SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can be mentally draining. It can take 6-24 months to yield any decent results.
But you can never ignore SEO. Not for a blog, a company blog, or a brand.
Most new businesses fail to gain traction because they start with SEO too late. And your niche blog should be treated as a business.
When you’re set to start your first niche blog as a beginner, here are a few possible options you can consider:
- Keyword Golden Ratio
- Avalanche SEO method
- Build keyword containers
- Use infographics and custom images
- Invite creators or people for an interview by email
- Create free, simple tools
- Create free templates
- Create a free ebook or lead magnet
Keyword Golden Ratio
This strategy is one I would implement from day one, and in my opinion, a dummy-proof method when you’re a beginner. I wrote a more extended guide HERE.
Read also: Keyword Golden Ratio: How To Rank Fast With Keywords
It’s a simple method where you:
- Divide the allintitle: results by search volume
- If the result is less than 0.25, it’s considered a KGR keyword
Most of the Keyword Golden Ratio terms you’ll find will have a search volume under 250.
But once in a while, there’s a 1000+ keyword that can bolster your position and boost your rankings.
I love the KGR method because you’re able to rank your blog posts within 24 hours or less on the first 2-5 pages in Google or Bing.
That might not look impressive, but remember that ranking any keyword is incredibly difficult.
Now, if you scale this with hundreds of keywords, you end up generating quality traffic fast.
Avalanche SEO Method
I’ve had a lot of naysayers when explaining this method. But it always worked well for me.
Chris Carter invented this SEO technique, and in my opinion, it makes a lot of sense.
The main difference between Keyword Golden Ratio and Avalanche SEO is that you’re looking for keywords with zero search volume and little to no SEO difficulty.
It’s an efficient method to rank and generate traffic without the need for backlinks.
I wrote about this in a more extensive article HERE.
Read also: Avalanche SEO: How To Rank A New Blog Without Backlinks
The method uses a tier-based system.
When you’re new to blogging, you‘re supposed to target keywords with a search volume of 0-10.
The more traffic you acquire, the higher you move up in tiers.
Keyword Containers & Relevancy
Keyword containers or silos are a great help for beginners.
When I start any niche blog, I base myself on three layers/levels:
- Main keyword (high competition, high keyword volume)
- Specific question (lesser competitive, mild keyword volume)
- Inline (keywords added to blog posts)
For example, let’s use the keyword “blogging”.
There’s virtually no shot I would rank on that particular keyword for the next 5 years, unless I am exceptionally seasoned in SEO and I could outplay brands like SEMRUSH, Ahrefs, or expert bloggers who blog about… blogging.
But you still want to build authority around that keyword, and I do this by finding questions with zero or low volume, such as:
- Can niche blogging make you rich?
- Can I start a blog with no money?
- Can I rank my blog without SEO?
The more containers you build for a particular keyword, the more you can expand without diluting the value.
Keep in mind that zero volume is never really zero volume. And specific questions can attract quality organic traffic.
Infographics & Custom Images
I don’t use them as much as I should, so I am guilty of that. But I would rather have no image than a generic stock photo degrading my blog posts.
Great niche bloggers spend a lot of time crafting simple, but visually appealing graphics in Canva or Photoshop.
They often create those images to provide:
- Statistics
- Highlighting features
- Comparisons
- Processes
- …
This often gets picked up by other bloggers or brands, and they’re the ones who will credit the source, aka backlink to your post and images.
This can be a time-consuming task, but if you slowly improve or update your older content with some additional custom imagery, it’s always a win.
Invite People For An Interview By Email
I believe it’s a great hack when you want to generate additional and fresh content for your niche blog.
For example, let’s say you have a blog about pets.
Why not invite pet owners and lovers to share photos and history, and how it affects their lives?
People love to read those feel-good stories, and it can wildly generate organic and social traffic.
You could:
- Invite people related to your niche and interview them by email
- Publish the content on your blog
- The interviewee will share it in their network
I could potentially invite content creators and bloggers for this website, as long as they’re related to content, niche blogging, or influencer marketing.
This kind of content can balance your daily or weekly outputs and might take away the constant pressure of writing.
Create & Publish Free Simple Tools
Now that you can code those with ChatGPT in a few minutes, nothing is stopping to use this SEO hack.
But even when you’re not tech savvy or have no affinity with development, a few bucks spent could potentially skyrocket your niche blog with new traffic.
You could publish free tools like:
- Password generators
- Keyword tool inspiration
Maybe you’re not going to see a lot of traction, or it’s a hard nut to crack to promote those tools.
But once some random Redditor might pick it up and share it, you could potentially earn yourself a lot of traffic and a backlink from Reddit forums.
Create Free Templates
In any form, people love free templates and free content. What’s even better is that you could start building keyword containers around that template and possibly rank faster than your standard blog posts.
You could share those free templates on Reddit, Pinterest, or other social media platforms and acquire quality leads or traffic.
A popular way for content creators is to use Gumroad to host the files, and it’s a bonus that Gumroad has a built-in newsletter function.
Create A Free eBook Or Lead Magnet
This might require a lot of effort, but it can be worthwhile. Just like free templates, free resources are often shared and re-shared across communities or social media.
What you potentially could do is:
- Repurpose your old blog content
- Structure it in the form of an eBook
You could either place it behind a signup wall (email address) or just don’t and focus on acquiring traffic first.
Not everybody is keen to provide personal information to a random blog.
But free guides and eBooks are easy to promote, especially when there’s no signup barrier involved.
Final Word
Generating organic traffic with SEO is a real chore, but it doesn’t have to be boring either.
A combination of implementing immediate SEO strategies like the Avalanche SEO method or more creative ways is a great way to balance your efforts.
My personal experience tells me that you need to focus for the first 12-18 months in order to see significant change.
That consistency will pay off, and once you’ve acquired additional data through your favorite keyword tool or Google Search Console, you can keep building your blog with new topics to rank for.
