In a recent LinkedIn post, Ann Smarty delves into the critical factors that contribute to sustained website growth over a 12-month period, drawing insights from an analysis by Cyrus S. Smarty emphasizes that successful websites often incorporate one or more specific features, with a higher number correlating to greater chances of success.
Core Features for Website Growth
Ann Smarty highlights several key attributes that distinguish high-performing websites. According to her analysis of Cyrus S.’s study, these features are not just beneficial but often essential for long-term viability and growth.
“Most winning sites have one or two of these features (the more, the better chances!):”
Smarty breaks down these essential features, explaining their significance in today’s digital landscape. She notes that offering a unique product or service is a primary driver, even for publishers.
Understanding User Intent
A crucial aspect for website success, as outlined by Smarty, is facilitating user action. This means enabling users to actively ‘do something’ on the site, whether it’s making a purchase, downloading content, conducting a search, or booking a service.
“It helps the user do something: buy, download, search, or book (sorry, affiliates!).”
This focus on user utility directly addresses the need for websites to provide tangible value and a clear pathway for interaction, moving beyond passive content consumption.
Niche Expertise and Proprietary Assets
Ann Smarty further stresses the importance of specialization and unique resources. Websites that excel often operate within a defined niche, demonstrating deep expertise and executing it effectively. This concept has become even more critical with the rise of AI, as noted by Smarty.
“It stays within a niche topic of expertise, and it does it well (been a thing since at least helpful content, and now makes even more sense for LLMs!).”
Furthermore, Smarty points to the significant advantage of owning proprietary assets. These can include unique datasets, self-developed products, original imagery, or user-generated content (UGC) that are difficult for competitors to replicate.
“It owns proprietary assets that are difficult to replicate: datasets, products, images, and UGC (This is our core digital PR strategy over at Smarty.Marketing!)”
This strategy of building and leveraging unique assets is a cornerstone of effective digital PR, according to Smarty’s experience at Smarty.Marketing.
Becoming a Destination Brand
The final key takeaway from Ann Smarty’s analysis is the power of establishing a website as a destination. This involves strategic positioning and promotion of the brand itself, which in turn drives branded search impressions and a variety of related searches.
“It becomes a destination site by positioning and promoting its own brand (growing branded search impression number + variety is one of the key success metrics for both Digital PR and Reddit marketing!)”
Smarty concludes by drawing a strong connection between these website growth factors and their relevance for local SEO (GEO). She argues that when a site offers unique products, produces original content, facilitates user actions, and establishes itself as a recognizable brand within its niche, it significantly enhances its visibility, particularly in the context of Large Language Models (LLMs).
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Ann Smarty on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on April 9, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →