Hello, fellow content peeps!

I’m back this week for a quick update and to share my current musings on the world of content and SEO!

It’s Been 10 Months Since HCU: What’s Up?

Not that I’m keeping track or anything, but it’s been 10 months since HCU and for the most part, we’re not seeing any major recoveries.

While I have heard murmurings in secret rooms amongst SEOs that there have been some recoveries, I remain somewhat skeptical.

There were several ‘helpful content’ and algorithmic updates happening in parallel when HCU launched, so sites that may have seen recoveries may have not actually received the HCU anchor that is continuing to hold down so many independent, smaller publishers.

HCU certainly changed the game for new publishers and many pure content sites, and the search landscape has shifted and not always for the better. I’ve written a lot about this in past Content Forward editions if you aren’t up to speed on all of this.

Of course, the big players are seeing massive gains, and there are entire sectors of our industry that seem immune to these updates but here we are.

Other SEOs are starting to read the tea leaves. Chima Mmeje, Senior Content Marketing Manger at Moz had some thoughts on Twitter this week that echo what we’ve been seeing for a while. Yup. Google doesn’t really seem to get what makes good content:

Still, this is not all about doom and gloom.

These past 10 months have forced many of us to take a hard pivot and had many of us going back to the back of the napkin to figure out some new strategies - for our content sites and our lives.

SearchGPT Launches: Could This be a Legitimate Google Competitor?

There is a new search rival in town with the promise of “fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources” — leaning into attribution for creators.

With all the problems with the current search landscape, could this be a real competitor to Google?

With the inclusion of clear attribution model for publishers, and ways for publishers to manage how they appear in SearchGPT, at first glance this gives me a glimmer of hope for the search landscape future. Read the full announcement here.

Follow Up: Mediavine Helps Independent Publishers, How’s it Going?

We all know it’s been a tough year for independent publishers, so it’s really nice to see some bright spots.

A few months ago, I shared that Mediavine was launching a new programmatic ad network especially for smaller publishers.

This new program now allows publishers who hit the 10k sessions per month a chance to monetize with Mediavine, instead of waiting to get to that 50k / month mark.

When I announced this, one of our writers, Melika Jeddi reached out to me to let me know how excited she was to give this ad network a chance for her personal gaming, entertainment site: Screen Hype — check it out!

This is a site she had previously only monetized through AdSense, which was about a $1 RPM at the time, so there was a lot of room for potential growth here.

There were a few bugs to figure out. For the first few days of implementing Journey weren’t that great for Melika as she explains:

“Ads weren’t displaying except for the ones from Grow themselves, and my RPM was even lower than with AdSense. After about a week, it did go up to around $3. Now, it’s been just over two weeks, and I’m on around $5 RPM, which is much better than with AdSense.”

She was having some issues with ad displaying in-content ads, so there were some lost opportunities there, and getting any kind of customer support was a bit of a pain:

“I’m frustrated knowing my RPMs could be higher. I’ve tried contacting support, but they don’t seem to have a dedicated help email. I’ve posted in their community like they suggest, but I haven’t gotten a response. When I email Mediavine, they just point me back to their community.”

So, there are some obvious bugs for Mediavine to work out for smaller publishers here. There are no options for a publisher to adjust the ads, change the ad density or customize display (unlike the traditional Mediavine dashboard for larger publishers) and larger publishers may have a much easier time getting a real human account manager to help as well.

After a few weeks, a needed theme change to fix the display issues, Melika reports that she is thrilled with the change over and is able to better monetize her recent traffic growth as well!

The numbers now: Currently, Melika is seeing $13 RPMs with Journey which is a HUGE improvement over the $1 RPMs she started with!

If you are thinking of joining Journey, Nina Clapperton of She Knows SEO did a thorough look into this program, analyzing as many sites that were on Journey as she could get her hands on (she explains her test group in this article):

I Analyzed Every Site on Journey by Mediavine. Here's What You Need to Know Before Joining

Nina found that most sites saw significant RPM increases and user satisfaction was high. She says, "The average RPM across the sites analyzed was about $15, which is a substantial improvement from previous networks like AdSense and Ezoic."

Final verdict: I love that Mediavine created this program for smaller publishers, but there is room for improvements. Still, worth a try and it does seem to be an improvement over AdSense and Ezoic or other ad networks for smaller sites.

Support Indy Creators

I have so much love for indy publishers. It takes a lot of gumption and passion to really get a publication off the ground.

Indy publishers have to do more to produce better content. It can be long days building into the void and it’s tougher than ever to compete with the big boys and yet, we need these authentic contributions to our world.

