I am having trouble finding a clear outline for this. I want to boost traffic and have my sites and pages rank better, but the more I research this, the more confused I get. Some people offer the same advice and others tell you to avoid half of what others are saying. I am not sure what to do or how to approach this.

Honestly, it comes down to authority. Sites that have long-standing authority will always outrank you. Even if you content is good and your information is trustworthy (if you provide any), it doesn't matter. The trouble with this is that I believe a lot of the "authoritative sites" end up pulling from smaller, less known ones for content the second they see it getting boosted. Doesn't matter the niche or topic. I have had it happen to me. I was ranking number 1 on Google for a few things and both got overtaken within 3 months by "authoritative" websites.

You can luck out and ranker higher in niche topics but it is a lot harder to do that now. As @GZip29 mentioned, larger sites will just snipe things from smaller ones eventually and push them back down the ranking. I don't even focus on what Google wants anymore. It is too frustrating.

Yup, building authority will work. Anyone can do this though if you do it right. So when it comes to a website, you want to compile as much information in your niche as you can and link around to it within all your content. Linking to other websites with higher credibility can help too.

On 7/14/2026 at 8:40 AM, jonasb23 said:

Yup, building authority will work. Anyone can do this though if you do it right. So when it comes to a website, you want to compile as much information in your niche as you can and link around to it within all your content. Linking to other websites with higher credibility can help too.

There are some guides online as well as videos I have seen that walk you through all the little details but yes, this does work. There are tons of little changes you can make to a website to improve how Google views and pulls information from your website.

On 7/11/2026 at 11:25 AM, johnnykipp said:

I don't even focus on what Google wants anymore. It is too frustrating.

I have been there. It can be really hard and frustrating when you see what works on and for other sites and even when you do your best, Google still ignores your site or outright deranks it.

Maybe these days it is more so about looking the part than actually being the part. I have seen websites do really well that are not any sort of verified source for anything. They just have the correct information and have a backlog of stuff that sights their own content. Buried deep inside it are sources that go to credible places.

On 7/26/2026 at 10:36 AM, Ryyyan said:

Maybe these days it is more so about looking the part than actually being the part. I have seen websites do really well that are not any sort of verified source for anything. They just have the correct information and have a backlog of stuff that sights their own content. Buried deep inside it are sources that go to credible places.

That is something I have heard of people doing. Starting with a highly credible source and then building your own content on top of it with links on every page to other pages. Eventually if you follow the links they go back to the original source.

That is about what they do, yeah. I am just guessing that you have to start at the beginning of building a site like this or else it can be massive amounts of work to seed in the information and content after. Also, you have to make sure you make it so if the original source changes, you can easily update it.