Newbie Question(s) so dumb, you're afraid to even ask!

[Ryuzaki]

I have some questions about whether some footprints are worth worrying about...

Who here bothers to use separate search console accounts for each website they own? I currently have a unique account for each property but have heard that it's not necessary?

Also curious about hosting multiple sites on one VPS (one unique IP). Currently the sites that I host are on their own VPS but a friend hosts all his sites (each in different niches) on the same IP address. I had the feeling this is risky, and if one site gets penalized likely all of them will. However, how does that differ from using shared hosts where you might be sharing an IP with a shitty PBN?

The only time I fear you should worry about it is if you're selling or buying or running PBNs and PBN links. That seems to be the only offense that Google finds so offensive that they'll crawl up your butt with a fine tooth comb to find everything you own or ever did own and wipe you off the map.

With that being said, I do run every site on their own email addresses with separate Search Console and Analytics accounts for each based on those email addresses. That's simply because I intend on selling the projects eventually and I can simply just hand off the master file of logins & passwords and they can have all the historical data, etc. It's a big time saver at that point.

People go as far as to use different SIM cards and crap as well as VPNs and whatever. It's all not worth doing. It's not worth being that paranoid when you can just operate real sites instead and make just as much money over the longer term. All that crap for PBN links when you could just tier your links instead, too.

I host batches of my sites on the same VPS servers with the same IP addresses, and I'm the only person on those IPs. Three's no rule where Google says you can only have one website or that they'll whack every site in a server if one gets in trouble. If you're doing something super atrocious in their eyes you might at least put them on different servers though. It doesn't differ from using shared hosting and being on the same IP as adult sites and pharma scams and casino sites and all that. That's how you know it's not a real problem, but a paranoia-based imagined one.

Random thought: you ever come across another site in your niche that gets 100k+ views a month (well, according to semrush) and don't see one sign of them monetizing?

Yes, but a lot of sites make money selling sponsored content and doing behind the scenes deals. They might operate mailing lists too. They might exist to push an agenda and get funded by some "think tank" and make more money than we all make. You never know. But few sites that get a lot of traffic and required a lot of real effort just leave the money on the table. We just don't know where their table is located and who's hands are in the pie.

 

[Elon Tusk]

The only time I fear you should worry about it is if you're selling or buying or running PBNs and PBN links. That seems to be the only offense that Google finds so offensive that they'll crawl up your butt with a fine tooth comb to find everything you own or ever did own and wipe you off the map.

With that being said, I do run every site on their own email addresses with separate Search Console and Analytics accounts for each based on those email addresses. That's simply because I intend on selling the projects eventually and I can simply just hand off the master file of logins & passwords and they can have all the historical data, etc. It's a big time saver at that point.

People go as far as to use different SIM cards and crap as well as VPNs and whatever. It's all not worth doing. It's not worth being that paranoid when you can just operate real sites instead and make just as much money over the longer term. All that crap for PBN links when you could just tier your links instead, too.

I host batches of my sites on the same VPS servers with the same IP addresses, and I'm the only person on those IPs. Three's no rule where Google says you can only have one website or that they'll whack every site in a server if one gets in trouble. If you're doing something super atrocious in their eyes you might at least put them on different servers though. It doesn't differ from using shared hosting and being on the same IP as adult sites and pharma scams and casino sites and all that. That's how you know it's not a real problem, but a paranoia-based imagined one.


Yes, but a lot of sites make money selling sponsored content and doing behind the scenes deals. They might operate mailing lists too. They might exist to push an agenda and get funded by some "think tank" and make more money than we all make. You never know. But few sites that get a lot of traffic and required a lot of real effort just leave the money on the table. We just don't know where their table is located and who's hands are in the pie.

Thanks a ton for the detailed response, you've put my paranoia at ease hahah. No PBN shenanigans going on on my part, so I should be in the clear to do some cost saving with reducing my number of VPS
Another dumb question, where is the like button? Am I blind or is it only after a certain number of posts that you see it?

