Wave Issue 27

First...

What a week. I finally decided to update my MacBook Pro to the latest macOS, but it didn't go so well and I lost a couple of days.

I ended up having to go into the Apple Store for them to do a complete wipe and clean install, because it wouldn't recognize the Admin user anymore.

Luckily, I mostly work online and I can easily recover files. I learned by lesson due to having external hard drives die on me, so I rarely keep important files on physical devices.

I now have this combination of iCloud Drive, Dropbox, pCloud, and Wasabi where I store various files and backups. I stopped using Time Machine a couple of years ago, because it won't back up to the cloud. I used to use it to back up to an external hard drive, but then that HD died and everything on it was lost.

The biggest pain though is having to reinstall apps and set everything up again. That takes a long time. But the positive out of all this is it feels like a new computer and a fresh start.

And with the fresh start...I'm pleased to share the First Special Deal for Subscribers from Link Whisper! It comes with my own coupon code and landing page. Read more below.

As the newsletter list grows, I hope that I'll have more of these deals to help you on your Passive Income Journey! Please help us get there faster by sharing this newsletter with others on the same journey!

Sponsor

$20 OFF LinkWhisper for Niche Surfer Subscribers!

LinkWhisper is giving Niche Surfer Readers a $20 OFF Discount on the plugin!

It's valid for 10 Days from May 1 - 10, 2021.

You can get the $20 Discount two ways:

Head over to the Discount Landing Page
Use the Coupon Code: YOYAO

The discount and coupon code work for new accounts and when upgrading accounts to a higher site plan.

I use Link Whisper on all my sites and it's the easiest way to manage internal links and anchor text. If you own multiple sites in the same niche, that use Link Whisper, you can "connect" them and start getting link suggestions between the sites you own.

And with the recent feature addition of a Click Report, you'll now be able to know what internal and external links your visitors are clicking (more below). Use that data for conversion rate optimization.

Remember, internal linking tells Google how your site is structured and what the important pages of your site are. Without it, Google won't know what your site is about and will have a tough time ranking the site's pages.

SEO

Report indexing issues to Google directly

Let the games begin!

I can only imagine how overwhelmed the Google Search team will be now with all the reports of indexing issues. Then again, it could just be an automated process for them, because the submission form is pretty simple.

It asks for your name, website, and a couple radio buttons to select from:

Select the issue that best describes your question:

My website or web pages are not Indexed in Google Search.
My website or web pages are Indexed but aren’t ranking appropriately in search results.

Depending on how you answer, it'll point you to support articles or eventually take you to a way to explain the details of your indexing issues. Took me 6 steps to get to the details box and an area to upload files.

Google's Product Reviews Update – Analysis and Findings

Glenn Gabe analyzed many affiliate sites impacted by the Product Reviews Update and came away with some key findings. He also discusses his thoughts on what makes for good review content.

The first thing he says is it wasn't just about thin content:

When the update first rolled out, it was easy to think that all sites negatively impacted would have extremely thin review articles, short and meaningless posts, etc. That was definitely the case for some sites I analyzed that dropped, but definitely not all. Not even close actually.

That's good to know, because I've been racking my brain at many of my Site 1 articles that lost positioning to the ones that jumped ahead of me. Some I understood, but others, I was just lost. So it's not just about thin content.

And the sites that surged weren't necessarily because of the review content, it could've been because of their authority. He thinks Google will correct this at some point.

Don't Read Google's Quality Rater Guidelines - Read This Instead

You ever read Google's 170-page Quality Rater Guidelines?

If you haven't, don't worry, because it's summarized in this article by Onely with the key highlights. This is still a lengthy read, so grab that cup of coffee or tea, before you get into it.

You may also want to grab a notepad, because there's a lot of good information in here.

John Mueller says "Be Fast Enough"

As a reminder for those worried about page speed, John Mueller says you don’t need to be the fastest, you just need to be fast enough.

Compare your pages to the competition for your keyword. A tool like the Reddico SERP Speed Tool will make the comparison a breeze.

Tools and Resources

Introducing Clicks Report for Link Whisper! Track Clicks On Your Internal and External Links - YouTube

You can now quickly view detailed click reports on Link Whisper. See how many clicks your internal and external links get on each page of your site. That's pretty handy to have, so you know what's working and not working on each page.

The other way to track clicks is to try and track clicks through Google Analytics. Link Whisper's Click Reports are much easier to read though.

There's a great deal now on Link Whisper, so get it now to save yourself a lot of time creating and organizing internal links - Get Link Whisper Now.

Content

How To Optimize For The Featured Snippets | Step By Step Process - YouTube

Julie Adams shares featured snippet tips. This one is better than the others out there as she also goes through non-paragraph snippets like lists and tables. Majority of other snippet tips I've seen have only been on paragraphs, which she also gets into.

She digs a little deeper and shows you how to find who's second-in-line to get the snippet if anything happened to the first place site.

One tip I'll add for Tables is to use the <table> code, which is what Gutenberg gives you. I briefly talked about <table> vs <div> a few issues back and how <div> might've hurt search impressions on a page on my new site.

How to Use Topic Clusters for Content Marketing to Rank, Convert, and Strategize

Another good Topic Cluster Guide. This time from SurferSEO.

They talk about Pillar and Supporting Pages, and how to create and organize clusters. They also introduce how SurferSEO provides clustering and Content Planning tools.

I do have to say, it looks better than when I first tested it on its release. Might need to give it another go. Check out their Content Planner for yourself.

Education

The 4 Stages of an SEO-Driven Website Launch

Bruce Clay goes through the 4 stages of an SEO-Driven Website Launch:

Strategy and Planning
Build the Website
Launch the Website
Promote the Website

Nice check list of things to go through before launching your next niche site, from keyword research to content architecture (siloing).

"Building SEO into a website from the ground up — even before you launch — sets your website up for success right out of the gate... 'We launch next week so let’s check the SEO' is certain death."

Google Core Web Vitals Study by Marcus Tober

In-depth study on Core Web Vitals for 2 million URLs with the headliner:

Only 4% of websites achieved a good score in all 3 Core Web Vitals

If you want to get deep into CWV, this is for you. You'll need to provide your information and they'll email you a download link for the PDF.

One thing I like is they give the Best Case and Worst Case Examples for various metrics. It'll give you examples of what to shoot for, as well as avoid.

For example: When it comes to Speed Index Results, the Worst Case is LonelyPlanet.com and the Best Case is Distractify.com.

Recovery From The December 2020 Google Algorithm Update

Vlad Khvatov goes through everything he did to get traffic back to his affiliate site after being hit by the December 2020 Google Core Update

He has some interesting theories. It's hard to know what changes made the most impact, but collectively, it got his site from ~100-200 visitors a day to almost 1500. That was from January to April.

It doesn't seem like he got all his traffic back. He said he was getting more than 100k per month pre-update. He's now getting around ~45k per month in April.

But everything he did helped take him from ~100-200 to 1500 visitors per day after the April Product Reviews Update. Huge accomplishment.

Where to Buy Online Businesses For Sale in 2021: 11 BEST Marketplaces

A good list of where to buy online businesses. Even though the article is angled as where to Buy, it's also a good list of where to Sell. There're many types of online businesses that are being bought and sold:

Affiliate Sites
eCommerce
SaaS
Apps
Advertising
Lead Generation
Subscription (e.g., online courses, newsletters)

How Do Search Engines Work? Beginner's Guide

In case you're newer to the game, here's a good overview to understand how search engines work. Understand how Google and others build their index of sites and rank pages, as well as personalize search results.

This may seem basic, but it can be surprising sometimes how people will skip the first step of SEO by understanding how search engines work.

Five ways We’re making Google the safer way to search

Google wrote about how they're keeping search safe for all of us.

Fighting Spam - 40 Billion spammy pages discovered Every day.
Encrypting Searches - 3rd parties can't access what you're searching
Helping you learn more about your results before you click
Browsing Safely - The intermediate Google Safe Browsing pages you see if they think the site you clicked on might be unsafe
Protecting You From Bad Ads - They blocked or removed 3.1 billion ads in 2020

Google published their Webspam Report 2020

Through the YouTube video in the blog post, I also discovered they have a "(home) movie about how Google Search works." This came out in October 2020 and has almost 90 million views. I somehow missed it until this week!

Like Niche Surfer?

Let me know! Reply or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to know what you think.

I’d also appreciate it if you shared it with fellow niche surfers.

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