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Gardening Know How is the internet's go-to spot gardening site. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting your hands dirty for the first time, they have the tips and tricks you need to take your garden to the next level.
They're ranked #12 in ComScore's Lifestyle/Home category and #1 globally in the Gardening category on SimilarWeb, so they're kind of a big deal! And with over 14,000 articles, and new content being published every day, they are always adding to their virtual encyclopedia of gardening knowledge.
So let's have a look at the website and see what appears to be working well for their business.
Contents
How Gardening Know How Gets Its Traffic
The site attracts a massive 11m pageviews per month. That's some serious traffic! The vast majority of their traffic comes from organic search (nearly 90%), with referrals making up a distant second at under 10%.
Less than 1% of their traffic comes from social media, with the lion's share of that coming from Facebook, Reddit and Pinterest.
What types of keywords does Gardening Know How target?
GKH holds the top spot in the SERPS for some seriously difficult gardening-related keywords. They have the number one position for the term "flowers" and a plethora of plant names, like "peace lily" and "cyclamen."
They also rank for gardening how-to phrases, like "how to take care of an ivy plant" and "how to tell if you have clay soil."
In fact, at the time of writing this article, they have 124,477 keywords in positions 1-3!
So how does GKH rake in so much traffic from these tough keywords? It all comes down to content. They have articles on just about every gardening topic imaginable, from starting a garden from scratch to dealing with common pests.
Their top performing article only accounts for 1.2% of their traffic, so their success is spread really evenly throughout the site.
This is a prime example of how a site can rank for a ton of keywords and get a huge amount of traffic without having any one article that goes absolutely viral. This strategy is much less risky than having just a handful of high-volume pages attracting the majority of the search traffic.
You could say they're really "hedging" their bets!
How their pages look
Gardening Know How has a clean website design that is easy to navigate.
Their top performing page right now is the Snake Plant Care page. This article is less than 500 words with only 3 H2's.
The page layout is pretty straightforward and doesn't have any frills. The main focus is on the content, which is well-written and informative.
The sidebar has links to related articles, recent articles, and popular articles. The footer has a search bar and links to helpful resources, like free garden guides and a gardening forum.
They also have an email newsletter sign up, but they don't appear to have a lead magnet.
What does the site do well?
The website's homepage features a search bar where you can type in any gardening question you might have.
The structure of the site is clear and logical, and it's easy to find the articles you're looking for. They're using a hard silo structure, with each main category having its own sub-categories.
The articles are well-written and informative, without being unnecessarily lengthy, and they cover a wide range of topics.
What's their link profile like?
Predictably, they've attracted valuable links from big names such as House Beautiful, Wikipedia, Huffington Post, and Medical News Today.
It's likely these links were obtained organically through the site's high-quality content.
How does GKH make its money?
In a word - advertising! This behemoth site receives over 11m page views per month. Just imagine how much money they're making from all those ads!
In the articles, there are ad units in the sidebar, in the footer, and even in between some of the paragraphs.
They also sell packages to other brands for social media giveaways. The brand provides the prize, and Gardening Know How promote the giveaway on their social media channels and their blog. By allowing other brands to access GKH's massive audience in this way, they're able to generate a tidy profit.
There are a small number of paid courses on the site, such as "How to Grow A No-Waste Kitchen Garden" for $19.99, and "Creating a Butterfly Garden" for $47, with more to come.
There's no affiliate disclaimer on the site and no outgoing external links.
What can we learn from GKH?
Gardening Know How is a great example of a site that's built a huge audience by creating quality content and leveraging it to attract links, social shares, and advertising dollars.
Here's a quick recap of what we can learn from them:
- Content is king - they have a huge selection of high-quality articles on just about every gardening topic imaginable.
- A simple, straightforward design helps visitors find the information they're looking for quickly and easily.
- Advertising is a great way to monetize a website with high traffic levels.
- Quality links can be obtained organically by producing great content.
- Leveraging your audience through relevant social media giveaways is a great way to generate income from other brands.
- Paid courses are another effective monetization strategy.
So if you're thinking about starting a gardening website, or if you're looking for ways to improve your existing site, take some lessons from Gardening Know How!
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