 

[tomascorzo]

time has something to do with it or can you position a website fast? I am trying to plan in time a project that I am starting. That is why I need an estimate of how long it would take from the day I start to the day I can generate income with the web

 

[Ryuzaki]

time has something to do with it or can you position a website fast? I am trying to plan in time a project that I am starting. That is why I need an estimate of how long it would take from the day I start to the day I can generate income with the web

The quality of the answers you receive are entirely based on the quality of the questions you ask.

I'm not trying to be demeaning or anything, but your question is equivalent to the question "how long is a piece of string?" in that there's not enough information to answer your question.

We don't know:

• Are you starting on an aged domain with existing backlinks?
• What's the competition level of your vertical, niche, and keywords?
• Do you have experience with on-page SEO?
• Will you be earning or acquiring backlinks? If so, how many and how powerful?
• What will your page speed and other technical SEO metrics be like?
• How much content do you plan on publishing?

So on and so forth. We aren't psychic so if you don't tell us these things, we can't really give you an informed answer.

I can give you a roundabout answer though: You, specifically, as a newbie, should expect to learn and work for at least 2 years (best case scenario) if not more before you begin ranking well enough for high enough volume keywords to generate any significant money.

Otherwise you can take the shortcut and pay for Adwords ads in the SERPs.

 

[Rick Lohre]

Having several websites that rank well for specific searches and products, one completely service based, the other product line based, the service site is killing it and actually overwhelming client load. The product line is doing well, but not hitting as much traffic, growth and conversions as we would like.

Is there a resource here to help guide me through what I don't know to help increase those measures?

I know I need to build a better marketing plan, more "content" and offer value to the customer outside of the product itself (education/supplement recommendation) some of what we have but not extremely evident or motivating.

I'm just smart enough to be dangerous with marketing, so I'd love to have your opinion on where to start resource wise.

 

[Samwise89]

@Rick Lohre, there's an entire 30 Day Digital Strategy Crash Course here on the forum. You don't have to read them in order or even all of them, but everything you need is there. Newbies are recommended to read the whole thing in order to get a better grasp on the game as a whole.

 

[webroi]

I don't use Instagram much but wondering how I can use Instagram to:
1. Promote (read get more traffic) my Wedding, Baby gear and Kitchen related niche sites
3. Can you promote Amazon affiliate links in Instagram, within Amazon TOS?
TIA

 

[RD02]

I've gone through it a little to try and get a handle on what it is and it's HUGE, but I noticed it's mainly from 2015-6.

Is any of it way out of date, and is there a better place to start on this forum eg the SEO Avalanche Technique thread I just found?

The DSCC was SO big - and being from 5 years ago- that I almost dismissed it. But then I was skimming one of @Ryuzaki 's posts in it and realized that I'd read the same post on Facebook in the last month or so. It had impressed me so much that I started following on FB and had cut & pasted the post and it was just a tiny bit of what was being shared here.

 

[CCarter]

I always wonder about this particular question, cause it gets asked a lot. Like do you want us to do what SEOs do and change the dates to 2021?

Market Research hasn't changed.

Mental strength hasn't changed.

Paid media hasn't changed.

Traffic leaking hasn't changed.

Keyword researching hasn't changed.

Social media hasn't changed.

On-Page SEO hasn't changed.

Off-Page SEO hasn't changed.

Outsourcing and Automation hasn't changed.

Customer service hasn't changed.

Sure there are new platforms like TikTok to take advantage with social media and traffic leaking, but the attack method is exactly the same. The basics of starting a business, doing proper research, understanding the mental stress, testing out all potential avenues of traffic sources, they are all the same.

You will save THOUSANDS of hours of your time and money by simple reading Market Research and creating customer profiles, the basics of who you are targeting with your business, where they are located, and how you approach them. You can then create write-ups for writers, editors, and have basic ground level understanding for your employees so they can visualize the consumer. Just that one day alone can stop you from making a fatal error in going down the wrong niche, industry, or business.

