How to get more traffic & ad revenue with Google Web Stories
What happens when a Google Web Story goes viral
Helloooo, 👋
For the past five-ish months I’ve been experimenting with Google Web Stories for our travel blog, Hashtag Colorado Life.
And it’s been pretty successful! At least successful enough that it’s worth continuing to pay a contractor to create 15 stories each month for the blog.
On November 6, 2022 one of our GWS went viral. The story received more than 7,700 views and ended up making us an extra $85 in ad revenue.
You can see a screenshot of our analytics for that day below. The Google Web Story that went viral can be seen here; 19 Ski Trip Essentials You Need to Pack.
Here’s how this happened and how you can use Google Web Stories to get more traffic to your site and earn more revenue.
What are Google Web Stories?
If you don’t know what Google Web Stories (GWS) are, they’re basically Google’s version of Pinterest Story or an IG Story.
You simply turn your blog post into a visual story with images and minimal text. They are mostly displayed in Google’s Discover function.
This is mostly available on mobile phones under the “trending” or “news” sections.
☞ Here’s another example of one a more recent Google Web Story, featuring our guide about the Best Christmas Lights in Denver.
How to earn ad revenue with Google Web Stories
You’ll see that in the middle of our GWS we have a Mediavine in-content ad that’s served to people who continue watching the story.
Not only do we earn ad revenue for people who “watch” the GWS but also for any readers who click over to the attached blog post.
On the same day, November 6th, the site received more than 1,500 pageviews to the exact blog post. This increased our earnings to more than $200 in ad revenue for the one day.
Our average earnings per day are usually around $120-130 per day (as seen in the graph below). So this was quite a big jump!
How to use Google Web Stories to get more traffic & money
There are a few factors that led to this Web Story going viral and getting the travel blog more views + ad revenue.
1. Publish GWS consistently every month
The same rules that apply for a blog, or YouTube channel, in order to grow quickly also apply to GWS.
It’s important to publish GWS on a consistent basis, regularly each month. The best practice is publish between 15-30 stories each month (1 every 2 days or 1x per day).
Because the travel blog is smaller and only has about 150 blog posts, we pay someone to publish 15 stories per month for us.
We work with Allison Lancaster and her team, who are absolutely amazing! They do great work and this isn’t the first GWS that has gone viral for us either.
2. Google Web Stories are very timely
Unlike Google SEO which can take 6-12 months for a blog post to start ranking in search, GWS need to be published timely.
They are perfect for seasonal content, newsworthy posts, and content that is “here today and gone tomorrow” sort of thing.
I actually wrote the blog post for the Best Ski Essentials last year, during the 2021 ski season.
This year I added some more sections and republished it for the 2022 ski season, which I knew was starting in November. The blog post was completely updated and refreshed by mid-October.
I then queued up the content for the Web Story to be created and published by Allison’s team in November.
BOOM. Recipe for a win!
3. Enable ad revenue for Google Web Stories
If you are already with an ad site like Mediavine, inputting ads into your GWS is mostly automatic.
You just have to make sure the settings are correct in your dashboard. If you aren’t sure, just email Mediavine support and they’ll make sure the settings are turned on.
You never know when a GWS will get picked up on Google Discover but if you’re prepared then you’ll be able to earn extra revenue from each one.
Our GWS earned an additional $85 in just this one day from the Google Web Story as well as the additional traffic to the blog post.
Not to mention that this post is full of Amazon affiliate links for gear, clothing, and equipment!
Paying someone to produce Google Web Stories for the site has been a great experiment that I plan to keep doing as long as it’s working.
This is just one of the many ways that I’m planning to TRIPLE my blog’s income over the next year.
Don’t miss future updates and income reports by becoming a paid subscriber. Big thanks to everyone who has already upgraded and subscribed last month! <3
Thanks for reading and have a great week.
- Carrie
And don’t forget, you can comment on this post or reply to this email. I read/reply to all of the comments and messages I receive. :)