guys want or something but Like um but yeah it’s it’s one of these Things where it’s like well sorry my Time is spent it’s better spent Somewhere else and if i’m a bit Strategic about the way we run our Business the same way you should be Strategic about the way you run your Websites i wouldn’t spend time on this Uh very much so that is the first thing To do basically do i should i really Still fight for this keyword do i still I have a realistic chance and basically We do what you did for keyword research And then adapt based on that uh anything You want to add on this how how Realistic of a chance do you need to Still consider it like we you too that Example where we’re dr 75 everyone’s uh Dr 90. okay yeah i can i get that but Like you know if everyone’s it’s not Just that it’s like they also have like Hundreds of links to page right like i’m Checking the way i would do keyword Research right so it’s not i’m not just Looking at yeah i want to do the cure
I’m just this is my shortcut my shortcut For the podcast but obviously i’m Looking at you know how much effort was Put in your content Um and and you know it they do pretty Good job like you know matching the Search intent and we’ll talk about that Later like they do an okay job it would Be significant amount of work to revamp Our page to to match that then they have Lots of links as well on top of being Higher authority et cetera so it just Accumulates to be like lots Every page you can run for any keyword You want if you just spend your entire Life trying to rank for that keyword Right uh so it’s it’s possible to rank For any keyword the question is is it Worth your time like how much money are We gonna make ranking for best kyoto i Know i was still we were top three for a Few years so i know exactly how much Money we would make and it’s good but It’s not it’s not worth that amount of Effort you know Um so like yeah that you need to to Weigh the the risk and the cost and Rewards basically and in this case no It’s not what’s the effort like the the Pc uh pc mag or whatever is ranking for It can have it now Um The next one is fixing your search Intent as i said i just mentioned search
Intent so that’s quite good Um especially after google updates uh It’s quite often that your post format Doesn’t always match what is ranking Anymore and that’s when you often see Your page tumble like you open analytics It’s like And it’s just like okay fine we need to Do something about this um or you never Ranked in the first place and then in This case you have no chance basically Um so You know like you might see that for Example now there’s only least post Ranking for your keyword uh there’s only Shorter posts it’s something that i’ve Seen more more and more like uh too long Content ranks lower than uh short Concise to the point content like what Can’t what can can work both ways i Would say these days Uh maybe uh if you’re doing a random Preview for example maybe you have your Buyer’s guide then you have the list of Products and maybe the pages that all The pages that right now have like all The products on top and then have the Buyers guide after another thing i’ve Observed recently like pretty much Everyone does that all not only for Conversion uh but now it’s becoming Search intent because everyone that’s Ranking is doing that Um
And it’s something that Again you will need to revamp your Content for it if you’re not matching This and uh i have another example of a Tory hacker actually that i picked up I’m picking you toriyaka because Everyone knows that site Uh and the query is affiliate marketing Websites uh it’s quite interesting our Page is definitely the page with the Most links uh and now it ranks number Three or four again we’ve been number One for that query for many years Um but recently we have lost traffic and The reason why is because that page Actually does not match the search Intent anymore um now all the pages that Rank like our page sorry lists examples Of affiliate sites like because it’s an Affiliate marketing website it’s just Lists like a bunch of examples of Affiliate sites it gives you some stats It gives you some ideas it’s an Inspiration post to like for people who Want to start affiliate sites basically But now if you google the query and you Click on any every other results you Will see that people are listing Affiliate networks um because and They’re i know It’s like it’s it feels like that’s Wrong like that yes search intent there Absolutely but everyone i mean i believe That
That’s one of the reasons i haven’t Touched that page i’m like google we get Right one day they don’t um So No and it’s like uh and so like all the Top pages apart from maybe one other Page uh that matches what we do uh now Least affiliate networks um and so That search intent is now and by link Matrix again i’ve put the screenshot for The editor in the folder so hopefully They can overlay this now but wedding Metrics we we are atomizing most people Uh yeah we are not on top of that query Anymore for that one reason because Search engine has changed And it’s one of these things because It’s only like you know it fluctuates Between two and three it’s not exactly Tanked you know it’s like we still get Decent traffic to that page and i’m like You know when you revamp a page you’re Still and that’s an interesting debate To open you’re kind of like rolling the Dice again you know but it doesn’t mean You’re gonna land number one it doesn’t Mean you won’t have to put significant Amount of effort to even just go back to Where you were before doing the changes In that case like um so like remembering Content when you’re number two and three It’s kind of a debate it’s like is it Worth it uh or should i just Hang in there and maybe search engine is
Going to change back or something and That’s possible as well um in this case I because we have so many other things To do uh we’ve decided to just hang in There and see what happens if the page Takes more you know we might revamp it And just match search intent so i guess I like doing good content but google Doesn’t like it apparently um but um Yeah if it thanks to like bottom of page One we might we might do that While it’s hanging Above position four i think we’ll Probably leave it as it is and that’s Probably the way i would recommend People do that as well But if it Thanks then yeah i’m just gonna go back The old school way like we talk about it You know look at everyone that’s ranking Do a better version of this And usually it’s a very boring cookie Cutter at least post Kind of like makes me sad it really Makes me sad about google excited you Lost your faith in uh in google well It’s like my my theory is that google is Not here to surface good content anymore It’s just here to serve the query so It’s like It’s just here to give the information To people searching for a given query as Fast as possible they don’t care if You’re a great writer they don’t care if
You tell a story they don’t care about Your life your business or anything You’re just a service provider that You’ve been outsourced to by google to Provide the answer to searches you know And in exchange you might be allowed to Monetize it in an appropriate way and if They deem it inappropriate you will be Kicked out um it’s kind of like my Vision of seo these days like you’re You’re much more like you’re like a Youtuber it’s the same thing right it’s Like they you’re outsourced to by google And they they give you some pennies in Exchange for doing it you know um and But like obviously you can still make Good money et cetera but you know what i Mean like the relationship has changed Or whereas the search engine was the Place to surface good content i think Now they’ve internalized that good Content i mean people find cool content On social media and people find the Answers to their questions on such and i Think they’ve The web has been more split up that way And and they try to to achieve that Vision of just being the best place to Answer your question as fast as possible So facing the best content for Immediately answering the query versus You know like for example in this Podcast we’re opening bigger debates et Cetera et cetera whereas
If this was a blog post like how to help The page rank like we’d need to go Take and just give the answer and not Really like make people think too much We need to just do that and that’s That’s kind of the difference and so That’s that’s fixing your search intent If your page Is i would say yeah below four Above that even if you’re not number one I would say probably hang in there maybe See if there’s another update that Changes it back uh otherwise yeah you’re Gonna have to do such intense i talk a Lot about it there’s a youtube video Where i talk about reviving all content We’re just gonna put a card here Uh and so you guys can check it out and I’ll show you kind of the process of Following search intent et cetera and Now i’m pretty sure the article i did in That video still ranks actually um so Pretty cool Um That’s pretty much it anything else on Search intent No Okay next one is uh on-page tweaks so That’s a little bit different from Search engine a lot of the stuff we’re Gonna talk we’re gonna talk about links At the end but like like don’t get Excited like i know links matter guys Don’t worry um but i think that
Most of the time people kind of like Shotgun links at their problems instead Of really thinking of their web pages And that you can often save a lot of Money By fixing your pages rather than just Trying to brute force your rankings with Links and it doesn’t always work these Days actually like it it helps a lot but If your page is wrong it’s going to be Very complicated to rank it for Your keywords so the next one is perform On-page tricks and that’s A little bit different than search enter It’s more like the tips and tricks that You do on your page like while google Has all this like ai stuff etc going you Kind of like you know it’s kind of like Our brain you know we have like our Frontal cortex that like can do super Deep thinking etc and we have like our Lizard brain that’s like a you know a monkey you know And uh And so i i believe google’s argo works a Little bit the same and and the monkey In there still likes to see things like Exact keyword in your text or like your Exact keywords in your title tag and Things like that and so these tweaks if You haven’t done them uh you probably Should run through these on your site so That’s you know uh for us we use Software seo for example so make sure
Like related queues are present in your Score in your Uh text and usually for surfer like you Guys use the content optimizer the Content editor thing Don’t try to go crazy like above 60 70 You’re probably good enough as long as It’s green like people try to obsess Over getting the perfect score server is Not google right it’s just giving you an Idea but you don’t need it to be perfect Actually misha from surfer sent me a Message on messenger saying thank you For saying that on the podcast people Are obsessing too much about the score Etc so michelle i’m just waiting for Your gifts now for saying it a second Time so i’ll send you my address We had an interview with a writer Recently and we asked them sort of like About their experience with seo tools Like pretty standard question And the first thing he said was god i Hate surfer [Laughter] Not because it’s a bad tool yeah because People obsess one of his previous Employers was demanding like a super High uh surfer score and it ended up Being you know to the detriment of yeah It becomes content as well and We’ll talk about that a little bit after As well but like yeah it’s like you want It to be in the green and in the green
Is about 66 on surfer Um That’s what i we tell writers and and Honestly it’s good enough if it doesn’t Work like as i said you’re gonna have to Revisit your pages quite regularly Anyway so you know go go and experiment With higher scores lower scores etc and Make your own observations uh it does For me after a certain point i don’t Think it makes that much of a difference Um One thing that i like to do as well that Honestly i think very few people talk About is doing a very Very light content refresh and just Update the publish date um for me it Works really well quite often uh i Um quite often the way i do this is like Most of our posts now have like an faq Section at the end you know we kind of Like find related questions it’s good Practice now with seo content uh i Literally just add one question and one Answer and that’s it and it’s like and i Just press refresh so it’s usually like One sentence for the question two or Three sentences for the answer um and Then update the publish date I can’t believe this trick still works It works but it does like i’ve done Several case studies in there there’s Like a full case study someone a blog i Have another one in auto hiker pro
Actually in the on-page blueprint and um It’s just Yeah it’s one of the it’s one of the Tricks that uh one day it will stop Working but for now it still works Um Another thing that works quite well for Me is playing with the title tag like Playing with the ctr on the title tag Especially uh i i’m i’m one of those That believes that results that get both A good uh dwell time so like people Staying enough on the page And Uh good ctr in the serbs tend to be Pushed up in rankings uh and that’s why A lot of you know gray hat seos do ctr Manipulation etc and it’s talked a lot About and so on If these guys are doing it they probably Believe in this as well because they’re Spending their money into that so you Know i hope they believe it does Something um and i believe it does and So i don’t recommend doing ctr Manipulation uh i don’t think that Google i’ve never heard anyone getting Code for it so it’s not for that i just I don’t i don’t like the idea to be Honest that much um but you can play With this with it on your title tag so Like writing better uh better title tags For ctr so making sure it’s not Truncated with the data study that shows
That truncated title tags get less Click-through rate Um You know putting words in parenthesis Works really well for example as well Putting numbers works really well Just rewriting your title tag and Looking into google search console what Is your average ctr of a period of like 30 days or something It’s it it will help like you will you Will not only get more traffic because People click more often but also you Will tend to rise in rankings eventually I’ve actually built a tool in the On-page blueprint on h pro for people to Upload these their search data their Search console sorry Uh reports and then it tells them if They’re above or below average compared To their average position you know we Put the bell curve of click through rate It’s not perfect because you know sub Layouts are quite varied but it still Helps identifying the uh under Performance so that is another thing i Would do these are the on page tricks The main on-page tricks i would do it’s Like yeah re-optimize on the page tool On on-page tool do a light content Refresh and update the publish date and Rework your title tag to try to obtain My ctr not too crazy um uh provided the Rest of your own pages here is decent
These these tend to help okay Qui question on that so for updating Title tags are there any kind of like Tools or processes for doing that kind Of at scale that you you’d recommend Updating your title um i think used pro Has an option to like you know you see All your pages the list of all your Pages but the thing is like you don’t Want to update all your title tags you Want to identify the ones that are not Performing you know and so I i don’t recommend to do it at scale i Mean You know people who do it at scale it’s People like i remember when we had that Task for expedia when we had the agency You know they’re like oh yeah we want to Update our title tags i’m like yeah it Should be fine et cetera and they sent Me the the Excel file and it’s like a hundred Thousand pages i’m like okay well we Probably need to we probably need to Like automate that a little bit or like Do this on my scale et cetera um And uh and in that case it makes sense For most people who listen to his Podcast Uh I pref i would prefer to do it manually To be honest and like you know find the Underperformers and like focus on the Ones that you know they really
Usually like 10 pages bring 50 Of the traffic on your site or 10 or 50 Between 10 and 50 pages uh it’s not that Much That you can’t look at it individually And get a decent uplift for that so my Recommendation is to do that um because Do you think people should yeah do you Think people should then Kind of make their like focus of their Site more about just caring about these 50 pages rather than You know yeah i mean that that’s the Same debate we opened at the beginning Should we publish more content or should We make few pages great you know Um And and but that’s the thing the You know the counter argument is that You find these great pages by publishing A lot Like You don’t it’s like a cycle right i’ll Phone you You throw a bunch of at the wall See what sticks and then once you once You have that real data from actually Ranking or whatever you can then go and Like try and prop up all the other Similar ones yeah so it’s like there’s All these cycles and stuff it’s not Simple you know there’s also like all These other pages even like some of the ones that bring you no money it
Might bring you a lot of links for Example so there’s secondary benefits That all feed into it as well See it’s it’s quite it’s not so simple Very much and it it depends on your like Exactly always i think um i think i like The idea of like going in uh in cycles Be like okay we’re gonna have a cycle of Like one month so we just publish a Bunch of new pages for this new hub we Want to do etc and our next month we’re Just going to reoptimize all pages we’re Not publishing anything all our writing Capacity is focusing on like we give Them back some of their old articles we Rebrief the content we update it we just Create new design elements for the Layout etc and we just add this to the Pages So i think i obviously there’s a million Ways to do this there’s no right answer But something like that could be good But yeah it’s the chicken and the egg Because you need lots of publishing to Find your successful pages But also If you have too many pages you can’t Build great pages and you you tend to Like Have less heat rate and waste money so And that’s the all the dilemma of modern Seo these days basically um The next thing i want to talk about is And actually it’s it’s kind of fitting
I put make your content better slash More comprehensive And i put into you really want to make It great again there Uh no not really actually i didn’t think About it Um it’s kind of outdated now at this Point Uh Anyway it’s funny because i put in Quotes do good content and traffic will Come but you know i had the madcatz Voice in my in my head when i uh When i when i wrote that but um The thing is i think more comprehensive Is probably better um very often uh kind Of similar to you know the third the First thing for the queue as well i was Like well you did your keyword research You know these were like small size and You check again six months later it’s Huge sites and you’re unlikely to rank Uh similarly pages if if your Competitors are updating their content It’s likely if you are going after a Semi-competitive queries Uh the pages will change and I’ve been surprised more than once on This as well where you know I’ll take an example of lease posts like You know it was like 10 things or Whatever 10 uh i don’t know like 10 best Keyword tools let’s take that example Again right um and so we’d make like 11
Here we got you know like 11 rescue And then like two a year and a half Later i’m looking but i’m like why are We not ranking for that query anymore Obviously not for qr tools but And then uh i look and then it’s like 85 Kilo tools and 87 kilos and it’s like You know the the numbers have increased Massively and what it does most Importantly i think Big list posts Rank high not because they’re big list Posts but they rank high because there’s More list items announced in the title Tag when people get to choose on the sub What they click on so like you know Which page are you going to pick best 10 Kilo tools or best 87 kilo tools you Know and Most people you pick on best 87 so ask Me why They really care about it this 77 Keyword tool apparently uh i don’t but Whatever phil’s feels like a more Comprehensive i know you’re thinking Okay they must have tried them all but You know probably they haven’t my Opinion is people are stupid because When you’re looking for best you’re Looking for a curation effort you’re Looking for someone to to essentially Remove the and gives you the best Stuff and what this is all turning into It’s it’s like the actual entire list
And now figure it out again you know so Now people are gonna type best best Keyword tool you know it’s like i don’t Know like how do we do this Like my opinion as a person is this is Stupid Google’s opinion differs again uh and They think that this is a great thing to Make bigger lists because uh it’s Rewarded but i think it’s rewarded Mostly because Of people’s behavior on the subs and People tend to pick uh higher numbers And so Quite often you’re going to have to Again when you re-google your keyword You might find that your metrics are Fine unlike the first thing that we said But you’ll find that your content is Quite short and you know doesn’t cover Everything everyone else covers and so It’s Not comprehensive and you need to go Back and you need to re-edit it and and Essentially list all the things that You’re missing from your competitors add Them to your article as well as update All the stuff that you already have so If you had numbers if you had all of That etc you haven’t touched this Article into yes well you’re going to Have to do that so it’s kind of like Search intent not for the article format But rather for like the actual
Information in the article uh And and how fresh it is as well like the Freshness matters as well so like this Updating the the date is like a trick That i gave you guys but eventually You’ll need your content to kind of like Be good enough otherwise people will be Like that’s that’s kind of terrible um One thing that i’ve started doing on Some of our sites is i’ve put a feedback System actually on our articles where Writers well readers sorry can put a Star rating to the article from one from Zero to five uh and if they drop a low Rating they can drop comments and we’re Starting to collect quite a lot of Comments of people i mean some of them Are plain stupid as well right Like but some of them are quite Interesting and some people who care About the topic drop you information and I think it’s quite useful when you come Back and revisit these articles to like Give that list of feedback things to Your writers because Uh i think that this way they can Actually give people what they want when They are googling this stuff etc so i Think That is cool um actually you know what Uh let me check the plugin name actually I’ll tell you guys what plugin i use for WordPress because that’s what you guys Want
Yeah so the plugin that i use is called Rate my post wp rating system it’s free Actually you don’t need to pay for it Starting uh yeah it’s average you might Want to do some custom css on it um but It works very well otherwise i quite Like it And you don’t need to Pay anything for that so that’s my Recommendation you’ll need to basically Make your content better and to be Honest you can It’s quite interesting you can go quite Far in terms of having content on Your site and still ranking like we Still see lots of sites with really Really bad content ranking but the fact That they refresh it often that their Data is up to date et cetera and more in General they match the They match the sections of everyone but Then it’s garbage that’s what’s written That still works unfortunately so yeah So it’s kind of somewhat related to this And we we talked about this at the end Of last year with the Last google reviews update but Um for people doing commercial content Reviews roundups For physical products you know the Amazon guys out there How does product in hand stuff Impact all this do you think is it just Is it as important of a factor here or
Not for seo i think i think it matters For conversions maybe um i don’t think Google Something google gets it like that part I don’t think so I mean The thing is it really depends if you’re Going the most communicative like if you Search for like best vacuum cleaner for Example You will have two types of sites you Have the size that actually did the Reviews in hand and you will have this Massive publishing conglomerates that do Not do in hand and just have the amazon Photo pulled from the api the same way Everyone else does it and still rank but You won’t have Medium sites Without in hand reviews that rank you Know what i mean like that people that Want to to keep ranking for these niches And are not these huge publishing Conglomerates I don’t see the ones that i i rarely see The ones that i’m not going to say don’t Say really i rarely see the ones that Don’t do the in-hands review Rank anymore against these big Publishing guys but when you do better Content Yeah it happens like do people do do not For like best vacuum cleaner but like For like kind of like the lower levels
You know like this vacuum cleaner for Pet hair and stuff like that for example You know um And uh And so like That’s the question is this a ranking Factor or is it just these sites are Better and these guys run their sites Like if they are able to do in-hand Reviews and really high quality reviews Maybe their link building is really good Too for example like um or just the Words they put on the page are yeah sort Of accurate gets the point quicker or Effective at conveying their argument i Think it could be one of these cases of Like correlation is not causation you Know it’s like uh ice cream sales don’t Go up because it’s summer ice cream Cells go up because the weather is nice You know and it’s kind of like the same Thing and it’s Um It and it’s like It a lot of people would be quick to Call it a ranking factor i don’t think We should go that far without really Having some technical tests or something Of like uh of seeing that Um but what i see is that people who do Great content in general do better over The long run like people who actually do Put the effort of doing that At the question is like how profitable
Is their business because obviously it’s So much more expensive to write reviews Like that obviously you can like resell The items and send some back etc but Like you’re not gonna buy a hundred Vacuum cleaners and send them back all The time and amazon’s gonna let you buy Again et cetera like no no no once you Send back 100 of your orders you won’t Be able to do that again and so on like Um so you it’s tricky you know um and The question is like Is it was it i think it’s increasingly Worth it But Calling it a i don’t think that’s Necessarily because it’s a direct Ranking factor i just think these sites Do better because they’re just better Sites in general basically like Um and so and that’s the thing it’s it’s Kind of like one of the things that i’m I’m really getting into i’m like I’m getting old i don’t want to build sites anymore i want to build like Real sites and stuff uh and um And uh and it’s like Profitability matters but i think Long-term um like the long-term Viability of these things as i’m Observing in the market it also matters Because it’s like how much more you’re Gonna make it’s not how much more you Made last month it’s how much you make
How much money you make on average per Month multiplied by how many months you Make it and so like uh You know some seo players are more are More ranking tank like we call it now um And some are more uh I mean this this time is gonna be kind i Hope like i want someone some Other uh seo personality personality Authority hacker Ranking we need a t-shirt We need a t-shirt But you know what i mean like it’s it’s There’s two ways to build this right you Can either rank and tank or you uh and All like you know take more risks and Like you know essentially cut corners on Content and like be just good enough or Try to go above so that you match what The future expectations of the market Will be because obviously they’re rising Right content now compared to content Five years ago We complain i say etc but the truth Is a lot better than what it was in a Lot of niches um and so you’ve got And that’s why i like the idea of like Over performing on that on that level Because it’s it’s It’s kind of like the most Guaranteed future proofing you know like You can’t tell what the argo is going to Do but you can tell google is going to Try to give better results
Um and so i sound like grandfather now It’s terrible Sorry rant Anyway Um let’s go on the next one unless you Have something else to say on that Ah Actually never mind there’s a rule at Least i wanted to go for that section uh To go over and a few examples of like How to make that content better in Practical terms right instead of talking High level um like avoid walls of text Like if i Like i have a 14 inch laptop right and i Like to put the page on that 14 inch Screen because i feel like that’s the Most average experience most people have In terms of screen size or whatever and If i see a screen but it’s just text That’s all i see like there’s no image There’s no header there’s no nothing I don’t think it’s good enough like That’s when i’m like okay we need to Rework that section to make it more Visual et cetera and i was one of the Things i’m doing right now as well as I’m doing swipe files for Uh toy hacker pro actually like i’m Building we’re building swipe files for Toy hacker pro uh and i’m starting to Take notes of all these types and i Spend lots of time on lots of affiliate Sites etc and the best ones like it’s so
Visual like i’ve done a i’ve done a vs Post type swipe file like today and like The best size to do that Maximum there’s like paragraphs of four Lines before there’s like some kind of Graph or visual element that compares The products or something like that and That’s the level to where i think you Need to go if you want to get good so Like yeah illustrate mixed media Make the page scannable basically so you Don’t have to read most people don’t Read your web page most people don’t Read your intro most people don’t read Your stuff they just scan for the Headings they check the one they want They read the bull at least that isn’t And they just click on the button or They leave your page pretty much um and So That’s why like basically focus on that Readability thing and uh writing long Google docs is i don’t think the way to Uh To build uh to build web pages anymore So it’s a big debate we have with the Team right now it’s like build web page Is not google docs um Yeah anything on that Oh we can find it on okay The next one i want to talk about is Fixing your page experience and now We’re jumping onto google search console They actually made a brand new section
In search console called page experience They never update search console almost So when you do it you imagine that it Matters And the on-page experience is basically Three things it’s core vitals mobile Usability https https we’re not going to Go over this right now i expect everyone That listens to this podcast knows how To do a let’s encrypt Ssl certificate Um Co-op vitals we’ve had videos and Episodes about that so i’m not going to Go over that but basically i also need To be green i don’t i think you just Need to be like average uh if you’re in A yellow you’ll be fine with your Rankings i don’t think it’s going to Cost you if you’re in a red it could Cost you um And then mobile usability is the one i Want to focus on because a lot of sites Have mobile usability issues Um the problem with search console is It’s not very good their tool in there And let me explain why Actually i was testing that i tested That many times um Google’s flags a bunch of issues like Text is too small to read for example or Like Uh elements are too close to each other To click on them or something like this
Um And then they’re like okay just um Here’s a bunch of a page example so they Give you a list of like 100 pages with their issues And then you can click on this and you Can test it with their live tools so Like what you see in search console is What they’ve cached when the actual Search caller solid and you can test it Let’s they have a tool similar to the Page speed insight tool for page speed That allows you to live test your mobile Usability And you put an example page in that tool About 70 of the time it will return Absolutely no issue on that tool but Still flag you in search console um so You validate the changes because there’s A button say okay i fixed it it’s called Validating the changes you validate that And then they just don’t they like they Still tell you the issue is here so like Google has some issues with their tools They’ll be cheat um but for the biggest Issues it will still flag them and you Should still look at them and you should Try like uh multiple like like try it on Your mobile basically try the example Pages on your mobile and if you see Visual issues go and fix them because We all build websites on desktop But most of our traffic is mobile And
I think a really good exercise is on go On google analytics and look at the Split between mobile tablet and desktop Today And then go most of the time Go and go and look back what it was Uh two three four five years ago and You’ll see there’s a huge trend like Desktop as a percentage is declining Massively we’re a little bit different In authority hacker because yeah i think We’re one of the few sites is more Details You guys are You guys are all Internet marketers but that is the trap Right we’re sitting here with our huge Monitors building web pages And we’re not you know Taking a mobile first approach and Sometimes we need to yeah i mean Google’s search index is mobile first Now so it’s been for a few years now Actually um so it’s like it’s very Important and i think we I i it’s one thing that we need to talk More about like how do we make size Great on mobile how to be better for Mobile et cetera um because it’s Uh it can cost it can cost you quite a Bit and it’s like uh and you might not See it you open your site on desktop and You don’t see anything and quite often Even if you open
In uh you know in chrome you can inspect And see like the mobile viewport It’s not the same it’s still rendering Kind of the desktop sites uh it because The browsers execute code differently Etc on your phone and so on uh it’s much Better to actually check on the phone And see uh to that like recently i was Even considering getting an android Phone again just to test pages actually Um for that because uh it’s it’s often a Problem not always but that can cost you Rankings especially if it’s mobile and If you’re just you know looking at the WordPress dashboard on your chrome Browser on desktop you will not know Any of the issues and quite often sites Look pretty atrocious on mobile um so i Would recommend to look at that and that Helped us a few times when we fixed it Actually um and same correlators matters Where new red if you’re like middle i i Wouldn’t panic for it for your rankings Like going to green I don’t think it’s going to it’s it Could help we’ve seen some help for some Sites we’ve seen sites Okay cover vitals it’s different i think What it does when you optimize your site For coverage it makes your pages lighter So you have a crawl budget for your Website like it was like okay i’m Dedicating you know 500 megabits per day For this site to crawl their pages if
