Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The May 22 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

This issue of Seotistics won't simply talk about Analytics. We are going to see why some content websites fail and recommend some practical solutions.

While it may seem unrelated to Analytics, there is a connection between the two!

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🔑 The 5 Key Problems

Many content projects fail or are never intended to win, based on my personal experience.

You see this very clearly once you do some audits and check many websites in your free time.

The main causes I've found are:

Lack of quality/value proposition: content is easy to replicate and doesn't bring any distinctive feature. The bare minimum is done to rank and it's mostly a copycat article.
Weak management: no one has a clue about what's going on. There are no procedures, deadlines and clear goals.
Low budget: you can't lead a war without weapons. The same goes for SEO, you can't rank in some niches without spending.
Slow execution: how much does it take to publish one article? This is what many do wrong... you need to be fast enough if you want to see results.
Traffic > Money: Before you start any project, think about monetization. If you can't picture yourself making money, then stop. Too many websites first get traffic and then think about profit!

The main culprits are the lack of quality and low budget.

❓ Ask These Questions First

Ask the right questions first. I usually recommend to stop for a moment and ask the following:

👉 What'll be the unique value of the website? Why should people read me?

👉 What do I mean by quality content? Can I set some criteria?

👉 What's my goal? How many people do I need to achieve it?

👉 How much money do I need? Are my competitors spending more?

👉 Can I churn at least X articles per month?

👉 How is this supposed to make money?

👉 Do I need other marketing channels? (Spoiler: you do)

As you notice, projects can fail because you didn't ask the right questions...

It may look like an exaggeration but think about it for a second... how many disasters would have been prevented with the right questions?

🧮 Actionable SEO Tip - SOPs & Monitoring

I can't help you with how much money you own, but can with all the rest.

SOPs and Monitoring are the solution to many problems, you don't need to overcomplicate things.

The advantage of being an Analyst is that you want simple solutions.

You don't need frameworks or crazy models...

Most content websites need to publish and update content, that's it.

✅ This is why I recommend building SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

You list your processes and explain how to carry them out. SOPs is a scary acronym that can be translated to "describe your processes and detail every step".

There are several tools you can use nowadays:

👉 Loom / Video

👉 Slite / Google Docs / Notion

👉 Airtable (The peak for content plans, use it anyway)

The simple it is, the better for everyone.

Since we are not talking about Enterprise SEO, in most cases simple documentation is perfect.

What I usually include:

Description and explanation for every step
Who does it
How to handle exceptions/problems

Once again, content websites don't need to have formal and boring SOPs. Everything that will make you churn content faster and better works.

💡 What About Monitoring?

This is another Achilles' Heel for many owners and SEOs. I can tell you right away what you should NOT monitor:

❌ Visibility (useless metric)

❌ DA/DR (easy to game and Google doesn't care)

❌ Impressions (only as a leading indicator, not as your goal)

❌ Bounce Rate (pointless)

What I recommend you track:

✅ Revenue/Profit/anything related to money (you do SEO for profit, right?)

✅ Clicks/Organic Traffic (mandatory)

✅ Content Decay (to see which pages to update, check my ebook for more)

✅ Unique Query Count (leading indicator, more credible than Impressions. Check issue #1 of Seotistics)

✅ Costs (spending too much is also a problem...)

For a more complete breakdown, read issue #2 of Seotistics.

💡 The SEO Insights

Content websites need to be aggressive, you shouldn't care about formalities and Core Web Vitals.

Size the right budget, define your goals and, if you see potential profit, plan and go for it.

As an SEO Specialist, you don't have to accept any request. Some projects can't be saved due to the reasons I listed here.

As an Investor, you may want to go past websites that loom profitable but hide a ton of problems. How do you find them? Audit them first!

🧵 My Selection Of Twitter Threads

A quick recap for those who haven't read them all or need a refresher:

Avoid siloing SEO - How to do it
Most Niche SEO advice is terribad
5 Underrated Content Tips
5 Common problems with content websites (inspiration for this issue)
The Ultimate Thread about Content Auditing after G Updates

👥 Launching a Community (Join The Waitlist)

I and some friends have decided to launch our personal SEO community. It won't be about Analytics only, as we will cover everything about SEO.

For sure, we will preserve the focus on data skills because that's the future of SEO!

N.B. We have already reached our minimum threshold. You can still join but the community will become reality next week. Need to sort some things up first!

Join our community waitlist!