Hello, content friends!

Welcome to all the new subscribers joining us this week! This is where I get to delve into the ever-evolving world of Content and SEO, sharing my insights and experiences from the front lines. It's an honor to connect with you here, especially in a year as dynamic as 2023 has been for our industry.

Like many others, this week has been a whirlwind, packed with developments and shifts that keep us all on our toes.

We all feel the strain of keeping pace with Google's relentless updates. This week, a common thread (of frustration and despair) emerged as I spoke with numerous colleagues and friends still grappling with their sites' recovery post-Helpful Content Update.

So today, I’m asking:

Should we break up with Google?

I don’t think the answer to this question is simple. Yes, Google and SEO these days can feel uncertain, confusing, temperamental, experimental…

I still believe Google and search strategies can still be a core part of a digital business, but I must admit that Google and I don’t always get along. These past few weeks, the SERPs have been messy. A lot of people are suddenly losing Google Discover traffic. And we still haven’t seen the full rollout of SGE. So buckle up, my friends, this bumpy ride continues!

How Do We Work With Google Anyway?

I’m not giving up on Google traffic just yet. I am also going to continue to diversify our traffic sources. We can do both!

The Reality of Platform Risk

All platforms have platform risk. Whether we build on YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, or Facebook… we are building on rented land, with algorithms all their own.

There’s always a learning curve when you attempt to grow an audience on a new platform. My Content Manager shared this Instagram Reel with me this week, where a popular creator was sharing her earnings, and they are currently sitting about 50% of where they were last year on YouTube.

Every platform makes shifts that can either help or hurt a creator. We’ve known this for a while; remember what happened with Vine? We’re all building on rented land to grow an audience in some way, but this is where SEO, and specifically Google, differs. Unlike these platforms, Google’s vast reach and influence provide a more stable and expansive landscape for growth… still.

Why I’m still banking on Google…

Google is giving us more insights than ever before.

Many SEOs complain that Google is not transparent enough with their recommendations, but I think Google has come a long way in telling us exactly what they look for. They’ve recently updated the Raters Quality Guidelines again, and they continue to inform us when a core update is happening.

I’m not letting Google off the hook completely here, but as SEOs, we often rush to ‘figure things out’ and often jump to conclusions based on correlation vs causation. There is still a lot of real-time learning, and even the brightest SEOs don’t always agree.

I am cautious of anyone these days giving broad, sweeping general advice when it comes to SEO. As we’ve seen with the HCU, it’s really tough to say that the sites that ‘survived’ the HCU smackdown are doing ‘all the right things’ — just because a site wasn’t hit with the HCU weight does not mean we need to hold that site up on a pedestal.

For example, many older, more established sites did not get the HCU anchor. This led a lot of SEOs to say that maybe Google loves short content now because many of these more established sites do have shorter content. But I don’t think things are that simple.

It’s up to us to figure out what works best for our content and SEO strategies and not rely solely on what everyone is doing these days.

Yes. We know more about what Google is doing these days and can use these insights to inform our strategies, but we still have to get back to the basics of growing an audience. Do we have a clear picture of who we’re serving? Is our content unique and reflects a strong point of view?

If we over-optimize for Google, we’re losing. If we ignore SEO best practices, we can lose, too. I mean, there are a lot of deeply passionate, personal blogs out there that never find their footing.

Google is listening to the SEO community.

Google doesn’t always get things right, but they are listening to us. We’re seeing in real-time the years of algorithm updates, experiments, better technology, and the influx of more and more content flooding the internet.

Despite some frustrations, Google continues to engage with the SEO community through forums, regular updates, and Twitter threads. This tells me that Google will listen and evolve based on real-time feedback.

As Google continues to refine its algorithms and guidelines, we can anticipate more alignment between what Google seeks and what we, as content creators and SEOs, can deliver.

If we can continue this dialogue, we can better serve our audiences together and keep the Google relationship intact. I’m still hopeful for all of this!

Google continues to test things to get better actual user data.

Google will continue to test new things to get better user data and improve the SERPs, even if that leaves us befuddled.

While I may not always ‘get’ something that Google is testing, I feel confident that they will continue to try new things to get it more ‘right.’ They do want to remain the market leader.

Recently, they’ve been testing “Google Notes,” which allows users to save notes on certain queries. We’re also learning that these notes are indexable and can be made public. I’m not sure how many actual users will use this feature, but Google will continue to try new things in search. That’s probably the one constant right now for SEOs — that gives me a lot of confidence in building on Google Land these days (even if it means short-term losses, fluctuations, and stress!).

My Final Thoughts

We must figure out a more diverse growth strategy, but let’s not throw out the Google baby with the bathwater, either!

We still live to build another day. If we can figure out how to diversify traffic with a mix of strategies from SEO to email, we can adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape. The content playbooks might be evolving, but this change is an opportunity for creativity and innovation, and it can be a lot of fun ‘figuring it out.’

Change is the only constant.

In this dynamic space, one thing is certain: change is constant. While offering significant returns on content margins, Google can still be fickle and unpredictable.

But, if Google achieves what it aims for – enhancing the quality of content and user experience – we could see an internet landscape more conducive to quality and authenticity. (Isn’t this the common ground we want after all?)

Passion, hard work, and effort do not always equal success.

We can feel we’re doing all the right things in digital business yet still fail. It's the same with Google. Our efforts and our investment in our content do not always reflect the results we see.

And this, my friends, is a tough pill to swallow.

Yes. there will always be people who successfully ‘game’ the system. That’s not going to stop. Yet, we’re given an opportunity every day to keep going, pivot, or figure out another way to grow.

Being in this industry for the past decade, I’ve learned that the most successful over the long term embrace this truth and find joy in the building, figuring things out along the way.

So, this week, let’s continue to learn, adapt, and find joy in the challenge of figuring things out. The road ahead is as exciting as it is unpredictable, and together, we can navigate it to build thriving digital spaces.

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

How do we properly respond to the algorithms? Well, my CEO, Ewen Finser, was recently featured on the Food Blogger Pro talking about all things Google algorithm updates, including the recent HCU. After over a decade of building digital assets, Ewen has been through several Google updates and brings a real operator perspective to this discussion with his friend Bjork. Check it out!

The brilliant AJ Kohn does it again, sharing his learnings from Pandu Nayak’s testimony in the ongoing anti-trust hearing. If you want a deeper dive into the learnings we can get from this, I would strongly recommend this resource as AJ breaks down the top takeaways and how this influences client work (and why we should care).

Google’s hidden gems ranking algorithm update is coming. I’m not sure what this looks like, but I’m hopeful this will allow some of those passion project sites to see gains again.

Thank you again for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts on Google. Are you giving up on Google as a traffic source completely?

If you are, let me know why — I would love to continue this discussion.

In the meantime, have a great week in content!

Cheers! Amy

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

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