Wave Issue 114

First...

A couple exciting things happened this week:

1. Case Study - Topical Authority + Programmatic SEO

I teamed up with Dim and Paul to launch a new case study that brings together 3 of the hottest strategies to building niche sites: Topical Authority, Topical Maps, and Topical Authority.

More on the case study below in the Case Study section.

2. Course - Topical Maps Unlocked: Topical Authority Made Simple

I'll be launching my first course ever! I've created it with the goal to help others build topical authority through topical maps.

I'm finalizing the course outline and will be announcing a Presale to the course next week. It'll be offered at a significant discount to reward the early birds who want to learn about topical authority.

Topical authority is often made out to be a very complicated strategy because of the technical jargon and concepts in SEO like semantics, entities, patents, natural language processing (NLP), etc.

All that is good to know as background info, but the more important thing is the how of actually building topical maps and topical authority. How to use topical maps to flesh out content plans, guide internal linking, anchor text, and site architecture.

I'll also be doing an over-the-shoulder topical map creation on a niche and seed keyword that the early bird students will help me choose! This will help everyone learn how to apply everything practically in the course.

I plan to make this course as simple as possible so it's accessible. I want to demystify topical authority and topical maps for everyone because I feel it's the way forward for the future. Others seem to agree as well.

I shared a Twitter poll this week asking people which approach is best for long-term success: Low-Competition Keyword VS Topical Authority Approaches. Here are the results:

55% of people say the Topical Authority approach better
30% couldn't decide which would be better
15% favored Low-Competition approach

I've been wanting to do a course for some time and it seems to be a great time for it. This is a challenge that I'm looking forward to!

More to come! 😄

Niche Creators

Niche Creators - Q&A Interviews

For this week, here are 4 of my favorite Niche Creator interviews sharing great tips:

Arielle Phoenix - Has a new Bulk Publishing + AI-Spreadsheet Tool below
Charles Floate
Michael Donovan - Niche Twins
Morten Storgaard - Passive Income Geek

Learn how they got to where they are with their niche sites and brands, along with their top tips.

SEO

E-E-A-T and major updates to Google’s quality rater guidelines

Lily Ray takes a look at the significant changes that Google has made to its Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) for search.

While Google updates this document several times per year, the latest version came with notable changes to the structure of the document, with many new sections and tables added and a total of 11 new pages worth of content.

While there are dozens of important details about what changed, arguably the most important change was the introduction of the letter E to the start of the popular acronym E-A-T -> E-E-A-T:

Experience.
Expertise.
Authoritativeness.
Trustworthiness.

If you can't bring yourself to read all 176 pages of the Quality Rater Guides, this is a good recap article of the important changes.

SEO Predictions for 2023

Sean Si, SEO Hacker, gives his 2023 SEO predictions that are different from the stock predictions others give:

A.I.milar Content will run Amok and Get De-valued
Top 3 Ranking Websites will Fluctuate in and out
Less Organic Results, More Sponsored Ads
Link Entropy will be More Felt
Voice Search Will Still not be a Thing

Tools and Resources

Bulk Publishing Framework + AI-Integrated Google Sheet

Arielle Phoenix has just released her Bulk Publishing Framework and AI-Integrated Google Sheet. Really useful spreadsheet tool that takes advantage of OpenAI GPT to create headlines, paragraphs, titles, and more.

She shows you how to have AI create all that in a spreadsheet and then how to bulk publish it all into WordPress.

Save $50 for a limited time with this code: SAVE50

If you want to try your hand at pSEO with AI help, this is one to definitely see! Check out the video on the page to see how easy it is to use.

Google algorithm update list - A history of the known and suspected updates

Marie Haynes offers a great resource page that lists all the known and suspected Google Updates ever since 2011 with the first Panda rollout. She also includes many other non-algo updates like SERP features and changes.

This is a good one to bookmark and come back to whenever you have questions about algo and SERP updates.

Introducing the Google Search Status Dashboard

Google now has a public tool that shares the status of Search systems - crawling, indexing, and serving.

This dashboard reports widespread issues occurring in the last 7 days, with some details and the current status of the incident. A widespread issue means there's a systemic problem with a Search system affecting a large number of sites or Search users. Typically these kinds of issues are very visible externally, and internally the SREs' monitoring and alerting mechanisms are working behind the scenes to flag the issues.

Content

Programmatic SEO: Your missing link to 1M+ sessions

Jake Gronsky shares an in-depth article on programmatic SEO on Search Engine Land. This is a great overview of pSEO and how to get started with it.

Step 1: Keyword research for programmatic SEO
Step 2: Building the content template
Step 3: Connect to a database
Step 4: Publish and get indexed

Link Building

Finding a PBN in an Aged Domain for Sale on GoDaddy

Nice video recap from Adam Smith on how he found out an expiring domain selling on GoDaddy auctions used to be part of a PBN. The domain still sold over $6k.

This is something that most people would never find because it wouldn't pop out at you.

Be careful out there when buying aged/expired domains. You can also go to a domain marketplace like Odys to find ones they've already vetted.

December 2022 Link Spam Update Releasing for Google Search

Google has released another updated, this time to neutralize unnatural links and their impact on search results. Ranking may change as spammy links are neutralized and any credit passed by these unnatural links are lost. This launch will affect all languages.

Education

GPT-3.5 + ChatGPT: An illustrated overview – Dr Alan D. Thompson

For all those who have been using ChatGPT a lot, this is a nice article about the history of it from Dr. Alan Thompson. He also shares a ChatGPT Prompt Book that includes many ways of using ChatGPT that differ from the "write a blog article / intro / outline" that many people are using it for.

The prompt book is how I found out that ChatGPT only got a 1020 on a full SAT test (500 Math and 520 Reading & Writing).

There's also a hack prompt to get it to create images.

7 Simple Steps to Grow Your Online Business

Running an online business is an excellent way to be your own boss, work on your own terms, and (hopefully) make a lot of money. That's what we all want isn't it?

But growing an online business can be challenging. There’s a decent learning curve, and the way people interact with the digital world is constantly changing. These 7 steps will help you grow:

Step 1. Figure out where your best customers are Step 2. Create a solid user experience Step 3. Decide on two to three key marketing channels Step 4. Create high-quality, relevant content Step 5. Develop strong partnerships Step 6. Automate, delegate, and delete Step 7. Scale your efforts

My Take: I've been a big proponent of treating your sites as a stand-alone brand and online business. Omnichannel content marketing and having other ways to drive traffic is becoming a bigger part of sites. These types are articles about online businesses are very helpful for insights and ideas on growth.

7 Effective Digital Marketing Channels & How to Use Them

Digital marketing channels are platforms brands use to market products and services. You can choose one or many channels to deliver your message and reach your target audience. Use

Semrush covers seven of the best digital marketing channels and break down how to use each one to grow brand awareness, generate leads, and increase sales.

Content Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Email Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Paid Advertising
Video Marketing
Referral Marketing

Case Study

Topical Authority + Programmatic SEO Case Study - Month 1

Announcing a new case study with Dim and Paul (LowFruits)!

We are combining Topical Authority and Programmatic SEO to build a new site and seeing where we can take it!

We're combining our complementary skills to attempt something that we haven't seen anyone else do in a public way. Niche and domain will be revealed in future months to allow for natural growth initially.

If you're not familiar with Dim and Paul, check out their Niche Creator interviews here:

The $120BN SEO Industry: 25 Success Stories (with Revenue Numbers)

Glen Allsopp shares 25 success stories in the $120 billion SEO industry. This isn't a full update (to come in Feb 2023), but it's still a great look at some of the successful companies out there. Very interesting stuff, including companies I haven't even heard of.

Imitating my sites could set you up for failure – Here’s Why

Great post from Anne Moss about why copying others isn't going to get you as far as you think. She talks about 3 of her failed sites and why it's not a good idea to follow what others have done.

My Take: I feel the same way. Even with public case studies, you're not going to be able to follow their "exact" formula because you're not with them day-to-day. Even if you were, there would still be differences. I could give 10 people the same topical map, but no 2 sites will be similar and have the same results. Some will succeed and some will fail. It's all about execution.

Generating Six-Figure Profits from $40 SEO Audits: A Detailed Guide

Glen Allsop articles are always packed full of great information and this one is no different. He talks about how he built a $40 10-min. SEO video audit service and the business model of it.

It's great insight from two fronts:

His experiences and advice on how to build and grow a similar audit service.
Finding SEO issues that are easy to find and should be fixed because it will ruin UI/UX for your users and search engines.

News

Continuous Scrolling on Google Desktop

Starting today, we’re bringing continuous scrolling to desktop in English in the U.S. so you can continue to see more search results easily. When you reach the bottom of a search results page, you'll now be able to see up to six pages of results.

My Take: Great news for your sites and pages that are at the bottom of page 1 / top of page 2 of the SERPs. It'll feel seamless and users won't have the friction to see more results. But...this could hurt sites that are in the Top 10 more because users may continue scrolling down, rather than go back up to decide on a better result to click.

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Have a great week taking your niche sites to another level!