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Hello, fellow content peeps!

Back again this Friday night sharing some more of my content insights. It’s good to be back.

This week, while there’s buzz about publishers recovering in Google, I thought I’d ask “Do we still want to talk about SEO?”

I’m also sharing a few more gems from my talk with Rhize founder, Giovanna, whose community-led business growth really inspired me in real time this year.

Let’s get into it!

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Do we still want to talk about SEO?

This week we have seen a few Google recoveries.

After a rough (almost year-long) decimation, publishers are starting to see some growth in Google.

And for the first time in many, many years, I haven’t really paid much attention or invested tons of time into every detail of what’s been happening.

I just think there’s so much more that content can and should do these days than serve Google.

Search has really shifted this year, and I cannot imagine that the disruption is going to stop anytime soon.

I feel like search habits are shifting. I know I search for information differently than I did a year or two ago.

The most exciting conversations I’ve had around content strategies in the past few months have little to do with Google search.

I have had bigger ‘a-ha’ moments from chatting to real people about how they find information, or asking some real people how they engage with our content. I’ve had more fun listening to experts chat about a topic, and asking questions that you can’t get in an SEO tool about a topic they love.

This, to me, is the building blocks of a great content strategy and a digital business.

And, I’m not alone.

These days, I get more jazzed about discovering where ‘real conversations’ are happening.

One of the joys of the early internet was the rabbit-hole fun of it all. Content was a discovery process where you didn’t know exactly what you were going to get.

Today, so much of the content we’re served in search is ‘meh. We’ve stopped surprising our audiences.

We’ve all been serving the same playbooks. In our effort to serve what our audiences were searching for, we missed the opportunity to really engage and get that feedback loop from them.

So many SEOs are complaining about the rise of Reddit in search, but if we really break it down on why this may be happening, I think we are left with some big clues we need to pay attention to in content.

While Reddit may have a reputation for some spammy-ness and a place that people go to complain, it is inherently more ‘human’ and ‘real’ than the content we get served elsewhere.

And, yes, sometimes human discussions are messy, disjointed and clunky.

What’s more valuable than an SEO-led strategy these days?

As content demand shifts toward real, genuine conversations, the magic happens when you build a community-led business—where true engagement happens and you can build a real moat around your business.

Building a Community-Led Business

Anyone can create content these days, so content alone is not the ‘moat’ or growth hack around a digital business as it once was.

That’s why it’s been fun to watch the organic growth of a community-led business like Rhize this year.

We covered the story of Rhize in last week’s Content Forward newsletter and I promised we’d continue this week to talk about the strategies she’s using to not only grow her audience and community (to over 2500 members), but how she is keeping them all engaged and is now finding ways to monetize.

(If you missed Part 1 of our discussion from last week, check it out here.)

An Engaged Audience is a Valuable One

Giovanna’s focus has always been on creating experiences and conversations—whether on a small scale or now, on a larger one. What she’s done with Rhize highlights one of the biggest lessons in today’s digital landscape: content is only the beginning.

Our job as creators is to build the spaces that spark those deeper conversations and connections.

When you think about your own content efforts, remember that it’s not just about putting information out there. It’s about facilitating the experience that keeps people coming back for more.

Lesson Learned: Real growth doesn’t come from creating content for content’s sake. It happens when you create value for your core audience. Your role? Be the facilitator and builder of those experiences that lead to authentic engagement.

The Value of Building First, Monetizing Later

While I’m all for thinking through a monetization plan early on, it’s also important to resist the urge to rush into it. Giovanna’s approach with Rhize shows exactly why this matters.

“Rushing to money isn’t the way. I just wanted to create something, help people, and have a good time.”

By focusing on creating something meaningful first, Giovanna built a community that was strong, loyal, and engaged. Monetization became a natural progression once the foundation was solid.

Lesson Learned: Before you start focusing on revenue models, make sure you’ve built something that resonates. Monetization is much easier when you have a dedicated, engaged group to market to.

Today, Rhize has already secured partnerships with companies like Teal, and Giovanna’s goal is to never charge her members. Instead, she’s finding opportunities through sponsorships, workshops, and other creative ways to generate revenue.

What makes Rhize so special is the organic way the community has supported its evolution as a business.

Members have contributed to the website setup, branding, design, and marketing strategies—and continue to put their hands up to help grow the business.

Giovanna has built something truly unique, where people naturally want to be part of the journey. And that is how you build a valuable audience, community, and business.

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

▶️Sometimes, it seems that everyone is just killing it, but are we? Careers, businesses, growth — growth is never as linear as it may seem on these internet streets. This post hit home this week for me and others!

▶️Need a LinkedIn content creation cheat sheet? Here’s a good one!

▶️Growing an agency or want to level up your freelance biz? This webinar looks like a good one to check out if you want to learn how to package your services and grow! Check it out!

▶️This year has been a tough one for many publishers. The old playbooks don’t ‘work’ the same, so what are we to do? Two of my fave publishers and friends, Ewen and Bjork sat down to chat on the Food Blogger Pro podcast to chat all things diversifying your traffic sources & how you can start to use Reddit as a growth hack. Listen to this chat here!

That’s it for me tonight. Next week, I’m going to get into some tips on how to promote our content. I had a great question from one of our readers on how to get more eyeballs on our content (outside of search) and I would love to continue the discussion on that next week.

I’ve got some thoughts.

Until next time.

Cheers! Amy

Got a question or a topic you’d like to see covered? Hit reply and let me know—I'd love to hear from you!

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: