Google’s Latest Search Update Suggests Business Owners Need a New Content Marketing Strategy

A new update to Google’s search algorithm has top SEO consultants in agreement: The rules of Google have changed, and the old playbooks need to be rewritten. Earlier this week, Google released its latest “Core Update,” meaning the tech giant’s search algorithms and systems are being refreshed and adjusted. This is Google’s third core update of 2024, and while SEO experts say the impact from November’s update won’t be known for a few weeks, they expect it to follow a recent trend of punishing websites for producing spammy or AI written content. Their advice to business owners? Quality over quantity. SEO experts like David Riggs, founder of SEO firm Pneuma Media (No. 170 on the 2024 Inc. 5000) says that Google’s recent efforts are intended to “reduce the impact of gamification” on search results. “The SEO strategy of 2010 was to just throw a bunch of keywords in and it’ll rank,” he says. “Now, it’s very different.” Riggs says that many of the tricks and techniques that SEO pros used to rely on, like filling up articles with backlinks, publishing short “quick hits,” and creating keyword-filled blog posts, are now being actively disincentivized by Google, as the company attempts to fight against AI-generated content intentionally designed to game the system. “Google caught on and changed the cheat codes,” adds Riggs, “and now you’ve got to change your strategy.” David Kauzlaric, co-founder of SEO consultancy Agency Elevation (No. 461 on the 2024 Inc. 5000) says that the last two years have seen a flurry of core updates that have totally upended how SEO professionals approach their work. “These updates are helping Google’s users,” he says, “they’re not helping business owners who are trying to do SEO. It makes our job far worse and far harder.” “If you don’t pivot to provide what Google wants,” Kauzlaric says, “you’re going to continue to see a decline in traffic, because Google is getting very particular.” How can businesses ensure that their websites and content still rank highly in this new era of Google? Steven Wilson, director of SEO at Above The Bar Marketing (No. 614 on the 2024 Inc. 5000) says if you’re using AI to write full blog posts for your website, you need to stop now. “There is a war on AI,” says Wilson, who adds that his own research has found that “the more AI content you have, the less likely that you’ll show up in search.” Instead of relying entirely on AI, Wilson recommends writing content in a conversational, more casual tone. “AI can’t do that conversational tone,” says Wilson, who also says business owners should be careful not to produce an overabundance of content just for the sake of getting ranked by Google. Wilson says you can still use AI to help write pieces and optimize headlines, but the majority of the writing should come from a human. Wilson also recommends limiting the majority of your content to topics relevant to your business and that you are an expert in. Google’s algorithm highly values authors that appear to have authority on certain subjects, so sticking to “topic clusters” in your realm of expertise is an efficient way to build that authority. Another new strategy that seems to be showing promise is deleting old SEO-focused content from your website. Parker Evensen, founder of digital marketing agency Honest Digital (No. 878 on the 2024 Inc. 5000), says that in previous years, “if you had a lot of authority, you could push out huge quantities of content, and that could help your website. But we’ve found that paring down a lot of that content, especially irrelevant content, can actually help your website.” “I think what Google is trying to do is get people to stop fighting the algorithm and focus on creating the best, most high-quality content they can,” says Riggs. “They want something from a human perspective that’s creating good value and answering real questions. That’s the content that’s going to win.”