SEO isn’t everything (thank goodness)

Build your content strategy on firmer ground. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( WEEKLY NEWS 7.12.24 WEEKLY NEWS 7.12.24   FEATURED [Can a 1985 Marketing Playbook Fix Measurement Problems in 2024?]( By Ann Gynn Attribution models don’t work anymore. Marketers should adopt this 1980s-era measurement model that will deliver better results for 2024 and beyond, according to SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin. [Read more](  READ OR LISTEN TO MORE OF THE BEST STORIES FROM THE LAST WEEK (AND A HALF): [How To Unite Roles and Teams and Scale Your Content Operations]( by Dennis Shiao Your team is growing and content lives in multiple areas of the company. You see cracks appear in the processes. Balls get dropped. What’s a marketer to do? Use this advice to get ahold of your content operations and scale successfully. [Pack a Bigger Punch Writing Character-Limited Descriptions and Posts]( by Ann Gynn Brief content reigns on Google, YouTube, and other social media platforms. But how do you write great meta descriptions, excerpts, and episode descriptions within their character-limiting requirements? [Surprising Search Behavior Teaches This Important Lesson]( by Content Marketing Institute Team How’s 2024 going for organic search? From new algorithms to false starts and AI-generated overviews, it’s a jumbled mess. But SparkToro’s new Zero-Click Search Study may help you understand a good path for the rest of the year. [You Can Build a Better Racetrack Without Chasing SEO]( by Robert Rose Everything you know about SEO may or may not be wrong. But so what? The smartest content programs never relied wholly on search. Optimize for content discovery — and your audience’s unasked questions — instead. Here’s why. [How Better Source Interviews Lead to More Engaging Content]( by Ann Gynn Good questions aren’t enough for an engaging interview. Get expert tips on how to prepare, connect with your interviewee, and uncover insightful ideas that will elevate your content. [How To Take the All-Important Second Step in Your Content Strategy]( by Robert Rose Getting buy-in for a new content marketing strategy isn’t easy. But once you’ve done it, the hard part really begins — doing the work. Try this process to move out of overwhelm and toward your content vision.  A NOTE FROM ROBERT ROSE SEO isn’t everything. (thank goodness) Let’s talk about SEO. More than a month after a source gave thousands of pages of internal Google documentation to SparkToro co-founder Rand Fishkin, the importance of this leak is still being debated. Rand and others continue to dissect the findings for search optimization hints based on what the documents show about how Google ranks content for search. It’s an admirable effort. Still, I stick by my early assessment, which is that SEOs and marketers may have learned Coke’s secret recipe, but it lacks the quantities of each ingredient. And it may be a big bucket of nothing. Search algorithms will continue to change, and the recipe may be outdated by the time you optimize your content based on these “secrets.” Here’s an SEO lesson you can take away: Your content programs are in a race for position No. 1. But in this race, your program isn’t the car (Google and other search options are). It isn’t the driver (the searcher). It’s the racetrack. And you’re competing to be the first choice for every car and driver who wants the most reliable or enjoyable way to get from one place to another. And that’s why you shouldn’t make SEO the focus of your content strategy. Watch out for SEO strategy potholes Many businesses start content marketing programs because they believe it will help them rank higher for organic search results. When their target audiences search for potential solutions (the thinking goes), they’ll find the brand’s array of content and decide it’s the one that provides the most value. But when you depend on being found in search, you have to focus on content that chases attention instead of trustworthiness. And that creates an inherent pressure to produce content designed to rank rather than content intended to lead, entertain, or inform. Meanwhile, optimizing content for organic search traffic has become more complex over the last decade. The quality of competition, the sheer quantity of content, the growth of paid search advertising, and the introduction of AI Overviews have made page-one real estate more expensive to acquire and harder to maintain. Now-retired SEO expert Arnie Kuenn used to joke, “The best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google results. Nobody goes there.” And that remains true. [Research from the continuous-scroll era]( showed that 88% of clicks go to the top three positions — and only 4% of clicks come after result six. Yet I still see organizations use the classic SEO-first approach when building a case for a content marketing program. For example, two of my clients recently shared their frustrations about where they were in launching their new content marketing program. Each had asked their digital agency to identify the best way to bring their content marketing program to life. In each case, the consultants returned a 30-slide deck, making the business case for content marketing by talking about search terms, keywords, and “snackable” content to answer every question they could think of. Yeah, 2010 called and wants its strategy back. To be clear, I know there are digital agencies that do work that goes well beyond my pay grade. But these slide decks illustrate the problems with this all-too-common argument for launching a content marketing program. First, SEO has arguably never been a good foundation for a content marketing platform. Second, changes in content discovery fundamentally alter the content marketing equation. So, if it doesn’t make sense to build your case on attracting an audience through search, does that mean you can forget about SEO? Sorry, no. But I explain a better foundation for your content program in [Rose-Colored Glasses]( this week. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the role of SEO in your content program. [Drop me a line](mailto:robert@contentadvisory.net?subject=SEO%20isn't%20it&elqTrackId=EFC9079673F04991D549D2B3CEC74CB1). Remember, it’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute Would any of your colleagues or friends benefit from Robert's weekly updates? Please invite them to [subscribe]( here.  A WORD FROM ONE OF OUR SPONSORS [catch + release]( 5 Steps to High-Performance Campaigns With Visuals From the Internet Find out how to take visual content from the internet and use it in your digital marketing campaigns. Get the guide now. [Download the e-book »](  [Convert Any File into SEO-optimized Content in a Flash ]( Convert Any File Into SEO-optimized Content in a Flash Do you have a lot of content created, but don’t have the time or knowledge to transform it into SEO-optimized website content? Zupyak’s AI Content Remixer is here to help! [Use the code CMI for your 30 free day trial »]( MORE FROM CMI 100 Days Until Content Marketing World! The countdown is on — tomorrow marks only 100 days until the content marketing event of the year! Are you ready to transform your content strategy and spark your creativity? Join us from October 21 to 23 in San Diego for Content Marketing World, where industry leaders and marketing innovators will gather to share their expertise, insights, and practical tips. Dive into inspiring keynotes, hands-on workshops, and sessions that cover the latest trends and strategies in content and marketing. Register by August 2 for Early Bird rates! [Attend Content Marketing World »](  What's the Big Idea? Creating Content That Makes an Impact Up against copycat competitors, regurgitating robots, and an endless sea of “experts” competing for audience attention, it’s easy for ideas to get lost in a sea of content sameness, depriving them of their impact. In this clip from Content Marketing World 2023, Melanie Deziel shares why there are some important questions you need to ask before trying to create content with impact. Interested in hearing more? Melanie will be taking the stage again this year in San Diego! [Watch the video »](  Was this email forwarded to you? 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