This week I analyze a 4-year-old Boy Scouts website, ScoutSmarts.com. It is one of the rare informational sites I’ve seen that hasn’t been affected by recent Google updates. According to a recent interview on the Niche Pursuits website, the site receives about 65k traffic per month and earns about $6k revenue per month.
Cole, the owner of the site has done an excellent job of creating useful and valuable information guides for a specific audience of people who are involved in Boy Scouts.
Boy Scouts has more than 1 million youth members between the ages of 4 and 21 and many parents and volunteers spend countless hours on this activity. This large and engaged audience often seek information to help them make the most out of the scouting experience. To reach the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout it typically takes several years of effort.
In this teardown, I analyze what the site does very well, how it was able to avoid the effect of recent Google updates, and what can be improved to grow traffic and revenue.
This is what I cover in this report:
- Website overview
- Major highlights
- Competitor overview
- Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic
- Actionable takeaways you can apply
Let’s get into it!
✅ Website Overview & Highlights
The website has had strong and steady growth over the last 3 years with an upward trend in organic traffic, which is rare these days for informational sites.
Ahrefs shows the site doesn’t have a ton of links but it has been able to attract a couple hundred referring domains per year.
The website’s domain has been active since 2020, when the owner started publishing content on the site.
The site was started by Cole, an Eagle Scout and recent college graduate from Hawaii who started the site as a passion project while working full time. As the site grew, he was able to quit his job and focus on the site full-time.
To scale content, he hired people who have the Eagle Scout qualification to write for the site.
The site consists of guides for how to meet the requirements to receive merit badges as well as tutorials for common activities like flag ceremonies, fundraising, and planning field trips.
The site design is very basic and minimal. It uses the Acabado WordPress theme that is popular with niche site builders who follow Income School.
Highlights
- 790+ referring domains
- About 320 in-depth articles and guides
- Over 2,400 email subscribers
- YouTube channel with 1,580 subscribers
- Course for becoming an Eagle Scout faster ($49)
How this site avoided impact from the Helpful Content Update
While it is hard to tell what factors Google is using to identify unhelpful content, here are some potential reasons this site has avoided getting hit.
- Few articles are designed primarily to generate traffic from search.
- Many articles are guides that provide in-depth information based on first-hand experience from expert authors with deep subject-matter knowledge.
- The author focused on writing content that could be the best resource online for a specific topic.
- The author says they aimed to increase “dwell time” by trying to get readers to continue reading until the end of the article.
- The author says they went above and beyond in answering questions people may have.
Top 3 Competitors
Here are similar competitors targeting the majority of the same keywords.
- Scouting.org – The official website of the Boy Scouts of America organization with 248k organic traffic (Ahrefs)
- ScoutingMagazine.org – An online magazine covering news and information about scouting with 8.5k organic traffic (Ahrefs)
- BoyScoutTrail.com – An informational site with a very outdated design that receives about 18k organic traffic (Ahrefs)
Let’s get into the easy wins to grow this specific website.
🔥 5 Easy Wins To Grow This Website
There are opportunities to significantly grow this brand. I break down the following easy wins:
- Make the call to action buttons stand out
- Add photos or graphics to articles
- Execute a link building campaign to boost authority
- Improve the design with a site redesign
- Create travel content for Boy Scout trips
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Make the Call to Action Buttons Stand Out
The call to action button on the home page is easy to miss because it is inside of a larger image. This makes it hard to see and lowers the number of people who click.
Additionally, there are call-to-action links in the text of articles but these links could attract more clicks if they added CTA buttons between paragraphs.
Adding CTA buttons on their own line after every 4-7 paragraphs is a good way to get readers to take action.
I would also consider adding a popup CTA with a strong lead magnet offer to convert more visitors into email subscribers. The site is currently converting less than 0.1% of visitors into subscribers so this can be improved to build a valuable audience that can generate additional revenue from newsletter sponsorships.
➡️ Win #2: Add Photos or Graphics to Articles
Many of the articles lack visual elements like photos and graphics besides the custom-featured image at the top of the article. Adding real-life photos of scouts participating in activities or infographics that summarize information can boost the trust and credibility of the site.
Additionally, adding photos of what is being discussed will make the content more engaging and also increase the content length of each page. Longer pages have more opportunities for display ads to be inserted which will increase the revenue per visitor.
Adding infographics or charts that summarize the information can make the pages more helpful and have the potential to be shared on social media or be linked to from other relevant sites.
➡️ Win #3: Execute a Link Building Campaign to Boost Authority
This site has a relatively low link authority compared to some of its competitors with a Domain Rating of 34 and less than 800 referring domains.
Links are still one of the most important ranking factors so actively building links from relevant and authoritative sources can help increase rankings for pages across the site.
One potential opportunity for effective link building is to create useful infographics about merit badges and make it clear that it is okay to use the infographics on other sites with link attribution.
Other potential link building opportunities for this site include:
- Offering to write expert guest posts about Boy Scouts on kids activities sites or parenting blogs
- Reaching out to journalists who write about Boy Scouts and offer to be an expert resource
- Emailing local sites like local government sites, schools, and local libraries and requesting the site be added to their recommended resources page
- Conducting surveys of Boy Scouts about things like expenses and creating statistic pages
- Conduct interviews with notable people who discuss how participating in Boy Scouts influenced their life
➡️ Win #4: Improve the Design With a Site Redesign
With the exception of the custom featured images at the top of articles, this site looks like a basic niche site or blog because it uses the Acabado WordPress theme that is popular with niche website builders.
Improving the design of the site with a professional-quality redesign will make the site look more credible and trustworthy for visitors and help it earn more links from authority media sites.
A more premium design can also lead readers to perceive the content as higher quality and lead to positive user signals like spending more time on the site and not hitting the back button right away.
➡️ Win #5: Create Travel Content for Boy Scout Trips
The site owner said in a recent interview that they have covered most scouting topics already to the best of their ability. A good way to expand content is to look for adjacent topics that are relevant and have lucrative affiliate programs.
One lucrative topic that the site could expand to is travel content for camping and outdoor experiences. Boy Scouts often travel with their troop to locations for overnight camping trips or outdoor experiences like fishing and hiking. This site could cover the best local ideas for Boy Scout trips and activities near a city or in a specific state.
This creates opportunities to earn high affiliate commissions from sites like Booking.com, VRBO, GetYourGuide, and Viator.
If a large group books a cabin rental or a hiking tour through an affiliate link, that could result in a large commission. This will also help diversify revenue as a high percentage currently depends on display ads.
👉 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your niche website today:
- Make sure that the calls-to-action stand out by contrasting with surrounding elements.
- Adding unique photos can improve the user experience and boost display ad RPMs.
- Consider implementing active link building tactics to boost ranking potential above competitors who ignore link building.
- Upgrade from low-cost WordPress themes to a custom design to improve the perceived quality of content.
- Look for adjacent topics that create opportunities for lucrative affiliate commissions.
