When it comes to stuff like this, I have zero issue with putting in the work to get results. The problem though, is that every time I really start to do a deep dive to figure out what new content to add, or how to better optimize for certain keywords, I start to get really frustrated and turned off and then I don't bother. Frankly, it's because of a fear of my work not paying off. Like this mental block of, "What happens when I put hundreds more hours into my site, and end up with little benefit from doing so!?" Yeah, this is more of a personal issue and not directly related to SEO, but it's just one more thing to pile on lmao.
My site (which is my username) offers printable shooting targets. I know, it's an inherently political topic, but I hope you guys will be able to see past it ha. Originally I just wasn't satisfied with a lot of other offerings, so I decided to start something of my own. My hope was to be able to make just a bit of passive income from it, even ten or twenty bucks a day. I was never going to be some full time constant work. Just a resource meant to be what I guess you'd call "evergreen content". Right now, it's bringing in a pitiful $1.50 a day on average, as if to laugh at my efforts. I know, I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean.
I think my biggest struggle has been ranking for the most popular, broad keywords. For example, my entire site is dedicated to these free printable shooting targets. And yet I'm outranked by several sites that aren't even direct competitors but have a single page for the niche. That's maddening. Like, there's no reason I should be ranking #40 for "printable targets" based on the above. Or even #33 for "free printable targets". Both of those keywords get quite a lot of traffic. And it just so happens that an image or two from my site rank very well for these major keywords, but this has simply not driven any real traffic with those searches. If I'm ever going to reach my (modest) goals for this site, I'm going to have to rank for those big ones. Another random gripe is that Search Console is like "Oh, you're ranking for first page with this keyword!" But no, it looks to be referring strictly to my image that comes up, but that aren't effective. Whereas actual ranking is #30-40. The images showing up in search often times are my pinterest pins that link back to my site, though the images on my site come up fairly regularly too.
The last couple days, I've tried to make a couple of tiny changes but it all just seems to overwhelm me more. For example, I've tried to inject the above keywords more into my category that contains ALL the content on the site, which is more or less identical to the main page, which lists all posts, though I guess those two are technically separate. I did also slightly change the name and slug to better optimize for those broad keywords. But that's besides the point. My category and tag pages are extremely hit or miss (mostly miss) within search. And so it seems like my only option is to get those keywords into the homepage. I couldn't figure how else to do it, so then I figured I may just insert a text widget under the site menu and above posts on the home page in order to try and hit those keywords better. But I don't know how well that will be picked up by Google as it pertains to my homepage ranking better for those keywords. I can't insert any kind of heading that way either, so I'm not sure..
One thing I will say: I've (generally) had good luck with optimizing for specific targets / keywords. For example, if people are searching for a specific style of target, I'll create a similar version and those generally do well. Generally. Honestly, most of my traffic out of quite a number of posts comes from like less than 10 of them. I think the biggest thing right now is, how do I rank better for those really broad keywords? Like I said, others that are ranking have very little of the content in this niche but outrank me by far. A couple I sort of get, but there's no reason "Alien Gear Holsters" with one page of a few free targets, should be outranking my site for anything. But I guess because they're a successful company and have a ton of backlinks and so on, that's the way it goes..
I dunno, I'll quit my ranting here. I just hope you guys can help me with some suggestions to get the ball rolling better. Thank you!
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from Search Engine Optimization: The Latest SEO News https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/isgg6h/very_stressed_about_seo_for_my_site_any/>
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