3 mins read

The future of content success lies in social media

Here's a challenge: Google “SEO RFP.” Click on the results and tell me how similar they are.

We did the same thing every other SEO does: We asked, “What words are thematically relevant?” What topics are my competitors missing?” How can I leverage them?” AND “How can I do everything a little better than them?”

Then they do the same thing, and it creates a cycle where mediocre content is defeated with slightly less mediocre content.

When I looked at our high-ranking content, I felt uncomfortable. Yes, they were ranked, but they weren't particularly helpful compared to everything else that was ranked.

Ranking is not the task; it is just a proxy.

Why should I feel uncomfortable about a high-ranking keyword? Isn't that all the damn work that needs to be done? Not for me. The job at hand is to help educate people, and the ranking is a byproduct of that good performance.

I looked at our own content and put myself in the shoes of a searcher, not an SEO. I looked at the top 4 rankings and concluded that our content felt basic, almost like ChatGPT. It was predictable, repeatable, and lacked sharp views and juicy punch lines.

So I removed 80% of the content and replaced it with the 38 questions I would ask if I were hiring an SEO. I'm an SME in business for 25 years and I know what I would be looking for in these turbulent times. I wanted to write the questions that didn't exist on any topic that ranked in the top ten. That was a risk, why? Because semantically I was going against what Google probably expected on that topic. That's when Mike King told me about information gain. Google gives you a boost in ranking signals when you provide it with new information. Maybe breaking through the sea of ​​sameness + some social signals could be a key factor in improving rankings, in addition to traditional SEO work.

What is worth more?

Ten visits to my SEO RFP post from people who accessed my content through a private WhatsApp or LinkedIn sourcing group?

A hundred people reach the same content via search?

I had to make a call and was willing to lose rankings (that received low traffic but highly valued traffic) to write something that people would think about enough while reading to share in emails, groups, etc .

SMEs as the key to outstanding content?

I literally just asked myself, “Wil, what would you ask yourself if you hired an SEO company?” Then I improvised for 6-8 hours and had tons of chats using ChatGPT. I asked ChatGPT to make me change my mind. Things like “What would create the most value?” I never limited myself to “What is the search volume?” but started with the improvisations.

If I wanted to lose my ranking, I had to make it socially known so people knew it existed. That was also an unlock if you go that route. It's work, you now rely on spikes from social networks, so it is very important to have a reason to update it and integrate it back into social networks.

Most of my “followers” ​​aren’t looking for SEO services as they are digital marketers themselves, so I wasn’t expecting this post to appeal to HUGLEY, but given the content, I was shocked at how well it was received and how much engagement it got from real people.