You're doing it all wrong

That only works if you’re doing eCommerce SEO.

But it doesn’t work for local or niche sites, so why are you doing it?

Many SEOs incorrectly assume that what works in one niche will automatically work in another.

Wrong, that’s why you should test everything.

But there are a few principles that hold true across all niches:

1. Write valuable content

2. Build great links (internal & backlinks)

3. Create & maintain a healthy site structure

Now let’s get onto the nuances of each:

eCommerce

The first distinction is that the only metric that matters in eCommerce is organic search revenue. It’s the only directly attributable metric that indicates whether or not the strategy is working.

Blog traffic & email signups don’t make you enough money — they’re vanity metrics.

Building an eCom campaign? Do these things:

1. Choose a fast & reliable CMS — Shopify

2. Build a simple and easy-to-understand site structure

3. Audit & correct any technical issues

4. Optimize money pages

5. Write middle & top of funnel blog content

6. Build internal links from 1) blog posts to the products & collections AND 2) between similar blog posts

7. Build high-quality backlinks to your home, collection, and blog pages, but NOT to your product pages (Google will ignore these)

If you do these 7 things well, you will beat 99% of your eCom competitors.

Local SEO

The major difference between local & any other type of SEO is that local businesses don't need to rank #1 for an entire country or even state, just the local area that they serve.

Example: A plumber in Los Angeles, CA doesn’t need to rank #1 for all of California, just in his immediate neighborhoods.

Instead of Ahrefs charts, local SEOs track their rankings in a far more specified manner, like this:

But unlike eCommerce, local businesses don't track the success of a campaign by organic search revenue, they track the number of leads they get via phone calls, form submissions, and the like.

That’s how they make money.

Focus on these:

1. Choose a CMS - WordPress

2. Build a simple site structure

3. Audit & correct any technical issues

4. Create pages for every single service that you offer in every single service area that you offer it.
   
   (Example: you offer a service in 3 towns, create 3 pages that are optimized for "{service} + {town-name}." Add links to all of them in the footer menu.
   

5. Write middle & top of funnel blog content

6. Build internal links from 1) blog posts to the service pages AND 2) between similar blog posts

7. Build 200-300+ minimum local citations within local directories to establish your NAP (name, address, and phone number).

8. Build high-quality backlinks to your home, blogs, and service pages.

Niche/Media Sites

Following a vicious round of Google updates in late 2023, everyone was calling these niche sites. But now, they've rebranded to media companies — they're the same thing.

These sites make money with display ads and affiliate deals.

These sites make more money as they drive more visitors, meaning more organic traffic directly correlates to more money.

This is unlike eCommerce or local SEO, where you need to make more sales or get more leads in order to make money.

Do these things:

1. Pick a niche that you're passionate about (or extremely curious about) and ideally, not too competitive.

2. Choose a CMS - WordPress

3. Build a simple site structure (this will vary based on your site's topic)

4. Audit & correct any technical issues

5. Identify the most important keywords that need to exist in your niche, then build from there.

6. Write middle & top of funnel blog content

7. Build internal links from 1) blog posts to the main pages AND 2) between similar blog posts

8. Build high-quality backlinks to your home, blogs, and service pages.

9. Apply for a program like Ezoic or Mediavine to monetize your traffic.

10. Become an affiliate and monetize more.

If you isolate yourself into one niche, you will become a master. If you operate in a few niches, you may not.

Choose wisely.

Catch y’all on Monday.

Kai