Well, as there is so much gurubloggercrap out there ("build and they will come"Tm, or "content is king"(R), I went out to my own case study.
give you the short answer, YES.. sadly, you need content to rank...
BUT, it takes a LONG FUKNG time till # drop, approx 6-8 weeks!
setup was 5 sites, all DIFFERENT niches. one was hosted an a free blog, too.
3/5 were local site, low volume, but sadly old local sites-. AW CPC was round 1,5€ btw!
2/5 were in high comp (sadly), medium volume.
for the screenshots, I chose the keyword with most impressions or clicks. to have some kind of reference. but in the end, it was always the same story..
sites 1-3 were al local competitive services, but I never managed to sell those site... though I built some nice link pyramid on them, which really (!) helped to move them in serps like 2-3months later.
site 1: health niche, local.
removed all content around 23.december and moved it to my branded main site.
https://gyazo.com/f679f57f9e5005561e23f171153b94ab
approx 4 weeks later, rankings fell, approx 8 weeks later, tanked.
site 2, local tax niche.
https://gyazo.com/4cfcffa78a4532f0efef0409d9dbce2d
same like site 1, 4 weeks later, fell, 8 weeks later tanked to #12
this was kind of really competitive, local low volume, KW, but I never managed to get $ from it.
site 3, financial service.
https://gyazo.com/e537758283d243a059ab3248cf5e5aa8
did not tank that much, but fell form nice #4 competitive low volume term
https://gyazo.com/cd6a67f210edb6601af68bc19039011d
taht was like a 2€ CPC term... ranked #5, afte removing content it fell to #11
btw, s.o. aksing if link pyramids work?
they do:
https://gyazo.com/a943647a4b683cd762b35f7098bf9ae1
12>#4 for 10€ on fiverr...
just takes like MONTHS and ya need to keep EMA approx 5% total and use MANY generic terms.
site 4, diet niche.
site also fell dramatically. but it took like 6 weeks.
https://gyazo.com/65e02a3872439a04974c59aefeed442f
for this test, I only (!) kept title, descr, H1 with keypords, removed the content, created a png out ot of and moved content to my main health site..
waht kind of brings tears to my eyes is the fact, that the main branded site with "old site content" nearly scored the same # as the EMD with the former content.
there was ONLY a +5 in # worse..
> will delete this domain
> bing, however, loves EMDs. but 20 clicks/month is not worth paying registry fees.
>RIP, https://gyazo.com/91488614d8a74f588ee0bc383581361e
it aint 2013 anymore. sadly.. great content? no links? high competition? dont believe that "content is king crap". it aint lamewarriorforum here. its BHW!
site 5, diet niche, free blog.
https://gyazo.com/58666aa5612b0a1c34715b6fd63306fb
I just copypaste content from my brandeddomain to this free blog. blasted link pyramid on it (plus social signals, but in my other cases, they are shit), and got it to rank #5.
shortly after, Duplicate content penalty seemed to have kicked in . I replaced content with image, wrote some words as intro text, resubmitted and got rankings back
so, this now took me 30 minutes to write for you.
hope you appreciate it
give you the short answer, YES.. sadly, you need content to rank...
BUT, it takes a LONG FUKNG time till # drop, approx 6-8 weeks!
setup was 5 sites, all DIFFERENT niches. one was hosted an a free blog, too.
3/5 were local site, low volume, but sadly old local sites-. AW CPC was round 1,5€ btw!
2/5 were in high comp (sadly), medium volume.
for the screenshots, I chose the keyword with most impressions or clicks. to have some kind of reference. but in the end, it was always the same story..
sites 1-3 were al local competitive services, but I never managed to sell those site... though I built some nice link pyramid on them, which really (!) helped to move them in serps like 2-3months later.
site 1: health niche, local.
removed all content around 23.december and moved it to my branded main site.
https://gyazo.com/f679f57f9e5005561e23f171153b94ab
approx 4 weeks later, rankings fell, approx 8 weeks later, tanked.
site 2, local tax niche.
https://gyazo.com/4cfcffa78a4532f0efef0409d9dbce2d
same like site 1, 4 weeks later, fell, 8 weeks later tanked to #12
this was kind of really competitive, local low volume, KW, but I never managed to get $ from it.
site 3, financial service.
https://gyazo.com/e537758283d243a059ab3248cf5e5aa8
did not tank that much, but fell form nice #4 competitive low volume term
https://gyazo.com/cd6a67f210edb6601af68bc19039011d
taht was like a 2€ CPC term... ranked #5, afte removing content it fell to #11
btw, s.o. aksing if link pyramids work?
they do:
https://gyazo.com/a943647a4b683cd762b35f7098bf9ae1
12>#4 for 10€ on fiverr...
just takes like MONTHS and ya need to keep EMA approx 5% total and use MANY generic terms.
site 4, diet niche.
site also fell dramatically. but it took like 6 weeks.
https://gyazo.com/65e02a3872439a04974c59aefeed442f
for this test, I only (!) kept title, descr, H1 with keypords, removed the content, created a png out ot of and moved content to my main health site..
waht kind of brings tears to my eyes is the fact, that the main branded site with "old site content" nearly scored the same # as the EMD with the former content.
there was ONLY a +5 in # worse..
> will delete this domain
> bing, however, loves EMDs. but 20 clicks/month is not worth paying registry fees.
>RIP, https://gyazo.com/91488614d8a74f588ee0bc383581361e
it aint 2013 anymore. sadly.. great content? no links? high competition? dont believe that "content is king crap". it aint lamewarriorforum here. its BHW!
site 5, diet niche, free blog.
https://gyazo.com/58666aa5612b0a1c34715b6fd63306fb
I just copypaste content from my brandeddomain to this free blog. blasted link pyramid on it (plus social signals, but in my other cases, they are shit), and got it to rank #5.
shortly after, Duplicate content penalty seemed to have kicked in . I replaced content with image, wrote some words as intro text, resubmitted and got rankings back
so, this now took me 30 minutes to write for you.
hope you appreciate it
Last edited:
