💸 Troubleshoot Your Site Slowdown
The reasons your site has stalled, domain names vs business names, website visibility in 2021, and more below.
Welcome to Website Investing Weekly, bringing you up-to-date with what’s going on in the world of website investing and alternative related asset classes.
🛑 Help - My Website Stalled
It's a great feeling when everything falls into place on your content site.
Your traffic numbers rise, your marketing campaigns convert leads, and revenues grow.
Then, it stops.
You've reached a plateau, and often it's difficult to determine why - or how - this occurred.
This article from Dom Wells explores how to troubleshoot your site’s sudden lack of growth.
He focuses on sites that have shown good revenue growth, but have suddenly stopped or haven't stepped up to the next level of earnings.
If possible, you must identify the following:
What was the main driver of previous growth?
Where will your growth come from next?
Looking at historical data is the best place to begin. If you're posting regularly and building links, but your rankings aren't improving, it's time to dig into your analytics.
Dom states:
This is the most common issue I see, and there’s a whole art (SEO!) to this very situation. That’s also why it’s important you first identify that traffic is the reason for your site stalling, and that SEO is the reason for that.
If SEO is the cause, he suggests an SEO audit and an analysis of your link gaps and overall content strategy.
What if it's not an SEO problem?
A few different issues could account for a site stall and Dom says (edited):
I’d start by identifying how the site is making money, which posts in particular are making the money and, from there, the insights might let you identify what more you need to do to grow your revenue.
You can read the full article for more of his insights, but this is our favorite:
Maybe Google hates you.
Or maybe it’s not related to SEO at all.
But Google still probably hates you.
Keep in mind that the above analysis should be part of your due diligence when purchasing a website.
🛒 Using Brand Marketplaces to Sell Domains
Search volume for "Business Name Ideas" has gone up significantly (especially in 2020), but "Domain Name Ideas" has been declining for several years.
As it becomes more difficult to come up with the perfect domain for a new business, many people are turning to brand marketplaces to find their ideal name.
Brand marketplaces include companies like SquadHelp, and Brand Bucket.
Several of these marketplaces also provide logos with your domain - or allow you to operate contests to get name or tagline suggestions for your business.
Even though brand marketplaces offer a useful service for new business names, it seems logical that domain investors would consider selling domains on these platforms.
Elliot from Domain Investing recently explored this idea:
Listing domain names for sale on brand marketplaces could be very helpful for domain investors. If a person is primarily looking to find a business name first, they may end up on one of the brand marketplace platforms that sells domain names and begin their search there.
If they find a great brand name that is accompanied by the matching domain name, they don’t necessarily have the need to use a domain marketplace or registrar to search for domain names.
Have you ever used a brand marketplace to sell a domain? Tell us about your experience.
SPONSORED LINK
🦄 SEOs with Skin in the Game
Smash Digital - a growth agency, filled to the brim with unicorn images and SEO memes.
A team of SEOs with actual skin in the game, ranking their own portfolio of profitable businesses, and offering the exact same services to clients.
An agency with so much link juice you’ll need a mop and bucket to clean it all up.
🔻How to Avoid a Site Dive in 2021
You were warned.
Your website won't escape Google's algorithm update in 2021 so now is the time to improve your site's vital signs.
Google emphasised that this update focuses on page experience, but it seems many website owners are confused about what that really means.
Here's what Google says about this update in their Google Guide:
Page experience is a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value.
And,
...in cases where there are many pages that may be similar in relevance, page experience can be much more important for visibility in Search.
For an explanation of "core web vitals" and the signals Google will use to measure user experience on your site, we turned to Search Engine Journal.
Their article lays out exactly what you need to do to ensure your site is ready for this change. Action this - for the sake of your rankings and your website visitors' experience.
📋 Domain Name Stats
NameSilo have just released their marketplace statistics for September 2020 (October stats are not yet available).
During September, the average age of domains sold was 5.3 years, and the highest value sale was $18,850.
You'll see several other interesting stats in their latest roundup - presented as a great visual.
🎙️Late Addition Interview: 12x Your Earnings
Julie Adams is an affiliate marketer who makes 12x what she used to earn at an SEO agency. Matt Diggity calls her one of his “favorite SEOs in the world.”
You’ll find out why in this interview where Julie shares her story with Matt.
The best part is that she reveals her entire process for ranking websites - from niche selection and content, to backlinks and on-site SEO.
Basically, they talk about everything that goes into getting her affiliate portfolio ranked today.
It’s well worth 45 minutes of your time. Watch it here.
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That’s it for another week. Hit us up in the comments at the bottom of the web version.
Cheers!
Juliet Lyall