OCTOBER 24, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

Get Better Search Results

Google wants the same thing you want: Quality content that attracts and engages an audience.

It hasn’t always been that way. A decade or so ago, Google was fine with content to game its algorithm. Website creators stuffed keywords into their content and pages in hopes that Google would award them a top ranking.

However, the people who searched didn’t like what Google delivered, and Google didn’t like to disappoint their audience without whom they wouldn’t have a business. So Google implemented a new strategy – expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Last year, it added another E – experience. This month, it reinforced its algorithm to beef up the relevance of EEAT, finishing the rollout late last week.

What does that mean for expert creators like you?

Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal cautions creators to have patience. Monitor your analytics regularly to see the short and long trends.

But the takeaway remains the same: Deliver content that gives value to your audience in the manner they want to consume it.

In this world of AI-generative content and voice search, you have more opportunities to capture the search audience than you might think. So, start with these search strategy ideas.

Think long tail: If you create content that relates to keywords with high search volumes, don’t forget about the niche searchers. Content with relevant long-tail keywords will likely return better results. For example, travel blogger entrepreneur Chris Mitchell knows it would be difficult to rank well for “things to do in Miami.” So he wrote an article for the long-tail keywords – how to spend a week in Miami. What related phrases in your content tilt could you tackle to attract search visitors to your niche content?

Be helpful and deliver the facts: To attract Google’s eyes, your content should help the audience and do so in a factually accurate way. Before you publish a piece of content, ask, “What will the reader, listener, or viewer take away from this? How will it help them in their daily life (personally or professionally?” If you can’t easily answer those questions, revise the content until you can, then publish it.

Fact-check your content, too. Never assume something is accurate. For example, just because you linked to a source that quoted the same information doesn’t mean it’s accurate. I find this is a big problem with statistics – they just get quoted and requoted without any links to the original source. If you can’t verify a fact, don’t use it.

Showcase your experience: You are well-positioned to address the last E in Google’s EEAT search emphasis. As an expert creator, you have experience related to your content tilt. Share it. Show what you’ve learned and how you’ve learned it. Make sure you include author bios or team profiles on the site and detail your experience there. Add the bio or profile of the creator to the page where the content asset is.

Connect your content: Since you have a tilt, it follows that your content all connects in some way. Make the most of that by linking to other content assets from your new content assets. That internal linking indicates to Google your site is an expert on the subject, and it helps your audience know where to go to learn more about the topic.

Get an AI assist: Given the growing impact on search (and AI-generative content) results, it only makes sense to get some help from AI in your SEO adventures. Orbit Media recently outlined seven ways to use ChatGPT for higher rankings. Past CEX speaker Andy Crestodina details how to use it to improve current rankings of your URLs, edit title tags for higher click rates, add relevance with FAQ content, find gaps in your content based on your competitors, and more.

– Ann Gynn

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Entrepreneur: Chris Mitchell

Biz: Traveling Mitch​

Tilt: Personal travel advice

Primary Channel: Blog, newsletter (2K)

Other Channels: Instagram (17.1K), X (21.9K), TikTok (5.9K), Ultimate Ontario (4K), We Explore Canada (1K), This Week in Blogging (2K)

Time to First Dollar: 24 months

Rev Streams: Ad networks, affiliate sales, partner campaigns, consulting, speaking

Our Favorite Actionable Advice

• Take a chance: Chris launched his travel blog because he was sick of repeating his travel stories to friends and families. His content, though, also attracted search engines that delivered traffic to his site.
• Make a plan: Chris and his wife Bri decided she would work a full-time job so the family had a stable income while he went full time as a content entrepreneur.
• Start a newsletter: Though blogging is the primary channel, Chris started a newsletter as soon as possible to reach his audience even if traffic slowed because Google changed its algorithm.
• Know the difference between being for hire and for sale: When you are growing in this industry, it is easy to sell your audience to the highest bidder. Don’t sell your content or brand short. Always be for hire, not for sale.

– Marc Maxhimer

​Read all the story of Chris Mitchell.​

Know a content creator who’s going full tilt? DM us. Or email tilt@thetilt.com.

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• ​X Makes First Major Move to Payments Platform (This Old Marketing)
• Join the conversation about selling to your email list in this week’s Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for the Creator Economy. Starts at 12 p.m. US EDT Tuesday.
• The upcoming Tilt Publishing imprint gets a mention in the new horizons section in this article on alternatives to Amazon KDP from The Book Designer.​
• ​CEX2024 Call for Speakers is now OPEN. We are looking for original talks that will help content creators build audiences, drive revenue, and refine processes. Submission period ends next week!