Nov 27 2025
From Organic Search To AI Answers: How To Redesign SEO Content Workflows via @sejournal, @rio_seo

It’s officially the end of organic search as we know it. A recent survey reveals that 83% of consumers believe AI-powered search tools are more efficient than traditional search engines.

The days of simple search are long gone, and a profound transformation continues to sweep the search engine results pages (SERPs). The rise of AI-powered answer engines, from ChatGPT to Perplexity to Google’s AI Overviews, is rewriting the rules of online visibility.

Instead of returning traditional blue links or images, AI systems are returning immediate results. For marketing leaders, the question is no longer “How do we rank number one?” but rather “How do we become the top answer?”

This shift has eliminated the distance between the search and the solution. No longer do customers need to click through to find the information they’re seeking. And while zero-click searches are more prevalent and old metrics like keyword rankings are fading fast, it also creates a massive opportunity for chief marketing officers to redefine SEO as a strategic growth function.

Yes, content remains king, but it must be rooted in a foundation that fuels authority, brand trust, and authenticity to serve the systems that are shaping what appears when a search is conducted. This isn’t just a new channel; it’s a new way of creating, structuring, and validating content

In this post, we’ll dissect how to redesign content workflows for generative engines to ensure your content reigns supreme in an AI-first era.

What Generative Engines Changed And Why “Traditional SEO” Won’t Recover

When users ask generative search engines a question, they aren’t presented with a list of websites to click through to learn more; instead, they’re given a quick, synthesized answer. The source of the answer is cited, allowing users to click to learn more if they so choose to. These citations are the new “rankings” and most likely to be clicked on.

In fact, research shows 60% of consumers click through at least sometimes after seeing an AI-generated overview in Google Search. A separate study found that 91% of frequent AI users turn to popular large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT for their searching needs.

While keyword optimization still holds importance in content marketing, generative engines are favoring expertise, brand authority, and structured data. For CMOs, the old metrics no longer necessarily equate to success. Visibility and impressions are no longer tied to website traffic, and success is now contingent upon citations, mentions, and verifiable authority signals.

The AI era signals a serious identity shift, one in which traditional SEO collides with AI-driven search. SEO can no longer be a mechanical, straightforward checklist that sits under demand generation. It must integrate with a broader strategy to manage brand knowledge, ensuring that when AI pulls data to form an answer, your content is what they trust most out of all the options out there.

In this new search era, improving visibility can be measured in three diverse ways:

  • Appearing in results or answers.
  • Being seen as a thought leader in your space by being cited or trusted as a credible source.
  • Driving influence, affinity, or conversions from your digital presence.

Traditional SEO is now only one piece of the content visibility puzzle. Generative SEO demands fluency across all three.

The CMO’s New Dilemma: AI As Both Channel And Competitor

Consumers have questions. Generative engines have the answers. With over half (56%) of consumers trusting the use of Gen AI as an education resource, generative engines are now mediators between your brand and your customers. They can influence purchases or sway customers toward your competition, depending on whether your content earns their hard-earned trust.

For example, if a customer asks, “What’s the best CRM for enterprise brands?” and an AI engine suggests HubSpot’s content over your brand, the damage isn’t just a lost click but a missed opportunity to garner interest and trust with that motivated searcher. The hard truth is the Gen AI model didn’t see your content as relevant or reliable enough to deliver in its answer.

Generative engines are trained on content that already exists, meaning your competitors’ content, user reviews, forum discussions, and your own material are all fair game. That means AI is both a discovery channel and competitor for audience attention. This duality must be recognized by CMOs to invest in structuring, amplifying, and revamping content workflows to match Gen AI’s expectations. The goal isn’t to chase algorithms; it’s to shape the content in a meaningful way to ensure those algorithms trust and view your content as the single source of truth.

Think of it this way: Traditional SEO practices taught you to optimize content for crawlers. With Generative SEO, you’re optimizing for the model’s memory.

How To Redesign SEO Content Workflows For The Generative Era

To win citations and influence AI-generated answers, it’s time to throw out your old playbooks and overhaul previous workflows. It may be time to ditch how you used to plan content and how performance was measured. Out with the old and in with the new (and more successful).

From Keyword Targeting To Knowledge Modeling

Generative models go beyond understanding just keywords. They understand entities and relationships, too. To show up in coveted AI answers and to be the top choice, your content must reflect structured, interconnected knowledge.

Start by building a brand knowledge graph that maps people, products, and topics that define your expertise. Schema markup is also a must to show how these entities connect. Additionally, every piece of content you produce should reinforce your position within that network.

Long-tail keywords may be easier to target and rank for in traditional SEO; however, optimizing for AI search requires a shift in content workflows, one that targets “entity clusters” instead. Here’s what this might look like in practice: A software company wouldn’t only optimize content around the focus keyword phrase “best CRM integrations.” The writer should also define its relationship to the concept of “CRM,” “workflow automation,” “customer data,” and other related phrases.

From Content Volume To Verifiable Authority

It was once thought that the more content, the better. This is not the case with SEO today as AI systems prefer and prioritize content that’s well-sourced, attributable, and authoritative. Content velocity is no longer the end game, but rather producing stronger, more evidence-backed pieces.

Marketing leaders should create an AI-readiness checklist for their content marketing team to ensure every piece of content is optimized for generative engines. Every article should include author credentials (job title, advanced degrees, and certifications), clear citations (where the statistics or research came from), and verifiable claims.

Create an AI-readiness checklist for your team. Every article should include author credentials, clear citations, and verifiable claims. Reference independent studies and owned research where possible. AI models cross-validate multiple sources to determine what’s credible and reliable.

In short: Don’t publish faster. Publish smarter.

From Static Publishing To Dynamic Feedback

If one thing is certain, it’s that generative engines are continuing to evolve, similar to traditional search. What ranks well today may change entirely tomorrow. That’s why successful SEO teams are adopting an agile publishing cycle to continue to stay on top of what’s working best. SEO teams are actively and consistently:

  • Testing which questions their audience asks in generative engines.
  • Tracking whether their content appears in those answers.
  • Refreshing content based on what’s being cited, summarized, or ignored.

Several tools are emerging to help you track your brand’s presence across, ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and more, including SE Ranking, Peec AI,  Profound, and Conductor. If you choose to forego tools, you can also run regular AI audits on your own to see how your brand is represented across engines by following the aforementioned framework. Treat that data like search console metrics and think of it as your new visibility report.

How To Measure SEO Success In An Answer-Driven World

Measuring SEO success across generative engines looks different than how we used to measure traditional SEO. Traffic will always matter, but it’s no longer the sole proof of impact. For CMOs, understanding how to measure marketing’s impact is essential to demonstrate the value your team delivers to the organization’s mission.

Here’s how progressive CMOs are redefining SEO success:

  • AI Citations: How often your content is referenced within AI-generated responses.
  • Answer Visibility Share: The percentage of relevant queries where your content appears in an AI answer.
  • Zero-Click Exposure: Instances where your brand is visible in AI responses, even if users don’t visit your site.
  • Answer Referral Traffic: The new “clicks”; visits that originate directly from AI-generated links.
  • Semantic Coverage: The breadth of related entities and subtopics your brand consistently appears for.

These metrics move SEO reporting from vanity numbers to visibility intelligence and are a more accurate representation of brand authority in the machine age.

Future-Proof Your SEO For Generative Search

Generative search is just as volatile as traditional search, but volatility is fertile ground for innovation. Instead of resisting it, CMOs should continue to treat SEO as an experimental function; a sandbox for continuously testing new ways to be discovered and trusted. SEO continues to remain a function that isn’t a set it and forget it, but one that must change with time and testing.