So, what can we do?

Raptive is actively working on protecting creators. They are actively pushing Google to consider creators in this age of AI.

If you want to sign your name in the open letter to show your support, do it!

What Keeps You Motivated to Keep Going?

This summer I’ve been swamped with big projects, life, travel and yes, I’m also a soccer mom. I’ve been feeling the pull especially hard this summer to play hard + work hard, but it can be tough to keep motivated in the daily grind of it all.

This year has been emotionally exhausting, full of new lows and yes, even a few big highs and while you’d think I’d be used to the ride by now, I still have to dig deep and find ways to hang on.

So, I’ve been actively thinking (okay, overthinking) about all the practical ways I actually keep motivated to push through the tough times and I thought I’d share a few here. In this industry, we need all the practical help we can get - am I right?

My fave ways I keep motivated these days:

My personal ideas + inspiration board.

Okay. I started this board to track all of the ideas I had that we couldn’t possibly implement but it has evolved over time into something much more for me.

I store so many goodies in this treasure trove and when I’m feeling overwhelmed, or just don’t know if I can keep going, I open this board.

In this board, I have:

• Pitch deck and presentation inspirations

• Ideas, ideas and more ideas for new side projects, marketing thoughts, or strategies I would love to implement

• My personal brag board/testimonials from my team and colleagues (screenshots baby!)

• Random frameworks, downloadable and site inspirations

• Things I want to work on when I finally get some downtime (this keeps me motivated when I can’t do it all)

For me, this board is my way of not only saving great ideas for a rainy day but it’s also a place where I go to reinvigorate myself and find those much-needed receipts that I’ve got this on those down days.

Getting my feet in the sand.

I live in the most glorious place in the summer and I become extremely down when I don’t see daylight every day all winter.

So, summers I make the commitment to get my feet in the sand as much as possible.

Do I get as much time as I want?

Not even close.

But there’s something about getting some fresh air, feeling the elements under your feet that opens up your brain to new ideas. I am an Earth sign after all.

Even just pictures of nature can make us less stressed, so here’s your sign, from me to shut the electronics off and get out there.

Making sure I get some real ‘heads down’ time.

This past month, I’ve been heads down on many projects and I still have days when it’s just tough to get started in the morning.

When we lack motivation, we can often find new and interesting ways to distract ourselves.

Our world is full of fun distractions and rabbit holes.

But, a lot of the real motivation for me often comes when I just sit in front of my screen, start typing, start planning… just start something.

Don’t underestimate those heads down sessions. Just doing the thing helps me to keep going.

These days, I’ve been trying to do more of the time blocking approach to getting things done. Well I am still a work in progress, there are many benefits to this approach, including getting into that flow state.

I love that flow state - I call it my work buzz and it can be pure magic!

Work friends that are always up for a chat.

My digital friends, work friends and colleagues really do uplift me and keep me motivated.

Building a network is so much more than just getting a few referrals.

A great network includes work friends that will kick you in the pants when you need it, remind you of all the reasons to keep going and motivate you when you are feeling overwhelmed or clueless.

I’ve been through all the big emotions this year in my career and it’s those voice notes left randomly in What’s App, or an impromptu strategy session that has kept me going.

When all else fails, my friends are there to remind me that this too shall pass.

During times of extreme pressure, overwhelm, it can be tough to plot your next step, but sometimes all we need to keep going is a good chat!

Things to Read, Watch, and Ponder

▶️ Is spam and plagiarized content ranking higher in search results these days? Wired investigates. Read to get their findings here!

▶️60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024… this is just one of the findings from Danny Goodwin, worth a read here.

▶️ SEO of 2024 needs to be a part of a more holistic, omni-channel content strategy. Here are 7 platforms SEOs need to optimize for beyond Google, from Nikki Lam.

▶️The rest of the world is starting to realize how broken Google search is, but will there be a shift in how we search? The Guardian did a great job at giving us an overview of the state of search these days. Check that article out here!

Thanks for joining me this week. The past few weeks have been intense, and I have missed spending this time with you all.

Recently, I’ve also been digging into the blue ocean opportunity of Reddit, moving my way through Ewen’s Reddit course (it’s really good).

He keeps adding new strategies, things he’s learning and it’s a real practical guide for anyone who would like to figure out a real Reddit traffic growth strategy.

Ewen has been one of my greatest mentors in SEO, and content and taking this course is just like having him on a Zoom call, walking you through what he’s learning. I still have a few discount codes for Content Forward readers as well, check it out!

Cheers! Amy

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: