NichePursuits.com - Follow Google's Lead

In early 2011, I started a blog called NichePursuits.com.

You see, I had just quit my job (on March 11th, 2011) and I wanted to share with those interested what had allowed me to quit my banking job and "make money online".

I had been building websites for a few years before 2011, and had FINALLY figured out how to make niche websites rank in Google and make money!

I was making more money from my niche sites than my full-time job (after 8 years in the corporate world), so I quit and I've never looked back since.

For over 10 years, I wrote nearly every blog post on Niche Pursuits and it was always more of a "side project" while I built other sites, created software tools, and focused on other pursuits.

However a year and a half ago, I thought...what would happen if I REALLY focused on Niche Pursuits and tried to grow it?

I mean, I've built up tons of authority, I have a following, and Google appears to love what I'm publishing.

I just need to do more content and scale the business.

So, that's what I did.

I hired writers, I scaled my content, and I turned into more of a strategic "manager" of employees than a writer of blog posts.

And it's crazy how well the process has worked!

Check out the entire traffic history of NichePursuits.com since its inception over 12 years ago...

When I made the decision to remove myself as the daily operator and started hiring a team to implement my strategic plans, I more than 5'xed the traffic coming from Google.

I've implemented a process I like to call... "Following Google's Lead".

Essentially, the process goes like this...

Analyze the articles and keywords that you are ranking well for in Google...then publish more articles related to or very similar to those topics.

For example, I found that I was doing well with "side hustle" related topics on Niche Pursuits...so I scaled that type of content.

Almost magically, these new articles related to side hustles also started to perform well.

When Google is rewarding you for something, stop trying to guess what you should publish next...follow Google's lead!

I also spend a lot of time in Google Search Console and other data tools to see what keywords I might already be ranking for, but have not written an article specifically on the subject.

For example, I noticed in Google Search Console, my site was ranking for a keyword related to "Niche Markets"...but I had never written an article specifically about "Niche Markets".

Well, I wrote a "Best Niche Markets" article, and now I'm at the #1 spot in Google for that term.

I could put confidence behind my content budget because I had a really good idea that investing in this keyword topic would pay dividends (i.e. Google was dropping lots of hints).

Over the last couple of years, I've analyzed tons of content for Niche Pursuits and published well over 1,000 articles.

As part of that process, I've wanted an easier way to track my keywords, analyze which authors are performing best, and to figure out what topics I should cover next.

As a result, I decided to create my own tool to help me do all of this.

That new tool is called Rank Logic, and I'll be opening the doors publicly on Wednesday.

However, even if you aren't interested in Rank Logic...I HIGHLY recommend you follow the strategy of "following Google's lead".

Follow the breadcrumbs that "Big G" is giving you in Google Search Console, in your analytics, or in any place you can find those clues.

Dig into the additional keywords that your pages are ranking for (by analyzing Google Search Console) and create new articles on those subjects where appropriate.

Or if you find a "vein" of keywords (like my side hustle related keywords), follow that vein as "deep into the mountain" as you can go.

There's gold in them hills...

It's hard to encapsulate what I've learned over the past 12 years of blogging at Niche Pursuits.

But one thing I've learned in the past couple of years is that you have to stick with it, don't be afraid to slightly shift your strategies, and you are more likely to find success when you follow the clues dropped by Google.

If you want to know the other steps I've taken in the last year or so to grow the traffic to Niche Pursuits, you can check out this video I made earlier this year right here.​

If you enjoyed this email, would you mind hitting the "reply" button and letting me know?

I'll be sharing more SEO tips on Wednesday, so be sure to watch for an email from me then.

Thanks again,

Spencer

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