Use Data Or Be Used By Data!

The May 20 issue of Seotistics is here for you!

Whether you are an SEO or a marketer, an entrepreneur or a data professional, content is part of our daily lives.

I am here to debunk the old vision of "SEO Content" and show you why diversification is key and content is much more than text.

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(Another) Comment On The HCU

The HCU made many people reconsider their choices.

After all this time, there are no real cases of recoveries, although some people claim to have succeeded.

It doesn't matter if you are in the content website business or work for a corporation, the game has changed for everyone.

I've never been a fan of "SEO Content" or the school of thought that content should always get organic traffic.

In fact, I am going to show you why content for the sake of content is BS.

Here's my personal experience with the latest Google Updates:

Annotations are a courtesy of GSC Guardian, a great GChrome annotation by Darwin Santos!

(My subscribers have access to my Content Management Handbook, check it out!).

The Rise Of Bing?

You may have heard of Bing's supposed rise in market share...

and the news is mostly incorrect.

Despite that, Bing is still the main source of traffic for many websites hit by the HCU and a nice alternative to Google.

Facebook will be #1 but as you see now I am getting more money from Bing now 🤦‍♂️

The Bing Webmasters Tools is a great alternative that supports IndexNow and gives you another perspective on Organic Traffic.

I've still a lot to learn about Bing but in my very personal experience they do reward quality content more!

Bing usually offers higher RPMs compared to Google, due to the more mature audience.

Facebook/Pinterest

Coming from Italy, these 2 social media are considered dead or unknown to many.

This is the opposite in the US, as I have discovered some years ago.

Facebook is the core of one of my latest experiments and so far it's going super well:

The real issue is getting link clicks but it's steadily improving.

Pinterest offers similar opportunities if your content is extremely visual, think of travel, food and even luxury.

On paper, they both offer higher RPMs than Google!

Speaking of Facebook, I am going to try QuizWizard to generate quizzes on bulk...

people have been reporting great results (and money) with quizzes on social media.

You can even generate quizzes from SITEMAPS!!!

Start creating quizzes now (yes, affiliate link)

Email Marketing

Email has been one of my favorite channels since I discovered it!

I am free to write what I want and nurture my audience... while getting to know it better.

This channel is ideal for converting people and pushing promotions.

This is the plot for Seotistics' total subscribers from launch up to today...

You can help me grow these numbers by referring to your friends! 👀

The steep increases were caused by people recommending Seotistics on social media and from my 2 freebies.

A lot of your older emails can also be repurposed as more detailed blog posts... which is what I also do!

Small Player

If you have a small website... good luck!

Google made it harder for you but don't worry, there are infinite options!

Let's take Seotistics as an example, my website doesn't really need to invest in SEO.

Direct, social and email are enough to get sales and nurture leads.

If I were to invest in SEO, I'd need to spend a lot of money to outperform big names in a super competitive industry.

Would I see any ROI?

Maybe yes but I am not sure...

most of what I write is innovative or "quirky", people don't google it.

Work on great clusters and topics that big websites can't afford to have. Cluster 1 is too strong to be outperformed by competitors, unlike Cluster 4.

You can say push channels are preferable to pull ones in this case.

We are used to reading about "invest more in SEO" even during crisis but I think it doesn't make any sense.

Each business is different and no consultant knows better than you!

As a small player, you want to diversify and do what a big and slow website can't do.

Many businesses read some pSEO case studies and think they can actually compete against Canva with $1,000.

Be different instead and leverage the type of content that soulless corporations can't produce!

If Seotistics were to produce stupid articles like "what's SEO", it wouldn't be Seotistics.

Big Player

If you are a big website, you still have to worry because Google hit everyone and not only small websites.

The advantage is that you can leverage existing competitive advantages.

The biggest con is that you struggle with prioritization and execution.

We are used to filtering out branded keywords and disregarding them but if you have a big brand, you must protect your brand too with PPC.

If you are massively bigger, you can encircle your competitor by emulating what they do at scale or attacking their topics.

So far, the biggest opportunities for big players are:

Automation + Solid processes
Strong Project Management game
Expanding with new sections (abusing their reputation)

(Mind you, Google claims they are fixing the reputation abuse but reality depicts a different scenario!)

Every corporation uses data or has systems in place... this isn't always true for SEO data!

You can check my Content Auditing Framework or even how I tackle Content Decay since big websites need this stuff!

A lot of people asked me why SQL is important... and the answer is databases.

Most data is often found in databases and you need SQL, that's it.

Mind you, not all of the company data is recorded and properly managed, it would be a utopia.

The Role Of Data

Yes, it wouldn't be an issue of Seotistics without some mention of data!

As you've read before, small websites don't need complex systems or even to rely on data...

sure, you can use Google Sheets and store your data in BigQuery but that's not how you grow your website.

As explained in my past Seotistics issue about the ROI of intangibles.

If you are an in-house or even an agency, there must be someone working on data.

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Maybe it's not you but someone else has to handle it.

I see too many agencies preparing terrible reporting for colossal websites...

they should catch up and hire someone capable.

The direction of almost any industry is towards tech, meaning that most of these skills will become commoditized.

Back then there wasn't this level of specialization in Data, now we have clearly defined positions and roles.

So.... Was I Hit By Google Because Of My Content?

I don't know without taking a look at your website but the HCU was about all but content for the most part.

You just need to open Google and see who's ranking...

do you think they have great content? 🤨

My explanation isn't even original and similar to what many will tell you: it's about links (as always).

My guess is that there is a certain threshold to pass to be considered authoritative.

After that, stacking more links will produce smaller marginal gains.

It's not like Google doesn't look at the content but you need to be considered authoritative enough anyway.

And we have seen how Google tends to rely more on PageRank in times of hardship...

Now influencers mention "Information Gain"... you've always needed to be different from others, this isn't new!

The New Referral System

Invite friends with your unique link and get rewarded! Since this system is new, let me know if something doesn't work!

P.S. This is still a WIP as I need to make it nice, go stack your rewards in the meantime 👀

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