CMOs should encourage their team to A/B test content formats, schema implementations, and even phrasing to see what appears in AI generated responses. Cross-pollinate SEO insights with PR, product, and customer experience. When your organization learns how AI represents your brand, it becomes a feedback loop that strengthens everything from messaging to market positioning.

In the near future, the term “organic search” will become something broader to encompass the fast-growing ecosystem of machine-mediated discovery. The brands that succeed won’t just optimize for keywords. They’ll build long-lasting trust.

The Next Evolution Of Search

The notion that AI is killing SEO is false. AI isn’t eliminating SEO but rather redefining what it means today. What used to be a tactical discipline is shifting to become a more strategic approach that requires understanding how your brand exists within digital knowledge systems. It’s straying from what’s comfortable and moving into largely uncharted territory.

The opportunity for marketing leaders is clear: It’s time to move past the known and venture into the somewhat elusive realm of generative answer engines. After all, Forrester predicts AI-powered search will drive 20% of all organic traffic by the end of 2025. At the end of the day, many of the traditional SEO best practices still apply: create content that’s verifiable, well-structured, and context-rich. The main mindset shift lies in how to measure generative engine success, not by rankings but by relevance in conversation.

In the age of AI answers, your brand doesn’t need to just be searchable; it needs to be knowable.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

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Nov 3 2025
Don’t Let Your Founder Burn Out: 4 Systems To Operationalize Thought Leadership via @sejournal, @purnavirji

In my last article, we covered strategies that turn a founder’s voice into a pipeline driver. The most common follow-up question I get then is about how to do it consistently without burning out.

Every minute a founder spends on LinkedIn is a minute they aren’t building, hiring, or selling. This is the number one reason most founder-led content strategies fail: They start strong, then disappear. Many fail to make it past 90 days.

The data from our LinkedIn (my employer) playbook confirms the stakes: startup director+ who post at least 9x a year see 3x more engagement and 4x more new followers than those who post only once. But trust isn’t built on viral moments. It’s built over time.

That means you’ll need more than inspiration or willpower to go the distance. The solution is to build systems to operationalize your founder’s creativity.

Now, it might sound counterintuitive. Creativity is a nebulous, free-flowing concept. And operationalizing it can sound … restrictive. I promise you it’s not. Think of it as building the foundation and scaffolding to strengthen and support creativity, allowing your founders (or you!) to stay consistent without burning out. And actually enjoy the process along the way.

Here are four systems you can build to maintain consistency.

1. Build A Central Content Bank

Stop hunting for ideas every week and start building a repository.

This shared document – a simple Google Doc or Notion page works fine – becomes your single source of truth that you and your founder can both contribute to.

Your content bank should include:

  • ICP Profiles: Quick reference of customer pain points, objections, and goals.
  • Post Ingredients: Running list of “scar stories,” customer insights, contrarian takes, and company stats.
  • Hook Library: Collection of proven opening lines ready to deploy.
  • “What’s Worked” File: Log of top-performing posts to repurpose formats.

Most importantly, include a “Creative Block” list. When your founder gets stuck, whip out one of these prompts for instant inspiration:

  • “What’s something I wish I knew six months ago?”
  • “What’s a mistake I made this week?”
  • “What’s a customer question I keep hearing?”
  • “What’s a belief I’ve changed my mind about?”
  • “What’s an intelligent risk I took that paid off?”
  • “What most energized me this week?”

This bank is a sanity saver. Rather than stare at blank screens waiting for inspiration to strike, your founder now has a library of proven material ready to deploy.

2. Establish A Repeatable Content Rhythm

Inspiration is fickle. A schedule is reliable.

Help your founder build a repeatable rhythm for content creation by batch creating their content during set content creation time blocks. Gal Aga, CEO of Aligned, blocks off time on Sundays to create his three posts for the upcoming week.

He follows a simple formula:

  • 1 Scar Story (e.g., “We lost $500,000 because…”)
  • 1 Contrarian Take (e.g., “Why [industry belief] is wrong”)
  • 1 Customer Insight (e.g., “What 17 buyers told me about…”)

Another approach comes from Peep Laja, CEO of Wynter, who runs original survey-based research one to two times per month. This system gives him a week’s worth of unique, proprietary content that no competitor has.

The specific rhythm matters less than having one. Pick a day, pick a format, and stick with it long enough to build momentum.

3. Create A “Capture” System

Your founder is already creating content. It’s just trapped in their daily conversations. Your job is to build a system to capture it.

The simplest method? Voice memos.

As humans, we talk faster than we can type. Encourage your founder to record a one- to two-minute voice memo on their phone right after a customer call or whenever an idea strikes. You can then transcribe these notes and turn them into the first draft of a post ready for them to edit. This can save as much as 80% of the writing time and gives you loads more raw material for posts.

A more hands-on approach is to “interview” your founder. As Kacie Jenkins, former SVP of Marketing at Sendoso, explains: “It’s important to work with your exec team to identify how they best think and reflect, and then build on that.”

Book 30 minutes on their calendar, hit record, and ask them questions from your “creative block” list. This gives you authentic, first-person soundbites that can be turned into a week’s worth of text posts and video clips.

The key is reducing friction between having an idea and capturing it. Make it as easy as talking into their phone.

4. Use AI As A System Multiplier

When things get busy, AI can help you maintain consistency. Instead of using it to write posts, use it to operationalize your founder’s insights.

  • Turn voice notes into drafts: Feed an AI tool the transcript from a voice memo and ask: “Summarize this into two to three post ideas” or “What’s the most compelling insight here?”
  • Build your content bank faster: Feed the AI a batch of past posts and ask: “What themes do I keep coming back to?” or “Which ideas could become a series?”
  • Capture their authentic voice: Arvind Jain, founder of Glean, shared how his team took this approach further. They built an AI agent trained on transcripts from his past speaking engagements. Now, every draft runs through the agent for tone and polish before it’s shared, ensuring it sounds authentically like him.

AI doesn’t replace your founder’s thinking or creativity. It removes the friction between their ideas and published content.

Systems Create Stamina

A high-impact founder brand takes months to grow. The initial discomfort of building these systems is the barrier to entry that keeps most competitors out.

Your competitors are waiting for inspiration. By building systems, you create stamina. You reduce friction, align content creation with your founder’s existing work, and build the consistency required to turn their expertise into trust, pipeline, and authority.

The founders who win at this aren’t the most creative or the best writers. They’re the ones who built systems that let them show up consistently, even when inspiration doesn’t.

All data, quotes, and examples cited above without a source link are taken from the “Founder-Led Sales and Marketing Never Ends” playbook.

More Resources: 

Featured Image: Master1305/Shutterstock

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Oct 28 2025
AI Is Breaking The Economics Of Content via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

What does it say about the economics of content when the most visible site on the web loses significant traffic?

A status report by Wikipedia shows a significant decline in human page views over the last few months as a result of generative AI, “especially with search engines providing answers directly to searchers” [1].

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

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  • Evergreen content = Educational content covering established, timeless topics.
  • Additive content = Content that provides net-new takes, insights, and conversations.

Wikipedia is an evergreen site. Even though it’s a user-generated content (UGC) platform like Reddit or YouTube, its primary purpose is to serve comprehensive definitions on established topics. Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn & Co. are about additive topics and insights.

AI destroys the value of one while raising it for the other.

Wikipedia’s human traffic has dipped -5% YoY, while scrapers grew by 10.5% and bots by 162.4% [2]. The fact that scrapers and bots together make up almost as much traffic as humans is symbolic of the eroding value of answering questions.

Even though Wikipedia’s direct traffic is up ~23% and Chat GPT referrals are up 3.5x YoY, Google referrals are down -35% because AI Overviews make it redundant for users to click through.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Over the same time that Wikipedia lost ~90 million visits, Google started showing a lot more AI Overviews that answer user questions directly – often based on Wikipedia’s content.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Almost 50% of Wikipedia’s queries display a large AIO at the top of the search results. That’s no outlier: Reddit is at 46% and YouTube at 38%.

Google and ChatGPT reward additive content.

YouTube’s citation rate jumped from 37% to 54% (up 17 percentage points) at the same time as Wikipedia dropped from 58% to 42% (down 16 percentage points). Video is replacing text as Google’s primary source for answers.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

ChatGPT cites Wikipedia 3x more often than it mentions the site, while Reddit is at one-to-one and YouTube at ~250%! Since users don’t click citations, mentions are much more valuable. [3]

Pre-AI, the economics of evergreen content were net-positive because it attracted clicks from Google, some of which converted into customers. LLMs like ChatGPT, AI Overviews, or AI Mode are not incentivized to send out traffic but to give the best answer, which makes the experience more similar to TikTok than Search.

LLMs use web content like Wikipedia for training, but offer invisible citations instead of mentions. The net return is negative. Wikipedia has to convince donors that it’s still worth giving money, while its content is used as a utility for LLMs.

Over the last 12 months, sites offering additive UGC have gained LLM visibility [4]:

  • Reddit.
  • LinkedIn.
  • Youtube.
  • Quora.
  • Yelp.
  • Tripadvisor.
  • Etc.

At the same time, content sites offering evergreen content lost significant amounts of organic traffic (and value):

  • Stackoverflow.
  • Chegg.
  • Britannica.
  • Wiktionary.
  • History.com.
  • eHow.
  • Etc.

With fewer and eventually maybe zero clicks arriving [5], the value of creating evergreen content is questionable – not just for Wikipedia.

The fix is to shift focus from evergreen topics to net-new insights:

  1. Invest more in additive content: data stories, research, customer success stories, thought leadership, etc. Oura, Ramp, Okta, and others are already making the shift and hiring economists, journalists, and researchers. [6, 7, 8]
  2. Lower your investment in evergreen content in favor of additive content. We don’t know the right mix, but 50/50 or even 70/30 seems better than 80/20.
  3. When to keep evergreen content: For user experience (critical to understand a topic), Topical Authority, or when you can automate + enrich with unique data.
  4. When creating evergreen content, focus on hyperlong-tail topics aligned with your audience personas and positioning that no one else is visible for.

Evaluate additive content against influenced pipeline, LLM citations/mentions/Share of Voice, and publisher links/coverage.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Sep 16 2025
Ask An SEO: High Volumes Or High Authority Evergreen Content? via @sejournal, @rollerblader

This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from an anonymous user:

“Should we still publish high volumes of content, or is it better to invest in fewer, higher-authority evergreen pieces?”

Great question! The answer is always higher-authority content, but not always evergreen if your goal is growth and sustainability. If the goal is quick traffic and a churn-and-burn model, high volume makes sense. More content does not mean more SEO. Sustainable SEO traffic via content is providing a proper user experience, which includes making sure the other topics on the site are helpful to a user.

Why High Volumes Of Content Don’t Work Long Term

The idea of creating high volumes of content to get traffic is a strategy where you focus a page on specific keywords and phrases and optimize the page for these phrases. When Google launched BERT and MUM, this strategy (which was already outdated) got its final nail in the coffin. These updates to Google’s systems looked at the associations between the words, hierarchy of the page, and the website to figure out the experience of the page vs. the specific words on the page.

By looking at what the words mean in relation to the headers, the sentences above and below, and the code of the page, like schema, SEO moved away from keywords to what the user will learn from the experience on the page. At the same time, proactive SEOs focused more heavily on vectors and entities; neither of these are new topics.

Back in the mid-2000s, article spinners helped to generate hundreds of keyword-focused pages quickly and easily. With them, you create a spintax (similar to prompts for large language models or LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity) with macros for words to be replaced, and the software would create “original” pieces of content. These could then be launched en masse, similar to “programmatic SEO,” which is not new and never a smart idea.

Google and other search engines would surface these and rank the sites until they got caught. Panda did a great job finding article spinner pages and starting to devalue and penalize sites using this technique of mass content creation.

Shortly after, website owners began using PHP with merchant data feeds to create shopping pages for specific products and product groups. This is similar to how media companies produce shopping listicles and product comparisons en masse. The content is unique and original (for that site), but is also being produced en masse, which usually means little to no value. This includes human-written content that is then used for comparisons, even when a user selects to compare the two. In this situation, you’ll want to use canonical links and meta robots properly, but that’s for a different post.

Panda and the core algorithms already had a way to detect “thin pages” from content spinning, so although these product pages worked, especially when combined with spun content or machine-created content describing the products, these sites began getting penalized and devalued.

We’re now seeing AI content being created that is technically unique and “original” via ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc, and it is working for fast traffic gains. But these same sites are getting caught and losing that traffic when they do. It is the same exact pattern as article spinning and PHP + data feed shopping lists and pages.

I could see an argument being made for “fan-out” queries and why having pages focused on specific keywords makes sense. Fan-out queries are AI results that automate “People Also Ask,” “things to know,” and other continuation-rich results in a single output, vs. having separate search features.

If an SEO has experience with actual SEO best practices and knows about UX, they’ll know that the fan-out query is using the context and solutions provided on the pages, not multiple pages focused on similar keywords.

This would be the equivalent of building a unique page for each People Also Ask query or adding them as FAQs on the page. This is not a good UX, and Google knows you’re spamming/overoptimizing. It may work, but when you get caught, you’re in a worse position than when you started.

Each page should have a unique solution, not a unique keyword. When the content is focused on the solution, that solution becomes the keyword phrases, and the same page can show up for multiple different phrases, including different variations in the fan-out result.

If the goal is to get traffic and make money quickly, then abandon or sell the domain, more content is a good strategy. But you won’t have a reliable or long-term income and will always be chasing the next thing.

Evergreen And Non-Evergreen High-Quality Content

Focusing on quality content that provides value to an end user is better for long-term success than high volumes of content. The person will learn from the article, and the content tends to be trustworthy. This type of content is what gets backlinks naturally from high-authority and topically relevant websites.

More importantly, each page on the website will have a clear intent. With sites that focus on volume vs. quality, a lot of the posts and pages will look similar as they’re focused on similar keywords, and users won’t know which article provides the actual solution. This is a bad UX. Or the topics jump around, where one page is about the best perfumes and another is about harnesses for dogs. The trust in the quality of the content is diminished because the site can’t be an expert in everything. And it is clear the content is made up by machines, i.e., fake.

Not all of the content needs to be evergreen, either. Companies and consumer trends happen, and people want timely information mixed in with evergreen topics. If it is product releases, an archive and list of all releases can be helpful.

Fashion sites can easily do the trends from that season. The content is outdated when the next season starts, but the coverage of the trends is something people will look back on and source or use as a reference. This includes fashion students sourcing content for classes, designers looking for inspiration from the past, and mass media covering when things trended and need a reference point.

When evergreen content begins to slide, you can always refresh it. Look back and see what has changed or advanced since the last update, and see how you can improve on it.

  • Look for customer service questions that are not answered.
  • Add updated software features or new colors.
  • See if there are examples that could be made better or clearer.
  • If new regulations are passed locally, state level, or federally, add these in so the content is accurate.
  • Delete content that is outdated, or label it as no longer relevant with the reasons why.
  • Look for sections that may have seemed relevant to the topic, but actually weren’t, and remove them so the content becomes stronger.

There is no shortage of ways to refresh evergreen content and improve on it. These are the pillar pages that can bring consistent traffic over the long run and keep business strong, while the non-evergreen pages do their part, creating ebbs and flows of traffic. With some projects, we don’t produce new content for a month or two at a time because the pillar pages need to be refreshed, and the clients still do well with traffic.

Creating mass amounts of content is a good strategy for people who want to make money fast and do not plan on keeping the domain for a long time. It is good for churn-and-burn sites, domains you rent (if the owner is ok with it), and testing projects. When your goal is to build a sustainable business, high-authority content that provides value is the way to go.

You don’t need to worry about the amount of content with this strategy; you focus on the user experience. When you do this, most channels can grow, including email/SMS, social media, PR, branding, and SEO.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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Sep 3 2025
Make AI Writing Work for Your Content & SERP Visibility Strategy [Webinar] via @sejournal, @hethr_campbell

Are your AI writing tools helping or hurting your SEO performance?

Join Nadege Chaffaut and Crystie Bowe from Conductor on September 17, 2025, for a practical webinar on creating AI-informed content that ranks and builds trust.

You’ll Learn How To:

  • Engineer prompts that produce high-quality content
  • Keep your SEO visibility and credibility intact at scale
  • Build authorship and expertise into AI content workflows

Why You Can’t Miss This Session

AI can be a competitive advantage when used the right way. This webinar will give you the frameworks and tactics to scale content that actually performs.

Register Now

Sign up to get actionable strategies for AI content. Can’t make it live? Register anyway, and we’ll send you the full recording.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 20 2025
Quality Audiences: Why Lower Traffic Might Be Better via @sejournal, @rio_seo

There once was a time when digital marketers chased traffic.

The more traffic a website attracted, the more marketers felt satisfied and closer to attaining their goals.

But, this once golden metric is no longer a tell-tale sign of success.

Gone are the days of forecasting growth solely on the number of visitors coming to a website.

Today, lower traffic might actually be better than driving a plethora of unqualified, uninterested leads to your website.

Undoubtedly, consumer search behavior looks much different than it once did. AI is stealing click-throughs, third-party cookies are essentially disappearing, and audiences give more thought to whether to click through to a website.

Quality over quantity is the name of the game, and marketers are now shifting their focus towards driving better traffic rather than more traffic.

In this post, we’ll dissect why less traffic might be “more” and better for your business, how to shift your content marketing strategy to attract high-quality visitors, and share actionable insights for driving business results with your target audience.

The Traffic Trap: Why More Isn’t Always Better

At first thought, a high volume of traffic sounds ideal. The thought of hundreds of thousands of visitors flooding your site and purchasing your products or services would be a dream. But, that’s unfortunately not reality in most cases.

It’s a vanity metric that looks impressive in presentations but doesn’t necessarily move the needle when it comes to sales.

According to a recent study, the average website conversion rate across 14 different industries is a dismal 3.3%. That means for every 1,000 visitors, fewer than 25 of those will actually convert. And, depending on your sector, your conversion rate might be even lower.

Additionally, consider if your content isn’t optimized for the right keywords. You could be attracting traffic with zero intention or motivation to convert.

In this case, these searchers are likely to bounce once they realize what you’re selling, they have no interest in buying.

The numbers may look inflated, but if the quality is lacking, those numbers are meaningless.

At the end of the day, sales and revenue are the ultimate goals for any business. Drawing in the right audience leads you closer to that goal, even if the numbers aren’t legendary.

Because here’s an uncomfortable truth: Traffic is easy to obtain; quality traffic is hard.

AI Has Forever Changed The Search Landscape

There’s been much discussion around the impact of AI in the search landscape, and even some of the most seasoned SEOs are scratching their heads, wondering what to do.

Google’s rollout of AI Overviews and the rising use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools have significantly altered the way users search for products and services.

Searchers no longer need to click through on a website to get the information they need. Instead, they’re receiving AI-generated summaries that often answer their question right away.

This has resulted in businesses across the board seeing a notable decrease in traffic. Even top-ranking content that’s been thriving in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for years has taken a hit.

Bustle, the entertainment and lifestyle site, saw search traffic behave erratically last spring, around the time AI summaries were introduced. Some stories surged to 150,000-300,000 views, while most others barely cracked 1,000.

In turn, SEOs and content marketers are being forced to face a new reality – what many are referring to as “zero-click search 2.0.”

But, just as we have done with all the previous major changes in the search landscapes, the good news is we’ll live and we’ll adapt.

It takes a mindset shift, where instead of relying on high-ranking content to drive traffic, the new goal must be to create valuable, intent-focused content that targets long-tail queries, offers helpful information, solves a problem, and is well-written (which means not relying on AI to fully draft content for you).

Subject matter experts are in higher demand than ever before as relevance and trust become more paramount than ever before.

The Power Of Qualified Traffic

When we talk about qualified traffic, it’s important to clearly define what exactly this means, as it can have divergent definitions.

For the purposes of this post, quality audiences include searchers who:

  • Match and align with your target personas and demographic.
  • Arrive with specific intent (ready to make a purchase or are further along in the sales journey).
  • Engage meaningfully with your content (visiting multiple pages on your site, higher dwell times).
  • Often find you through word-of-mouth, email, referrals, reviews, or targeted search.
  • Use long-tail queries to help them solve a problem they’re facing.

Now, think about the content you’re creating and what’s in your pipeline.

If you’re drafting generic blog posts, surface-level articles, or are relying entirely on AI to draft your content for you, you may be attracting visitors, but you likely aren’t motivating buyers.

The same can be said for advertising efforts that cast too wide of a net. The result? An influx of searchers that may have no intention of converting and no interest in your business.

Your traffic count may look great, but there’s no success behind drawing in these visitors.

Consider that an email marketing provider found that email marketing has an average return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every $1 spent.

It’s well known and documented that email marketing tends to be one of the highest drivers of ROI.

The reason for this is that your email audience is usually pre-qualified and opted in to receive communication from you. They know your business and what you sell, and are therefore more likely to take action.

Similarly, referral traffic and direct traffic often yield higher conversion rates than social media or display ads.

Getting the right people to your site is essential, and the tactics that accomplish this should be your primary focus.

Quality Content = Better Business Outcomes

There’s a reason why nearly half of technology companies say their content marketing budgets will grow this year. Because content works – when it’s done right.

Content shouldn’t be created to cast a wider net. It should be created with intentionality to grow your brand recognition, build trust with your audience, and offer the type of value that keeps people coming back.

Here’s how quality, helpful content focused on the right audience and pain points pays off:

1. Higher Conversion Rates

Personalized content is a powerful driver of consumer behavior.

In fact, 76% of people say tailored content influences their decision to consider a brand, and 78% say it makes them more likely to buy again.

This statistic highlights the need for content that’s personalized and targeted to searchers’ needs.

Content that speaks to a specific persona or pain point is more likely to convert than a pointless listicle that’s stuffed with basic information.

2. Improved Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

You don’t want your customers to be one and done. Instead, you want them to come back to you any time the need arises. You want to be the brand they choose and trust over your competitors.

When you draft content that is deeply relevant, helps users understand your products, educates them on all your services, or guides them towards making a more informed decision, they’re likely to keep returning for more.

3. Lower Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)

No salesperson wants to sit through a multi-year process, anxiously awaiting the day a prospect may or may not decide to move forward.

Targeted content and lower funnel content attract qualified leads that lead to shorter sales cycles and lower the cost to acquire a new customer.

This empowers sales teams to focus on closing rather than convincing, educating, or determining if a prospect is worth their while.

4. Stronger Brand Equity

When customers find your content to be valuable, they’re more likely to share your content with their followers on social media and refer you to their friends.

Bridging the gap between awareness and consideration means building trust and drafting insightful, research-backed content.

This is why content drafting can’t be left solely to AI but should be left in the hands of skilled human writers who’ve consulted subject matter experts to deliver the highest value content possible.

Content Quality Indicators

As aforementioned, traffic alone isn’t enough to measure the quality of your content. There are numerous signals that can help you assess whether your content is working.

A few key metrics content marketers should assess when evaluating the strength of their content marketing efforts include:

  • Bounce Rate: The bigger the bounce rate, the bigger the concern. According to Siege Media, a good bounce rate for a blog is 70%, with the average being 80%. Anything more, and there is likely a fatal flaw between content and audience expectations that should be examined.
  • Scroll Depth: Similar to bounce rate, it’s unhelpful if your browsers aren’t scrolling down enough to potentially become buyers. This could suggest myriad issues, such as your call to action (CTA) being too far down on the page or your content not resonating with your target audience.
  • Time on Page: Are customers coming to your website but leaving shortly after? Short sessions on your website may imply low engagement, or your content simply isn’t relevant to the audience. This is often the case when your keywords don’t align with search intent, which raises the importance of thorough keyword research.
  • Conversion Pathways: Each of your website pages likely has the goal of getting people to take action, whether that’s filling out a form, requesting a demo, or purchasing a product. If people aren’t clicking your CTAs, it’s important to assess what the problem is. Perhaps your CTA is the wrong color or doesn’t use compelling language. A/B testing can help you assess where the real problem lies.

These metrics help you understand not just how many people arrived, but how many stayed and why.

The Go-To Content Marketing Strategy To Drive Qualified Traffic

It’s time for a mind shift for content marketers. We’re not abandoning growth, and we’re not neglecting traffic, but we’re being more intentional about our goals.

More traffic doesn’t mean more sales. It’s time to redefine our strategies to secure success and highlight content marketing as a value-add. Here’s the new playbook for driving qualified traffic:

1. Redefine What Success Looks Like

Success looks different today than it did even a few years ago. Today, success is contingent on attracting quality leads, keeping people on your website, assessing the time to conversion, and digging into your content engagement rates.

We’re also looking at any red flags in user experience, such as long page load times, CTAs that are too far down, and intrusive ads popping up.

2. Segment Your Audience

Your target audience is likely diverse, which means they inherently have different needs and preferences.

To ensure your content hits the mark, it’s crucial to segment your audience appropriately by buyer personas, new versus returning users, behavioral signals, age, and more to ensure your content lands.

For example, a Gen Z customer searching for a financial services business will want vastly different information than a Boomer, who may be looking for information about retirement or estate planning.

3. Align Content With The Funnel

Content must be created for all stages of the funnel.

For example, a first-time buyer will likely want more awareness-level content, whereas someone at the decision stage likely wants to read case studies or product reviews.

Audit your existing content to ensure you have a healthy mix of content at each stage of the funnel, including:

  • Top of Funnel (ToFu): Awareness content that builds trust and captures attention (but should still target a specific persona).
  • Middle of Funnel (MoFu): Educational content that helps users compare solutions, such as whitepapers, ebooks, product one-pagers, and more.
  • Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): Case studies, reviews and testimonials, product demos, and more.

4. Invest In First-Party Data

Knowing who’s interested in your business can help you reach the right people at the right time.

First-party data is invaluable, and can be sourced through email subscribers, webinar attendees, and form fills.

These are the people your business wants to develop relationships with, and can do so through drip campaigns, feedback loops, and tailored content offers.

5. Optimize For Intent, Not Just Keywords

Informational keywords can be helpful, but they often aren’t going to lead to quick conversions.

It can be helpful to focus on human-centered SEO, long-tail keywords (which usually are specific and solve a problem), and other types of intent-based keywords.

Leverage third-party tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or MarketMuse to uncover the why behind searches, how competitive search terms are, and how often they’re searched for.

Quality Will Win The Future Of Content Marketing

In a digital-first era that’s rife with competition, it’s necessary to differentiate your business from others.

While your competitors may be generating content quickly and at scale using AI, your brand can gain a competitive edge by doubling down on authenticity and building human-first content.

Lower traffic may be getting your business down, but it’s important to remember that doesn’t necessarily translate to lower value. In fact, for many brands, trimming the fat and focusing on quality audiences only leads to greater wins.

The next time you’re analyzing your data and notice a dip in traffic, there’s no need to get into panic mode. Ask yourself:

  • Did the right people visit?
  • Is our content useful?
  • Are these visitors driving growth?

After all, traffic is just a number.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 8 2025
8 Emerging Trends CMOs Need To Watch: What’s Next In Content Marketing via @sejournal, @rio_seo

Content marketers’ patience and performance are being tested as AI infiltrates every tech stack, which has been both a blessing and a curse.

Creating content has never been simpler, given the rise of AI, upending content creation, distribution, and discovery.

At the same time, writing original content has never been more paramount, given the vast amount of AI-generated content being written and misinformation spreading like wildfire.

In turn, audiences tune out the noise, demand well-written content, and are less forgiving when brands misstep.

For chief marketing officers (CMOs), this window in time is ripe for the taking.

Those who evolve fast, rethink foundational content marketing strategies, and invest in authentic, relevant, and human-first content will win attention.

For those who don’t, they risk taking themselves out of the game and being left in the dust.

In this post, we’ll explore the top eight trends defining the next era of content marketing and how forward-thinking CMOs are stepping up to keep up with the swift pace.

1. Use AI To Assist

Generative AI is no longer a tool to test out; it’s an integral part of every marketing strategy, irrespective of organization size or industry.

A study spanning 17 diverse industries found nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents say their companies use Generative AI to help create text, images, videos, or other content types.

The same study found that only 17% of marketers aren’t using AI at all, a number that will likely shrink in the months to come.

A separate report stated that the majority of marketers (88%) believe AI software saves their company time and money.

While AI has been and will continue to be used to generate content, the quality of that content may not match that of human writers.

A study published in Nature found that when generative AI software only uses content created by other AI, its responses start to decline in quality.

For example, after the first two prompts, the answers weren’t quality and missed the mark, only getting worse by the fifth attempt.

By the ninth consecutive query, the responses became completely nonsensical and unrelated to the original query’s intent.

CMOs must ensure content writers aren’t leveraging AI-generated content to draft content but rather use it as a tool that helps writers co-create content with purpose and editorial rigor.

CMO Action Plan For AI-Assisted Content Creation:

  • Develop AI-human content workflows: Use AI for research, drafts, and metadata. Humans should be used for drafting, ensuring the brand’s tone of voice shines throughout, and fact-checking.
  • Audit existing content to ensure it meets brand quality standards. Prioritize updating or replacing low-value content.
  • Clearly disclose when and how AI tools are used to foster trust with your target audience.
  • Monitor and audit content consistently to ensure no AI-generated content falls through the cracks.

→ Read more: AI Agnostic Optimization: Content For Topical Authority And Citations

2. Write For Semantic Search

Search looks entirely different from what it did a few years ago.

What was once ruled by ten blue links has now adapted to shifts in user behavior, favoring semantically rich results that answer queries without users having to even click through to learn more.

AI-powered engines (like Google AI Mode) now parse through conversational queries and extract the most relevant information, displaying it as a summary at the top of the SERPs.

To adapt to this shift in how Google and other search engines prioritize and rank content, CMOs should reshape their content strategies to structure content around topic clusters and frequently asked questions.

And, if you’re not already using schema markup, now is the time to make it clear to search engine crawlers what your content is all about.

Schema markup can help search engines understand the context and boost your chances of appearing in featured snippets. The more visible your content is, the better your chance of winning clicks and attention.

CMO Action Plan For Writing For Semantic Search:

  • Redesign landing pages (if needed) around FAQ-driven, intent-focused headings.
  • Implement relevant structured data, such as FAQPage, HowTo, and Q&A markup, which might enhance your visibility.
  • Keep a pulse on SERP changes by consistently monitoring where your content stands; repurpose or refresh pages that are losing visibility.

→ Read more: How LLMs Interpret Content: How To Structure Information For AI Search

3. Create Short-Form Videos

Video marketing hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

For marketers, video marketing has proven to be a successful endeavor; 93% of marketers say video marketing has given them a good ROI, and 96% of video marketers say video has helped them increase brand awareness.

The same study reported that 84% of video marketers say video has directly increased sales, while 84% say video has helped keep visitors engaged on their website longer.

As social media platforms, like TikTok grow in popularity, so too does the need for diverse content types.

It comes as no surprise that short-form video comes in as the top content format delivering ROI in 2025, followed closely behind by live-streamed video.

Undoubtedly, videos are capturing attention, and CMOs should continue to invest in video to build brand awareness, diversify content, and meet evolving consumer expectations.

CMO Action Plan For Creating More Short-Form Videos:

  • Develop a repository of short-form clips (30–90 seconds). These clips can be anything from customer testimonials, product demos, teaser videos, video ads, and more.
  • Repurpose long-form content – webinars, whitepapers – into bite-sized assets to extend your content’s lifetime.
  • Distribute video via LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, and embed in emails and site pages. Share your video wherever applicable (you’ve already put the hard work in; it’s time to get the most out of it!).

→ Read more: 7 Creative Ways To Leverage Video In Marketing

4. Optimize For Voice And Visual Search Discovery

The rise of voice and visual search is growing. More customers than ever are seeking products by sharing screenshots or using voice assistants to search for businesses.

Given the influx of smart assistants, image-based queries, and platform recommendations, businesses can no longer ignore investing in rich metadata and optimized visuals.

For images specifically, businesses should ensure files are saved and uploaded with a name that’s relevant to the image.

Additionally, you’ll want to add descriptive alt-text to every photo on your website to ensure search bots are able to crawl your photos correctly or in the case where a user isn’t able to see the image on your landing page. It’s also critical to ensure images are fast-loading and don’t delay the page speed.

In the case of voice search, conversational content is now a must. Write your content in a way consumers speak. Incorporate long-tail keyword phrases within your content and answer frequently asked questions.

CMOs should play a key role in cross-functional efforts to ensure content is optimized, compliant, and providing the best user experience.

CMO Action Plan For Improving Voice And Image Search Visibility:

  • Add descriptive, keyword-rich alt-text for all images.
  • Don’t neglect mobile performance and ensure fast load speeds for visual content-heavy pages.
  • Include voice-format answers in your content. For example, a restaurant may want to address common questions it receives, such as “Do you serve brunch?” or “Are gluten-free options available?”.

→ Read more: 12 Important Image SEO Tips You Need To Know

5. Create Interactive Experiences

Third-party cookies may be a thing of the past, but brands still need to capture first-party data.

First-party data powers personalization, however this type of data must be captured in a compliant way. That’s where interactive content comes into play: quizzes, calculators, polls, and more can encourage browsers to share their personal data with your business.

In fact, a study from HubSpot revealed interactive content sees the fourth-highest ROI compared to other marketing initiatives. In the first place (66%) were product-related videos, second (55%) were trendy videos, and third (53%) were funny videos.

CMOs should encourage their teams to integrate an ecosystem of experiences to collect data and personalize future interactions.

By doing so, businesses are better poised to achieve better segmentation, stronger nurture workflows, and foster greater trust with their target audience.

CMO Action Plan For Creating More Interactive Experiences:

  • Add interactive tools such as gated lead generation engines.
  • Ensure lead capture forms connect appropriately to customer relationship management (CRM) tech for tailored follow-up.
  • Collaborate across marketing, CX, and analytics to operationalize first-party insights, ensuring insights are shared across teams.

→ Read more: Interactive Content: 10 Types To Engage Your Audience

6. Tap Into Micro‑Communities

Micro-communities are on the rise, and search engines are paying close attention to this trend.

Consider the last time you conducted a search on Google. One of the top results for your query was likely a link to a Reddit post about the same topic.

Savvy brands turn to Reddit to engage in authentic and meaningful conversations, and even create their own micro-communities.

A vast majority (88%) of Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z U.S. consumers engage with niche groups based on shared values or interests.

This number continues to grow with time, making micro-communities a prime area to focus marketing efforts.

Authentic dialogue and communication are essential to effectively connect with your target audience.

Consider that users frequent online communities as a place to explore and connect with like-minded individuals, not to be met with spammy sales strategies.

CMOs should map and engage niche communities that align with brand values and develop user-generated content initiatives to engage in softer sales techniques that elevate customer experiences.

CMO Action Plan For Tapping Into Micro-Communities:

  • Identify a few key niche communities (forums, Facebook groups, subreddits, niche LinkedIn pods).
  • Start by observing user behavior in these groups and then engaging in real, natural conversations.
  • Share user-generated content (UGC) – reviews, stories, testimonials – from real users to build trust and credibility.

→ Read more: AMA Recap: Reddit Leadership On Leveraging The Platform For Business Success

7. Go Beyond Google

The search experience has become fragmented. Google still holds significant dominance in the search engine marketplace, but generative AI services are gaining traction.

With search results becoming more volatile, many SEO professionals wonder what works these days.

Content must be amplified for maximum reach, with distribution across a vast array of channels like social, community, earned, and email.

This isn’t limited to just written content. Short-form videos can be shared across Reels and Shorts, on LinkedIn, paid placement in niche newsletters, and more to help diversify reach.

A multi-channel strategy reduces dependency on any single platform.

CMOs should invest in and focus on a multi-channel strategy. By doing so, businesses are better set up for the success of appearing in organic search results and for AI-generated results.

New channel experiments can help your business test what’s working and what’s not, and tracking performance across each channel can inform ongoing strategy.

CMO Action Plan For Improving Content Reach:

  • Launch content distribution campaigns across video, social, email, community, and earned/paid channels.
  • Build relationships with niche newsletters and podcasts for earned coverage.
  • Use performance dashboards to monitor channel-specific key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust efforts where needed.

→ Read more: The Future Of Content Distribution: Leveraging Multi-Channel Strategies For Maximum Reach

8. Create A Strategic Budget

Content marketing investment is a top priority for many businesses.

It continues to prove the effort is worth the spend, with nearly half (46%) of B2B marketers increasing their marketing budgets in 2025 and over two-thirds (61%) spending more on video.

AI has also been added as a line item in many budgets, given that AI in marketing is now a $57.99  billion market, and 56% of marketers say their company is taking an active role in implementing and using AI.

CMOs must have a firm understanding of what works well for their business and what doesn’t, strategically allocating resources to what moves the needle, whether that’s video, interactive content, community engagement, paid ads, or more.

Clear return on investment (ROI) models and transparent budget allocation will highlight content as a profit center, not a sunk cost. It will also paint a clearer picture to leadership to showcase how your team’s efforts are driving revenue.

CMO Action Plan To Create A Strategic Budget:

  • Create a framework for how you’ll reflect content’s ROI by including KPIs for lead quality, closed revenue, and engagement.
  • Consider budget allocations for emerging technologies like AI and interactive content.
  • Track and report ROI on at least a quarterly basis. Adjust content marketing tactics based on outcomes.

→ Read more: CMOs, The Time Is Now To Assign An AI Leader

Final Takeaways: Leading The Next Wave

To thrive in a rapidly changing industry, CMOs must become strategic futurists, rooted in testing, tracking, and tackling new endeavors that align with shifts in consumer behavior.

As the face of the marketing teams, CMOs must lead the change they wish to see, equipping teams with the right tools and technology to make that change happen.

CMOs will act as the guiding light for handling marketing ethically, from responsible AI usage to properly disclosing AI and scaling human-first, value-driven content initiatives.

They’ll diversify distribution, ensuring content marketers’ hard work is getting the chance to shine across a variety of channels. They’ll also provide editorial oversight, especially over larger content pieces like “State of” reports.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they’ll rigorously track ROI and invest with intention. They’ll see what’s working well and pivot quickly when something isn’t proving its value.

ROI will remain top of mind, ensuring each and every marketing effort drives the company forward.

CMOs who embrace the aforementioned changes now will elevate content from a marketing function to a strategic growth engine, one that builds lasting trust with customers, leads to corporate longevity, and improves the marketing team’s job satisfaction.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Aug 7 2025
6 AI Marketing Myths That Are Costing You Money [Webinar] via @sejournal, @duchessjenm

Stop letting AI drain your budget. Learn how to make it work for you.

Think AI can fully run your marketing strategy on autopilot? 

Or that AI-generated content should deliver instant results? 

It is time to bust the AI myths that are slowing you down and costing you money.

Join Bailey Beckham, Senior Partner Marketing Manager at CallRail, and Jennifer McDonald, Senior Marketing Manager at Search Engine Journal, on August 21, 2025, for an exclusive webinar. Get the insights you need to stop wasting time and money and start leveraging AI the right way.

In this session, you will learn:

Why this session is essential:

AI tools can’t run your strategy on autopilot. You need to make smarter decisions, ask the right questions, and guide your AI tools to work for you, not against you. 

This webinar will help you unlock AI’s full potential and optimize your content to improve your marketing performance.

Register now to learn how to get your content loved by AI, LLMs, and most importantly, your audience. Can’t attend live? Don’t worry, sign up anyway, and we will send you the on-demand recording.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jul 25 2025
Experience Forecasting: Content That Enables & Adds Value In The Modern Search World via @sejournal, @TaylorDanRW

Too often in our content and messaging, we default to listing features in a succession of brief, disconnected claims rather than showing readers how those features will make a genuine difference in their lives.

As a result, they are left to fill in the gaps themselves, often choosing to skim and move on rather than engage with that cold list of facts.

It’s common for us to focus heavily on features, then expect our audience to understand how those features directly impact them.

Instead, by describing a scenario in which users experience the benefits of the features, you invite the user to picture themselves using the features as part of their day-to-day life. That mental rehearsal is what sparks genuine interest.

In this article, we examine how to transition from “we have X” to “you will Y” and why this shift is more crucial than ever in today’s AI-driven search landscape.

This article serves as a summary of my talk at Google Search Central Live: Deep Dive Asia Pacific, delivered July 25, 2025.

The Rise Of AI Overviews And The Need For Context

As search engines now showcase AI Overviews or AI Mode snippets that extract passages of our copy into results pages and dashboard panels, those bite-sized answers may earn clicks.

However, every sentence must stand alone, or risk having nuance stripped out.

Headlines should hint at benefits, subheads need to frame outcomes, and meta descriptions become miniature forecasts rather than mere summaries.

Because Overviews appear outside the full context of the page it’s taken from, every word must carry weight and meaning on its own.

By weaving context and emotional hooks directly into key sentences, we can direct AI tools to lift passages that still resonate and invite deeper exploration.

Image from author, July 2025

Defining Experience Forecasting

Experience forecasting is the practice of writing so vividly that readers can mentally rehearse using your product or service.

For a city break tours website, you might describe stepping off the train into Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, following a curated walking tour that reveals hidden plazas, tantalizes with local tapas bars, and culminates in sunset views over the Mediterranean.

At the same time, for invoicing software, you could paint a picture of logging in to discover that overdue invoices have been sent automatically, payments are tracked in real time, and tax reports appear at the click of a button, allowing finance teams to close their books in minutes rather than hours.

In both cases, readers will imagine themselves in those moments of discovery and relief.

This technique relies on three complementary elements: scene setting through sensory details, emotional framing to highlight feelings such as relief and confidence, and a tangible payoff that demonstrates results like time saved or stress reduced.

Guiding Users Through Ambiguous Journeys

Because many search queries begin in a zone of uncertainty, questions such as how to plan a trip to Italy, what constitutes a healthy breakfast, or which tools best serve remote teams indicate that readers are exploring.

If your page opens with a laundry list of features, this will risk causing them to bounce.

Instead, guiding users with a vivid scenario immediately captures their attention by giving them a vision of success, such as picturing themselves strolling cobblestone streets in Rome on a custom itinerary that balances must‑see landmarks with hidden cafés.

By meeting readers at this exploratory stage, we can transform passive browsers into engaged readers who refine their own goals as they proceed.

Demonstrating that we understand their uncertainty builds trust, and previewing what success looks like shapes intent.

Forecastable Messaging In Action

We can tap into sensory memory and create an experience that sticks in the mind by describing the balcony, the sea, and the espresso.

By transforming before:

“A luxury hotel on the Amalfi Coast, with complimentary breakfast.”

To after:

“Wake up on your private balcony as the sun glints off the Tyrrhenian Sea, sip fresh Italian espresso while planning your morning adventure, and join us for a complimentary breakfast of flaky pastries and locally sourced cheeses, providing fuel for a day of discovery.”

If an AI tool then lifts a fragment of our description, such as “sipping fresh Italian espresso, while planning your morning adventure,” that phrasing still has the power to entice because it hints at both flavor and purpose.

Vivid details, such as “a private balcony overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea” and “locally sourced cheeses,” can broaden our semantic footprint.

This helps to capture long-tail queries around experiences rather than generic hotel terms, which could ultimately increase the likelihood that readers move from casual browsing to booking.

Image from author, July 2025

Forecasting Against The Funnel

Experience forecasting can enhance every stage of the funnel by sparking curiosity and building emotional hooks at the awareness stage.

Creating broad scenarios with narrative case studies, such as “imagine your team collaborating seamlessly from anywhere,” can help to validate decisions at the consideration stage, which can improve click-through rates and time on page.

Introducing reminders of the end reward at the conversion stage can help close a deal, such as offering free cancellation up to 24 hours before arrival, alongside a claim that customers save an average of $5,000 in their first year, to increase completion rates and purchase conversions.

For example, validations, such as “When Acme Corp adopted our platform, they cut project delays by 30%,” encourage readers to imagine comparable gains.

→ Read more: How To Write Content For Each Stage Of Your Sales Funnel

Ensuring Purpose, Expertise, And Originality

Strong forecasting rests on three pillars:

  1. Purpose, which means that every piece must address a clear user need, whether helping readers choose, compare, or commit, and stating that objective up front.
  2. Showcasing expertise, by linking claims to real-world proof, such as data points, practitioner quotes, or firsthand anecdotes, and providing sources for assertions like “instant setup in five minutes.”
  3. Originality, which involves avoiding clichés by grounding imagery in authentic capabilities and experiences that only you can deliver.

Key Questions For Content Creators

Before publishing, use a comprehensive checklist that confirms:

  • The problem being addressed is stated in relatable terms.
  • Each paragraph includes sensory or emotional details to help readers imagine the outcome.
  • Claims are supported by data, case studies, or user quotes.
  • The angle differs from competitors through fresh insights.
  • Section openers carry meaning when read in isolation.
  • Forecast tactics align with key metrics such as click-through rate, time on page, or form completions.
  • The narrative guides readers naturally from uncertainty to clarity and action.
Image from author, July 2025

Final Thoughts

As search engines and AI continue to evolve, our copy must do more.

Transport readers into scenarios where they feel the benefit by weaving sensory details into every line.

This helps us stand out from the homogeneous, safe content that a lot of the internet has been built on.

Back up claims with evidence and constantly ask how effectively each sentence enables readers to imagine their success.

This helps to align with neural search models, feeding inclusion in AI Overviews, which then drives meaningful business results such as clicks and conversions.

Ultimately, words become experiences; experiences become results.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Dan Taylor/SALT.agency

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
May 13 2025
How To Increase Google Discover Visibility Naturally Using These Ranking Signals via @sejournal, @rollerads

This post was sponsored by RollerAds. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

Want more visibility in Google Discover?

Not sure how to get into Google’s personalized news feeds?

Discover isn’t like search. You don’t rank for keywords.

You get selected.

And that means the best way to get featured isn’t to optimize for keywords; it’s to optimize for specific algorithmic signals.

In this guide, we’ll cover the core ranking signals that help Google determine which content belongs in Discover feeds, and how you can naturally boost those signals using tools like push notifications.

Google Discover Optimization Tips: Which Signals Tell Google Your Content Belongs in Discover?

Google Discover uses a different algorithm from traditional search results.

While it still considers many of the same quality indicators, Discover visibility depends less on keywords and more on how your content performs in the real world.

Here are the most important content quality signals for Discover.

1. E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust

A good rule of thumb is to follow the “E-E-A-T” guideline:

  • Experience: Firsthand, real-world familiarity with the subject.
  • Expertise: Deep knowledge and skill in your content niche.
  • Authoritativeness: Recognition from other trusted sources.
  • Trustworthiness: Accurate, unbiased, and reliable information.

2. Engagement Metrics

These tell Google your content resonates with users and may be worth promoting more widely.

3. Strong Visuals & Headlines

Discover is highly visual, so if you don’t stand out immediately, the users are likely to scroll past your content.

Take your time to polish headlines to get attention, but make sure they accurately reflect the content of your article, post, or whatever you’re writing right now.

Engaging headlines, images, and videos perform better, especially when those assets are optimized for mobile.

4. Technical SEO & Mobile Optimization

While you don’t need to “rank” per se, you do need a well-optimized site, which includes:

  • Fast load times: Consider page speed and overall efficiency. Use PageSpeed Insights to ensure your web pages are optimized for user performance.
  • Mobile-friendly layouts: Google Discover is only available on mobile devices, as there is currently no desktop version.
  • Structured data: Google relies on structured data to categorize content and provide relevant suggestions for users. To attract more engaged and relevant users, you need to add tags and structure data so that Google can better recognize and categorize your content.
  • Internal linking & link building: It will help you create your own network of content. This concerns old articles, too, as they might serve as a gateway to newer pieces of content.
  • RSS or Atom Feed: Allow users to follow you to receive updates quickly. Google generates a feed for you automatically, but you can connect your own.
  • Google Web Stories: Similar to Instagram, these stories appear under the Visual Stories banner on mobiles and serve to expand your reach. Stories are easy to create, engaging, interactive, and fun.

    Track, test, improve. Use Google Search Console (GSC) to monitor your performance and statistics. Unlike Google Analytics, it has a dedicated tab for monitoring Google Discover traffic.

    5. Freshness & Topical Relevance

    Valuable content addresses and solves pain points.

    For content to have a better chance of showing up in Discover feeds, it should be:

    • Accurate.
    • Timely.
    • Trending.
    • Helpful.
    • Continuously updated.

    This is especially powerful if your content is tied to current events or spikes in interest, as shown in Google Trends.

    To discover what users search for, try:

    • Google Search: Enter a query and scroll down to view related and popular requests.
    • Google Search’s Autocomplete: Start typing a search and observe the suggested autocomplete queries; these are the queries that many others regularly search for.
    • Google Trends: Identify how popular a content direction is in any part of the world. This is also great for identifying seasonality.

    How Google Discover Works

    1. Google Discover suggests your content, which should include all the positive signals mentioned above.
    2. The Google app user engages with your content within Google Discover, adding to Google’s knowledge of how users interact with your website.
    3. These engagements (visitor volume, time on page, user experience, etc.) indicate to Google that your content is well-suited for similar readers.
    4. Google increases your reach and visibility on Google Discover.
    5. Those new viewers engage with your content in a similar pattern.
    6. The cycle repeats, spreading your optimized content to more Google Discover timelines.

    This is known as a positive loop because your content consistently passes positive ranking signals back to Google’s Discover algorithm, thereby continuing to increase in engagement.

    How Do I Create A Positive Loop & Show Up In Google Discover?

    Now that you know what Google is looking for, here’s how to naturally boost those signals.

    We know that Google Discover places your content based on:

    • High-clickthrough rates.
    • Long time-on-page.
    • Repeat visitors.

    So, how can you increase those metrics?

    By getting a dedicated reader base that is always ready to consume your new content.

    Push notifications are a great way to alert your dedicated readers that new content is out.

    And they will feed your Google Discover algorithm data.

    How To Use Push Notifications To Boost These Google Signals

    Many publishers avoid push notifications, believing they’re too promotional or might harm user experience (UX).

    However, modern push notification platforms allow you to take a more hybrid approach, combining editorial updates with monetization to boost visibility.

    Why Hybrid Push Notifications Help Boost Discover Visibility

    Done right, push notifications help your content get discovered organically by:

    • Increasing CTR with a second wave of distribution.
    • Driving fast engagement shortly after publication.
    • Bringing back repeat readers to increase session depth.
    • Boosting behavioral signals that Google uses to judge quality.

    In other words, push notifications support the very engagement metrics that can lead to more Discover visibility.

        When users receive a mix of informative and promotional pushes, each message feels fresh, encouraging clicks and boosting your CTR.

        Higher engagement signals to Google that your content is valuable, increasing the chances of it being featured on Discover.

        And since Discover traffic is largely made up of new visitors, each one becomes a fresh opportunity to grow your subscriber base.

        Once users opt in, you can keep re-engaging them, creating a cycle of rising visibility, CTR, and traffic.

        Image created by RollerAds April, 2025

        How to Implement Hybrid Push Format to Get on Discover Faster

        In a recent case study, one RollerAds publisher increased their revenue from $0 to $60,000 per month by pairing great content with hybrid push notifications and Discover-optimized distribution. The key was creating content that signals quality and leveraging distribution to show it.

        With a tool like RollerAds, you can gain a streamlined way to:

        • Send personalized push notifications for your latest content.
        • Mix promotional and editorial messaging without spamming your readers.
        • Increase engagement, retention, and revenue simultaneously.

        Simply register your site, get a custom strategy from your account manager, and start boosting content visibility, without compromising user experience.

        Even better? You can monetize this traffic directly with ad formats designed for Discover audiences, no intrusive pop-ups or poor user experience. Just clear, engaging content with a side of revenue.

        For SEJ readers, use the code SEJ30 to add +30% to your funds before July 1st, 2025.

        Just show the code to your account manager on RollerAds before your first payment.

        Getting featured on Google Discover isn’t just about luck; it’s about strategy.

        From creating high-quality, relevant content to optimizing visuals, headlines, and mobile performance, every step counts. However, to truly stand out and amplify your chances, pairing content strategy with smart tools, such as hybrid push notifications from RollerAds, can make all the difference.

        Engaging your audience through push updates not only drives more clicks but also signals content quality to Google, boosting your Discover reach. With the right monetization tools, you can convert that traffic into substantial revenue.

        Image Credits

        Featured Image: Image by RollerAds. Used with permission.

        In-Post Image: Images by RollerAds. Used with permission.

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