How I Drove My First Thousand Monthly Organic Visitors

About four months ago, I wrote my second article ever on my website, Followchain with little to no prior knowledge on SEO.

A couple of months later, it ranked #1 on Google and drove 1,000+ organic visitors per month.

Screenshot: Monthly page views from Google Analytics.

Here's my first-hand experience.

Content promotion works, but it's not sustainable.

You just finished writing an article.

Afterward, you start sharing it on every single forum you
can think of. Reddit, IndieHackers, HackerNews, Facebook, etc.

The number of active users on your dashboard starts rising. But only for a day or two.

Then, it drops. Back to square one.

This is also known as the "Spike of Hope".

Instead of aiming for short surges of traffic, you need to
aim for sustainable, organic growth.

In order for that to happen, you'll have to write content that has the potential to rank on the first page of Google.

Here are a few ways you can utilize to accomplish that.

Write articles that people search for.

Stop writing about things that nobody searches or cares
about. This is the number one mistake that new writers/bloggers make.

Therefore, keyword research is extremely important. Start by
using a free tool like Google Keyword Planner.

If you write an article that no one searches for, you're not going to get any traffic.

Target long-tail keywords instead of common keywords.

Long-tail keywords are much easier to rank for (especially
for newer sites) because they are lower in competition.

If you intend to write an article for a common keyword like
"SEO", it's almost impossible to get on the first page on Google.

Instead, aim for a long-tail keyword related to your niche.

Additionally, you should benchmark the keyword that you're
trying to rank for with other websites.

What's the length of their article?

Is it short (under 500 words)?

Is it a personal website?

For you to outrank other sites, these are some examples of
things (weak points) you check before you even begin writing — then top theirs.

Tip: Here's where a word counter comes in handy. Count the number of words the top articles have — the goal is to out-write theirs!

What is a keyword planner and how do you use them?

Screenshot: Google's Keyword Planner.

In a nutshell, keyword planner tools allow you to assess the traffic & competition etc. of a particular keyword.

You’re meant to input keywords within your niche, and these tools will provide you with content ideas.

Essentially, you want to write articles with keywords that are low in competition and have decent traffic.

These tools help you to find exactly that.

Request indexing from Google Search Console.

Newer sites get crawled a lot slower than well, established
sites.

To quicken the indexing process, request your article for
indexing in Google Search Console.

After which, it usually takes a couple of hours for the
article to show up on Google and it'll start ranking faster.

Wait 6-8 months.

Blogging is a waiting game.

Articles tend to hit their peak of traffic only after the 6-8 month
mark.

So if you have a new site; don't expect your article to rank #1 on Google in a matter of weeks.

It's a long but rewarding process.

Rinse and repeat.

That's basically it.

You've learned how to write content that'll rank on Google.

P.S. If you have an Instagram account and you're looking to grow it, head over to Followchain — it's completely free to join.