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RTings is very good at what it does – it's one of the top sites on the internet for unbiased product reviews.
It's a site with in-depth lab tests and expert analysis to help provide the best reviews possible.Â
And with over 8 million organic visitors per month, they've become the go-to source for a very significant amount of people around the world in the market for new electronics.
But how did they achieve such immense growth and traffic?
Let’s find out.
RTings Overview
A brief review of RTings history shows that they've been around since 2012.
From their about page, you'll find a core goal, or mission statement they've done a good job sticking to:
Buy, test, and recommend the best products for everyday users.
Rtings reviews electronics like laptops, T.V.s, vacuums, soundbars and speakers, blenders, cameras, and computer peripherals like the mouse and printer.
The site currently ranks for an estimated 1.6 million organic keywords, helping the site bring in over 8.4 million organic visitors every month.
Main Competitors
Rtings exists in a very competitive niche and so they certainly isn't the only major review site blazing a trail in the industry.
Here are just some of their top competitors:
- Soundguys.com,
- Gadgetreview.com,
- Techradar.com,
- Tomsguide.com,
- Whathifi.com,
- To mention a few.
Considering how tough it is to survive in the tech and review industry, their ability to keep their head up high is worth noting.
Traffic Source
Rtings gets a huge chunk of its traffic from organic sources.
About 60% of their traffic comes from the United States, while other countries like the UK, Canada, Australia, India, etc., make up the rest.
In regards to other traffic sources, they seem to be fairly focused.
Here's a breakdown of their overall top marketing channels as according to Similarweb.
They barely have a large social media following on popular social media platforms, except for Reddit and YouTube, the latter of which has about 320K subscribers.
This makes sense though considering their niche and the way that RTings goes about their work.
Their rigorous testing of real products affords them the opportunity to make videos in ways that most other affiliates just couldn't afford.
Keywords Targeted
One of the most amazing things about RTings is just how much commercial and transactional content they have on their site.
The screenshot below from Semrush shows a nice balance of content types, but the site really appears to be mostly reviews.
It's absolutely their bread and butter and Google doesn't seem to mind.
Some top keywords that bring the most traffic include the TV dimensions and the RTings brand keyword - which combined brings in over 426,000 visitors monthly.
You'll also find them ranking for very competitive and lucrative keywords like best printer, best soundbar, bluetooth headphones, best cordless vacuum, best TVs, best portable speakers, etc.
The image below shows some more of their top traffic generating keywords - this time mostly showing individual product pages dating as far back as 2014.
What The RTings Link Profile Looks Like
Regarding backlinks, they have lots of link juice coming in.
As you may expect for a site that does such detailed reviews of products they truly are a trusted source and reap the benefits in the form of links from sites like:
- Wikipedia,
- Hostinger,
- The Cinema Guide,
- And one of their main competitors, Gadget Review.
Here’s a look at just a couple of their top-traffic generating links:
How RTings makes Its money
Unlike some competitors with ads slammed on their web pages, Rtings has no display ads on their sites. And it's possible that they're losing upwards of a million dollars or more each month because of this decision.
They spend a decent amount of money buying and testing products in their offices. These products are later sold to the public as used when the manufacturer discontinues them.
So how are they able to make their money?
They offer a subscription-based insider program that gives you access to all their reviews. Yearly access to the site costs $45, less than half of what you'd spend if you went with a monthly subscription for one year.
A look at their outgoing links shows that many of their top linked to sites are no-follows to Amazon, Best Buy, Shop-Links, and others down the line that are certainly earning them great affiliate returns.
What's special about them?
From their product round-ups to individual reviews, Rtings tries to keep things simple.
Their sleek, well-outlined review pages load fast, and the internal linking is top-notch.
Concerning linking, you’ll find internal links from review and roundup pages to the individual articles that go in-depth to talk about the product.
Again, they keep their pillar reviews to a few products, unlike some popular websites that review the top 10 products.
To show transparency, they also provide you with the ratings of each product, the tests they carried out, and a general overview of day-to-day use.
Additionally, you’ll get a review of similar products to the one you’re looking at.
They really are the gold standard of a review site with tactics that future proof their efforts.
And when you consider what Google listed off as important best practices to include in product reviews you can see why RTings continues to grow in organic traffic with each Google update.
Key Takeaways
For a newbie site owner, the Rtings site model isn't what I'd necessarily recommend considering the huge financial implications.
But there are some great takeaways we can find on the site.
Stuff like:
- Having a unique style,
- Being persistent and transparent,
- Seeking out creative monetization methods,
- And giving immense value to your readers can help you stand out amongst the competition.
Hope this has been helpful!
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