I figured I'd share a quick progress update + next steps with this build.
24 hours after I submitted my sitemap, I had 1.3k pages indexed and two keywords ranking on the first page of Google (for local comic book stores).
This is faster than normal and likely due to the low competition nature of specific comic book stores.
24 hours after going live with my site and publishing my sitemap
Today my directory is officially a week old and I'm ranking for 36 comic book related keywords, with three keywords ranking on the first page of Google.
My plan going into this build was to rank for:
Broad location-based keywords ("comic book store san antonio")
Individual comic book stores getting traffic (Branded)
I'm starting to rank for "the exchange", which is a chain for buying and selling collectibles that gets 15k/monthly searches.
My comic book store directory ranking for "the exchange monroeville"
The organic search volume behind "the exchange"
My Next Step: Getting feedback from the nerds
I can say this because I am one (Magic The Gathering, anyone?)
Anyways, my next goal is meeting my future audience where they're already scrolling.
I need to find small, niche subreddits around comic book stores and make a heartfelt post about my directory.
In my post, I'll make sure to include:
A story around the pain point I was solving (avoid self-promo vibes)
How I spent 60-70 hours building this ("I worked hard on this" vibes)
An open-minded tone to welcome feedback and constructive criticism (genuine interest to make it better and more useful vibes)
Depending on the feedback, I'll make simple, quick iterations to my directory.
I need real-time suggestions more than traffic right now.
If the directory isn't useful, then I'll lose out on the user engagement signals that will help my SEO.
- Paid partnership -
I’ve been using Hostinger as one of my go-to hosts for building directories. They make it ridiculously easy to get set up with WordPress, a domain, and everything you need to launch.
For WordPress users who want a smooth setup without getting too technical, I genuinely recommend Hostinger’s Managed Wordpress Hosting plan. It’s what I used to build comicbookstores.co
There's nothing stopping me from starting to build links now.
But typically, I like to wait 2-4 weeks and let the website slowly crawl up the SERPs first.
It helps me understand what keywords I'm ranking for, where my natural placement is (page 2? page 4?) and where I should drive my links to.
I'm still deciding if I should play with badges as my first backlink approach, or if I should experiment with $200-$300 worth of highly relevant backlinks.
Or just do manual outreach and spend more time, but spend less money per backlink.
I'll be sharing the processes in the SYD Pro community as I build these links out.
Takeways + Future Plans
So far, the site appears to be mapping out correctly.
It's starting to rank for relevant keywords and getting indexed. All good signs. But it's way too early to see where this website can take me as far as monetization.
I'll also be treating this site more like a playground for LLM SEO, so I plan to create some blog posts and add FAQ schema down the line.
But first, I need to immerse myself in the comic book community first and get as close to my target audience as possible and understand their problems.
