How The Spruce Generates 26 Million Visitors with Quality Content

The Spruce is a monster of a website and is part of the Dotdash Meredith empire.

They focus on content related to helping people to create 'their best home'.

And in today's Growth Through Content Newsletter, you'll discover.

• The scalable content system that you can apply to your articles today.
• The standout difference between the Spruce and other sites that makes what they say more impactful.
• How they have become their industry's own search engine (and how you can do the same).
• Let's dive in.

Why We'll Not Be Talking About Their Backlinks

I'm not going to waste much time talking about how the Spruce generates backlinks.

It's kind of pointless. They're part of a huge publishing empire and are one of the largest affiliate sites in the world.

Instead, I'll focus on lessons you can apply to your content marketing.

However, let's take a look at their traffic split.

Of their 26 million monthly visitors, you can see the split above.

3% of their content (486 pages) generates over 9 million visitors per month.

5% of their content (796 pages) generates over 5 million visitors per month.

26% of their content (3888 pages) generates nearly 9 million visitors per month.

35% of their content (5299 pages) generates about 2.3 million visitors per month.

The lesson here is that large-scale publishing adds up.

With 10,000 pages of content, you can safely say, 'they've built up some topical authority'.

And that's a nice time to shift to look at their content model.

The Spruce is a Lesson in Building Your Own Search Engine

In case your eyes can't see it on screen, the spruce shows why it's the best in the business.

How? On their header, they state;

• 385 million readers
• 1700 products tested.
• 19,000 original photos.
• 2000 how-to projects.

Even if you've never before been to the spruce, that's enough to know you've come to the right place.

This is a perfect example of creating your own search engine.

Anyone that stumbles onto the spruce looking for home advice or ideas just found a goldmine.

But it's their topical authority that shines through.

The top menu gives you the core subjects that they cover.

• Decor
• Garden
• Home Improvement
• What to buy
• Celebrations
• What to buy
• News

And each section has a fantastic top-level category page.

There is a lot to be said about this kind of structure.

They have arguably built 'websites within a website'.

Now, I haven't done too much technical digging on the site structure. I'll let all of you tech SEO superstars do that.

However, from a user perspective, the content is organised fantastically.

With great menus throughout.

I often feel that menu design and placement are neglected by many.

But the spruce place significant effort to ensure there is always another piece of content to read and learn from.

OK, so what about their content?

The Scalable Content System You Can Use Today

My biggest content hate is waffle.

That's wordy content created just to try and outrank.

Google has (for years) been telling people not to use word count to try and rank. Indeed, their helpful content update is the bodyguard to their viewpoint.

But how does the Spruce create great content at scale?

The answer seems to lie in a clever system of freelance writers, along with an editorial board of fact-checkers.

You can find details of their policies on their about us page.

However, the model is a great one.

• Writers
• Expert fact-checkers
• Editors

It's their commitment to quality that means every article comes out engaging, entertaining and just right.

And if you want to scale content in an era of AI content writing tools, I truly believe that fact-checking will be in huge demand.

If you think about it, we'll be able to create vast sums of content with ease and for pennies.

And sure, you can hire editors to ensure it's bang on.

But what about the facts?

This is where fact-checkers can come in.

And just when mediocre writers seem to have been eliminated, AI could create another role.

But that's not the only thing that makes the spruce content stand out.

They use tip sections like the one above.

Great design boxes like this one show information.

And wonderful graphics like the ones on this page.

It's the little touches that make the spruce content standout out.

• No waffle.
• Great writing.
• Fact checked.
• Content design.

However, there is one other final aspect that makes what they write far more believable.

The About Section that Takes Content Seriously

The spruce has put some serious effort into their about page.

Not only does it give you in-depth bios of their team, but their about page also provides information on everything they do and the process behind it.

I personally think about pages are an area in which all of we can hugely improve on.

Linking out to social media profiles of writers, showcase your processes, your qualifications, experience, success, awards, opening hours, complaints process and so on.

Make your about pages a showcase of who you are.

OK, as always, I like to add to these case studies how you can leverage some of the aspects we've talked about, so here goes.

How You Can Leverage The Same Tactics as The Spruce

Content Design

In 2023, content design will be huge.

Content creation is no longer a barrier to success. Content impact will be.

As such, aim to make every post a great one.

Remember, 'great does not = high word count'.

I don't think skyscraper posts are dead, but no longer is word count the battleground. We can skyscraper in other ways.

Think content width and depth, not content length.

Check out Growth Design.

They use high-end comic strip-like content design.

Sure, it's gotta be hard work, but it looks great.

Siege Media are another example of content creators that use great visuals to support what they say.

Orbit Media is another agency that uses custom graphics to great use.

And, of course, we have the king of visualising value, Jack Butcher.

Those that follow me, you'll know I'm a huge fan and have taken Jack's courses which is evident in my content.

So, if you plan on creating content, make sure you follow the spruce on making it both look and read great.

Content Policy

Do you have a content policy?

If not, it's a great way to actually state what you want the standard of your content to come out like.

The Spruce has a range of policies around their content. It's a commitment to quality that few sites and even businesses do not follow.

In 2023 I think it's a good indication to create one.

For example, in a recent article, I wrote for Search Engine Land, I gave 9 factors to make content great.

1. Add your own data
2. Add design
3. Add facts
4. Insert videos
5. Add unique H2's that don't already feature in the serps.
6. Add quick answers
7. Add specifications, details and numbers.
8. Commit to real answers.
9. Get quotes from business leaders.

Why not make a policy that all content has to have at least 7 out of the 9 above?

Content Scale- The Rule of 30

If it isn't written, it can't get read or get ranked.

I'm not saying you need to go out and create 400 posts. The volume of your content relies heavily on the business and sector you're in.

But stop being shy.

If you're going to get anywhere, you need to create all the content you need.

Google's John Mueller famously stated

“It’s really hard to call a site authoritative after 30 articles, and especially if you’ve stopped publishing for a while, I can see how Google might be a bit more conservative with regards to indexing more.”

I started using what I call the rule of 30.

In short, if your site hasn't got 30 great articles within it, then that's a major SEO priority.

Assuming it can be crawled, getting to that 30 articles number is the baseline for SEO.

Yes, tech has its part to play.

But site authority matters.

That might not be a nice pill to swallow.

But if you're asking your SEO team why you haven't got any traffic, looking at the amount of quality content on your site should be a priority.

Of course, you need to focus on other things, such as links etc.

But you can use digital PR to achieve this alongside content creation.

Key Takeaways

If I could sum up the success sequence of the spruce, it would fall into the following.

• Quality Content
• Design
• Scale
• Policies
• Commitment

Sure, they have some serious money behind them.

Yes, links and the like isn't an issue.

But how many websites actually commit to creating quality content at scale?

It's not about how cheap they could get their content. It's about how good it is.

That's the thing to take away.

Great content is built, not just written.

See you next week.

Andy