Time to rethink your whole SEO and content marketing strategy

This went to our newsletter subscribers 2 weeks before the publish date of this blog post. You may have had some similar feelings over the summer months, but it's officially time to rethink your whole SEO and content marketing strategy.

 

If not, your future success is getting harder by the day.

As we speak, digital marketers, revenue owners and business leaders are re-thinking how they do marketing and how they go-to-market as a company.

Those who've had one eye on the future of content and SEO knew this day was coming but:

Using educational content to drive traffic and leads is over. Ended. Nada.

• Search traffic is declining (evidenced by 60% of Google queries staying on-SERP rather than visiting another site)
• Attribution is getting harder by the week/iOS update meaning being able to analyse success in micro-detail is no longer possible
• Social media platforms, i.e. where people actually consume content, are either ringfencing users to stay on platform (by doing the LinkedIn thing of prioritising no-link content) or are members-only clubs on Messenger or WhatsApp et al

'For every 1,000 EU Google searches, 374 clicks go to the open web.' Credit: SparkToro

The times they aren't a changing, they've already changed.

User habits and preferences have changed thanks to a deadly combination of many, many things that can be largely grouped into:

• Improved social media algorithms pushing the 'right' content to people in various places where people like to consume their content (e.g. videos on TikTok, DIY-inspo on Pinterest, family news on Facebook, work chat on LinkedIn)
• A content saturation (and then some) tipping point being reached which means the internet is awash with content that's either over-optimised for reach or just downright poor quality
• Users responding by largely wanting to hang out in niche spots or 'dark social' apps and groups where they know the other people there are people they can trust - and not companies who are actually SEO Bloggers producing 'how to' content (how I earned my stripes)

Many of us have been discussing this day coming at some point in 2025, if not the back-end of this year.

But, this summer, it feels like the turning point has arrived already.

Just check the studies and comments from the likes of SparkToro and Databox or thoughts from senior leaders at HubSpot.

The times they aren't a changing, they've already changed.

We urge you to re-think how and where you go-to-market if you're still pursuing the tried and tested SEO and educational content strategies.

It's time to regroup and think about what's going to be the right way to market your business in 2025 and beyond so you can start doing it now and steal a march on those still relying on SEO traffic and long-tail content.

It's what we continue to do for ourselves and our clients. If you'd like to brainstorm ideas on this, just reply to me with your thoughts and let's take it from there.