Your Old Articles Are Sitting Goldmine, and Here's Why
Have you seen Google SERPs indented second and third results?
I have been noticing it when I search for keywords on Google. It will show nested or indented results.
I mean results that come from the same domain, and I'm still working on how to take advantage of this new development.
Although, this isn't new, as it was a feature as far back as 2007 but was discontinued.
It was called then, Grouped Google Results.
You probably know that Google will group two results together when they are both from the same site — indenting the second of the two results indented beneath the first one. Let’s say, for sake of argument, that a competitor of yours is ranked #1 and #2. But did you know that the listing ranked #2 is most likely not actually #2, rather something between #3 and #10?
In 2021, it is being talked about again by SEO experts. In a local SEO forum, someone asked;
Has anybody else been noticing the change in how some of the Google organic results are occasionally displaying with one of the SERPs having directly below it, an indented result with a second result from the same website?
I also noticed it when I was trying to deconstruct my viral story about weight loss — The Ultimate Guide to Lose 20 Pounds in 30 Days or Less You Can Start Doing Today In [2021]
With some research, I found out it was ranking high on Google for this keyword;
lose 20 pounds in 30 days
And my article is nested between the top post by Tim Ferriss on Medium and his blog post on his website, which he wrote as far back as 2007.
The reason my article is nested is that both our articles are written on Medium.
And if you are already getting the drift, it means in the eyes of Google, we are all the same. And because Medium as a website has a high domain authority, it could be that Google doesn't give too much attention to who wrote the article as long as it provides value to the readers, which is one of the things to consider if you want to rank high on Google, the user's experience.
The old becomes new
One of the tricks that I do is check if Google has already "seen" my article to search for the title or an excerpt of my blog post.
And today, when I searched for another keyword that I have been ranking well — Chosen for further distribution, I saw the results, and it was a surprise.
I wrote both articles, but the newer blog post got the top spot, and my older blog post was nested.
And in this example, the new got the top spot, which means we can use this information if we want to rank high on Google, we can "spy" on blog posts that are already ranking high on Google, and try to write a better article which can result to either getting the top spot or getting nested behind the ranking blog post.
I would like to share a free keyword tool that you can use to find keywords that Medium writers are ranking for on Google.
Conclusion
For readers to find our blog posts, it takes more than excellent writing. It also calls for keyword research.
Besides, the algorithm is constantly changing, and the only way for readers to discover us is by getting at the top of Google's SERP (Search engine result page.)
So go on, and look at your old stories, the ones that already got views in the past, and if you got traffic from Google, you can update your story and optimize it for SEO.
If my stories can make it a close second to someone as famous as Tim Ferris, it can also happen to you.
Thank you for reading:
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