I’m starting an SEO experiment and I want to share it with you. I’m calling it The Quality Quantity Effect.
As Nathan Hirsch and I have been working to scale our newest venture, EcomBalance, I’ve been diving back into learning SEO and seeing what others are doing in the space.
SEO and content marketing have been two marketing strategies that I’ve seen the most success with over the years.
Recently, I was reading a case study put together by Nick Jordan from ContentDistribution.com. If you’re a marketer and into SEO and you don’t know Nick yet, start following him and his content.
Here’s the case study I was reading: 0 to 1,500,000+ Organics / Month in 24 Months.
I read through the entire case study and it got me thinking…
“Why am I not doing this at a high volume for my companies right now?”
It reminded me of a strategy I had used when running marketing for FreeUp.
Over the 4 years of running FreeUp, I consistently increased the amount of pages and posts that we published on a weekly basis. At its peak, we were publishing around 10 new pages and posts every week. Our total pages increased into the hundreds and our website traffic subsequently followed over time.
I suddenly had a driving urge to run a new SEO experiment with EcomBalance to see if I could repeat the success that I had found at FreeUp and what Nick had found with a number of his clients.
And here we are today…sharing the test that I’m about to run for the next couple of months on EcomBalance, ConnorGillivan.com, and Outsource School.
I’m fortunate that I have 3 existing websites that I can run this SEO test on and I’m pumped to see how it plays out.
If you want to follow along and see how the SEO test goes, join my newsletter for updates.
What is the hypothesis?
Every great SEO test comes with a well thought out hypothesis.
Here’s my Quality Quantity Effect hypothesis:
(1) When you consistently publish new keyword focused content that is of high value, your website traffic will increase…even if you don’t build backlinks to the new content.
(2) The more quality pages and posts you publish each week, the faster your website traffic will increase over time.
(3) Unique visitors to your website won’t be the only metric impacted. Your website will also start ranking for more keywords, you will capture more website leads for your business, your overall Domain Rating will increase, and the number of backlinking domains will increase.
(4) Getting specific, if we publish 1 new keyword focused page/post per day (30 per month) for 3 months, our unique monthly visitors will increase from 2,000 (where it stands today) to 6,000+ unique visitors per month. Within 6 months, our unique monthly visitors will increase to 20,000+.
Only time and testing will tell if these hypotheses will come true.
How will I run the test?
I plan to run the SEO test on the three companies that I’m currently growing, EcomBalance, ConnorGillivan.com, and Outsource School.
The implementation will be slightly different for each company given the resources that I have for each, but they’ll all follow the same overall test to see if the hypotheses come true.
Before assigning out each page/post, I’ll perform keyword research using Google Keyword Planner to gather a list of 100+ top keywords that we want to target for each business.
Next, I’ll use Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Method to create page/post titles for each keyword.
Finally, I’ll use our internal Page and Post templates and build out drafts for each page/post in WordPress. The templates are built out posts/pages in WordPress with H1s, H2s, H3s, and images so it makes it super easy add all of the subtitles throughout the article for what we want to touch upon within the article.
Then it’s time for assigning.
Here’s details for each company’s implementation…
EcomBalance
Personnel: With EcomBalance, I’ll have a team of 2 Writers and 1 Marketer helping me with the work. I’ll also have outside Writers from our Partner network creating content.
Output Goal: We’ll aim for 1 new keyword focused post/page on the website per day, 30 per month.
Implementation: At 1 per day, I’ll need 7 per week. My 2 Writers have capacity for 2 articles per week so we’ll get 4 from them. We’ll also get 1 from our Guest Writing Partner Network and 1 from our Partner Spotlight series on the EcomBalance blog. I’ll put in the work to create 1 per week as well or I’ll delegate 1 more to one of our Writers.
ConnorGillivan.com
Personnel: To start, it will be just me creating the content.
Output Goal: I’ll aim for 2 new keyword focused pages/posts per week. So, a total of 8-10 per month.
Implementation: Since it will just be me, I’ll organize my time in the mornings to consistently write content. I’ll also work it in over the weekends as needed.
Outsource School
Personnel: Similar to EcomBalance, I’ll have 2 Writers and will also get some help from Guest Writers.
Output Goal: We’ll aim for 4 new posts/pages per week. So, 15-16 per month.
Implementation: I’ll fully utilize the 2 Writers and Guest Writers for implementing this SEO test so that I don’t have to create any content in addition to what I already have for ConnorGillivan.com and EcomBalance.
What results am I hoping to see from the SEO experiment?
Just running the three tests is going to give me a lot of information that I can use for further growing our content marketing and SEO so I consider that a win right off the bat, but I’d love to see some results as well.
Overall, here’s what I want to see.
→ Consistent growth in monthly unique visitors to each site month over month.
→ Increase in Domain Rating by 5-10 within 3 months, 10-15 within 6 months.
→ Consistent growth in the total number of keywords that each site ranks for.
→ Consistent increase in the number of leads (email subscribers) that we acquire from each site.
→ Revenue growth over the 3 and 6 month period for each site.
→ In summary, CONSISTENT GROWTH.
How will I track the SEO experiment?
Running a SEO test like this can be a total flop unless you properly track how it’s performing.
In order to do this, you’ll need Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Moz (or a similar site like Ahrefs).
Google Analytics
We’ll use Google Analytics to track the following monthly metrics:
→ unique users visiting the site
→ time on site
→ source of traffic (i.e. organic, referral, direct, social, email, etc.)
→ bounce rate
→ goal conversions (i.e. unique users signing up for email list)
Google Search Console
We’ll use Google Search Console to track the following:
→ Keywords that we’re ranking for
→ Total search impressions per month and clicks per month
→ Clickthrough rate on search
→ Total number of keywords that we’re ranking for
Moz
Finally, we’ll use Moz to track the following:
→ Domain Rating (DR)
→ Number of backlinking domains pointing to each site
→ Number of total backlinks to the site
→ Total number of keywords that each site is ranking for
Bringing It All Together
With these data sources, I’ll record all of the data in a Google Spreadsheet for each company at the end of each month.
As each month finishes, I’ll analyze the data, see how the quality content we created has made an impact on our key metrics, and then make small adjustments for the following month of content.
How can you help me with the experiment?
Here’s a few quick ways you can help me with the experiment:
→ Join my newsletter for monthly updates on the Quality Quantity Effect across all three companies
→ Follow me on LinkedIn and Facebook where I’ll share progress on the experiment
→ Read the content that I’m publishing across all three companies and let me know what you think. Is it high quality content?
→ Get involved and run a test for your company as well. Record your progress and let me know the results!
Should you run SEO for growing your business?
100% yes!
If you’re looking to grow your business in the next 2-5 years and SEO is NOT one of your growth strategies, you’re missing out on thousands, potentially millions, of website visitors.
Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a digital agency, a marketplace, or you’re a consultant, coach, or freelancer, SEO can drive new potential customers to your website which will help your business grow.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, SEO is not for the faint of heart and it’s not an overnight rags-to-riches success story, but if you set it up properly and consistently chip away at it every single week for an extended period of time (think 1+ year), you can create massive value that will drive traffic to your website for years to come.
If you don’t feel like doing it yourself and want my team to handle your SEO for you, send me an email and let’s have a chat.
When should you hire someone to run your SEO?
SEO work isn’t for everyone and that’s completely okay.
Same goes for a lot of work within businesses. It’s best to stick to your core strengths and hire out for other areas of the business so that you can stay focused on how you grow the business best and fastest.
If SEO and content creation aren’t your jam, look to hire it out to someone that specializes in it and has a strong track record of using it to grow their own companies or their client’s companies.
If you’re a startup with a smaller budget, hire a freelance SEO writer that can consistently create 1-2 new pieces of content for your website each week focused on keywords within your industry. It will be a small expense for you, but will drive more and more traffic over the long run for your business.
If you’re a growing business approaching 6 and 7 figures in yearly revenue, look to hire a Content Marketing Manager that can then hire out freelance Writers. Or if you already have a co-founder or someone on your team that is great at content, put them in charge of the team and give them a budget to work on SEO projects.
Finally, if you’re a 6, 7, or 8 figure business and don’t want to have it in house, hire a SEO agency that specializes within your niche and that has a proven track record of getting results with white hat SEO tactics. If you need suggestions for who to hire, let me know and I’ll gladly help. And if you’re interested in me and my team handling it for you, simply email me.
Conclusion
The Quality Quantity Effect is real!
I’ve used this SEO method in the past while scaling FreeUp and I’m excited to see how it works with these 3 companies that I’m running today.
As an example, we can consider the site https://oyunuaviator.com/
Google wants to present their users with high quality, relevant content that addresses the particular need they’re looking to address by searching on Google.
As a business, it’s our job to create high quality content within our niche that targets what our ideal customers are looking for.
When we can do that at scale and consistently distribute the content to the community through search, social, email, and our website, it’s only a matter of time before it all compounds and our website traffic increases.
If you’re read this far, thanks for your interest in this SEO experiment. I’m excited to see the results and to share them with you.
Join my newsletter for monthly updates on how the Quality Quantity Effect experiment is playing out across my three companies.
Cheers!
Connor