The pages are like five megabits each It’s going to be crawling 100 pages if The pages are you know 10 times less It’s gonna crawl a thousand pages and They will refresh more often and they Will uh your your rankings would be more Fluid than that’s how sites running Faster et cetera so it can help in that Aspect i believe and we’ve seen sites go Up by fixing core vitals like We have a course on that and we’ve seen People do quite well on that but Usually it’s not the reason why you’re Not ranking usually these are they’re More they’re more content-ending issues And then core vitals and this comes After basically That’s uh that’s pretty much all i have To say on this anything else on mobile Or anything okay and the last one The next one not the last one is uh add Something juice Yeah it’s like linksmatter Again that’s when you go back to your Keyword tool you throw your keyword and You look at your link matrix against Your computer’s link matrix but be a Little bit careful because When you open the ahrefs or whatever Tool you use a serp analyzer they tell You a number of linking domains and the Number of backlinks right there is no i Mean there is a little bit of Qualitative data in the url like ui is
Like url rating it’s basically dr4 url It gives you a bit of qualitative data But like you know like someone might Have much less links than you but They’re much better they’re like in Content et cetera and you made a bunch Of like social bookmarking or whatever Like complete crap stuff directories And then you have all these things Um and so you have a bigger number and Your rank lower you’ll be like i don’t Understand i have all these links i’m Not ranking well your links are um So you need to Uh also dig into the top guys link Reports and you need to look at like how How many like i like to count real links When i look at it so i’ll usually go and Include domains i’m like okay there’s Like 50 links but there’s four real Links that like our quality in content Links with like a decent anchor text etc And the site is more than the r30 let’s Say something like this you know And the rest i kind of discard it and Then i compare my real links against Their real links so it does take some Analysis And then you might need to do that Another thing that people miss on quite Often is internal links um pages like You often especially when your publisher You tend to not do that i build my Internal links by doing site column your
Site.com and then related keywords and That google give me the top pages but Actually uh spencer’s gonna be happy uh The link whisperer just released the new Version and it looks actually pretty Interesting i want to test it again and See how it is but they’ve added a bunch Of new functions looks a bit more usable Uh so it might be a cool thing to look At for internal links as well uh just Which it wasn’t a subscription but yeah Uh Yeah and you want to talk about external Links right yes so External links i mean they’re usually The go-to people are like oh why am i Ranking oh you need more links And people automatically think of of External links but there’s a reason we Put this almost last because if you if You don’t do all of the stuff we’ve Talked about so far You know most cases you can throw as Many links as you want on the page and You’re still not going to get anywhere Because your search intent’s wrong or Something’s broken on your site or Whatever Once you have fixed all those things and You know you’re In with a chance of of actually ranking There’s you have to kind of consider That you may be up against sites who are 10 15 20 years old and they’ve been
Acquiring links for a long period of Time actively and passively And you have the only way you can really Catch up with those older sites or or Time is by doing active link building And a hell of a lot of it um fortunately Or unfortunately depending on your your Point of view of paid links Paid links offer a Unique opportunity let’s call it to Direct a lot of links to specific pages And you get a lot more control over Where they’re they’re pointing to so In order to maximize the potential there It’s a good idea to have a link target List this is something which we have we Update every month on the first of the Month And it’s basically keywords we want to Defend keywords we want to attack and Then strategic keywords to like uh hub Page strategic page like hub pages and Pages which distribute link juice kind Of around the site so if you’re if you Want to attack a keyword you know you’re Bottom of page one Then just start throwing a lot of Usually paid uh external links from Outreach towards that And the more you do As long as they’re they’re they’re Decent the the better and you really Don’t need many as gail said You know you’re up against a competitor
Who has a thousand backlinks to page you Go in almost certainly most of them will Be And if you’re able to add you know three Four five links to that page per month In in many keywords certainly anything Which is you know low medium even medium High competition Um you’re gonna you’re gonna make Progress in in that and yeah outreach Based link building is is the way to go There harold and et cetera is not not Really gonna move the news For your links to page Yeah Yeah it’s a combination effort right but Yeah you need to you need both um horror Gets you probably better quality links But they’re like more to the overall Um The overall like authority of your site And you need that eventually like it Opens up new keyboards when you’re like Highly enough authority But Yeah And this is uh another case where you Kind of have to pick your battles right You can’t build all the links to all the Pages so pick you know three four five That you really want to push And then focus your link building effort For the next few months on on those Track the results and see what impact it
Has usually it’s positive Yeah Uh yeah that’s pretty much it and then i Put the last point uh anything you want On links again oh you’re done okay uh After the last point which is what what Do you do if i did all of this and it Didn’t work um and Because It happens right so I i want to say most likely you you Think you’ve done it all but you haven’t Um By far the most common scenario we get People coming to us is like hey mark um I’ve you know fixed all my content it’s Really good it’s unique you know it’s It’s it’s great all my own pages sorted I’m building links And then you go and actually look at the Content and it’s just like actually this Is You know average Below average uh content so If you think you’ve done it Ask someone else if they agree um Preferably someone’s going to give you An honest answer And then you you probably find that you Haven’t done those things Yeah but also some i mean definitely Like if you walk on other side you can Run for any keyboard probably you put The effort right but it might take like
A lot of tries before you actually Make some progress and not everything Every effort that you put yeah gets you Results actually and that’s quite Annoying but I want to add as well that there’s a Definitely a part of randomness here i Think i had that discussion with carl Roof when i met him at a conference at Some point where it’s like um you might Do everything right for a page It doesn’t rank doesn’t matter what you Do You have more links you have longer Better content you’ve put custom Illustrations it’s really nice etc and You like some some idiots who is a Terrible site it’s just outranking you And just makes you pull your hair out You know it’s just it’s really annoying Um and sometimes the opposite happens as Well it’s like a page you barely put any Effort in you just throw it in there and It starts ranking it becomes one of the Main pages on your site it makes you Pivot to a different direction etc Um And That part of randomness Even the best seo is experiencing it It’s not it’s not just you it’s not Everything People who You know are in this industry will tend
To not like talking too much about this In public because It takes away their power of being like I’m so great at seo et cetera like that Part of randomness right uh if there is Randomness there is also luck right that Means that means that work exists also In this industry um i i don’t think There’s luck on a large number of pages Like on a thousand pages i don’t think There’s luck but on one given pages on One given event uh eventually things Even out to your talent but uh on one Event yes it can happen and so Um It’s it’s part of there’s not much else To say then it’s not it’s That’s seo right we’re dealing Fundamentally with uh an unknown Algorithm there’s a huge part of it that We we don’t know so all we can do is Make the most of the information we we Have and try and apply some logic and Science to to that but to reduce the Result why is like part of a part art Part science right yeah but the thing is Like look at how i prepared this podcast Because what it does it looks us right Back to the beginning of the podcast Which is reopening a debate if there is Randomness if there is luck should we Keep publishing lots of pages or just Work on a few pages uh 100 because you Know because of that part of randomness
You might be focusing on pages that you Might you might eventually never rank You know i mean unlikely like if you Really do a good job you you would rank But but there is a bit of that too and So like that makes that debate even more Confusing I think like that so this is like a Total scientific answer but like my gut From you know our discussions we’ve been Having about this stuff over the past Last few weeks has been and bear in mind We’re like take look at this from like a Portfolio view of running multiple sites Um is that Rather than trying to like scale every Site to thousands of articles we we Should be okay with you know setting a Limit at 100 200 300 articles or however Many that that makes sense that are Realistic um without trying to kind of Stretch things too far and just try and Do a really good job of those and then Start another site Yeah it’s like it’s kind of like a uh A thought process that we’re still going Through right now but yeah we’re lacking The idea of like building Very clean Tight-focused sites Uh and uh and not always try to make Them like a thousand pages or something Like we have a site that reach around Like 300 something pages and we’re
Thinking like it’s not too far from Where we want it to to be permanently And instead of building more pages we’re Going to be like taking 100 pages that Don’t rank and Check recheck the keywords we check the Steps et cetera because these keywords Make they would make the most money if They ranked for example uh and that’s Why that’s why i wanted to bring in the Podcast today that debate et cetera i Think it’s interesting uh there’s pros And cons of everything and it’s like i Know people like clearcut answers uh but That’s not going to be one of these Podcasts however the clear-cut uh thing That you get is uh all the tips that we Gave you on doing on your page is like That’s what we recommend you do Um obviously some stuff like we’re Walking your content etc it’s hard to go In detail because each in each niche is Going to be different each process is Going to be different etc but overall That is how you fix a page that doesn’t Rank any Final words of wisdom mark I have words of wisdom which is a like Subscribe comment Etc anyway that’s pretty much it thank You very much guys for coming we’ll see You next in two weeks rather for another Episode have a good week.