Content alone is not an SEO motion
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Content as the primary tool for SEO growth is one of the greatest misconceptions that plague the SEO industry. Many marketers beginning their journey to acquire customers through organic search believe that search traffic is as simple as creating content around the keywords they want users to search for, and magically, the search traffic will just roll in.
Search is more advanced
At one point in time, this was true, but it hasn’t been for many years. When this was true, the entire library of the Internet was significantly smaller. Now, anything you can possibly find a keyword worth targeting on a keyword research tool will inevitably have dozens of similar sites competing for the same words and topics.
Just writing the content alone isn’t enough of a reason that a search engine should “rank” the content at the top of search results, and even more than that, it is certainly not a good enough reason for users to click on it or engage with the content which is ultimately always the goal for SEO.
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▪ We wrote up a 600 words report on our findings, with tables and clear content layout
Recent updates
Additionally, with the helpful content updates over the last year, Google has been proactively engaged with demoting content that is not helpful. Content written just for search traffic often fits the parameters of unhelpful content.
Too many organizations built SEO efforts around keyword research >> content roadmaps, translating into lots of free traffic from search as Google rewarded the content.
What Google gave they have now taken away.
I am seeing many sites that I have met over the last years as a consultant have graphs that peaked in mid-2023 and are seeing negative impacts from each instance where Google updated the algorithm. It is safe to assume that these sites will likely continue to be impacted by these algorithm updates because while other content on the sites has survived the updates, their strategies are not really different on that content.
To be more direct, it may have survived because it has not YET been identified as unhelpful content.
SEO is so much more than "just write" content because someone might search for the words that appear in the content.
SEO is a process to optimize content and websites and is just one of the many channels to market content. Effective content marketing considers all channels - paid, organic, direct, referral, social, email, etc. - and not just one. I find that often when content is created for SEO, there are parallel efforts to create content for these other channels. Content shouldn’t just be created for SEO; it should be created for users in whatever channel they might arrive from and then optimized for those channels.
I typically think SEO should be baked into an acquisition strategy from the start, but when it comes to content, SEO can very much be done after the fact.
Content is a means to unlock acquisition from search, but only if it's a part of the user journey.
It’s not just the helpful content update. Generative AI, whether it's from Google or ChatGPT, is also a significant risk. If a site produces listicles about the top tools to do X or the best places to go for Y, these are the precise kinds of things that generative AI can generate without the need for lengthy pieces of content.
Knowledge graph answers from Google are destroying this site.
As I have written in this newsletter and my book, one of my most profound SEO learning experiences was when the startup where I was working had the majority of our search traffic suddenly, without warning, ripped away from us on the day that the Google Panda algorithm was launched.
This algorithm update was one of Google’s largest updates at the time that targeted the quality of the content itself rather than just targeting nefarious spam tactics SEO teams had used to get ahead. After a handful of individual runs of the Panda algorithm on its own, the key aspects of the algorithm were baked into the core ranking algorithms.
Helpful content as an advanced Panda
SEO teams adjusted to the quality requirements of Google and avoided writing obviously thin or programmatic-only content, but still did not achieve a high enough bar of content that matched user expectations. I think the current algorithm updates (and likely now part of the core algorithms) are just Panda updated for the AI generation.
Many companies who are impacted by these negative algorithm events will fail to see the folly of their strategies and, instead of pivoting to a new strategy, will try to repair and regain what was lost.
Those days are in the past, and a new content paradigm exists that puts the user front and center. If content doesn’t add value to a user on its own, it is at risk of being demoted by Google at any point in time.
It’s time for a new strategy
The right approach is NOT to be sneakier or more aggressive with content, but it is to go back to first principles and determine what the user expects from your site and how you can offer them the best answers for their needs. The solution will likely require content, and the themes and thrust of the content should come from the users rather than a keyword research tool.
More than just doing this because it will work for the search engines, the more important goal is that by matching user needs and intent, it will also further a user’s journey in the acquisition funnel that SEO is meant to promote.
Conversions and user signals are more important than arbitrary rankings on a search engine.
It might just be traffic
One last point: I have seen under the hood of many companies' data that algorithm updates had impacted, and unsurprisingly, while their traffic was brutally cut, the revenue impact was negligible for companies that required a purchase or an action that was more committal than just an ad click.
As an optimistic upside, these companies discovered that their SEO efforts were a cost center rather than the revenue effort they assumed it was, which gave them the fuel they needed to pivot.
In an upcoming newsletter, I will share best practices for listening to users and developing your product-led SEO efforts with the user in mind. Stay tuned!
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So…. Keep creating content that meets user needs?
You mentioned, “It’s not just the helpful content update. Generative AI, whether it's from Google or ChatGPT, is also a significant risk. If a site produces listicles about the top tools to do X or the best places to go for Y, these are the precise kinds of things that generative AI can generate without the need for lengthy pieces of content.”
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Makes sense. But also, if companies/writers make their roundups more personal and talk about their experience using the “x best tools” vs just a generic list, isn’t that more useful/helpful for the reader? Just curious what you think!