How Is This Possible?
I find myself falling down a rabbit hole due to a competitor’s surprising achievements.
Having spent over a decade in SEO, I’ve never encountered anything quite like this.
This competitor is experiencing five times the traffic of the combined total of the other top five competitors. Something changed for them last August, and their impressions skyrocketed from 5,000 per month to 70,000! Yes, you read that right—they achieved over 130,000 impressions in September 2024, while the top five competitors, including my client, combined for only 50,000.
At the end of October 2024, we suffered another significant drop in overall position, and I’m trying to unravel what’s going on.
So far, my research has directed me to this: they launched a sister website (on a different domain with more services offered) and secured the number 1 ranking on Google for one of our main keywords. Notably, the article that’s ranking is five months old, as are most of their website’s contents.
Digging deeper, I included this new competitor in my Ubersuggest analysis. In May 2024, they had 5,000 monthly traffic, surged to 26,000 by November 2024, with explosive growth beginning in June/July, aligned with the aforementioned article’s date.
How do they achieve 5x the traffic in just five months? Who consistently experiences month-on-month SEO growth of over 20% or 30%?
On investigating further, I noticed some questionable (inappropriate) schemas through the schema validator. I encountered terms like WPHeader, CreativeWork, and hatom—what even is a hatom schema?
It’s perplexing: how can you go from not being visible on certain keywords six months ago to owning a number one position for a keyword that’s not even your primary service, with content not specifically focused on that topic?
How did they reach such heights on Google in just five months? Typically, normal SEO optimization requires years of content creation, optimization, and Technical SEO.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this. If you have any insights, I would greatly appreciate your help.
2 responses to “When Curiosity Strikes: Investigating the Mechanics of Extraordinary Events””
To understand the dramatic increase in traffic and impressions that your competitor experienced, it’s important to analyze several potential factors that could contribute to this type of growth. While it might seem unprecedented, there could be a combination of strategies and optimizations they utilized effectively. Here’s a breakdown of elements that might have played a role:
1. Content Strategy
High-Quality Content: They may have created highly relevant, targeted content that resonates well with their audience. Google’s algorithm prioritizes content that is engaging, authoritative, and provides value to users.
Keyword Strategy: Utilizing long-tail keywords and focusing on less competitive, niche topics could have allowed them to capture traffic more effectively.
Updating Existing Content: Frequently updating or repurposing existing content can improve rankings and attract more traffic.
2. Technical SEO
Schema Markup: Implementing structured data like WPHeader, CreativeWork, and possibly hAtom helps search engines understand content better and might improve visibility in search results. hAtom, although considered outdated as a microformat, could still potentially enhance how content is presented in search engine results.
Page Speed and Mobile Optimization: Ensuring the website is fast and mobile-friendly can improve user experience and rankings.
3. Link Building
Backlinks: Gaining high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites likely improved their domain authority and search visibility.
Sister Website: The creation of a sister site with relevant and complementary content could bolster link-building efforts and create a network effect where both sites drive traffic to each other.
4. User Engagement
5. Social Media and Marketing Efforts
Viral Content: A piece of content might have gone viral, boosting visibility quickly across different platforms.
Cross-Platform Promotion: Leveraging social media, newsletters, or other channels could have driven significant traffic to the site, indirectly impacting SEO.
6. Competitor’s SEO Tactics
Algorithm Exploitation: There could be a chance they exploited recent algorithm changes to their benefit, temporarily boosting traffic.
Grey-Hat Techniques: It’s possible they employed aggressive SEO tactics that are on the edge of Google’s guidelines, although these might pose risks
This post raises some intriguing questions about the rapid rise of your competitor, and it’s clear this has been a source of frustration and curiosity. The drastic increase in traffic and rankings is indeed perplexing, especially in such a short time frame.
One possibility could be that they have employed aggressive link-building strategies or leveraged partnerships that significantly boosted their authority quickly. Alternatively, they might be implementing advanced SEO techniques, such as content gap analysis, to effectively target underserved keywords that can generate quick wins in traffic.
It’s also worth exploring whether they tapped into trending topics or seasonal content that bolstered their impressions unexpectedly. With the mention of questionable schema implementations, it might be useful to investigate if these tactics could be part of a strategy that circumvents traditional SEO practices—sometimes, competitors leverage grey-hat techniques which, while risky, can lead to rapid gains.
Additionally, look into their social media engagement. Increased visibility through social channels can drive organic traffic and enhance discoverability, especially for newer content. Understanding their overall marketing strategy might provide more context about their growth pattern.
Finally, remember that fluctuations in SEO and visibility aren’t uncommon, and staying agile in your own strategies will be key. Perhaps consider optimizing your own content not just for current keywords but also in anticipation of emerging trends in your industry. Good luck, and I’m eager to hear more as you unravel this mystery!