How The HubSpot Blog Is Combatting SERP Volatility – InstantFollowerz

The headlines tell us that SEO is dead. The podcast bros are telling us that AI will make blogging obsolete. Google tells us, “It’s Tuesday, so there’s another algorithm update, naivety.”

If I could boil down the content rhetoric of the last 12-18 months to one phrase, it would be “Evolve or Die.”

So we evolved. And I bet you have to.

My name is Meg, and I oversee HubSpot’s full portfolio of English-language blogs. And, I’m tired, everyone.

The HubSpot Blog team consists of 23 incredibly talented and experienced writers, editors and strategists. We work with a top Content SEO team. We have domain authority to be a HubSpot blog. And … we have been challenged to keep up with the rapid pace of change that has been demanded of us over the past year.

If we found it challenging, I know there are probably a few others who feel the same way. Well, I thought we’d share an excerpt from our book with you. It might be similar to yours, or it might have a few nuggets that you find useful.

Regardless, it’s rough out there. So, the more knowledge we share, the better, right?

At first there was an update.

The month was March. The year was 2023. The update was Core.

For the uninitiated, Google introduced update to its core algorithm in March 2023 (what we internally refer to as the “M23 update”). This is nothing new. Google releases updates several times a year. They fix bugs, ensure high-quality SERP results, and happily power a search-driven world.

But this algorithm update was different. The impact it had on many publishers will be felt in the coming months.

Here’s a snapshot of the organic traffic HubSpot’s blogs saw before the M23 update:

Pre-M23 Update: Have We Ever Been This Young?

And here’s how things looked after the M23 update finished rolling out:

Update after M23: Trust me, it got worse.

Our content optimization team has highlighted a few areas where our blog properties have been most affected:

• Site experience: Blogs were adversely affected by our technical experience with the site, particularly site speed and performance.
• Content freshness: Content freshness also negatively impacted our performance, especially posts that have not been updated for more than 571 days.

We have a lot of graphs showing the steep decline in site experience, but they all look something like this:

This was fun to explain to management.

Our technical SEOs immediately penetrate the site experience. But what did the Blog team do?

Well, first we panicked, reconsidered our career decisions, and pondered the end of the written word as we know it. You know, what introverted English grads turned marketing writers do.

Then we looked at the data and immediately began to rethink our approach to content on the Blog. This really hinged on the increasing value Google seems to place on experience-driven content (ie the new ‘E’ in EEAT)

Wait, what is EEAT?

If you work in content, you’re probably familiar with Google’s search quality assessment guidelines. These are the criteria that Google uses to evaluate the content that appears to users in the SERPs. The EEAT acronym stands for expertise, experience, authority and reliability.

In 2022, Google added an extra ‘E’ for ‘Experience’ to this acronym, and after the M23 update we felt the effects.

The publishers most impacted by experience-based content are:

• It tries to rank for a wide range of topics.
• Without providing any evidence that the author has proven experience with the topics he writes about.
• Product reviews/reviews based on what others have said.

The HubSpot Blog is guilty on all counts. Our library includes hundreds of topics across multiple industries. Our writers were expert researchers and generalists, but they did not always have direct, live experience with every single topic they wrote about.

Who won in the era of experience? Publishers were those who:

• Provided sufficient evidence of actual experience (like writing in the first person).

• Original images, screenshots and videos have been added.
• Includes unique anecdotes you wouldn’t have unless you tested the thing yourself.

Armed with this information (and more than a little humility), we set to work.

HubSpot Blog’s EEAT Case Study

Is there anything a marketer loves more than running a case study (besides becoming a moderately successful LinkedIn influencer)? HubSpot Content SEO Strategist Ivelisse Rodriguez EEAT pinned our first blog post based on the EEAT playbook SEO Bianca (Binks) Anderson developed.

Their work (and that of many other unnamed stakeholders) built the framework for how the HubSpot Blog approaches content that is “labeled” for EEAT (ie, content that is less susceptible to AIOs and has a higher chance of ranking).

The case study focused on the EEA-Tifying/historical update of our 17 Best Free Website Builders to Check Out in 2024 [+Pros & Cons] blog post.

Why this post? Well, it was the main driver of traffic, leads and job registrations, but demand became unstable after the M23 update:

This is perfectly fine, isn’t it?

And here’s the huge traffic boost the post enjoyed after Rodriguez’s successful EEAT-ification:

Come on, Ivelisse.

Logins alone increased by +251%, with CVR following at +26%. How did Rodriguez do it? Simply, she made a soup of (E)experience. Here is her recipe:

She interjected life experience with her personal opinions and balanced it all with objective observation. Boom, a delicious soup full of leads, traffic and signups. Everything a growing marketer needs.

She used this recipe as a framework to structure the entire work. View:

• Personal anecdote: “I can’t count the number of WordPress.com sites I’ve made for fun. It’s easy to register, it’s free, and its domain name isn’t as ugly (and more recognizable) than the others on this list. “Brandname.wordpress.com” sounds good, doesn’t it?“
• Subjective opinion: “Themes are modern and optimized for mobile devices. I was surprised to find that I liked a lot of the design. When I used WordPress in the past, I found the themes not great, but it looks like it has updated its library.“
• Objective observation: “Please note that the site is still in the minimal stage. You still need to go into your dashboard and add pages and content. Unfortunately, you cannot install plugins in the free version, including the HubSpot WordPress Marketing plugin.”

Of course, it’s easier to make (E)experience soup when you have experience with the product or topic you’re writing about. But how do you take an EEAT-based approach to a topic in which you have limited experience? Let’s see how Rodriguez approached this challenge:

• Personal anecdote: “I was surprised to see that Webflow includes different workspaces, something I haven’t come across in other tools (except CMS Hub, which gives you access to different portals). This makes Webflow a great choice for large teams where you can have different workspaces depending on permissions or job function.“
• Subjective opinion: “Webflow’s page builder is complicated and the learning curve is steep. Although the tool includes a setup checklist, it’s not as easy to follow as the others on this list.“
• Objective observation: “You can add HTML elements such as sections, containers, divs, lists, buttons, headings, etc. The tool includes more technical language, so you’ll come across terms like “V Flex”, which refers to a vertical flexbox.“

Rodriguez is transparent about the first use of the product. She is also open about what she likes and it is not like the functionality of Webflow — something that pre-EEAT HubSpot bloggers would never…

The full EEAT treatment for this piece focuses on several areas:

• Product demo, focusing on a beginner’s perspective. Gone are the days when publishers could round up the best product reviews in the SERPs and upgrade them for a skyscraper listing. Real-world insight and product experience are non-negotiable.
• Shortening the list from 17 to seven items, using personal preference and an unscientific method. We can talk about it Google is leaking in another post, but even before that peek behind the curtain, we knew that shorter lists would allow us to go deeper into our topics – an important factor of EEAT.
• Writing an article in the first person points of view, creating a soup of (E)experience by mixing personal anecdotes, subjective opinions and objective observations.
• Including personal opinion and personal experience in post. Rodríguez states his experience in the first paragraph of the piece. And she is clear about what she likes and what she doesn’t like about each product.

The success of Rodriguez’s case study led us to rethink our approach to blog content. We ditched the organic strategy that worked so well from 2017 to 2022 and embraced a new HubSpot style that would help us write the best possible content for our audience and stay competitive in the SERPs.

Don’t call it brilliance.

We’re certainly not out of the immensely convoluted Google forest yet. But I’m proud to share that the portion of HubSpot blog posts that our team has EEAT validated over the past nine months has stabilized and, in some cases, seen an increase comparable to our original case study.

I See You.

It may have been a minute since someone told you this, but your writing 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 people are a bad bunch, and I think we’ve all gotten a little better over the last year. I’m excited to see us continue to evolve and hope to share more with you soon about how the HubSpot blog is changing.