Lucas chugged his beer, looked me dead in the eye, and said… “Bullshit.”

I smiled and let him continue.

“Listen dude… I’ve got a great website, a great strategy, and a great offer…

But it takes me 15 months before my articles get anywhere NEAR the first page. How can you possibly get them up in 3 months? Are you insane?!”

That’s how our bet started.

My job was to prove to Lucas that everything we know about standard content marketing is wrong.

Especially now when Google is pushing out new algorithms every week.

Ranking factors…

Ranking speed…

You name it —

It’s all wrong.

To understand why you have to see content marketing from Google’s perspective:

1. Google is a product.
2. The more people use Google, the more Google profits.
3. To retain users, Google has to be the best search engine in the world.
4. To be the best search engine, they have to surface the best quality content.

That’s why Google wants the main ranking factor to be content quality.

And they’re working very, very hard towards that goal.

Want proof?

Google is actively developing language processing AI that can spot quality content…

While at the same time actively de-valuing backlinks and domain authority, and banning people who manually build links to skew the search results in their favor.

*ahem ahem, Penguin 2016, ahem*

With this insight, is it a stretch to think Google won’t use backlinks as a ranking factor AT ALL in the next 5-10 years?

It’s just a question before an algorithm update like that happens.

Anywho…

Back to my bet.

Even though Google uses other ranking factors, I know for sure content quality is the main one that no one talks about…

So to rank in 3 months and prove Lucas my theory, I had to create an outstanding piece of content for a keyword where backlinks and DR don’t have as big of an effect.

Easy.

Enter, bottom-of-the-funnel articles.

No one wants to link to those for obvious reasons…

So content quality is actually the main ranking factor here.

Funny enough, these are also the most profitable articles to write.

A perfect way to demonstrate that the main ranking factor is and always will be content quality.

Lucas gave me two weeks.

…

“Now I just have to create an outstanding piece of content…”

My mind was racing…

“And to do that, I have to figure out…

• Who’s the audience…
• Everything they want…
• Everything they don’t get from our competitors…
• Who’s the best person to give them the info they’re looking for…
• How to reach the person and interview him or her…
• How to put structure around this information to make it interesting for the reader…
• How to optimize this content to make it interesting for the search engine robots…

And probably something else, too.”

I got a coffee transfusion straight into my arm and started working on the article step by step and brick by brick…

Interview Lucas’ salespeople — check

Read every article in Google top 10 for our keyword — check

Brainstorm ways to create even better content — check

Go on a three-hour interview with an expert — check

…

It took me 38 hours.

Just short of two weeks.

The article went live in late June 2021…

It started getting some traffic immediately, and a good amount after a month.

Fast forward three months later…

Lucas said this is the best performing article on his website.

Ha-ha.

He thought what I did was pure white magic…

But it really wasn’t.

I’m not some magician.

I just like to write high-quality articles.

And I simply take my writing process more seriously than other writers that multi-million dollar companies hire.

That’s why I outrank them.

Fast.

Since Lucas was my buddy, I coached him on how to write articles like this himself.

He’s a talented writer, but it took him months to master this way of writing.

But now Lucas has a superpower.

He can write articles that:

• Rank in weeks
• Convert +7% of traffic
• Survive all Google updates

Now Lucas rejoices when he sees a new Google update because he knows Google will push up outstanding content like his.

And what is outstanding content?

Here’s the formula:

Outstanding content = unique insights + great user experience

Right here… These are your keys to the castle.

And not a castle of glass that’ll shatter at the first sight of a Google algo update…

Or something you have to constantly build links to keep afloat…

No.

These are the keys to a fortress that’ll create such a huge economic moat around your business that no google update or competitor will be able to dethrone you for years to come.

What will you do?

Want me to write articles like that for your SaaS as well?

Or teach you or your team how to do this in-house?

Schedule a discovery call and let’s find out what’s the next best step for your business.

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