The Client:
A niche independent digital media brand.
The Challenges:
Before kicking off this campaign, the business was facing several headwinds:
- Stagnating revenue
- Decreasing user engagement metrics
- Declining organic traffic stemming from major Google Updates
Once a blossoming media brand, the site was now losing traffic and revenue to competitors.
My Strategy:
After assessing the challenges, I developed an unconventional growth strategy tailored to the unique strengths of the business.
At a high-level, my approach boiled down to three elements:
- AI-assisted content ideation
- Improving content quality
- Switching ad networks
Let’s dive deeper on these three parts.
AI-Assisted Content Ideation
Many competitors in this particular niche were copying each other, often to the detriment of my client’s website.
It was the age-old intro-level SEO playbook of competitor analysis > steal keyword ideas > recreate the content with a more search-friendly structure > slap on some FAQs > outrank competitors.
This is a vicious cycle of stealing and rehashing the same old content targeting the same audience. It’s an unfortunate reality in every industry that entry-level SEOs touch.
So I decided to take an alternate approach: implementing an AI-assisted ideation process.
The result? An endless amount of ‘blue ocean’ content ideas that little-to-no other media brands are writing about.
This is beneficial for both sides. Readers get unique, valuable content they won’t see anywhere else in the industry, and the brand now generates organic traffic for terms that none of their competitors do.
Improving Content Quality
The brand was working with several freelance writers who were basically doing their own thing. Each writer had their own way of structuring articles, conducted different levels of research, and often ignored basic on-page SEO.
This led to varying content quality across the site. Meaning that even if the piece targeted a low-competition keyword, it had no chance of ranking because it was simply not good enough to rank.
“Good enough to rank” meaning the best possible result for a specific search query.
So I implemented a new approach to content creation: content templates to ensure each freelancer meets the mark from an SEO perspective.
At a basic level, each content type (e.g. Best X for Y) has a dedicated content template assigned to it. Writers receive this along with the content brief for each specific piece, and must follow the guidelines outlined in each.
This raised the standard for quality, and net new content began ranking faster almost instantly – pulling in more traffic in a shorter time period.
Switching Ad Networks
This one was simple.
Anyone with access to this business’ ad earnings reports could see they were leaving a lot of meat on the bone.
So I recommended the brand apply to work with one of the industry’s most renowned display advertising networks instead.
Once we implemented the new ads, their RPMs saw an immediate overnight uptick. And contrary to popular belief, their user experience actually improved. User engagement metrics saw a steady uptick over the first several months after the switch.
The Results
Combining the new ads with the uptick in organic traffic stemming from the new content approach, the business was earning more revenue than ever.
The business grew revenue by +550% year-over-year, with plenty upside to capture in 2024.
They are not only outperforming the competitors who were stealing their keywords, but they are also outranking major media outlets in their industry.