You’ve just started a brilliant idea, kick start a new website and hope that it will get a lot of visitors? After that, the reality was depressing you. You only have a few users or even worse… the only person who visit your site frequently is you. Unfortunately, I have to say that you are not the only person encounter the issue.
Hi! I am Ryan, just like you and many people who try to start a small business. Today, I will share with you my thoughts about all the challenges I have faced, what we should do to improve our situation. Yeh, I am not promised that it really 100% works. Let’s see my blog as an example, see how it’s going on after this post released by time, it’s super hard for a “SEO” topic 🙂 Google has already gotten too much this sort of post, maybe they got tired too 😂. Nevermind, I just want to share.
It’s never been easy
Before starting, have you ever thought that Google was easy to other sites, but yours not? I did – that’s true. My site is completely new, no backlinks, not much valueable post – so, how about my competitors?
- They’ve released their site a long time ago, even when I was a kid – they have done it very well.
- Their websites were mentioned from a lot of trustworthy sites.
- They invest so much money for content writer, sharing a lot of knowledge and news that’s super interesting. Yeh, they do it constantly and get better day by day.
- Their social media works in all networks, they maintenance it very well with millions followers.
Are they deserve a good ranking? Sure, they are. Let’s come back to our site and deeply review it. Maybe, we’ve lost even at first!
We may be in the same boat
Don’t worry about what I have said above, it’s how a fresh new site should be at first place. If we’re small, we will work as we’re. Don’t try to be a giant meanwhile we’re still a small bean. Maybe you have read a lot of articles about SEO before this post – that’s what you should do. All the advices are good for you, but we have to filter out what is necessary and fit to us.
Assuming that you’re already got a good design website, best performance and fast loading. Let’s review other factors, I have encounter these issues just like you!
Don’t try to post too many articles
At first, I thought that we should post frequently and keep it constantly. It’s good, but not for all. Most of cases, we only need to share what really matter – something that you’re good at or maybe your idea, or just like this post – sharing mindset. If we keep thinking to post constantly, that will put pressure on yourself, we may post something that’s not helpful, low quality content, or we even think about “automation” like using tools, crawlers to copy posts from other sites. Some people think that they will use AI to generate content. It’s nothing to do with your site, just waste your time – you may see some people got success by using automation, the main point is… they did it right, but not in this case. Try to post many posts that makes your site looks professional is completely wrong, do you think Google care about how your website looks? They do, but not by adding many posts to fill white space on your site. That’s so funny, right?
Using automation in content creation correctly
Automation plays an important role to generate helpful content, such as sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts for example. In the age of AI, automation even better – but some of us not “use” it correctly, we actually… “abuse” AI content generation. It’s the main point.
Why not using automation like AI generated content? I don’t mean we can’t use it. We can, “however content is produced, those seeking success in Google Search should be looking to produce original, high-quality, people-first content demonstrating qualities E-E-A-T” as Google said (source: Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content). So many websites use AI to generate content everyday, I don’t mean to be rude, but they’re quite bad on internet world. We have so many of them, it’s nothing wrong for Google ignore all of those sites.
*For anyone looking a real example: It’s me – I’ve had a website that running with AI generated content before – I did it the wrong way as I mentioned above. The consequence? Most of them got “crawled – currently not indexed”, other urls don’t get a good ranking – not worth to mention. I encourage you to learn from the mistakes I made and improve upon them on your own website.
Are backlinks still important
Let’s try searching for build backlinks services. I have thousands of results of people doing it. It’s not astonishing to see that they’re cheap and advertise that they will provide backlinks on reputable news sites and you will quickly achieve good rankings. Yes, backlinks are important – but for a tiny purchase with a bunch of them, I don’t think it’s good. It’s important to keep in mind that quality is more important than quantity. The effectiveness of backlinks depends on your niche, your competitors, and your strategy. Don’t just buying them and think you will achieve good ranking on search result. Focus on something else, it’s content.
Content is king
Always, I know how you feel when you try to write 😟 most of us are bad at writting – me too. I am just a developer, I am not good at writting actually – but I have done my best, you can try. Try to share something new, which is helpful to your users. Google and all search engines love reading your content. Keep it fresh, useful, and original is what keeps users coming back. The more helpful your content is, the more likely it is to rank well, attract backlinks, and drive organic traffic to your sites.
Is good content enough? My story
Content is king. Unfortunately, it is not enough. This is one of my stories 🙂 A few years ago, I created a travel blog that I spent so much time to develop the site. The site has good performance, good design. As usual, I wrote articles (just like sharing my experience on travel). I have done well-researched, original, and helpful content. I optimized images, formatted everything beautifully, and made sure each post offered real value.
But here’s the truth: Almost no one read it. Maybe, I am the only one person visit the site frequently 🙂 Why? Because I believed that “if you build it, they will come.”
They didn’t. Sad but truth!
What I was missing was distribution, the strategy to get my content in front of the right people. SEO is not only about website and content, it need a strategy. I barely shared on social media. I didn’t engage with communities or build backlinks. Great content sat quietly on a great website… in total silence.
So what’s missing?
If content is king, then distribution is the kingdom. Without reach, even the best content can go unnoticed, yes! No-one cares about that.
To make your content works, you need:
- Smart SEO: Not just keywords, but intent, structure, and speed.
- Consistent promotion: Social media, newsletters, forums, repurposing.
- Community engagement: Conversations > broadcasting.
- Trust signals: Design, testimonials, and something that could make people stay on your site. And something that could make they come back.
Lesson learned?
- Don’t just create great content. Promote it, test it, improve it.
- Never write for Google. Write for people, real human – and go where they are, give what they want.
- Don’t work in silence. Build in public. Talk to your audience. Don’t be an introvert in digital network.
I still believe content is king. But in today’s world, a king needs an army.
