[Journey] Start and Grow a Content Site From $0 to $$,$$$ in 12 Months or Less

[iamb]

@iamb
Sorry if I sound harsh
Sandbox Theory is a total myth
it's an excuse not to do anything
or to blame an external force
Google has well documented rules
one of these rules is not all content gets indexed
I GUARANTEE you this -->
High quality content gets indexed

Hey @Honeybadger , no worries. You don't sound harsh and I don't get into the sandbox discussion thing.

I am just stating what I have observed. I have published 63 pages and only 29 are indexed as of now.
Google is indexing them but slowly so there is nothing i can do but wait as i stated before.
It's all good and part of the game.

 

[Graybeard]

Most of my pages are never crawled by SEO tools I have all these robots blocked. My theory is Google indexes everything that they can and then they decide what they're never going to show. So, if you're trying to game the googlebot Google has your number: they know who you are and they're never going to put you in the search again that's why they keep their index.

 

[Honeybadger]

I am just stating what I have observed. I have published 63 pages and only 29 are indexed as of now.
Google is indexing them but slowly so there is nothing i can do but wait as i stated before.
It's all good and part of the game.

It's not a waiting game
it's an ACTION game
you need to PROVE to Google
that your content is good enough to be served
that it's BETTER than your competitors content
that it meets all the GUIDELINES
that it's UNIQUE and QUALITY content
because Google doesn't automatically index all content
it's not because Google is too slow
I know this for a fact
because 30% of my product pages
have never been indexed in over a year
--> the ones I haven't optimized yet
waiting achieves absolutely nothing
so instead of waiting
take ACTION to improve your content
then repeat & repeat & repeat
that's what pushes you to the top of SERPs

 

[Honeybadger]

AI or ML/word substitution

May have asked you this before?
--> how to automate AI or ML word substitution
but like a human
because my play is manual actions
starting with bestsellers
it does take time but it also looks human
and it puts shiny beans in my bank account

 

[Graybeard]

If you are past page 3 SERP 31+ forget it --crumbs for you
So, what was the point?
site:example.com
You will get the total index but only so many pages that are relevant will be shown.
There must be more that 10 billion pages on the internet now
As always; good luck to the winners

Block Search Indexing with noindex | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers

A noindex tag can block Google from indexing a page so that it won't appear in Search results. Learn how to implement noindex tags with this guide.

developers.google.com

google will honor the noindex and noarchive directive

When, Why & How to Use the Noarchive Tag

Wondering when to use meta robots tags such as the noarchive tag? Read this post and learn when, why, and how to use the noarchive tag correctly.

www.searchenginejournal.com

Why use these --it makes your page harder for the scrapers to find after you have blocked them
use with caution and understand what this will do

 

[Honeybadger]

Do you dig basements with a shovel

Yes I have done this week
Got paid for it too
$150

 

[iamb]

It's not a waiting game
it's an ACTION game
you need to PROVE to Google
that your content is good enough to be served
that it's BETTER than your competitors content
that it meets all the GUIDELINES
that it's UNIQUE and QUALITY content
because Google doesn't automatically index all content
it's not because Google is too slow
I know this for a fact
because 30% of my product pages
have never been indexed in over a year
--> the ones I haven't optimized yet
waiting achieves absolutely nothing
so instead of waiting
take ACTION to improve your content
then repeat & repeat & repeat
that's what pushes you to the top of SERPs

I think you got it wrong here.

My waiting is not about sitting idle and doing nothing.
It's keep publishing my content as planned and keep moving.
When the big G catches up with its indexing then i can go back to assess.
That's what works for me.

Every person has his/her own processes.

 

[iamb]

​

Happy New Year 2022 Everyone! May 2022 bring you health, happiness and success in your projects!

Month 4 - Update: I started this content site based on other successful stories about low competition keywords. More importantly rank on page 1 of google without any form of backlinking.

My Goals for Month 4 (December 2021) were:

• Optimize articles for better rankings.
• Build more internal links.
• Publish at least 34 more articles.

My Results for December 2021:

I published 5 articles way under the initial 34 planned, bringing the total number of published articles to 68.

I have noticed that from mid-November well into December most of my posts/articles are not being indexed by Google.

62 of my posts are in the “Discovered – currently not indexed” status in Google Search Console. No apparent errors and no clue about what’s happening with the big G.

That took a toll on my articles production and publishing rate as I would like to figure out what’s happ.

Other bloggers in some sub reddit groups have reported a similar challenge. Some have successfully resolved their issue after building external links to those posts.

I am still resisting building links to the site as this would defy the whole purpose of this case study.

Published articles:
September 2021: 22
October 2021: 15
November 2021: 26
December 2021: 5

I have crossed the 50k published words count.

First or second week of December, I submitted the site to Bing Webmaster so getting a trickle of traffic from Bing as well.

Traffic:

I had 1.4K impressions, 40 clicks and 48 unique visitors.

The screenshot above is from the Google Site Kit dashboard on the site.

Impressions, clicks and number of unique visitors are on the rise.


The following screenshot is my traffic from Bing.

228 impressions, 7 clicks with an average position of 5.2

Ahrefs shows 10 backlinks from 8 referring domains. I did not build those links.

Rankings

I have 95 keywords ranking with some slowing showing up on page 1 for the first time! Ranging from position 6-10. The search volume is low so is the traffic as per Ahrefs.

My Goals from January 2022 onward:

I intend to update this thread on a quarterly basis from January 2022 onward. My next update will be first week of April accounting for Jan-Feb-Mar.

The main reason for this change in strategy is because nothing exciting happens within 4 weeks beside me publishing articles and reporting on traffic.

I would like to have something more meaningful to report on such as challenges faces and how I overcame them.

For the next quarter:

• Optimize articles for better rankings.
• Build more internal links.
• Understand and fix why some posts that are discovered but not indexed
• Publish at least 50 more articles.

 

[Graybeard]

so instead of waiting
take ACTION to improve your content
then repeat & repeat & repeat
that's what pushes you to the top of SERPs

That is why you need to use dynamic content.
With affiliate 'stuff' You need to use AI or ML/word substitution to keep your feed descriptions different from the stock feed that the affiliate program supplies to you.

Feeds can generate 100 pages a day --then googlebot will disregard may of the pages but they are part of the algorithm ranking of your best pages.

At one point I had a few thousand pages of rare camgirls
--because their page was generated NEW only when they were online
--but when offline the page would still open if it appeared in a search
--I had 1000 needles in the haystack --if you get my drift.

Apply this to amazon;
--when the product is out of stock you can tell from the feed
--when you generate the page
--but you can still have the link and the user will be referred to Amazon
--some referrals will buy something else and you will make 'found' money.

 

[Strickland]

Looks good your blog is coming on nicely, things should start to pick up soon.
68 articles is pretty good going in 4 months, do you know how many words are published?

 

[iamb]

Looks good your blog is coming on nicely, things should start to pick up soon.
68 articles is pretty good going in 4 months, do you know how many words are published?

I have published 51, 470 words so far.

 

[Graybeard]

I busted ass learning coding for many years. Trial and error and solving one problems at a time.
That is one reason why --dynamic websites.
Do you dig basements with a shovel or hire a man with a machine (excavator)?

 

[iamb]

Months 5 to 7 Update: I started this content site based on other successful stories about low competition keywords. More importantly rank on page 1 of google without any form of backlinking.

My Goals for Months 5 to 7 (January-March 202) were:

• Optimize articles for better rankings.
• Build more internal links.
• Understand and fix why some posts that are discovered but not indexed
• Publish at least 50 more articles.

My Results for Janurary - March 2022:

The first quater of 2022 has been a roller coaster for me between starting a new job, moving to another province and juggling with my side project.

I have managed to publish 32 more articles far below the planned 50.

As mentioned in my previous update, many of my posts are discovered by brother G but not indexed. Chatting with other bloggers, it seems to be a common trend.

Right now i have a total of 100 published articles but only 29 are indexed in google as hown bellow:

I have also started creating some social profiles/properties to build more trust in the eyes of search engines.

Although most of my metrics are on the rise, I have not reached a level of traffic allowing me to monetize the site properly.

From January till March 22 Google search console shows the followin:

My Plan for April - May - June 2022

• Optimize articles for better rankings.
• Build more internal links.
• Build more social profiles/properties to increase brand trust
• Publish at least 50 more articles.

 

[iamb]

Do you know *why* 79 pages (posts) are excluded?

1. Are you using <link rel="canonical" href=""> is duplication the issue? (I think not with WP)?
2. The uniqueness of the content?
3. Other
4. Don't really know (--investigating)

Seems like a high percentage exclusion rate unless it's made from a feed straight up ...
Does content word count seem to make a difference with what gets into the SERPs and what is excluded ?

No i don't know why the 79 pages are excluded. I stop trying to figure it out and assume G will get to them at some point.
I have actually noticed that google is sort of catching up as I saw some pages show up that were previously not indexed.

Many other bloggers have noticed the same behavior with their projects. Here is a screenshot for Shaun's project on the $1M valuation site. At the time it had like 445 excluded paged (week 4 i think). Few months later he still has posts that are not indexed within the same range.

I don't think it's uniqueness of the content. I can't really blame the length of the posts either because I have some short ones 650 words that are indexed while 1,500 words post are not. I was losing the few grey hair left on my head so just gave up. I keep publishing and hopefully google catches up at some point

 

[iamb]

Interesting to know and compare.
@shaunm has a lower % that you do --it would be interesting to know the aging of his mix --compared to your mix's aging.

• Q: Is some bizarre sandbox or just Google being overwhelmed with content.
• Q: is there a comparable ratio (included:excluded) at Bing Webmaster tools?
• Q: Is this a search engine specific issue or a global issue?

One thing i know for sure is that Shaun actively builds links and I don't. It could also be age related, not sure.

• Q: Is some bizarre sandbox or just Google being overwhelmed with content.

A: I can only guess that Google is probably overwhelmed.

• Q: is there a comparable ratio (included:excluded) at Bing Webmaster tools?

A: Good question. I checked and Bing Webmaster shows 30 so close to what Google is showing. I am not surprised as I log in using my Google account so i can only assume that they likely pulling the data from G. I will looking closely on Bing Webmaster.

• Q: Is this a search engine specific issue or a global issue?

A: Not sure about what you mean by this. I have been focusing on google so far with little time to Bing.

 

[Strickland]

Im having the same thing with a similar % to yours

This domain is 18 months old although I only started really adding content in January. I have done some backlinks but mostly only social media stuff. It has over 90 indexed keywords but only a handful are stable, the rest are jumping around all over the place, sometimes 40 places or more.
Are you having the same with your keywords?

 

[Strickland]

Good work BTW, you have some steady progress going on and the stats are moving the right way

 

[iamb]

Good work BTW, you have some steady progress going on and the stats are moving the right way

Hey @Strickland , thank you for the kind words. Yes i think the site is moving in the right direction. I just have to be patient and keep publishing. Many people are having this indexing issue. I stopped trying to figure it out

As for your previous question: I have roughly 362 keywords that are ranking in total but only 12 are showing up on the first page with trikle traffic:

Note that yesterday i rewrote an existing article that is not indexed. I will let it sit for few days and see if gets picked up by google. If yes then i may likely rewrite a baunch of them.

I will keep you posted

 

[kayode10]

Just like you said, everyone in the blogging community, especially the new website owners are facing a serious issue with post indexing on their website.

I would like to tell you that I also created my website after reading the Phil's journey on reddit and on his website. My website will be in 10 months old at the end of April.

Sorry to burst your bubbles, if you don't do anything to the indexation issue, you are going to have this kind of problem for a long period of time. I am speaking from experience.

Indexation issue is one the reasons why the traffic to your website is underwhelming after several months.

I faced the same issue in the past, but it is no more. The issue didn't dissolve by itself, I force index all the posts on my website. I make use of Google API to force index all my post.

You can check Rank Math Blog for a complete guide on how to use Google API to index some of the posts on your website.

As for your case study, I would like to tell you to have a reconsideration on your approach of not building backlinks in this case study. I know you will hate to hear this, but I am being honest with you.

Your website needs authority to gain a lot of organic traffic from Google search engine. This will be possible if your website has lot of quality backlinks, either by attracting or you build them by yourself.

See, I managed to stumble on Phil niche website in the case study, when I was doing keyword research for my niche site. His website has a lot of authority backlinks. It received a lot of backlinks in it early days. Hence, the jump in the traffic.

Last time I checked, it was over 1400 backlinks pointing to the website and the site has domain authority of 28 on Ahref.

These are the things those guys are not saying in their case study, especially those guys on Reddit Just Start.

With my experience, there is no way a website will receive a lot of organic traffic without having some level of authority on Google search engine.

This is the reason why I like @shaunm YouTube channel. The guy will let you know that he builds backlinks to his websites in his videos. And the websites are gaining organic traffic as a result. He is a practical guy, he does not sell dreams.

Look at it, 7 months down you are yet to crush over a 1000 page views in a month. And Phil's website had already hit 50,000 pageviews in first 5 months.

You either write contents that attract lots of backlinks or you build them by yourself. The ball is in your court.

 

[Graybeard]

Do you know *why* 79 pages (posts) are excluded?

1. Are you using <link rel="canonical" href=""> is duplication the issue? (I think not with WP)?
2. The uniqueness of the content?
3. Other
4. Don't really know (--investigating)

Seems like a high percentage exclusion rate unless it's made from a feed straight up ...
Does content word count seem to make a difference with what gets into the SERPs and what is excluded ?

 

[iamb]

Hey @kayode10 , thank you for stopping by and thanks for sharing your experience as well. I am always thrill to meet like minded warriors

I agree with you that if I don't start building links, the site will not take off by itself. If you read my latest update, you will notice I have started building links with social profiles first. There is no point in not adjusting my approach given that after 6 months I am no where near genarating enough traffic to monetize.

Thanks for the tip on the Google API thing to index posts. I never thought about it. I will check out Rank Math's blog and get on it.

How did you come to discover Phil's website? He did not share it in his case study

Please keep sending your feedback. It helps me improve my strategy and overall health of my site.

Thank you mate!

 

[kayode10]

How did you come to discover Phil's website? He did not share it in his case study

Phil didn't share his website in the case study. I came across it when I was doing research for my niche website as well.

I saw his name on the website, I did little research and I discovered that it was the website he talks about in his case study. I got to know about this when I checked the domain name's age with Whois. The age tally with the time he started the case study.

The website has this metric,

DA 28 PA 39 TF 11 CF 27

As for the backlink building, after you have done with the profile links. You need to build contextual backlinks to your site. The popular strategies are guest post and niche edit on authority websites.

 

[Graybeard]

Interesting to know and compare.
@shaunm has a lower % that you do --it would be interesting to know the aging of his mix --compared to your mix's aging.

• Q: Is some bizarre sandbox or just Google being overwhelmed with content.
• Q: is there a comparable ratio (included:excluded) at Bing Webmaster tools?
• Q: Is this a search engine specific issue or a global issue?

 

[Strickland]

Could you send me a link to Phil's journey thread, please? I'd be interested to have a read of that.

 

[iamb]

Could you send me a link to Phil's journey thread, please? I'd be interested to have a read of that.

Hi journey on reddit is "

https://www.reddit.com/r/juststart/comments/ftxb1l

"
You will find the same thread on his website "earning financial freedom dot com" all in one word

 

[Graybeard]

I know, for now Google is 66% to 90% of the search market depending on the GEO.
The term 'global' is generic to a 'all included' statement --and not geographic in that context.

 

[Strickland]

You will find the same thread on his website

Cheers, pretty interesting case study, he seems like one of the good guys.