Ever heard about Neil Patel?
If not, get ready to learn about a blogger who gets more visits in a month with one blog post than most blogs will ever get in their lifetime.
Neil Patel is the most respected expert in SEO and content marketing.
Through his over 10 years of blogging, he has curated some of the most viral content on the internet, which generates millions of dollars in conversions.
And this is a dream for many.
In this article, we’ll look at one of the most popular post in Neil Patel’s blog and find out the little things, secrets or techniques that Neil uses to create high quality content that ranks.
To start with, I used Ubersuggest to find the most popular blog post in his blog.
This can seem like a biased approach because the SEO research tool is owned by Neil Patel. However, when compared with other SEO tools, it seems coherent.
So let’s dive in
Who is Neil Patel?
Neil Patel is
- The founder of NP digital Crazyegg, Kissmetrics and HelloBar.
- Referred to as the top SEO expert.
- The owner of Neilpatel.com domain which has over 11.6 million backlinks and a domain rating of 86. It gets over 6.4 million monthly organic traffic.
- Estimated to have a net worth of $30 million.
6 million visits is a lot. 90% of all blog blogs will never get in their lifetime.
His achievement makes him one of the people I look up to in reference to how much can be achieved through blogging. And hope one day I will share a table with Neil Patel and think we like doing with our passive income.
In Neil Patel’s blog, several articles contribute 50% of his traffic.
Some include
- How to Start a Blog That Generates $3817 a Month
- Discord Bots for Online Communities: Reviews, How to Use, Examples
- The 4 P’s of Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide (With Examples)
- What is Affiliate Marketing (and How to Get Started)
- How to Make Money on Instagram FAST & Without Followers
In this article, we will review the blog on How to Start a Blog That Generates $3817 a Month. It gets over 450,000 visits to his blog every month.
According to Ubersuggests, this article has 1364 backlinks which partly explains why it ranks very high.
But on the other hand, the quality plays a huge role which explains why it has maintained the number 1 rank on google for long
The article targets the keyword start a blog, which gets almost 1 million monthly searches.
Besides, it ranks for 751 related keywords and most have high search volumes.
During my study the article ranked first, Google Ads and after two featured snippets.
For as long as I have known Neil Patel, this article has been in the top search engine results page.
Neil must be doing something right to maintain this position in one of the most competitive keywords in the market.
And here is what I found.
1. Superb Headline
Check out the headline:
That’s 10 words and 48 characters, a well defined article within the good headline length limits.
This length allows it to appear fully on search engine results, pages, and social media platforms without words being cropped out.
Next, it contains the keywords, start a blog, both in the headline and in the permalink.
The URL is short, precise and flexible enough to not require any changes in case Neil Patel wants to update the blog post in future.
The headline also reveals exactly what somebody should expect. It goes further and gives you an exact value of earnings ($3,817) you can gain from starting a blog. Not a range.
This demonstrates how confident Neil Patel is with his guide. He has proof and is not afraid of sharing it.
People are more inclined and captivated by precise headlines with no ounce of doubt.
Use this approach in creating your headlines that attract clicks. This is one of the most important steps in creating great content.
2. A Captivating Introduction
I love the introduction Neil uses, because it shows that he understands the target audience.
People that want to start a blog.
So he starts by asking a question they frequently ask themselves
Ever wondered how to start a blog and make enough money blogging to quit your job?
A perfect introduction that motivates visitors to keep reading.
He then indulges into a conversation explaining how blogging has worked for him, and even shows proof of the amount of money he has made from blogging.
But then he doesn’t make heavenly promises to its readers; that they could make as much as he does.
Instead he gives them a realistic goal, $3,000.
Now that’s something that people can believe. At an era with many quick or easy money making schemes choking us online, a good intentioned influencer is like the ice we place on bruises.
I like the conversational tone he uses, I bet you like it too. If I knew nothing about starting a blog and came across this blog, I would follow his advice to the very letter.
This is the tone that gets readers open up to you. It makes them want to read more so that they can learn more.
That’s how you should write articles. Tell a story and connect with the readers. It’s like you’re having a conversation. You guide them through as if it’s your child.
Neil Patel continues to use this conversational tone throughout the article. So I’m going to just move on to a different point.
3. Short, Precise Sentences and Paragraphs
Neil Patel understands the need to structure his work into easily digestible parts.
So he breaks his work into short sentences and paragraphs.
For instance, check this section.
It looks unconventional. Why break your work into such tiny paragraphs? That’s not how we were taught in elementary school. Right?
But here’s the thing.
Most people no longer have the attention and patience to read through long paragraphs. Large chunks of text discourage people from reading, because they look tedious.
Neal structures his articles into smaller bits; sweet and easy to digest. Just like Fries.
You bite one by one slowly enjoying the delicacy until you reach your fries box and realize you’ve devoured everything.
But you want more. So you ask for more.
Similarly, these sweet sentences make you want to read more.
If you wanna improve you readers page time, this strategy will do for you
4. Subtitles, Bullets and Numbering.
Another way Neil structures his work into digestible bits is by breaking it down into subtopics.
These subtopics represent steps and unique ideas supporting the original topic.
He tackles each of these independently while maintaining the flow of the work.
In the process, in case you are distracted and need to take a break, you can just leave on a memorable section of the article and continue on later.
A great user experience courtesy of Neil
Meanwhile, the bullets and numbering placed throughout the article contribute to the digestibility of the content.
You can easily pick up notes from these bullets. While the small and medium sized paragraphs tell the story, bullets present the concrete ideas which can be easily digested and noted down.
All in all, a good structure improves your users experience, the most important signal to Google that your content is of high quality.
5. Use of images
Guess how many images Neil uses in this article?
68.
Wow, that’s a lot.
Imagine adding 68 images to your post before publishing. Besides being hectic, it’s time consuming.
So why does Neil Patel do this?
Well, of course, it is easy for him because he has a team of marketers, content marketers to put them. But I digress.
Neil uses all these images because they are necessary. It is a how-to blog post. It requires visual demonstration.
And 6000 words is a long article. A pillar piece as they call it. You need images to make it interesting.
Blog posts with images get 95% more traffic than those without images.
Google’s constant improvement of its search algorithm is to make readers happy and Images improve the experience of readers. So Google sends traffic to you.
Images are also very digestible. A simple glance on an image can induce more thoughts and ideas than text.
Also, they are interesting and engaging. They break the monotony of reading.
You should use a lot of images on your blogs if possible. It can be tedious, especially when you’re uploading your content directly to WordPress. But in the end, you’ll get better results doing so
Plugins such as Mammoth DocX lets you upload documents directly from Ms Word or Google Docs where it’s easier to add images.
Don’t just use any images such as stock photos. Original graphics perform better as compared to stock photos, videos, presentations, charts and data visualization
6. Video Content
Neil Patel adds a video near the end of his article. Why?
Check out these stats
- YouTube is the second most visited website.
- Video generates 1,200% more shares than text and image content.
- 68% of consumers prefer watching videos to learn about new products or services as compared to articles, infographics,e-books and presentations
- 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching a branded social video.
Can you imagine the potential that video content has to improve your conversion?
Neil Patel includes a video even if it does not necessarily explain the process of starting a blog. Yet it’s highly related and still helpful. Better half the none.
You cannot afford to miss out on the great opportunities that video content offers.
Besides, having a YouTube channel will make you an authority in your niche and improve your EAT.
If you can repurpose your content or blog post into video content, and embed it in your articles, you’ll be way ahead of your competitors.
You’ll attract customers who you never thought you had access to.
Conclusion.
Neil Patel has been blogging for more than a decade, He’s an expert in this field and has made millions in the process.
If you are smart, you better learn from his strategies.
It is not by luck that he makes $300,000 a month. It’s by proven strategies, tested and perfected over many years.
I know he has more tricks up his sleeves.
But this six already loads me with enough information to put into practice and improve my blogging.
You too should apply them.
Let’s get to work.