- Digital Surfer
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- ISSUE 32
ISSUE 32
Link Building Mistake #1; Ezoic 0 Pageviews Required; SurferSEO and Frase AI Releases; Google I/O Summaries; Content Brief Guide; and much more.
Yoyao
June 05, 2021 • Est. Learning Time: 11 minutes
FIRST…
We are in the midst of another Google Core Update that started on June 3rd. For the next couple weeks, be prepared for possible ups and downs.
There is a Part 2 to the Update that'll be released in July, so just continue working on keeping your site and content in tip-top shape. My sites seem to be unaffected, but in the first couple days, so we'll see what happens.
Some other exciting news too if you haven't heard. Ezoic has removed all pageview requirements to be a part of their display ad program. You can now Sign up for Ezoic Access Now with 0 pageviews.
That's it for the intro. Want to keep this short because there are great links to check out this week.
SEO
Olga Zarzeczna watched all the SEO sessions at Google I/O 2021 and shares all her notes in the post.
Here are the most important SEO takeaways and SEO tips from Google I/O 2021.
TOOLS AND RESOURCES
WriterAccess - Hire Freelance Writers - One of the top marketplaces for writers that charges a monthly fee. It's now a One-Time, Lifetime Deal. Get access to their Writers, Designers, Content, and Images. They have integrations with BuzzSumo, Grepwords, SurferSEO, SpyFu, and MarketMuse.
Listnr - Text to Speech AI - Listnr turns your text into AI-generated speech with options of 100+ Voices in 22+ Languages. You can create voiceovers and podcasts through Listnr. I do have to say that they have some that don't sound that bad (ie., robotic).
WP Compress - Shortpixel Alternative - WordPress Plugin that'll compress and optimize images. It comes with unlimited domains and CDN traffic on their lowest plan of $39.
ContentBot - AI Content - Includes Blog Post Credits. Haven't tried it myself, but another option that's more affordable than Conversion.AI.
Ezoic Access Now is Open to the Public to Apply for Ezoic Ads! There are no more pageview limitations of 10K!
If you have a smaller site, you might be able to generate enough monthly revenue to cover your hosting costs. Adding display ads is one of the main revenue drivers for any sites and Ezoic is one of the leading providers.
Always nice to have lists of affiliate programs for your niche sites.
If you have a site in the Pets niche, here's a big list of Pet Affiliate Programs.
CONTENT
SurferSEO and Frase are both getting into the AI content game in their own ways.
SurferSEO will now generate content briefs and article outlines giving you headings and one-paragraph summaries of other articles for each heading. The summaries are generated by AI. Read the Blog Article on the Release.
Frase has multiple updates. They're introducing their own AI language model, Frase NLG (Nautral Language Generation). It's different from GPT-3 that other tools like ConverstionAI uses. Frase NLG will initially automatically generate FAQs when you highlight a passage. It can also generate an Outline automatically if you highlight content in a competitor's article.
Frase also introduced Passage Optimization where you can highlight content and Frase will help you optimize your content for Google's Passage Rankings.
Paraphrase - Paraphrase each sentence highlighted
Write Headings - Create headings for each sentence
Find Topics - Give you the SERP topics for each passage
Find Passages - Find SERP passages related to yours
James Dooley gives a nice introduction on Content Briefs and how to create them. You should be giving your writers a ContentBrief whenever possible.
I almost always give content briefs to writers, whether they're new or not. It's important for me to give the goal and direction of the article. I do the keyword research, so the writers won't know why this article needs to be written and the purpose of it.
Jon Dykstra's list of 18 blog post writing rules and preferences. Some definite do’s and don’ts. I follow a lot of these myself. Here are some of them:
Keyword Misspellings and Incorrect Grammatical Phrases
What about publishing phrases missing prepositions, articles and conjunctions?
What about breaking up titles with | : – or ()?
Should you use slang in your titles and content?
Should you swear in your articles?
American vs. Canadian Spelling
American vs. UK Spelling
Should you capitalize all words in a blog post title?
The Readability of content is one of the most important things to consider when you're trying to provide a good experience for your site's visitors. WordStream has some tips that SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math won't give you.
Lose the clickbait titles
Don't keyword stuff (even if subtle)
Quit the over-paragraphing
Nix the bulking out of how-to posts for no reason
Resist over-formatting
Link with mercy
I love #3. More and more people (especially in newsletters) are writing one sentence paragraphs. It's one thing if the sentences are long. It's another if they're just one line, especially on a mobile screen.
It's just annoying.
See what I did?
Annoyed?
I am.
LINK BUILDING
This is Aira's 2nd annual report on Link Building. They gathered information from 250+ professionals to put out this report.
It's a good look of how various link building experts build links. Their techniques, tools, KPIs, methodologies, etc.
This is a very common link building mistake that I see many people doing, because influencers and link building services will still recommend bad sites.
There are influencers recommending link building companies that will build you links to sites that have "Write for Us" and "Guest Post" trigger words in the nav bar.
Fixing broken links has long stood as an SEO best practice. But if you've run into situations where you've fixed a broken link and nothing happened, you’re not alone. SEO expert Cyrus Shepard discusses whether these fixes still matter…
Answer: Yes, they still do.
Cyrus gives the 5 Broken Link Building Best Practices:
DO fix broken links
Prioritize pages with high authority
Prioritize links with freshness signals
Redirect to relevant URLs
You don't need to fix every link
LIKE NICHE SURFER?
Let me know! Reply or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to know what you think and if you have any ideas.
I’d also appreciate it if you shared it with fellow niche surfers.
Have a great week with taking your niche sites to another level!
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