Should you even be focusing on getting a rank on Google?
Let’s start here.
Take a step back, and look at your own searching habits. Is Google the only place you search for information? If you’re anything like me and prefer unfiltered responses to questions, you’ll go to Reddit and Quora. You’ll go to G2 and scroll through the reviews, good and bad. And when you hop on YouTube, you’ll follow the search to look at product videos and expert analysis.
Your customers are no different.
Stepping into the Googleverse: The Right Mindset
Google Search is a marketing channel, not a strategy. And SEO has always been a game of numbers.
What do I mean?
Well, if you’re familiar with even a little bit of SEO, you know the standard tactics: Publish a whole bunch of blog posts as fast as possible, build links to improve website authority to rank better, and refresh older posts to boost performance. It’s the classic playbook.
Historically, content quality and speedy execution have been advantageous to SEO success. But should you do the same?
It makes sense for a company like Zapier and Scribe to publish 50+ blog posts every month. They sell a horizontal product, catering to varying personas. So, Search is one of the best channels to reach their target audience.
This, however, would make zero sense for a company like Freshpaint, a healthcare data privacy platform that sells to busy healthcare professionals and organizations. They don’t have time to look up and read blogs on Google, no matter how helpful.
So, ask yourself: Should you even be focusing on getting a rank on Google? Or just publishing valuable content your customers will like? Because there are 99 ways to reach your audience and SEO is not the only one.
The Key Tenets of Content for the Googleverse
Google has seen more changes in the last year than in the entirety of the last decade. I’ve been ringing the bells around Google’s many changes in the last couple of months. The way
And if my thesis is correct, the old playbook isn’t going to work for SEO or content. I know someone on the Internet says this exact phrase every two months, but I’m sure. This time, it’s surely happening. Here is why:
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In the last decade, content at the top of SERPs has been formulaic. If you had the resources, you could (can) hire the right people to “game” the system (read: white hat SEO) and get a top rank.
That was usually the end goal. But lately, the focus has been shifted to ROI-driving, valuable content. Nothing off-the-mill copycat content that many brands have been publishing in the name of value.
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With the rising AI scene, many professionals (often in non-content roles) have been highlighting how “easy” and “quick” AI has been in generating content to speed up marketing operations.
But here’s the thing: Is AI-generated content even helpful and factually accurate? AI models still have a long way to go.
Do customers want to read 100% AI-generated content? Especially now that Google is offering one of its own in the form of AI overviews. If customers are going to spend time on content, it needs to be high-quality and add to their knowledge well.
This means original thinking and creativity from the early years of content marketing will need to make a comeback.
This has me excited. I feel like we’re finally going back to the basics. To the days of sharing experience-based and helpful content that’s also interesting to read. And not churning out regurgitated, SEO content.
At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if we can do proper SEO for SGE as well. I’m sure you’re brimming with questions too. But it’ll be a waste of time to worry about that right now.
SGE is still in the infancy stage, after all.
There are going to be many iterations and improvements to the model over time. If anything, you should be using the time to focus on:
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Building content recall
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Sourcing original thinking and research
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Having a documented distribution strategy
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Executive branding
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Building a memorable social media presence
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Experimenting with content formats (video, interactive product tours, webinars, podcasts, and more)
Why? Let me explain using Gong’s example before I get into tactics.
When you think “language learning”, you think Duolingo. When you think “zero-click search”, you think SparkToro. And when you think “sales intelligence”, you think of Gong, a revenue intelligence platform.
In the sales niche, Gong’s content is unbeatable, despite having roughly 1000+ sales tech solutions as competitors. You’ll rarely find their company blog ranking on the SERPs, but ask any sales professional, and they’ll tell you that Gong has the best sales content. How so? That’s because their content is:
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Based on data sourced from real sales conversations
[Source: Gong Blog](https://www.gong.io/blog/how-to-write-a-sales-email/)
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Crafted by subject matter experts
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Created for a clearly defined audience: sales leaders, AEs, and managers in tech companies
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Written in a conversational, non-boring tone and focused on providing actionable advice
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Promoted across channels where their target audience actively engages with content. Hint: LinkedIn and email.
To sum up Gong’s content in one word, it’s customer-centric.
Now, there are many brands that will say the same thing about their own content. And then they’ll go and make a list of keywords to understand the type of content their customers want. As ironic as that sounds, it’s the way many brands have been creating content.
My hope with the new Googleverse is the shattering of such hollow ideas. And how are we going to achieve that? Let me show you in the second part.
Stay tuned!
