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Hello, fellow content peeps!

It’s a long weekend, but I’m still here sharing the latest updates.

But first, a word from our sponsor. If you haven’t downloaded the Hubspot State of the Marketing report, here is your chance.

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The Biggest Losers, SGE, Is AI Okay?

We are still officially in Google's March 2024 Core Update, and we’re not seeing many changes for the better.

If you want a decent overview of what’s happened so far and who the biggest losers are in these updates, you can check out the Amsive team's report here.

The Biggest Losers: Gaming and Travel

It looks as though the gaming and travel niches have been hit the hardest in these latest updates.

First, let’s talk a bit about what’s happening in travel, shall we?

Google has destroyed a lot of really great travel sites with these updates. I’m talking about the sites where the writers are actually in these locations, taking authentic images, sharing real world experiences…

All the things Google says they want from travel.

These are the sites that Google has been scraping and using to train its AI as well.

Now, Google is releasing SGE for a few beta members and it’s spewing out generic advice that is often factually wrong.

Make this make sense.

Check out this Tweet from Nate Hake to see what’s happening.

Gaming is another vertical that seems to be one of the biggest losers in these latest updates. But, who is winning?

Of course, the biggest gaming sites are seeing some gains. Also, Reddit and forums are taking over the SERPs.

But, it’s a bit of a head scratcher to really dive into what Google is showing right now for gaming sites.

Sites that were hit in previous review updates are suddenly seeing surges. Unless these sites did some major overhauls and revisions to their content, writing teams, this doesn’t add up. Shouldn’t Google be getting better with each update?

And, now we have something else to think about again — SGE (Search Generative Experience). How will AI results in the SERPs actually help users?

So, far, the SGE experiments are not great.

Google’s SGE is a Hot Mess: Will they keep pushing it anyway?

Right now, SGE is default for some US based users and so far, the results are not great. Right now, Google’s SGE results are loaded with spammy results that are frustrating users.

There are countless discussions on Twitter (or X) right now:

We don’t really know the full effect this will have on the SERPs, or on brands in SEO, but the discussions continue.

AI in Content Creation — A Game of Whack-a-Mole?

A few years ago, I asked one of our most talented, expert writers to help out with some rewrites for one of our sites.

We had been testing out a few newer writers, and they weren’t really up to snuff.

Since we paid for the content in these articles, I was hoping that a great wordsmith + talented expert could just come in and tweak them in order to get them publish-ready.

So, I sent them over to this writer to get a cost estimate on how long it would take to just tweak and rewrite some sections.

The writer reviewed the articles and let me know that it would cost us more to have them tweak, rewrite, and get them publish-ready than it would be for us to just have the talented/expert writer start from scratch.

So, we did just that.

Yes. I could have gotten an editor to ‘give it a go,’ but I trusted this writer's expertise. She informed me that there would be a lot of necessary fact-checking and reworking of the organizational structure. Okay, it was much more than just a few tweaks.

But at a quick glance, I, someone who did not have the expertise or subject matter knowledge, couldn’t see that this was more than an editing exercise.

I think about this encounter a lot these days as many publishers are still experimenting with AI in their content creation processes.

And it reminds me of an old saying that I’ve learned over and over again in my life…

Sometimes, the cheap comes out the most expensive.

If you are using AI in your content creation to save a few bucks, hoping that reducing the cost of creation (writers, subject matter experts) will improve your margins, think again.

I like to think of this as a game of whack-a-mole. You may save some money in one part of the creation process, but sure enough, you will have to spend in another part of the process.

That is, If you care about quality.

Let’s break this down a bit more, shall we?

As you can see in this chart, saving costs in creating the content ends up costing exponentially more as you move through the workflow.

Of course, this is a simplification of one part of the content creation process, but it’s important.

I think a lot of publishers who use writers are still super curious to see how AI can help save them money. While I do feel that AI can be used in parts of the content creation process, we do our content (and budgets) a disservice if we think it can 100% replace a writer or subject matter expert.

If you don’t use experts, you will have falsehoods and hallucinations. AI isn’t as fantastic as we think it should be, and using AI requires a much different skill set than writing well.

I don’t think writers or editors are particularly fond of AI creeping into their realms either. Does it really save money? Time?

I still think AI can contribute to creating great content, but it cannot completely replace a writer or subject matter expert. If you want to dig deeper, I wrote about all the ways AI can support content creation in this previous newsletter.

So, what’s a writer or editor to do in these times when publishers and companies are experimenting with AI (despite all the issues we’ve discussed)?

I think there will still be some roles for creatives that AI will not easily replace, and I’m really excited about these new opportunities in our world.

I get into these a lot more in this newsletter, but here’s one role I’m really excited about these days…

The Community Manager: The Content Role We Can’t Sleep On

I’m hearing a lot about building communities these days. I think we’re going to see a lot more publishers, brands, and companies put some real effort into this.

With so many touchpoints, platforms, and ways people can find us online, our connection to our most dedicated fans can get lost in the shuffle.

For far too long, we have relied on very transactional relationships with our readers. They look something up, find a resource, get their answers, and then either buy something or bounce.

Having a dedicated community, a place where your most dedicated fans can hang out, learn, and connect with other fans is worth way more than a fly-by-night transactional audience.

But what makes a great community?

For me, it all starts with those founding members and a fantastic Community Manager. Someone who can lead the charge, engage in more meaningful discussions, and have that disarming charm that makes others want to join.

Great Community Managers are also subject matter experts. I think this is an exciting role in content and I predict we’ll see more opportunities for roles like this in the future as well.

It’s Time for a New Content Playbook, But Who is Going to Lead the Charge?

This week, in a LinkedIn post, Jimmy Daly, of CEO of Superpath, asked:

Who’s writing the new content playbook?

He goes on to say,

I couldn’t agree more! As we break free from Google Search's chokehold and start to really realize that user journeys are non-linear, we can begin to find new ways to serve our people.

Indie media often gets to lead the charge at figuring out new content playbooks and these times are no different.

As painful as the past few months have been for me and my team, I believe we are long overdue for a shakeup in digital content creation, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

In the meantime, we’ll keep experimenting and figuring out some new playbooks.

🤔 Content Musings of the Week

❤️ I don’t think perfect grammar is as important these days in content. Human creativity is imperfect. In our overly polished, AI world, maybe it’s better to be 100% authentic, imperfect and human?

💎 Curiosity is something I always look for when hiring. I’d rather hire a curious person than a knowledgable one. Curiousity leads to new solutions. Knowledge brings proven solutions. Both are important, but if I had to choose, I’d choose the curious.

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

▶️ Glen Allsopp’s latest Detailed Q3 Report is out, jam-packed with the biggest winners in the current media landscape, detailed analysis, and much, much more. Bookmark this and read it soon! 

▶️ Kevin Indig breaks down the conflicting advice we get from Google, and talks about how we’ve relied too heavily on search metrics to serve our people in this article here.

▶️ If you’ve been following the career of Moz founder Rand Fishkin, you’ll want to listen to this interview, where he breaks down the pitfalls & real-life lessons of getting VC funding. Listen here!

▶️ It is so important to back up your decisions with data. Want a mini refresher on how to look at the data for SEO? Sara Taher has you covered in this guide. Check it out!

▶️ The Verge is back talking about why AI search engines can’t kill Google. Do you agree? Read this article and let me know what you think!

Thank you for joining me again this week. This weekend is a holiday weekend, so I’m going to try to get some family time in. I may also polish off a few chocolate treats from my mother-in-law in England.

UK chocolate is the best. If you know, you know.

See you all next week.

Cheers! Amy

P.S.) Did you know that we have a service to help you find the best content teams on the planet? We rigoursly search for real deal subject matter experts, evaluate writing samples, and find great talent for companies that want to do content better. If you’re interested, check out the Content Teams site or reply to this email and send me a note.

Some Bonus Newsletters You’ll Love

If you want to get into the weeds on these topics, here are some newsletters that I read regularly that I think you’ll enjoy: