## SEO and PPC Defined The goal of both SEO and PPC is to get more and better qualified traffic...
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Google confirmed that it deliberately withholds channel-specific KPIs for Performance Max campaigns because it could be “misleading.”
Some advertisers suspect Google is not being fully transparent about PMax campaign performance data because doing so would impact its ability to push automation.
What Google is saying. When an advertisers asked why Google doesn’t offer channel-level reporting for PMax campaigns in the Google Ads Help Center, a spokesperson replied:
Reaction. Julie F Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon LLC, shared a screenshot of the exchange on X and commented:
Why we care. Advertisers want more transparency in how their campaigns are performing because even though AI can be highly effective, it’s not perfect. And since Google’s products are designed to benefit Google rather than advertisers, many would feel more comfortable having insights to ensure that decisions about their campaign performance prioritize their brands rather than Google.
Deep dive. Read the full Google Ads Help Center Q&A for more information.
Google confirmed it is testing a new PPC ad format. However, key details such as the official name, functionality, influence on auction dynamics, and effect on metrics are yet to be released.
The lack of information surrounding the new ad format has drawn criticism from advertisers.
First spotted: The new ad format was first flagged by Anthony Higman, CEO of online advertising agency Adsquire, who shared a preview on X:
He posted: “These aren’t LSAs, they’re PPC ads. What are we calling this new ad format? And why was no one informed about It?”
Lack of transparency. Commenting on the new ad format and lack of information provided from Google, Higman told Search Engine Land:
‘Beyond crazy’. Melissa Mackey, paid search director at Compound Growth Marketing, also criticized the lack of information around the new ad format. She wrote on X:
Why we care. The new ad format lacks clear information on costs and metrics, making it difficult to monitor and optimize campaign performance.
What Google is saying. A Google spokesperson confirmed to Search Engine Land that the new ad format is still in the experimental stage, and there is no certainty about its full launch yet.
Deep dive. Read our PPC marketing guide for more information on how PPC ads work.
Google Chrome is rolling out updates to make changes and improvements to the search suggestions it shows in the search box within its browser. Google will show what others are search for with the “people also search for” section. Google will also show image thumbnails for some search suggestions in Chrome.
I believe many of these features have been live in the main Google.com search interface for many years.
The search box will show you what others are searching for when you are signed into your Google account. Google said, “you’ll see suggestions in the Google Search box related to your previous searches based on similar things others are looking for.”
Here is a screenshot Google provided but we’ve seen Google doing this in the main search results page for some time now.
Google will also show more image thumbnails near the search suggestions. Google said, “Android and iOS, Chrome will now show helpful images for broader shopping categories and products based on a simpler search, like “bohemian table.”
We’ve also seen this from Google back in 2019.
Your website may get more exposure in the Google Search results if searchers see suggestions that your website would rank for. These search features within Chrome may impact your traffic from Google Search in a positive or negative way.
So keep an eye out for these changes and see if it has any impact on your site’s search traffic.
For years, Google and Bing have dominated paid search. Brands have focused most of their PPC budgets on these two search titans.
However, the search landscape is evolving rapidly. Platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit and Instagram offer exciting new opportunities for savvy advertisers looking to expand their reach.
These alternative platforms come packed with engaged users actively searching for products, inspiration and information. Each also enables targeting options using keywords, interests and more. This allows you to get your brand and products in front of massive new audiences beyond just Google and Bing.
This article explores how to leverage these additional search platforms to complement your existing PPC efforts and connect with customers throughout more touchpoints in their journey.
Search advertising is the placement of ads within search engines when a user searches for a particular product or service. With this in mind, any platform with a “search” bar could yield potential as part of a search advertising strategy.
This helps us redefine platforms we typically may not associate with search advertising. Let’s explore the platforms I deem to have the most potential to support and complement your search advertising through traditional means.
Dig deeper: Search universe analysis: A deep dive
Known to most as a social media platform, TikTok has been making huge strides to disturb Google’s search dominance.
The platform has carved a hole in the market by offering the most potential to ecommerce brands through TikTok Shop. It is currently positioned as a disruptor, with an Adobe study showing 41% of people surveyed having used it as such.
The growth of TikTok as a search engine lies with a surge in usage from Gen Z, but the user demographic has been expanding, creating further opportunities for brands.