And then there is the Monetization day - how you make the money! NONE of that has changed.

There are 6 expansion packs written in June of just last year.

But I think what you are looking for are "Tips", right? A shortcut? Anything that's not the basics is a tactic that will get exploited faster and dry up faster, especially if guru bloggers have gotten their hands on it.

You guys need to know the basics to dominate, but if you aren't looking to dominate I'm pretty sure Tai Lopez has another tip around the corner: "read 3 books a day this time for..."

 

[Ryuzaki]

@RD02, I'm glad you've enjoyed what you've read of it, but I have to tell you. There's been about 3 people ask this question in the past, and all 3 (including you) immediately admit to having not read it.

It's almost as if you're looking for a reason not to read it because, as you've said: "it's HUGE". It's your success on the line and zero skin off of our back if you want to take the time to study or not.

But to answer your question, no, it's not out of date. Nothing in there hinges on exploiting temporary methods or using software that's no longer available, etc. As we always say, the Crash Course isn't there to tell you WHAT to think, only to show you HOW to think.

It's a timeless set of marketing principals. Copywriting is not out of date. Understanding what a marketing funnel is will never go out of date. Doing Market Research, etc... This is like asking if a history text book ever goes out of date.

It's still getting expansions, it's still getting responses, the authors are watching what they wrote to see if anything might go out of date (it won't) and are adding posts occasionally to expand upon the opening posts. We're actively engaged with it, no matter when it was originally published.

@CCarter just beat me by about 30 seconds with the same sentiments. We could change the publish dates to yesterday and call it the 2nd Revised Edition if that'll set newcomers at ease, but why? If you don't want to read it, you don't want to read it.

 

[ItsYoBuddy]

Anyone have any experience with billboard advertising? I keep seeing this same billboard near me and it advertises something we are all familiar with. It's just a simple review site but it just got me thinking for another source of traffic and billboard advertising has always intrigued me.

 

[Samwise89]

Anyone have any experience with billboard advertising? I keep seeing this same billboard near me and it advertises something we are all familiar with. It's just a simple review site but it just got me thinking for another source of traffic and billboard advertising has always intrigued me.

It'd be fun. I'm thinking about how you'd track the traffic, like sending them to a lander just for that billboard or through a 301 domain. I only see lawyers and stuff like "basement ninjas" and services with high margins on billboards here. Another one that excites me is TV ads for websites.

 

[bernard]

Are Adsense ads too aggressive?

I am a noob with display ads and I suprised at how obnoxious Adsense auto ads are. They are everywhere, mess up the formatting and they even do show stopping popups, something that Google generally frowns upon.

Is this just the norm with display ads of any kind?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Are Adsense ads too aggressive?

I am a noob with display ads and I suprised at how obnoxious Adsense auto ads are. They are everywhere, mess up the formatting and they even do show stopping popups, something that Google generally frowns upon.

Is this just the norm with display ads of any kind?

Google follows the agreed upon rules set by the Coalition for Better Ads and the Internet Advertising Bureau. They set not only what the acceptable ad unit sizes are and all that, but also how many you can show and how much screen space they can take up, etc. Meaning that there's a max you can use before Google algorithm docks you points for it. I use that maximum.

Adsense should be following this too with their Auto Ads, though I don't use it. They do crap like try to collapse padding to show bigger ads, etc. Which doesn't work well if you used margins instead (or vice versa, I don't remember). But yeah, they DO stick ads in insane places too. Totally was not happy with it at all.

But those weird interstitial ads that happen after a click to another page, Google is fine with those. They aren't considered intrusive, though I hate them because they mess up holding "Command + Click" to open in a new tab, etc.

 

[mrpotato]

Which scenario would you prefer to go with for a site?

An aged brand domain that's been online and around since 2012 with a brandable name but no real strong direct KW, that hasn't done much and only gets about 30 clicks a month (all branded) with 3,000 impressions (very little content). No real DR either, but age and branded search.

OR

An EMD that has about 300 exact match searches a month with no history at all.

What approach would you take if given the choice?

 

[bernard]

I would never waste my time on an EMD unless it was with the explicit purpose of trying to gain a quick win by selling it to a noob above market price.

 

[RD02]

Thanks @Ryuzaki & @CCarter

I've finished consuming all of the DSCC, the Additional suggested reading etc. 27 Pages of notes, and then takeaways from each subsection, and takeaways from the takeaways

I guess the hesitation I had before I dove in about if it was out of date was like some of the posts in the DSCC calling out people (in 2015) for using "2012 wordpress sites" and saying that "thinking 2007 strategies are just not going to cut it".

Maybe it's not worth the time, but I wonder if you add a "Read Me" or Day 0 post explaining exactly that it won't go out of date, that updates have been made about things that might have changed because of google updates, or tech changes etc?

Big take away for me that SEO isn't the best play for me initially, it might have a place with specific intent keywords down the line, but that social is what I need to focus on after getting a branded website up and running.

 

[hiruma]

I'm new to blogging so I apologize if this is extremely stupid lol. Can I use a table on two different blog posts with the same data? Would that cause some kind of plagiarism or something?

 

[Ryuzaki]

I'm new to blogging so I apologize if this is extremely stupid lol. Can I use a table on two different blog posts with the same data? Would that cause some kind of plagiarism or something?

Yes, you can. You can't plagiarize yourself. Think about it like this. Every one of your posts has the same header, sidebar, and footer. That's not a problem nor is having the same table of data.

What you'll find, especially with the new "passage indexing" is that Google will only assign one (and probably the first post to be indexed with the table) credit for the table. Meaning if you search for some of the text in the table, it'll choose one post to surface in the search results instead of both, of course unless you specifically ask for all instances of the table on your domain, which nobody else but you will do.

 

[Future State]

I'm new to blogging so I apologize if this is extremely stupid lol. Can I use a table on two different blog posts with the same data? Would that cause some kind of plagiarism or something?

Duplicate content isn't a problem, whether it's on your own site or on someone else's site. Google can't stop someone from copying or syndicating your content. They try to figure out the original (or best) copy and make it the canonical version. That helps but people learned how to "hack" canonicals and steal the credit for being the best or original too. I don't think that works much any more either, so Google pretty much has this duplicate content issue figured out. You won't get punished for it. I've seen sites where every single post is a copy with a link back to the original and they still get traffic. Not much. But the point is, it doesn't hurt you or the copycat / syndicator these days.

 

[hiruma]

Thanks for the answers!

Another question. When interlinking, is it okay to link to the same page multiple times? In my case, I have a related articles section at the bottom of my article. Is it okay to have an in-text internal link to the same articles in the related articles section?

 

[Ryuzaki]

@hiruma, yes it’s fine. The only thing to know is that they’ll only count the anchor text if the first link. Otherwise there’s no harm and you can send more juice that way.

 

[Lowrider]

I have a question concerning link exchange. On my website I have an event calendar, where I promote interesting events in my niche.

In return, I get some nice free do-follow backlinks. I no-follow the links in the calendar, since most hosts only care about the promotion.

Is this practice still a regular link exchange? Should I deindex the event calendar, which would be bad, since it offers value?

I'm still building up my domain authority (I'm at 5 now) so I can't be too picky with the links, and I'm happy for every nice link

 

[Samwise89]

Is this practice still a regular link exchange? Should I deindex the event calendar, which would be bad, since it offers value?

You're overthinking this. You're getting links to a valuable page and you want to deindex it because you're worried about some random SEO edge case? You're already nofollowing the links back to them, which makes it not a link exchange. Even if you didn't nofollow them, who cares. It's real links from real businesses due to real marketing. If Google doesn't understand and like that, they've failed completely.

 

[Joseph George]

Do you guys think using a pr newswire service is useful these days. I was thinking for a new website/business, it might help create a web presence/validation and some initial links from valid domains. or are these a waste of money these days?