053: How To Rank Above Wikipedia (In An Ultra Competitive Industry)

If you were to ask me:

“Dan, choose an industry to build a website around to get traffic from Google”

I would definitely NOT choose the medical and supplements industry. It’s super hard to get Google and users to trust you, and rank above sites like Wikipedia, WedMD.

But that’s exactly what my guest, Sol Orwell did with his site Examine.com – which has amassed over 2 million monthly visitors in a 4 year period. They rank above wikipedia, webmd, in the ultra competitive medical and supplements space.

Sol will break down the entire process, from spotting an opportunity, to creating rank-worthy content, to building links (they have 400+ linking root domains) and how he plans to continue the growth of Examine.com

Buckle up – it’s a fun one.

Don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes!

Links

• Examine
• Hostgator
• Reddit Fitness
• The Reddit Keyword Research Tool
• Sol’s Interview on Smart Passive Income
• SolOrwell.com
• How Readability Can Make Sure People Read
• Vitamin D on Examine
• Mixergy
• BuzzSumo
• Majestic Tools
• Ahrefs
• eBay Pez Story
• #CookieLife – How to Network Like This Millionaire

Books

• Deep Work

People

• Sol Orwell
• Brent Oxley
• Pat Flynn
• Brian Clark
• Brian Dean
• Andrew Warner
• John Romaniello

And thanks to Jason Quey for connecting me with Sol!

Agenda

Background

• “Sol sounded like a good name.”
• “He used that as the seed money to start Host Gator.”
• “Web hosting affiliates weren’t always paying out.”
• “This is when it was super easy to buy a link and rank at the top…”
• “I wouldn’t buy links…”

Examine.com

• “We dabbled in Facebook retargeting but basically no ads…”
• “I saw an opportunity within the Reddit forum.”
• “What were the most popular posts in the last year?”
• “It’s a pure firehose of questions.”
• Bro science
• “It was a worthwhile risk to me.”

Content Creation

• “You rank number one for Vitamin D. How are you doing that?”
• Brand vs personal name
• “I was building relationships.”
• “The research team has grown.”
• History of the content?
• “We were our own customers.”

Links

• Four to five years = 60+ DA
• “Why would I want to talk to you?”
• “We built a reputation.”
• “What is a skill I have that others are lacking?”
• “… that’s how you become known to be useful.”
• “Would I want to know this person?”
• “Communication is such an important skill.”
• Staying relevant to reporters/existing contacts

#CookieLife

• “Prove it to me. Mail me your cookies!”