There are many reasons users are drawn to TikTok as a search engine, including:
To position itself further as a search engine, TikTok released a search volume tool, TikTok Keyword Insights, to help businesses understand trending keywords within their platform content.
From inspiration to impulse buys, TikTok Shop offers the most potential wins for ecommerce businesses on the platform. TikTok was the second-largest social media platform for purchases, behind only Instagram in 2023, per Statista.
Dig deeper: Is TikTok a search engine? Why meeting searchers’ needs matters more than semantics
Pinterest is a social and search platform. Users go to Pinterest to gain inspiration through searches and recommended content.
From an advertising perspective, brands can take advantage of keyword targeting. Those familiar with Google Ads will know these as the building blocks of search advertising.
Like Google Ads, Pinterest allows you to choose match types, including negative keywords. But unlike Google, the match types on Pinterest still work as their names suggest.
While Pinterest caters to user searches, advertisers should bear in mind that it does sit higher up the purchasing funnel but can be utilized effectively as part of a multi-touchpoint strategy.
Dig deeper: 8 new and updated Pinterest products for advertisers
YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind its sibling engine, Google.
While Google is typically used for finding products or services, YouTube is more commonly used for inspiration, information and education.
The billions of views on YouTube offer advertisers an enormous opportunity to influence users at different points of their purchasing decisions. You can create the initial need and support post-purchase campaigns to build retention.
YouTube ads can be targeted using interests, demographics and keywords.
Dig deeper: YouTube advertising: The ultimate guide
Users go to Reddit to express opinions and seek advice from individuals and communities with experience in a given area.
This often incorporates product reviews and suggestions, providing an opportunity to reach an already engaged audience.
The caveat is that you want to ensure the community is positively engaged with your product or service. You also want to check whether an active community talks and shares about your product or service.
In Reddit, you can target specific communities, but in true search engine fashion, you can also target based on keywords.
Dig deeper: 5 must-know Reddit Ads tactics for B2B marketers
As TikTok gains popularity as a search engine, Instagram is repositioning itself as an alternative, which is evident in its recent ad campaign.
Instagram’s ad targeting options align with Facebook and other Meta platforms.
Despite this, there’s a chance to optimize your organic Instagram posts for better search visibility and boost ad delivery within search results and Discovery pages.
Dig deeper: Instagram Ad formats: Best practices for effective ad creative
Changes in consumer behavior create opportunities for businesses to innovate in responding to user searches. This involves incorporating creative visuals to engage and inform potential customers more effectively.
To understand which platforms will benefit your business, consider:
Tools such as KeywordTool and Glimpse offer insight into search volumes, helping you understand search intent and trends within each platform.
Glimpse works as an add-on to Google Trends.
Tailor your creative to each platform environment and user intent and launch any activity with a test budget. Develop a comprehensive measurement plan so that you can determine what success in each platform could look like.
Expanding your search advertising across multiple platforms widens your audience reach, boosts engagement with existing audiences and enhances brand awareness and recognition, ultimately capturing more demand for your product or service.
Dig deeper: How to optimize your social media pages for search
In 2012, Spreading Santorum, the page defining “santorum” as a byproduct of anal sex, finally dropped from the top results on Google.
The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remained. And a page from Urban Dictionary kept the definition alive, more explicit than before.
Google told Search Engine Land this ranking change was related to its improved SafeSearch algorithm, which made irrelevant adult content less likely to show up for many queries.
Read all about it in “Spreading Santorum” Drops At Google; New Site Keeps Anal Sex Definition At Number One.
2016: In preparation for Super Tuesday primaries, Bing rolled out a new tool that determines the top-searched candidates.
2012: Experian Hitwise reported that downstream traffic from msnNOW to Bing jumped 21% between the first and second weeks since msnNOW’s launch.
2012: 49% of smartphone and tablet owners were using apps to find local information.
2012: Uptake was an ambitious travel site that never quite broke through.
2008: YouTube’s founder said they never had the resources to do it correctly.
2008: Ask.com said the rumors were false and “our Teoma technology will continue to power search engine results on Ask.com.”
2008: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.
These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
< February 28 | Search Marketing History | March 1 >
YouTube Create, a mobile app designed to make editing videos easier, is expanding to 13 more markets in beta.
Content creators can now download the app for free in the PlayStore on Android in the following additional countries:
What is YouTube Create? YouTube Create is a free mobile app that allows you to edit Shorts or longer videos for YouTube. You can also add soundtracks, captions, and more, all directly from your phone.
Why we care. The app helps users to enhance the quality of their YouTube content without the need for additional expensive editing tools or complicated desktop software.
What YouTube is saying. Conor Kavanagh, Lead for Monetization Policy at YouTube, said:
Deep dive. Watch YouTube’s announcement in full for more information.
Google is facing a $2.27 billion lawsuit by 32 media groups claiming that the company’s digital advertising practices have led to financial losses.
The publishers, including Axel Springer and Schibsted, are based in various countries across Europe, such as Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Sweden.
What the lawsuit is saying. A statement issued by the media groups’ lawyers Geradin Partners and Stek said:
What Google is saying. Google denies the allegations and has described them as “speculative and opportunistic” per Reuters. The company said in a statement:
TIming. This lawsuit follows the French competition authority imposing a $238 million fine on Google for its ad tech business in 2021, as well as the charges brought by the European Commission last year, both of which are referenced in the media groups’ claim.
Dutch court. The group chose to file the lawsuit in a Dutch court because the country is well-known for handling antitrust damages claims in Europe. This decision helps avoid dealing with multiple claims across different European countries.
Deep dive. Read our antitrust trial updates article for information on Google’s legal battles in the U.S., where the tech giant is being sued by the U.S. Justice Department.
Google Analytics 4 introduced a default Google Ads report, now available within your account’s performance reporting section.
To access this report, you need to link your GA4 profile with your Google Ads account
Why we care. The inclusion of this Google Ads report, formerly found in GA4’s predecessor Universal Analytics, simplifies data access within GA4. It helps you figure out what’s working well and what needs improvement, making it easier to optimize your campaign more effectively.
First spotted: The report was first spotted by Senior Performance Marketing Manager and Google Ads expert, Thomas Eccel, who shared a preview on X:
To locate this report, go to the Advertising section, navigate to “Performance”, and click on “Google Ads”.
What Google is saying. Google confirmed the new report to Search Engine Land, explaining it’s part of its Advertising workspace update. A spokesperson recently confirmed:
Deep dive. Read our GA4 Advertising workspace update report for more information.
Brands and businesses must balance optimizing their online presence through SEO with providing an excellent customer experience.
This raises the question – can SEO redefine client experience, or does it risk overshadowing other important elements of the customer journey?
While SEO is key for visibility and accessibility, companies must be careful not to prioritize it over user experience or broader marketing strategy.
Learn how to balance SEO with other efforts to build brand loyalty and meaningful customer relationships.
While SEO is crucial in redefining your client experience, finding a balance and avoiding overshadowing other crucial elements in the customer journey is important.
Be careful not to prioritize SEO metrics over user experience or other aspects of your marketing strategy.
For example, as you optimize for search engine rankings, you shouldn’t sacrifice the authenticity and relevance of your content.
Make sure that your SEO efforts align with broader marketing initiatives to cultivate brand loyalty and nurture meaningful customer relationships.
Dig deeper: SEO and UX: Finding the strategic balance for optimal outcomes
User interface (UI) plays a pivotal role in website performance and user engagement. Websites with shoddy user interfaces might fail to retain visitors’ attention.
Difficult navigation, cluttered layouts and lack of informative content contribute to higher bounce rates and shorter session durations, adversely affecting SEO metrics.
To address this:
Linking strategies play a crucial role in SEO and user experience.
Backlinking, the process of acquiring inbound links from external websites, can improve site accessibility and SEO rankings and enhance the credibility and authority of the website.
Internal and external links serve as pathways for users to navigate through relevant content and access valuable information.
Strategic external linking to authoritative sites reinforces trust and legitimacy, enriching the user experience.
Directing users to reputable sources and complementary content establishes your brand as a reliable source of information within your respective industries.
Additionally, internal linking structures guide users through the website’s hierarchy, facilitating seamless navigation and encouraging deeper engagement with the content.
To improve user experience and SEO performance, prioritize accessibility.
Ensure that all users, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can navigate and engage with the website effectively.
Accessibility encompasses various considerations, from accommodating users with visual or auditory impairments to those with motor or cognitive limitations.
From an SEO perspective, accessible websites perform better in search engine rankings as they provide a more inclusive and user-friendly experience.
Here’s how to enhance accessibility to improve both SEO and user experience:
Dig deeper: 10 internal linking best practices for accessibility
Page load times are critical factors that significantly impact user experience and SEO performance. Users expect instantaneous access to information, and slow load times can lead to frustration and abandonment. From a UX perspective, slow-loading websites diminish engagement and deter users from exploring further.
Optimizing site performance through technical audits, code enhancements and content optimization strategies improves website stability and enhances SEO rankings.
By reducing page load times and streamlining the browsing experience, you can create frictionless interactions that captivate users and drive organic traffic.
Dig deeper: Page speed and experience in SEO: 9 ways to eliminate issues
SEO strategies and user experience efforts should work in tandem to create an optimal customer journey. Prioritize user-centric design and accessibility while implementing SEO best practices.
Ensure that your focus on search engine optimization does not overshadow building meaningful relationships and enhancing overall brand value.
With the right balance of SEO and UX considerations, you can gain visibility in search results while providing an engaging, seamless experience for customers. The key is integrating SEO seamlessly into your overall digital marketing and content strategy.
Google’s popular gtag.js library makes collecting data for Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads straightforward.
However, it also ties you into Google’s ecosystem. You lose control and flexibility when tracking data.
Enter walkerOS. This new open-source tracking library from ElbWalker aims to give you customizable control back. It lets you send data wherever you want, not just to Google. It also claims better performance through a lightweight codebase.
This article explores if walkerOS lives up to its promises. We’ll also:
The Google tag, or gtag.js, is a JavaScript library by Google that tracks and collects data, serving as an all-encompassing link between your site and various Google services, including Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.
As opposed to ga.js and analytics.js, which were only limited to analytics, gtag.js provides a single solution.
It achieves efficiency by using other libraries instead of handling analytics and conversion data capture directly, essentially acting as a framework for those libraries.
This makes it easier during the setup and integration processes while reducing the need for extensive code changes.
Gtag.js combines multiple tracking tags into one, unlike Google Tag Manager. This simplifies user experience, allowing for easier event detection and cross-domain tracking.
Overall, it provides detailed insights into visitor behavior and traffic sources more easily, improving its usefulness.
Dig deeper: Google releases simple, centralized tag solution
While gtag.js is the industry standard for Google Analytics and Ads tracking, there are situations where alternatives are preferred. Reasons include privacy, lightweight libraries, server-side data collection and data ownership to avoid vendor lock-in.
Alternatives may provide better control over user data, aiding compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. They may offer features like data anonymization and selective data collection. This ensures data is managed in line with organizational privacy policies, reducing the risk of data sharing with third parties.
Page speed is vital, so optimizing for JavaScript library performance matters. While gtag.js is lightweight, using multiple libraries can slow down a site.
Smaller libraries improve load times, enhancing user experience, especially on mobile. Consider multi-destination libraries for better performance.
From a data security perspective:
Exploring alternatives offers flexibility in data management, avoiding vendor lock-in and pricing constraints.
Owning your data enables seamless integration with various systems and custom analytics solutions. For instance, if consent for Google Analytics 4 is denied, your tagging server might not receive all data.
Here’s where the walkerOS library comes into play.
WalkerOS (a.k.a. walker.js) offers a flexible data management system, allowing users to tailor data collection and processing to their needs.
It’s designed to be versatile, from simple utilities to complex configurations. Its main objective is to ensure data is sent reliably to any chosen tool.
Simply put, you can implement walker.js and send data to all places for analytics and advertising purposes you need. No need to have a massive amount of different tags.
The walkerOS event model offers a unified framework to meet the demands of analytics, marketing, privacy and data science through an entity-action methodology.
This approach, foundational to walkerOS, systematically categorizes interactions by identifying the “entity” involved and the “action” performed. This structured yet adaptable model ensures a thorough understanding of user behavior.
WalkerOS stands out for its adaptability in event tracking, allowing customization based on specific business needs rather than conforming to preset analytical frameworks.
The philosophy behind walkerOS is to make tracking intuitive and understandable for all stakeholders, enhancing data quality and utility within an organization.
Getting started requires some tech knowledge and understanding, but it isn’t as hard as it seems. The walker.js web client can be implemented directly via code via the Google Tag Manager (recommended) and via npm.
All events are now sent to the dataLayer from which we can start the tagging via Google Tag Manager.
The tagging process means we want to define the events we want to capture and send, like filter usage, ecommerce purchases, add to carts, item views and more.
Walker.js supplies a good round of triggers that we can use starting from click, load, submit, hover or custom actions. You can also add destination tags and define where to send the captured data.
Walker.js works on prebuild destinations like Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, Piwik PRO and Plausible Analytics. It also offers an API to send custom events to any destination that can receive them.
I recommend using their demo page to play around with it.
Switching from gtag.js to an alternative like walker.js for tracking and data collection comes with considerations and potential drawbacks, depending on your specific needs and setup. Here are some of the main points to consider:
In terms of integration, gtag.js is designed to work seamlessly with Google’s suite of products, including Google Analytics, Google Ads and more.
An alternative like walker.js does not offer the same level of native integration, potentially complicating the setup with these services. You need technical understanding to implement and maintain.
Gtag.js supports a wide range of out-of-the-box features tailored to Google’s platforms. Walker.js may not support all these features directly or might require additional customization to achieve similar functionality.
Gtag.js provides a straightforward implementation process for those already using Google products. Users might find that walker.js requires more technical knowledge to customize and integrate effectively.
Google’s extensive documentation and community support make troubleshooting and learning easier. Walker.js, being less widespread, may have more limited resources for support and guidance.
The decision between using gtag.js or switching to an alternative like walker.js depends on your specific use case and needs. If you heavily rely on the Google ecosystem and want seamless integration, then gtag.js is likely the best choice.
However, for those needing greater control and flexibility with their data collection and usage across systems, walkerOS offers a lightweight, customizable tracking solution.
While the setup requires more technical knowledge, the ability to own your data and reduce vendor lock-in provides strategic long-term benefits for many businesses.
Dig deeper: How to set up Google Analytics 4 using Google Tag Manager
Google is giving advertisers more control over ad placement within the Search Partner Network.
From March 4, advertisers using Performance Max will have access to impression-level placement reporting of Search Partner Network sites.
Additionally, if you exclude certain ad placements at the account level, it will now apply to the Search Partner Network, as well as YouTube and display ads, according to Ad Age.
Why now? These substantial changes come after an Adalytics report accused Google of quietly placing search ads on inappropriate non-Google websites through the Search Partner Network – including sites containing pornographic, sanctioned and pirated content. Google denied the claims, saying Adalytics has a track record of publishing inaccurate reports that misrepresent Google’s products.
Changes. Before the Adalytics report was published in November, all Pmax campaigns were automatically opted into the Search Partner Network and could not opt out. For other campaigns, being opted into search partners was the default setting, but advertisers had the option to opt out.
Following the Adalytics report, Google temporarily permitted Pmax users to opt out of search partner inventory until March 1. As this option is set to be removed, Google is now providing advertisers with unprecedented insights and control over ad placement within the Search Partner Network.
Why we care. Advertisers will gain better control and insights into the placement of their ads within the Search Partner Network. This enables them to address concerns about their ads being placed near inappropriate content, safeguarding their brand reputation.
What is the Search Partner Network? The Search Partner Network consists of websites and apps that collaborate with Google to display search ads. This network extends beyond traditional search platforms and includes major Google properties such as YouTube and Google Discover. Additionally, it encompasses numerous other websites that may not be directly associated with typical search activities.
Why are campaigns added to the SPN? Google opts campaigns are opted into the Search Partner Network because the search engine claims it sees “a measurable improvement” in clicks and conversion when advertisers extend their reach to these sites.” Opting into the SPN can enable advertiser to reach customers on sites like YouTube.
What is Adalytics? Adalytics is a crowd-sourced advertising performance optimization platform that was set up to review and improve the digital advertising landscape.
Deep dive. You can learn more about Adalytics’ investigation by reading its report ‘Does a lack of transparency create brand safety concerns for search advertisers?‘
BuzzFeed was one of the first major publishers to adopt heavy AI publishing.
They drew scrutiny when a litany was plagiarized, copy-and-pasted, factually incorrect, awkward and simply poorly written.
Most recently, they’ve resorted to shutting down entire business units because of their inability to compete.
Sports Illustrated, also an early adopter, suffered from similar issues and is now also laying off staff to stem the bleeding.
Notice a pattern here?
Using AI to create content isn’t bad in and of itself.
But it often produces bad content. And that’s the problem.
This article dissects AI-generated articles and contrasts them with one crafted by a human expert to illustrate the potential pitfalls of relying solely on AI-generated content.
Look. It makes sense.
AI’s promise is incredibly seductive.
Who wouldn’t want to automate or streamline or replace inefficiency?!
And I can’t think of a more inefficient process than sitting in front of a blank white screen and starting to type.
As a red-blooded capitalist, I empathize. However, as a long-term brand builder, I can also recognize that AI content just simply isn’t good enough.
The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.
Too many fundamental problems and issues still don’t make it viable to use for any serious, ambitious brand in a competitive space.
In the future? Sure, who knows? We’ll probably serve robot masters one day.
But right now, the only potential use case we’ve seen that makes any possible sense is around extremely black-and-white stuff.
You know the classic SEO playbook: Glossaries.
Straight plain, vanilla, top-of-funnel definitions.
Every SEO and their dog has heard about the “Great SEO Heist” – an infamously viral SEO story.
Now, I’m not going to kick someone while they’re down.
But I am going to kick the $#!& out of their content ‘cause it’s just not any good.
So let’s travel back in time for a second.
Let’s look up the warm, sunny days of Summer ‘23 when the brand-in-question ranked well using AI content. Then, let’s ignore the noise around it and rationally assess the content quality (or lack thereof).
Whoosh – top organic rankings from August ‘23:
What do you notice?
Tons of glossary-style, definition-based content.
Makes sense on the surface. The way LLMs work is by sucking in everything around them, understanding patterns and then regurgitating it back out.
So it should, in theory, be able to do a passable job at vomiting up black-and-white information.
Kinda hard to screw up. Right?
Especially when you understandably lower the bar and do not have any expectations for true insight or expertise shining through.
But here’s where it goes from bad to worse.
This might sound like a trick question, but shouldn’t be:
Is the goal of SEO to drive eyeballs or buyers?
Ultimately, it’s both. You can’t drive buyers without eyeballs.
And you often can’t rank for the most commercial terms in your space without having a big site to begin with.
This Great SEO Catch-22 is why the Beachhead Principle is valuable.
But if you had to pick one? You’d pick buyers. You ultimately need conversions to scale into eight, nine and 10-figure revenues.
Now. There is a time and place for expanding top-of-the-funnel content, especially when you’re in scale mode and trying to reach people earlier in the buying cycle.
However, as a general rule, extremely top-of-the-funnel work won’t convert.
Like, ever.
In B2C? In low-dollar amounts, impulse or transactional purchases? Possibly. But still unlikely. It’d require one helluva Black Friday discount.
But B2B? Or any other big decision that often requires complex, consultative sales cycles that naturally take weeks and months of actual persuasion and credibility?
No chance. Here’s why.
Look up the Ahrefs example above, where one of the ranking keywords last summer was for “European Date Format.”
Now, let’s Google that query to see what we see:
That’s right, an instant answer!
Exhibit A: Zero-click SERPs.
So, the searcher can get the answer they want without ever having to click on the webpage in question.
Kinda hard to convert visitors when they don’t even need to visit your website in the first place.
Think this pervasive problem will only get better when more people start using AI tools to sidestep or augment traditional Google searches?
Think again.
OK. Let’s look at another example.
The “shortcut to strikethrough” query was (at one point) the top traffic driver for this site.
So let’s dig deeper and unpack the competitiveness for a second.
All traditional measures of “keyword difficulty” are often biased toward the quality and quantity of referring domains to the individual pages ranking.
They often neglect or gloss over or simply avoid measuring anything around a site’s overall domain strength, their existing topical authority, content quality and a host of other important considerations.
(That’s why a balanced scorecard approach is more effective for judging ranking ability.)
But there are two big issues with the graph above:
Issue: Easy-to-rank queries are often easy to lose.
All you need is a half-decent competitor worth their salt to actually publish something good and put out the minimum amount of distribution effort and you’ll lose that ranking ASAP.
Contrast this to a definition-style article we did with Robinhood waaaaaaay back in 2019, that’s still ranking well to this very day…
… and that’s also competing against incredibly competitive competitors, too:
Good rankings only matter if you can hold onto them for years, not weeks!
Issue 2: Low-competition keywords are still low competition ‘cause there’s no $$$ in it!
Competition = money. The lack of competition in SEO, like in entrepreneurship, is usually a bad sign. Not a good one.
So, can you use AI content to pick up rankings for extremely top-of-the-funnel, low-competition keywords?
Technically, yes.
But are you likely to hang on to that ranking over the long term, while also actually generating business value from it?
No. You’re not.
Fine. I’ll say it.
Most people aren’t good at writing. It’s a skill and a craft.
Sure, it’s subjective. But you learn some indisputable truths when you get good at it.
Here, I’ll give you one helpful tidbit to keep in the back of your mind.
How do you spot “good” vs. “bad” writing online?
Specificity.
Good writing is specific to the audience and, more importantly, the selected words and the context provided to bolster its claims.
Bad writing is generic. It’s surface level. It’s devoid of insight.
It sounds like a freelance writer wrote it instead of a bonafide expert on the topic.
And that’s why AI content manufactured by LLMs will always struggle in its current iteration.
Again, let’s look at actual examples! (See? Specificity!)
That box in red above?
Any half-decent editor would just remove the entire thing ASAP. And probably question why this person is writing for them in the first place.
It says a lot without saying anything at all. Pure fluff.
Flaccid, impotent writing at its finest.
And the box in yellow? Slightly better. Barely, though.
At least it gives some actual examples. However, the problem with this section is twofold.
Again, the examples are extremely surface-level at best and sloppy at worst.
This is like when a teenager spouts off about something they just Googled two seconds ago, trying to make it sound like they know what they’re talking about now.
You know what it looks like when an amateur simply regurgitates what other people are saying vs. actually doing research and being knowledgeable about which they’re speaking?
It looks exactly like that.
More importantly, while it mentions a few “advanced Excel formulas,” it fails to actually describe any “advanced Excel formulas.”
That’s a problem! Because it’s supposed to be the entire point of this section!
Do you want to venture a guess as to why it’s failing to do that?
Because it doesn’t actually understand “advanced Excel formulas.”
By definition, LLMs (and bad, amateur writers alike) don’t actually understand what they’re writing about.
You can’t be specific about something if you don’t understand it in the first place.
AI content (and underlying LLMs) don’t understand how to associate different bits of knowledge together and then expertly knit arguments together to form a coherent narrative.
Now, I know what you’re thinking:
“OK, Mr. Smarty Pants. Show me an example of good writing in a definition article, then?”
Fine. I’ll see your bet and raise you.
Here’s the counter-example, showcasing actual fact-checked research into the centuries-old evolution of “checks and balances” across multiple cultures and civilizations through time.
Even if you knew what “checks and balances” were going into this, you undoubtedly just learned something about its evolution and context and now possess a greater understanding of the subject before you started reading.
Specificity, FTW!
Today, I have the privilege of working with smart, amazing brands.
But ~15-odd years ago? It was the opposite.
It used to drive me nuts when companies would think that SEO is this magical process where you come in at the very end of a new website or piece of content and sprinkle your SEO magic pixie dust on it, and all will be good.
And yet, fast forward to today, AI content often falls foul of the same logic.
Good “SEO” content today is engineered to be properly “optimized” from the very beginning.
It takes into account everything, including:
Exhibit C:
Once again, this is difficult to do well because it requires several experts to work together to determine how the vision and structure and execution of a piece looks before a single word is ever written.
AI content, on the other hand?
Sprinkle away!
Yes, you can prompt it. You can finesse it (kinda). You can try to add decent headers.
But then you’re often left with something that looks like this:
Length is fine. Headers and overall structure of content (based on SERP layout) are also fine.
But on-page optimization kinda sucks:
Like these:
This is the problem with shortcuts.
When you do things correctly, from the beginning, you can plan and be proactive and specifically structure things to provide yourself with the best possible chance to succeed.
But when you’re over-relying on the Ozempic of the content world (AI), you’re forced to take shortcuts because of the self-imposed limitations.
The output is worse for it.
Specificity is a hallmark of good writing because it lets the reader know they’re immediately understood and provides insight that actually informs how they think.
AI and poor writing, in general, mansplains.
It offers up generic crap that readers already know.
And this simple difference is also why visuals make such a giant difference online.
You shouldn’t have images in an article because it’s a dumb requirement before publishing.
Your checklist says “one image per 300 words.” Check, marked.
A generic stock image might as well not even be included.
No, the real reason images are critical is because they shape the actual narrative!
All of these words I’m typing before and after each image add context to the examples being shown that bolster my claims.
That way, I gain credibility. (We’ll come back to this below.)
And because I can back up my claims, you know I’m not just spouting B.S.
So once again, let’s look at this entirely text-only AI article (even when discussing a visual concept):
Meh. The writing still sucks.
But more importantly, AI can’t weave a connection between images and text. ‘Cause that still requires nuance and context (which it entirely lacks).
Let’s contrast and compare that with the takeaway below, which does three important things AI + LLMs can’t do:
AI, by contrast, could only hope or dream of doing this – if it outright copied this exact article.
This expertly brings us to the next point below.
I mean, this one should be obvious by now.
Once again, LLMs – by definition – are essentially a form of “indirect” plagiarism. It’s just re-sorting words together that most often appear in relation.
Look up any of the current lawsuits to see why authors, for instance, might upset that their copyrighted intellectual properties are being used to train these models.
Typically, you’ll find that even bad amateur writers aren’t often stupid enough to “directly” plagiarize something. Just copy and paste other sources and pretend like it didn’t happen.
But they’ll do what LLMs are doing, simply Googling the top few results and then rehashing or recycling what they see.
Let’s plug one of these articles into Grammarly then to see how it shakes out:
Not great. Not even good.
Yet again, the strengths of how LLMs work are also their greatest weakness, like some uber-nerdy form of jiu-jitsu.
This article in question kinda, sorta sounds like a bunch of other pre-existing academic journals – because the freaking model was trained on these same academic sources.
“Good” SEO content should be:
Kinda hard to do that when you’re just recycling pre-existing content out there!
If a writer turned in an article to us with ~14%+ plagiarism, they’d be fired on the spot.
How should Grammarly look when you check for plagiarism? Like this, clean as a whistle.
Dig deeper: How to prevent AI from taking your content
Like any good narrative, let’s finish where we started.
End at the beginning. (And yet another thing AI can’t do!)
Y’all know about E-E-A-T. We don’t need to retread old territory – no AI mansplaining necessary.
Google has already warned/told you they value credibility.
But what if we back up a second?
That’s right. The best answers and the most thorough replies!
These are typically produced by some expert.
That’s ‘cause expertise builds credibility. And credibility or trust is ultimately why people decide to part with their hard-earned green with you vs. your competitors.
What hallmarks of credibility in content today that AI content completely lacks?
True credibility has nothing to do with putting a fake doctor’s byline on your AI article and calling it a day.
It’s like when your partner gets mad because you lied. Not because of what you said but because of what you didn’t.
A lie by omission is still a lie, at least in adult land.
The most successful, profitable companies today are run by adults working well together, pulling in the same direction over the years to build a memorable, differentiated, meaningful brand that will stand the test of time.
Not by grasping at straws, looking for shortcuts and silver bullets or phoning in with the bare minimum possible, then acting surprised when it doesn’t work, leading to entire teams being laid off or divisions shut down.
Shortcuts might work over the short term.
You might pick up a few rankings here or there for a few months. Maybe even a year or two.
But will it deliver sustainable growth five or 10 years from now?
Just ask BuzzFeed or Sports Illustrated where a race to the bottom ultimately leads you.
All of this begs the million-dollar question:
Is SEO content an “expense” or an “asset”?
Is “content” just an expense line on the P&L, to reduce it and minimize it as much as possible so it costs you the least?
Or, if done well, could it be an “asset” on the balance sheet, with a defined payback period, creating a defensible marketing moat that will produce a flywheel of future ROI that only grows exponentially over the long term?
Working with hundreds of brands over the past decade has shown me that there’s often a 50-50 split on this decision.
But it’s often also the one that is the best indicator of future SEO success.
