The headlines tell us SEO is dead. The podcast bros tell us AI will make blogs obsolete. Google tells us, “It’s Tuesday, so there’s another algorithm update, suckers.”
If I could boil down the content rhetoric over the last 12-18 months to one phrase, it would be “Evolve or die.”
So we’ve evolved. And I bet you have to.
My name is Meg, I oversee HubSpot’s full portfolio of English language blogs. And, I’m tired, y’all.
The HubSpot Blog Team is made up of 23 incredibly talented and experienced writers, editors, and strategists. We work with a world-class Content SEO Team. We have the domain authority of being the HubSpot Blog. And … we’ve been challenged to keep up with the rapid pace of the change demanded from us over the last year.
If we’ve found it challenging, I know there are probably a few others feeling the same. So, I thought we’d share some of our playbook with you. It might be similar to yours or it might have a few nuggets you find helpful.
Regardless, it’s rough out there. So the more knowledge sharing we do, the better, right?
The month was March. The year was 2023. The update was Core.
For the uninitiated, Google rolled out an update to its Core Algorithm in March 2023 (what we refer to internally as the “M23 update”). This is nothing new. Google rolls out updates a few times a year. They fix bugs, ensure high-quality SERP results, and move the search-driven world merrily along.
But this algorithm update was different. The impact it had on many publishers would be felt over the following months.
Here’s a snapshot of the organic traffic HubSpot’s blogs saw before the M23 update:
Pre-M23 update: Were we ever this young?
And here’s what things looked like once the M23 update finished rolling out:
Post-M23 update: Trust me, it got worse.
Our Content SEO Team flagged a few areas in which our blog properties were hit hardest:
We have a lot of graphs showing the sharp declines in page experience, but they all look pretty much like this:
This was fun to explain to leadership.
Our Technical SEOs immediately dug into page experience. But what did the Blog Team do?
Well, first we panicked, re-evaluated our career decisions, and pondered the end of the written word as we know it. You know, the sorts of things introverted English majors-turned-marketing-writers do.
Then, we looked at the data, and immediately began to overhaul our approach to content on the Blog. This really hinged on the increasing value Google appeared to be putting on experience-driven content (i.e., the new ‘E’ in E-E-A-T)
If you work in content, you’re probably familiar with Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These are the criteria Google uses to evaluate what content it surfaces to users in the SERPs. The E-E-A-T acronym stands for expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness.
In 2022, Google added an additional ‘E’ for ‘Experience’ to this acronym, and after the M23 update, we felt the effects.
The publishers most impacted by experience-driven content were:
The HubSpot Blog was guilty on all counts. Our library spanned hundreds of topics across multiple industries. Our writers were expert researchers and generalists, but they didn’t always have direct, lived experience with every single topic they wrote about.
Who was winning in the experience era? It was publishers who:
Armed with this information (and more than a little humility), we got to work.
Is there anything a marketer loves more than running a case study (except for becoming a moderately successful LinkedIn influencer)? HubSpot Content SEO Strategist Ivelisse Rodriguez ran our E-E-A-T case study and built the playbook for how the HubSpot Blog approaches “E-E-A-T-ified” content (i.e., content that’s less susceptible to AIOs and more likely to rank).
The case study focused on E-E-A-Tifying/historically updating our 17 Best Free Website Builders to Check Out in 2024 [+Pros & Cons] blog post.
Why this post? Well, it was a top driver of traffic, leads, and signups for the business, but demand had become volatile after the M23 update:
This is totally fine, right?
And here’s the massive boost in traffic the post enjoyed after Rodriguez’s successful E-E-A-T-ification:
Go on, Ivelisse.
Signups alone increased +251% and CVR followed at +26%. How did Rodriguez do it? Simple, she made (E)xperience Soup. Here’s her recipe:
She infused lived experience with her personal opinions and balanced it all out with an objective observation. Boom, a tasty soup packed with leads, traffic, and signups. Everything a growing marketer needs.
She used this recipe as a framework for structuring the entire piece. Take a look:
Of course, it’s easier to make (E)xperience Soup when you have experience with the product or subject matter you’re writing about. But how do you take an E-E-A-T-ified approach on a subject you have limited experience in? Let’s take a look at how Rodriguez approached this challenge:
Rodriguez is transparent about using the product for the first time. She’s also open about what she liked and didn’t like about Webflow’s functionality — something pre-E-E-A-T HubSpot bloggers would never …
The full E-E-A-T treatment for this piece focused on a few areas:
The success of Rodriguez’ case study led us to overhaul our approach to blog content. We threw out the organic strategy that worked so well from 2017-2022 and embraced a new HubSpot style that would help us write the best-possible content for our audience and remain competitive in the SERPs.
Don’t call it a glow up.
We’re certainly not out of the immensely convoluted Google woods yet. But I’m proud to share that the portion of HubSpot blog posts our team has E-E-A-T-ified over the last nine months have stabilized and, in some instances, seen increases that rival our original case study.
Maybe it’s been a minute since someone said this to you, but your written work is so important. Your content strategy is valuable. And the words you string together for email copy, blog posts, and YouTube scripts are appreciated.
Content folks are a scrappy bunch, and I think we’ve all become a bit better over the last year. I’m excited to see us continue to evolve, and I hope to share more of how the HubSpot Blog is changing with you soon.
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