I analyze a 10-year-old growing fitness website, JackedGorilla.com. The site receives 300,000+ pageviews per month (Ahrefs estimate).
The owners of this brand have done an EXCELLENT job in growing the site from 50,000 to 300,000 page views during the last 2 years.
I am performing this teardown because despite containing a significant ratio of buying intent content within the Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) niche, this site remained unaffected by the latest Google updates. This indicates that they are doing something worth looking into.
This is what I cover in this report:
- Website overview
- Major highlights
- Competitor overview
- Easy wins to increase revenue and/or traffic
- How much is this website worth (valuation)
- Actionable takeaways you can apply
Let’s get into it!
✅ Website Overview & Highlights
The website has had amazing growth over the last 24 months peaking at 300,000+ pageviews/mo according to Ahrefs (most likely much more).
Ahrefs shows a steady growth traffic curve with a significant amount of referring domains (3,300+) linking to the site:
The website’s domain has been active since 2013, with numerous iterations that have focused on specific fitness supplements (even controversial medicine).
Based on our observations, it appears that the current owner acquired the site in 2020 or 2021, removed the old content, and implemented a new content strategy consisting of two easily navigable silos.
The owner has two other Gorilla sites: GamingGorilla.com and WealthyGorilla.com, both with excellent organic traffic trends.
The website design is well done but has some easy revenue wins that could improve affiliate earnings.
Highlights
- Tremendous growth from 50k to 300k in last 24 months
- Unaffected negatively by all latest Google updates
- Part of high paying affiliate programs that per on a lead model (CPA) vs percentage of sale (CPS)
- Backlink profile with links from sites like thesun.co.uk, diggitymarketing.com and brobible.com
- Part of a successful portfolio that shares the same branding
Top 3 Competitors
Here are similar competitors targeting the majority of the same keywords.
- FitnessVolt.com – 816K+ pageviews/mo, similar growth trajectory. More inclined towards news content.
- TotalShape.com – 327K+ pageviews/mo, hit by the latest update.
- SetForSet.com – 2M+ pageviews/mo, huge site, tremendous growth
Let’s get into the easy wins to grow this specific website.
🔥 4 Easy Wins To Grow This Website
There are opportunities to significantly grow this brand. I break down the following easy wins:
- Increase content output
- Optimize buying guide CTAs for increased revenues
- Be on the lookout for new products and strike partnerships
- Add table of contents for more traffic and better UX
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Increase content output
The first low-hanging fruit is also the most attainable one. The website is already experiencing tremendous growth and boasts impressive traffic numbers despite having “only” 272 articles.
Increasing the current output to at least 30 articles per month would be a smart move. As indicated by the sitemap, the content is organized into several simple silos, including workout routines of celebrities and fitness trainers, the best exercises per muscle group, and buying intent content.
Among these, the easiest silo to rank for is workout routines. There are over 20,000 keywords containing “workout routine,” and the site ranks for only 1,200 of them. Creating more similar silos while staying ahead of the competition is a logical next step.
➡️ Win #2: Improve buying guide CTAs
The site ranks in the top 10 for 2,750 keywords with the word “best” in it. We know that the supplement industry is known for high affiliate commission rates it makes sense to improve existing buying guides.
We will use this as an example guide to teardown: https://jackedgorilla.com/best-fat-burner/
💰 Remove featured images from buying guides
The current featured images for buying guides offer no value and the owner has opted for a plain white background with three products, whereas the educational articles have customized and visually appealing featured images.
Removing the images will allow for the CTA elements and display ads to show up above the fold hence higher revenues.
💰 Add Comparison Tables
Although most of the buying guides feature a large number of products (over 10), there is no comparison table at the top to highlight the best option.
The owner has instead chosen to include a “winner’s pick” followed by the last product reviewed, which can be confusing for visitors. See below.
I recommend adding a simple 3-column table with top picks. The columns should be:
- Product title and image
- Bullet list features of the product. 3 max.
- Call to action button
Additionally, we suggest building a special feature that compares supplements based on a specific factor. For instance, for a pre-workout supplement, people are often interested in the amount of caffeine.
These unique features can help people engage with the content and click through to the affiliate product.
💰 Optimize CTA product box
The most major revenue-genereting element on the page are product boxes. However, their is significant room for improvement.
This is what the product box looks like:
Here are the major improvements:
- Increase CTA button font size to 20px
- Change CTA button from green to something distinct like red
- Include a bullet list of unique features about the product
- Reduce excessive white-space padding inside the box
- Change box outline color from “black” to a more distinct color
➡️ Win #3: Be on the lookout for new products
Although the owner may have already taken this step, it’s still worth checking for new supplements in the market and providing them with a place in the top-performing articles. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Begin by compiling a list of keywords where your site ranks in positions 1-3.
- Hire a VA to create a list of newly launched supplements every few months. Ensure that these supplements are FDA-approved before proceeding.
- Reach out to the manufacturers and offer to review their product and feature it at the top of your article. You can use the number of clicks you receive daily from organic traffic and your outbound clicks to brands to support your request.
- Negotiate a fixed monthly fee or a higher affiliate commission rate.
Another idea is to do a mutual product review for a backlink plus a placement/affiliate fee. The idea is as follows:
- Follow steps above to reach out to brands
- Pitch them that you will trial and review their products and do review write-up on the website
- In return, they allow you to do a guest post on their website
➡️ Win #4: Add table of contents
Not a crazy easy win but a Table of Contents (TOC) is something that you must add to your site in 2023.
Here is an example of my TOC on The Website Flip:
A TOC has the following benefits:
Improved user experience: A table of contents can make it easier for readers to find the specific information they’re looking for within a longer article, which can improve their overall experience on the website.
Increased engagement: When readers can quickly navigate to the sections of an article that interest them, they are more likely to engage with the content for a longer period of time. We recommend using floating ToC on a left sidebar, as depicted in the image above, as they allow users to easily click on individual reviews or a comparison table from anywhere in the article.
Better on-page SEO: A table of contents can help search engines understand the structure and content of an article, which can improve its chances of ranking higher in search results.
Jump links in search results: Google crawls TOC jump links and shows them in the search results. People are more likely to click on a specific section and jump to the content. See the example below of my site:
💰 How Much Is this Website Worth?
Here are the assumptions I am making:
- 300,000 pageviews/mo according to Ahrefs, 900,000 according to SimilarWeb
- Monetized by display ads and affiliate programs
The supplements and fitness industry is considered a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche, typically monetized solely through affiliate commissions.
However, this site has garnered a significant amount of traffic through its informative content, resulting in a considerable portion of its revenue coming from Mediavine display ads.
Additionally, the site promotes high-commission items via alternative affiliate partners. Based on these factors, our rough estimate is that the site generates approximately $15,000-20,000 per month (most likely more in reality).
👉 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your niche website today:
- High-traffic affiliate websites should focus heavily on improving clickthrough rates; a small % increase in clicks to affiliate brands can result in significant revenues
- If your website performs well after a major Google update, it is recommended to take advantage of this momentum by creating new and engaging content.
- A site this size has brand value and traction. Take advantage of that and reach out to product manufacturers for mutually beneficial partnerships (i.e., backlinks, advertising)
