🤯 These 3 Sites CRUSHED it in 2023

Check out these 3 small authority sites that crushed it this year! ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Yep, it's December 29th, and I'm writing a newsletter. In case you were still doubting my nerdiness, here we are. I might not put the dancefloor on fire Sunday night, but give an Ahrefs account (with some credits left 😬), and I'll get that party started.  And to start the last (email) party of the year, I wanted to answer a common worry newer followers of ours have: Can I still start a successful site in 2024? Do I even stand a chance? Especially considering the recent updates, the growth of AI, and everything else happening in the industry right now. But in typical newsletter fashion, I'm not going to bore you to death with cheesy (hum, I love cheese..) rhetoric. I want to SHOW you sites that are killing it now, using the recent updates as a way to gain traffic. 1. Naplab (.com) I interviewed Derek [on the podcast last November]( and for a good reason: Unlike many affiliate sites this year, his traffic has skyrocketed, going from 6.2k estimated visitors in January to 131,000 estimated traffic at the end of the year.  That's a 2,338% growth year on year. It's not bad for a DR 40 site in the incredibly competitive mattress niche. He does review all products in hand, and that's a big part of why what he does works, but many now do this and don't get his results. So how did he do it? A. He cuts the fluff While most blogs still focus on producing "3000 words pieces", Derek doesn't bother with that. His content cuts to the chase, delivers the facts visually, and doesn't bother with unnecessary prose. People are used to 1-minute TikToks now, so it's no surprise that straight-to-the-point content now wins over "traditional SEO" articles. B. He has a quantitative review system As the graphic below shows, he has scales and quantitative scoring for every criterion that makes a good mattress. This makes his reviews follow a constant format that relies on a pre-defined scoring system. If you read them attentively, Google recommends a scoring system in their review guidelines. I could keep going, but I have more examples to go through. If you want to learn more about naplab, listen to [our podcast episode with Derek](. 2. Shaver Check (.com) Shaver Check is another small blog (DR 29) that has pretty much tripled its traffic in 2023 despite all the updates and the competitive niche it is in. The site is run by a one-man band, Ovidiu Nicolae, from Romania, and I understand the traffic is decent, but what's crazy is the kinds of keywords he ranks for. For example, he ranks between #1 and #2 for "best electric razor" between the New York Times and Men's Health. Yes, that's after all the recent updates. And while it may not be as "concise" as Naplab is, the site is not afraid of straying away from the sacrosanct concept of "search intent". Ovidiu expresses his divisive opinions, and it makes his content that much more interesting and engaging. Something that can't be said for a lot of web content these days. He even goes as far as making a whole article section to point out that most content on the topic is shit and generic and lacks authenticity. This is something most SEO gurus would warn you against. The result? Shavercheck is killing it while others are sinking. 3. Sansspotter (.com) Do you remember when HCU came out, and the same SEO gurus told you that having a blog roll on your homepage was why your traffic fell to oblivion? I think Sanspotter missed the memo. Despite having a blog roll on their homepage, their traffic almost 4x in 2023, and they're "just" a DR 23 travel blog. Once again, this site is a one-man band run by Scott, who takes photos and videos of his airplane journeys and documents them on both his blog and his YouTube channel. What makes his blog different is something we've already seen with Nap Lab: He cuts the bullshit out. His blog reads more like a comic book where you read the captions from image to image than a traditional blog. No long sentences, no unnecessary words, a very visual piece of content all along with a strong storytelling (hint: experience) element. And Google is giving a lot of love to this content format over "classic blog posts." allowing his pages to hang out with DR 90+ sites in the SERPs because of the unique value they bring. Bringing it home Why am I showing you these examples? Well, there are 2 main reasons: - I want to show you that small blogs can still do well despite everything you may read online and despite Google's really messed up SERPs these days. - I wanted to show that the blogs that are now doing well are VERY different from the blogs that have historically done well. Google did a full 180 on the kind of content they ranked well this year. And while it's clear they're having a problem with spam, parasite SEO, and even large sites spamming AI content at the moment, there's no doubt these issues will be resolved sometime in 2024. But a greater change is happening for legitimate blogs: Authenticity and user experience are finally starting to win, which means the rules about what works are changing. This is why we've decided to completely update the commercial content section in The Authority Site System based on the winners of the recent updates. This update is 100% free for all our existing members and is coming out on January 1st. I'll share more information about it then, and for now, rest a bit before you get pissed on Sunday 🍾. On behalf of the Authority Hacker team, I want to thank you for sticking with us this year and wish you a happy new year! I'll see you after your hangover 😅 Gael Breton Co-founder of Authority Hacker P.S. Did you find these examples useful? Would you like us to do more breakdowns like this in the future? Reply to this email and let us know! Sent to: {EMAIL} [Unsubscribe]( Authority Hacker, 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom