Content Caffeine: a newsletter for the content-obsessed.

Hi everyone!

Once again, there’s a lot to talk about. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks. I try to touch on the critical stuff to give you more than just the headlines.
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If it’s too much or too little, please let me know what I could do better or differently.

News & Analysis

​Google Spam Update is done rolling out ​

The spam update finished rolling out on March 20, 2024.

Lily Ray started following Craigslist queries a few months back to determine if spam results were improving. I pulled them up recently with mixed results. If you want to see a LOT of spam in the first few SERP results in Google, look no further than the following query.

These were the 4th, 5th, and 6th results after the PAA box. So, the problem remains as bad as it ever was. It’s especially embarrassing because this is a branded search.

And if you head back up to generate an answer with SGE, it also pulls up the spam.

Sorry, Google Apicatio.shop is actually an adult video, a dangerous site, and most definitely does not have Goldendoodle puppies for sale.

There’s still a lot of work to be done in this area.

​Google testing SGE to folks who have not opted in​

Speaking of SGE, Google has started rolling out SGE to people who have not opted in with a limited test for the US only. I can’t imagine this is a good idea with so much spam still a problem.

​No Pure spam recoveries​

Glenn Gabe reported that none of the 1000 sites he’s been tracking with pure spam penalties have recovered.

​1 site showing signs of recovery from HCU​

Wellgames.com seems to have been hit by the HCU and is seeing a surge. I am seeing this late Friday and have not dug in for details. But it’s important to include it before hitting send in the newsletter.

​Content velocity does not classify it as spam​

Some people have speculated that one way Google is battling AI spam is through content velocity. Personally, I believe Google can spot AI content in many ways other than velocity. Here, John confirms that awesome content is, in fact, awesome no matter how quickly it’s published. Good to know, John.

​High-quality content is crawled more often.

Google’s Gary Illyes confirms that Google prioritizes crawling based on quality. The good news is that it seems like a more straightforward signal to affect:

​Google is fighting a losing battle with AI content…for now.​

Another study from Originality.ai reveals there’s MORE AI-generated content in the SERP than before the March 5th rollout. The shock and awe is even less surprising. G knows the size of the problem and they are fighting it with both technical and psychological warfare.
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See our work! Check out more of our work or how we might help you achieve your organic goals.

Inspiration

Why has recovery from HCU eluded so many?

Many in the SEO community have been tracking the HCU to find evidence of meaningful recoveries. To date, the evidence of recoveries from sites dramatically affected has been scant.

We’ve worked with and been successful on sites that were mildly affected. However, I’ve not seen or heard of a recovery from a site that was strongly impacted by the September HCU.

Why?

1. Creating truly helpful content is too expensive for sites that monetize primarily through ads.

Since September, I’ve had many dozens of conversations with site owners who fit this scenario. Before the HCU, they scaled their sites with programmatic SEO and low-cost content farms. In other cases, there was a team of freelancer writers lightly managed by one person whose job was to publish 100s of pages per month. But when you monetize with ads, it’s harder to justify large budgets per page of content. And it was working really well to run this playbook.

By the time SEOs are speaking to me, they’ve realized and decided that to get back in the game, they’re going to have to do things differently. But they don’t have the organization in place to pivot.

• They can’t replace their inexpensive writers with great writers overnight.
• They don’t have UX specialists who understand how to create an informational article that takes a searcher through active, passive, and latent search intents.
• They don’t have editors working to maintain a consistent brand voice and tone so that they are speaking to a specific audience.
• And when they find out the cost, the conversation changes to whether they should abandon their sites.

But it doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

And it also does not mean that content is no longer profitable at all. There are myriad ways a content site can diversify away from ads to increase the value of each page.

You need to look no further than the content behemoths that still dominate to know there’s a way forward.
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The big brands that many people love to complain about. But even if those big brands are not doing everything right, they are certainly doing many of the right things–including investing deeply in high-quality content.

Are there sites that are unfairly targeted? Yes! But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing those sites can do to improve.
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In one instance, they were doing a LOT of the essential things right.
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A travel site that sent its writers off traveling on location to write the articles. But they were doing a poor job of demonstrating that expertise.
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No first-person photos or recommendations. Even though they went on location, the articles largely read as if they didn’t. This leads me to the second point.

2. Most people are not creating truly helpful content.

Hot take here, but so many SEOs do not read the content they publish on their blogs that almost no one is creating content that genuinely helps users.
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That’s why our content process for creating informational articles has us analyzing user intent in three parts–active, passive, and latent intents.
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Because the goal is to understand the user fully and serve her needs so well, she doesn't come back to the SERP.

As a reminder, active intent is the information that directly answers the query.

Passive intent is information the user needs or wants to know next.

And latent intent is the information the user is looking for, whether they know it or not. You can read more about these intents in an earlier newsletter edition here.

Why does it work this way? Why is this truly helpful?

It’s like going to REI looking for hiking boots. You get there and yes, they have hiking boots, but a good team member helps you complete your purchase by assisting you in finding the right pair for you. They do this because they understand the passive and latent intents depending on your use case.

We search Google before we fully understand what we need. We might put an initial search phrase representing 50 or 60% of what we seek. The creator who understands 100% of that search wins.

Got something to share?

Let me know if you've got a resource or campaign you're proud of. We'd love to feature your awesome work.

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