This client is one where we are not the SEO, we are the fractional CMO. They have an SEO team, PPC and media team, email consultants, etc… Where we come in is helping guide strategy for the brand for expansions, opportunities to grow, and to increase the skill sets for the agencies and team members, and this includes breaking bad habits.
The SEO team was creating content based on keywords, topic clusters, using programmatic SEO, and focusing on search volumes, not users. The traffic eventually died and it was assumed that it was either AI Overviews eating it or that blogging is dead. I explained why this was wrong multiple times, but sometimes the only way to validate something is to get data. So we set up a test where they kept the established folder for the blog they write and I started a new folder with a new blog.
Below you’ll find the results of writing for SEO and keywords vs. writing for solutions without worrying about keywords that have search volumes. Then I ramble for a bit and share the differences in the approach to the content strategies that brought the results you’re seeing.
Content for keywords, search volumes, and topic clusters:
Content written to provide solutions for humans:
To be fair, not much new copy was added to the keyword focused blogs over the time frame. But it never got much once Google caught onto the keyword focus and programmatic SEO, so it didn’t matter. For the content written for humans, as core updates happen and algorithms happen, even old content climbs and rises which is what I’ve seen in ecommerce, lead gen, and publishing for other projects. Based on my experience with how content plays off itself in a folder, and sitewide classifiers, this is apples-to-apples as I’ve seen the same results with other projects where no new content is added, but old rises with the new.
I’m also starting to apply this to other clients where the client needs to have both a company blog and a customer blog.
- The company blog can be for product updates, releases, announcements, photos from outings, etc… that doesn’t need to rank.
- The consumer blog can be guides, information that helps consumers shop, informative about industry or niche specific topics that are within the entity, and shopping or how-to guides.
This test and a few others have made me feel confident that there can be two blogs co-existing without competition. This means the brand can have a blog with more self-serving types of posts, and the marketing team can have one for customer acquisition, retention, and building an audience.
Random thought while writing this: There is a possibility that some search engines will see the folders differently where one is self-serving or for monetizing (affiliate listcicles, selling sponsored posts, etc…) while the other is value adding. This could be a result of their algorithm that doesn’t penalize the mass media sites as a whole anymore, but instead targets any URL in specific folders. But I have no way to validate this, just a random thought.
Some of the things we did or didn’t do include:
- Zero link building, the backlinks come naturally with rankings.
- No keyword density, word counts, or keyword phrase requirements.
- Zero branding and fluff, we stick to actionable items.
- Proper sourcing and citations.
- Avoided overoptimized headers.
- Shared content from experience and in an easy-to-understand format.
- No AI writing and editing, although we did use some to figure out how to phrase complex things in a simpler way. From there we wrote it in human language and in a conversational tone.
- We didn’t build or use any custom schema libraries, both blogs got the exact same.
Here’s the differences between the two blogs.
Content Style
The blog that gets almost no traffic is written around the keywords with search volumes, not about how the keywords relate to the user’s needs. They focus on keyword density, the headers have the keywords mixed throughout vs. focusing on the content below them, and some talking points to the solutions. Many do have proper formatting, but they’re focused on the keywords and making SEO tools happy, not users.
On the other blog, the copy focuses on what will help the user make a decision or learn something vs. making sure keywords are present. Keywords are being used to figure out what the person may be looking for and some of the phrasing they use, but they’re not required in the writing itself. If sub headers are used (they are not needed on all posts), they define what the person will learn below them vs. being required to have keyword phrases or be questions that match “people also ask” and “things to know” types of search features.
By creating informative headers visitors can thumb through and find what they’re looking for more easily. In some of the posts we don’t mention the keywords we’re showing up for regularly (I think there’s a couple with no mentions or only one). In these situations the vectors and entities connect the dots for the algorithms because we built a strong site structure and used wording in an easy-to-understand way. Google (and some of the AI systems) figured out what the solutions are for and are giving us the rankings. Proper citing and sourcing also are important for this one, so don’t be afraid to link out to relevant resources.
One of the biggest differences between the two is on the blog that grows. We delete everything fluffy or that is there for branding purposes. If something does not have a “how” or “why” with a claim or statement (meaning the person will need to do another search for the full answer) we add it in a few words or a single sentence to explain it if we don’t have a guide we can use an internal link too.
Publishing Frequency
On the blog that grows with each core update, we publish on a consistent schedule. It could be once, twice, or three times a week during certain times depending on when it is peak season and important, or if there are industry/consumer trends that are worth covering or sharing. On most projects we start to see patterns with crawling where the spiders appear to like consistency. Even if we miss a day or a week, it recovers fast.
Topic Selection
The blog that does not get traffic chooses topics based on rich results like “People Also Ask”, “Things to Know”, etc… and they say it is entity building and for authority building. They also select topics based on search volumes or tools that take keywords and spit out questions. These tools have a place, but not in defining topics.
The blog that is getting traffic uses keyword search volumes to figure out the words consumers use and what will help them feel confident they can make a decision or learn something accurately. It also uses features like “people also ask” to get an idea of what they may be thinking about, but these do not turn into blog posts. They are for figuring out what a consumer is looking for and how to create solutions for it.
The goal is to combine them together and see how they’re related. From there we outline a solution that makes sense for the topic or situation. Anything that is not a definite yes that the section is part of the solution gets removed, even if it has a higher search volume and a rich result.
There’s zero room for “well it could…” or “someone may want”. It is on topic or it is not. We then check UGC sites to see if people are actively asking about the things we think are important, and to see if there are other things we didn’t know. We sometimes find the jargon people are using and incorporate it in so the content feels more natural for visitors. If you’re doing this, sort by date to make sure it is still relevant. Then we create a resource around the topic or issue the user is facing.
Blogging still works and you can still get and grow traffic. You just have to create good content, avoid focusing on keywords to make tools happy, and not fall for shortcuts like AI created content and programmatic SEO. These are tactics that will get your site in trouble, and when they do work, they eventually stop working. It is always harder to recover (especially mentally) than to do it right the first time.
