Wave Issue 65

First...

Need Your Thoughts

We're on issue 65 of the Niche Surfer newsletter now, and it's changed a lot in terms of the links and information that I share with you each week.

Many of you have sent some great emails to me about how much you enjoy the newsletter and your questions/thoughts on building and improving your niche sites.

As I look to the future of the newsletter, I want to get more thoughts in a formal fashion, so I can break it down into actionable steps for me to improve the newsletter for you. I've created a 10-question survey that I'd love if you can answer. It should take less than 5 minutes of your time!

Niche Surfer Survey

Please help me help you!

With that, there are lots of interesting articles this week, so grab that cup of coffee before you get into it.

SEO

22 Smart Google SEO Tips for 2022

SEO expert Cyrus Shepard shares his top 22 tips for successful Google SEO in 2022. Blog post and video on what to focus on in 2022. Tips include:

A/B testing
Author pages
Google title rewrites
Nuke the "fluff"
FAQ schema
Tabbed content
Faceted navigation
Internal link optimization
Deep linking
High ROI link building

The Right Way to Increase Domain Authority (5 Steps, 4 Truths, 3 Tips)

Wordstream discusses how improving Domain Authority is worthwhile because it relies on factors that are essential to ranking well in Google, and ranking well in Google means more traffic to your site. To show Google that your domain is authoritative and well-trusted by other websites on the internet, follow the steps covered in this post to increase your Domain Authority:

Get listed in directories
Write great content
Guest post on other sites
Invest in public relations
Try broken link building

8 Losing Tests from SearchPilot

SearchPilot give 8 SEO tests that were Losers. They are often asked about examples of the kinds of changes that can negatively impact organic search performance, so they put together a resource listing a range of losing tests. Some of the decreases in organic traffic were quite large, so it's a good list to check out:

Adding “video” to the titles of pages containing videos
Adding seasonal messaging to title tags and meta descriptions
Adding an interstitial email sign-up form
Forcing Google to use the site’s meta descriptions in search results
Removing numbers from title tags
Adding prices to title tags
Adding emoji to meta descriptions
Removing “SEO text” from category pages

How to Improve Organic Clickthrough for Your Content

SERPs are becoming more diverse and interactive, making any CTR study out there much less reliable, because no two sets of search results are ever the same. So, how much control do content creators have over how their work is represented in search? As it turns out, quite a bit!

This is a good look at how the SERPs break down visually and what you can do to improve clickthrough rates.

SEO Office Hours, January 7th, 2022

Onely summarizes the Google SEO Office Hours on Jan. 7th with John Mueller. These are teh topics covered:

Can the consistency of blog posting affect crawling and ranking?
Do hreflang tags affect a website’s ranking?
Google Chrome data vs. ranking
SERP features and ranking
JavaScript strings vs. crawl budget
Nofollow vs. noindex tags
Problems with getting a page indexed
The level of traffic for an article
The increase in content uniqueness vs. ranking

How To Fix “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” in Google Search Console

This article is a deep-dive into the Discovered – currently not indexed section of the Search Console’s Index Coverage report, focusing on analyzing why your pages get there and how to fix any issues that could be causing it.

Tools and Resources

Great Deals Out There for Niche Site and Content Creators

Directorist - A handy directory WordPress plugin. You can create any type of directory websites as you want simply using our awesome WordPress directory plugin. Niche Pursuits recently released an article on starting a business directory website to get some ideas. Ends in 1 Day.

Texta.ai - AI copy generator, including long form content like blog posts. Texta.ai says their AI learns from your style and from the type of content you write to write future content.

sKreen - Create and host five different types of meetings with built-in monetization for selling memberships. Best for: Remote teams, content creators, and instructors looking to host live conferences and digital courses.

TrueRanker - Discover and track relevant keywords to improve SEO visibility and traffic. Automatically send and receive SEO reports with custom filters and tags. Has a WordPress Plugin too, so you can see your keywords and rankings inside your WP dashboard.

BerryCast - Record your screen, camera, and audio at the same time to create impactful videos. I use this myself. Ends in 3 Days.

Content

Are Outbound Links A Google Search Ranking Factor?

Miranda Miller takes a look at both sides of the question and provides evidence For and Against outbound links as a ranking factor.

In general, Google says outbound links are to:

Cite sources
Improve user experience
Endorsements of high-quality content.

Link Building

Link Building Tactics - 3 That Work + 3 That Don't Work

Debbie Chew gives her reasoning why to stop 3 link building tactics and the 3 strategies that you should be doing.

Stop these 3 strategies:

Skyscraper technique
Broken backlink building
Buying "500 DA 50+ links for $50"

Do these 3 strategies:

Stats compilation
Data-backed research report
Create a free tool

Buying Backlinks? The Ultimate Link Buyers Guide (Must-Read)

A complete guide to buying backlinks in 2022. Topics include:

What exactly is backlink buying?
Google's stance on link buying
Different link attributes (and which is Google safe)
A brief history of link buying
Why people buy backlinks
How much backlinks cost
Four ways to pay for links
How to buy backlinks the right way

Education

Website Due Diligence: 6-Step Framework For Buying Sites

Mushfiq shares a 6-step framework for website due diligence when looking to buy a content site. It includes a 46-question checklist of questions to ask and see if it's a good opportunity.

Digital Marketing Agency Pricing Survey from Credo (updated 2021)

Saw Credo’s 2021 edition of our digital marketing pricing survey results and thought it'd be interesting for those who also offer SEO and digital marketing services.

Much of what we do in building and growing niche sites give us the skills to also help others with their SEO, content marketing, and more. Maybe this might encourage you to raise your rates and/or start offering services.

How to Write a Press Release (+ Free Template)

Ahrefs guide to Press Release Writing 101, plus a free, copyable template. A well-crafted press release can help relationship-building, manage a brand’s image, and improve SEO. Here’s everything you need to know about press releases, including a step-by-step guide to writing a good one:

What a press release is
When to use a press release
How to distribute a press release
What to avoid in a press release
How to craft a press release
Tracking a press release’s performance

Here's also a good link to a [PDF by Cision] with Dos and Don'ts of writing a great press release.

Case Study

Analysis Of 48 Odys Global Domains: Where Are They Now?

Mushfiq runs through a list of 48 Odys.Global domains that he featured weekly in 2021. He went back and analyzed those domains to see what the current status of these domains were.

Aged domains aren't that cheap, so it's good to see where these domains are now. The average domain cost of the domains he featured was $3,369 ($1,230 to $9,990) and only 7 out of the 48 did not sell on Odys.

Interesting stats include an average cost of $20.30 for each dofollow referring domain, $169 per domain rating, and $250 per year of domain age.

And out of the 48 domains, only 17 domains were actively worked on. Another 17 were not being actively worked on, which he credits to "shiny object syndrome." Shiny object syndrome is real.

I mentioned before how I purchased a bunch of aged domains at GoDaddy auctions. Some I've already started to work on or 301 redirected to another site. Already seeing the benefits of buying the domains. I still have domains that I'm listing for sale that I haven't had the time to start new sites on yet. If someone else can take advantage of them with a 301 redirect or to build a new site, all the better. A few have been purchased, but some domains are still left.

Business Ideas

Low Competition Niches with High Earnings Potential

Ahrefs video on low competition niches with high earnings potential.

Niche #1: Test preparation for graduate schools
Niche #2: Snowboarding equipment
Niche #3: Golf equipment
Niche #4: Baby products
Niche #5: Daily fantasy sports

Ready. Set. Go make a site!

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