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4 things related to marketing that I do differently
Nov
Ahrefs Evolve is the packaging. And my favorite memory? All the people I met at this event.
I actually really enjoyed the diversity – while in Singapore, I finally got to meet SEOs and marketers from all over the region: Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, China, South Korea and Japan. These are rarely the people who appear or are mentioned at global SEO conferences, but they are an significant part of our industry.
Credits: Yeji Kim from Elifunt
Networking issues aside, the speakers were amazing too. Their talks were very practical, and many participants took home lessons that they could immediately apply to their work to achieve success on Google and other marketing channels.
Me too.
Here are my takeaways from the event – up-to-date things I learned, experiments I want to do, and things I will do differently from now on:
The SEO strategy everyone was using before the Helpful Content update was sound.
You can do keyword research, optimize your content using content optimization tools, make sure your on-page SEO is on point, build some links and voila, rank high.
However, this was not the content that users were looking for.
Slide from Cyrus Shepard’s speech
If searchers wanted a recipe, they wanted a recipe. This is not a pasta story. If searchers wanted to start email marketing, they needed a basic guide. This is not a 10,000 word article. If users were looking for the best running shoes, they needed an actual recommendation. Unscraped Amazon product descriptions.
As SEO specialists, we achieve our KPIs. But we didn’t aid our readers and customers. And we certainly didn’t aid the Internet.
When was the last time you typed a query into Google and found something that changed your life? I didn’t even remember when it happened.
So, like Sam, I want to free myself from the SEO brain.
Sam meant YouTube, but it also applies to written content.
I want to be free from having to fill out mindless “what is X” and “why is X significant” content templates. I want to stop thinking that the right way to create content is to simply copy what is already ranking but is good for users. I want to exercise the right side of the brain, the part that helps us create things that our readers want to see, even if they haven’t given us suggestions in search.
I’m content to say that I already do this for our blog, but Evolve has shown me that this is the way to go.
I don’t mean to say that we should completely abandon SEO. We can still operate keyword research to inform us about what people are looking for and operate search intent as a proxy to see what users want.
But at the end of the day, we don’t want to create content that looks like everyone else, because content also helps build your brand. And that’s why…
If most conversations at Evolve could be summed up in one word, it would be “brand.”
Slide from Amanda King’s speech
Slide from Aleyda Solis’ speech
Clearly, branding is becoming more and more significant, even in SEO. As Ryan argues here, this is the easiest way for Google to combat AI-based spam.
The problem is so challenging that Google has protected itself. Instead of assessing the quality of each article, Google seems to have cut the Gordian knot and instead elevated vast, trusted brands like Forbes, WebMD, TechRadar and BBC to many more SERPs.
After all, it’s much easier for Google to control a handful of vast content brands than many thousands of smaller ones. By promoting “trusted” brands – brands with some experience and public accountability – to dominant positions in popular SERPs, Google can effectively protect many search sites from the risk of AI errors.
How will this manifest itself in my work? I’m not entirely sure yet, but one idea we’re considering is adding our brand more often to our content, campaigns and communications. We already do this by triggering an event Ahrefs Evolve, our podcast Ahrefs podcast and our YouTube channel AhrefsTVbut we can double down on the idea.
For example, if we have shared a content creation process, we should name it “Ahrefs content creation process”. This way we can potentially escalate searches for the brand, which according to researchsuggests that this may actually be a signal.
Slide from Aleyda Solis’ speech
But you can’t take any ancient process and name it after your brand. It must be special and unique. How does a process become unique? When you actually do the work and have the experience to say something different. Which leads to…
Both Google and search engines want to see content based on expertise and first-person experience. But it’s not enough to say you’ve done it – anyone can say it. You have to go a step further and show the work you have done.
For example in Cyrus talk, shared the website RunRepeatwebsite that literally cuts the shoes in half to test them. If you check out any of their reviews, you’ll see unique GIFs and videos of them actually testing the shoes.
This Is content that Google wants to classify. This is clearly evident in their organic traffic:
After all, AI can’t cut shoes in half… yet. Additionally, the content itself is challenging to replicate – not every niche website is willing to go the extra mile to buy a few pairs of shoes, stock up on testing equipment like smoke pumps and microscopes, design a complete testing methodology, get out and run both on concrete , as well as in water.
Doing all this will not only give you first-hand experience, but also plenty of evidence to prove that you did the job. As Cyrus also points out, Google Lens can tell whether an image is original or not. Most affiliate sites simply operate the manufacturer’s photo, but RunRepeat does not do this.
Slide from Cyrus Shepard’s speech
I started doing this at my job. For example, when I asked marketers to share their favorite books with me, I didn’t just ask them for a quote. I also asked them to send their selfies:
But I could do it more. For example, I interviewed eight SEOs for my post on travel SEO. I could easily share screenshots of our Zoom call or even a selfie if it were in person.
It’s similar to my post on creating SEO content. I could embed a tutorial video to show the whole process.
Lots of things to improve in this respect. And speaking of movies…
We’ve all heard about TikTok being the up-to-date search engine for Gen Z. (Oh God, I’m ancient.) Like Charlotte As she noted in her keynote, TikTok is recognizing this trend and is increasingly interested in being an actual search engine.
Slide from Charlotte Ang’s speech
I may be a writer, but I have a slight suspicion that text content may not be the preferred format in the future. How Neville Medhora writes in his newsletter:
Most SEO still focuses on text content and website optimization, but e.g Amanda Król As noted (and as many speakers have noted), SEO advancements are no longer just about the website.
It’s about everything.
Slide from Amanda King’s speech
Google’s SERPs are increasingly populated with tons of features – videos, tweets, knowledge panels, images – and SEO now and in the future will be about optimizing every aspect: creating videos (long and compact), creating original photos and images, publishing books, and more .
Essentially, SEO is finally coming back to being a part of marketing.
Whether you like it or not, TikTok and compact videos in general are and will be part of the future.
While I’m not a TikTok user, Charlotte’s success has given me a lot of inspiration on how to do better on the compact video platform.
Slide from Charlotte Ang’s speech
My friend Rebecca has this I experimented with the platformso that doesn’t mean we avoided it completely.
Will I be appearing in videos on our YouTube channel soon? Will I start creating compact videos and optimizing them for TikTok, Shorts and Reels?
Let’s see
Final thoughts
Everyone’s situation is different, so everyone will have different lessons they can apply. These are my most significant things and things that I would like to do differently from now on.
If you want to see takeaways from other participants, I recommend checking out these posts:
