Can real businesses still blog?

Key Concepts:

• SEO traffic capture for existing big businesses
• HubSpot's traffic loss (80%)
• HS's traffic loss (40%) and recovery
• Product-centric blogging
• Decreasing organic traffic from Google
• AI Overviews in Google Search
• The future of blog posts

SEO for Existing Big Businesses

The viability of SEO for large, established businesses seeking to capture more traffic is debatable. The speaker highlights contrasting examples of companies experiencing different outcomes with their SEO efforts.

HubSpot's Traffic Decline

HubSpot, a significant website, has reportedly experienced an 80% decrease in its SEO traffic. This raises questions about the ROI of SEO efforts, even for well-established companies. The speaker implies that SEO might not be as effective as it once was, even for large players.

HS's Traffic Recovery

In contrast to HubSpot, HS (unspecified company) experienced a 40% traffic loss due to a Core Update (a significant algorithm update by Google). However, HS managed to recover and return to its previous traffic levels. The speaker attributes this recovery to their product-centric blogging strategy, where their product is prominently featured in every blog post, making it valuable for the company.

Challenges and Resource Intensiveness

The speaker argues that capturing SEO traffic is now significantly more challenging and resource-intensive than before. Businesses that were only marginally profitable with their blogging efforts may struggle to maintain profitability in the future due to reduced organic traffic from Google.

Google's AI Overviews

Google is increasingly implementing AI Overviews, which summarize entire search result pages using AI. This means that organic search results are pushed further down the page, potentially reducing the visibility and click-through rates for blog posts. The speaker notes that below the AI overview, there might only be a few organic results on the right side of the page.

The Future of Blogging

The speaker expresses a bearish outlook on the future of blog posts as a primary content format. While users may still occasionally stumble upon blog posts through Google searches, the speaker believes that people are consuming less content in this format.

Exceptions: Unique Data and Research

The speaker suggests that blog posts with "incredible unique data and research" may still be valuable. However, even in these cases, users may prefer to consume the information in video format.

Notable Quotes:

• "If you ask HubSpot, they've lost 80% of their traffic."
• "It's so much more difficult than it was, it's going to take more resources."
• "I'm not bullish on the format. I don't see people crave blog posts unless they have incredible unique data and research."

Technical Terms:

• SEO: Search Engine Optimization, the practice of improving a website's visibility on search engines.
• Core Update: A significant algorithm update by Google that can impact website rankings.
• AI Overview: An AI-generated summary of a search result page displayed by Google.
• ROI: Return on Investment, a measure of the profitability of an investment.

Logical Connections:

The speaker begins by addressing the question of SEO viability for large businesses. They then use HubSpot and HS as contrasting examples to illustrate the potential challenges and successes. The discussion then shifts to the impact of Google's AI Overviews and the overall decline in organic traffic, leading to a pessimistic view of the future of blogging.

Synthesis/Conclusion:

While SEO remains a possibility for large businesses, it is becoming increasingly difficult and resource-intensive. The rise of AI Overviews and the changing content consumption habits of users pose significant challenges to traditional blogging strategies. Businesses need to adapt and potentially focus on creating unique, data-driven content or exploring alternative formats like video. The speaker suggests that product-centric blogging can be a successful strategy.