Contents
The Definition of SEO Growth Hacking
SEO growth hacking is a digital marketing methodology that uses different tactics and approaches to improve the current standing of a business in the eyes of search engines, be it Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, etc. If a company’s organic traffic starts growing, or if their SERP rankings are unsatisfactory – this is when companies tend to try and use growth hacking.
Multiple separate parties might perform the process of growth hacking:
- The SEO agency you’re working with now, although it is not that likely since the chances are that this same agency is responsible for your low SERP rankings, which is why their growth hacking capabilities are questionable at best.
- Your in-house SEO manager or digital marketer tasked with improving current results in tandem with an agency when necessary.
- External SEO expert with an independent overview of your strategies and KPIs.
While many SEO growth hacking techniques have been in use for a long time, including server log analysis, UX improvements for mobile view, page loading speed boost, meta-tag masking improvements, backlink improvements, and more, it’s important to note that not all of these recommendations are equally effective in the light of recent developments, such as the March 2024 Google Core & Spam Updates. However, with the right strategies and a clear understanding of these updates, you can confidently navigate the SEO landscape and improve your website’s rankings.
These updates drastically changed traffic values and website rankings for most websites, with an increased priority for high-quality information that is relevant and helpful for the end user. At the same time, Google has put a lot of effort into penalizing low-quality and spam-centric content, with the March 2024 Update being one of the most significant advancements so far.
It should also be noted that artificial intelligence has also significantly affected the field of search engines, with multiple examples of AI-based features being introduced in recent months (the latest example is Google’s AI Overviews, which was revealed at Google I/O 2024).
Growth Hacking Ideas in SEO
The renewed emphasis on AI-oriented ranking signals directly translates into the fact that content quality is now at the top of the food chain, and everything else is far less relevant or valuable in comparison. In this context, a complete reimagining of SEO growth hacking tactics is necessary, and offering multiple content-oriented growth hacking ideas would be the primary goal of this article.
1. Multilingual Search Engine Optimization
Multilingual search engine optimization is the first growth possibility I will discuss. It may seem evident at first, but many professionals still believe in the myth that the entire IT industry can speak fluent English. The actual situation is not as cut and dry, and I have had plenty of experiences proving that many users prefer to research in their native language. Let’s take the keyword “backup immutability” as an example of my statement:
The combined volume of this keyword in all English-speaking countries is evaluated at 4,100.
The combination of all French-speaking countries’ search volume is 300.
The total search volume of Italian-speaking countries in this example is 60.
The same could be said for Portuguese-speaking countries, with a total search volume value of 80. The competition for non-English speaking keywords is far less intense in comparison, making it easier to rank highly enough, even for smaller resources. The quality of automated translation has been at an impressively high level for years now, and tools such as DeepL can already offer a substantial level of translation to dozens of different languages that would only need to be given a brief go-over by a proofreader before being ready to publish.
2. March 2024 Core & Spam Improvements
The aforementioned March 2024 Core & Spam Updates emphasize the content’s relevance and helpfulness for the end user. Plenty of companies have been hit by this change, with a sudden drop in traffic at the beginning of March on an unprecedented scale.
The following guidelines from Google, in my opinion, can offer plenty of insight into what can be done for an average website’s content in terms of its quality and other parameters that Google values the most right now:
Following these strategies and regulations can significantly improve a resource’s traffic volume in the long run. I recommend initially focusing on the scaled content abuse policy since it is a relatively common sign of massive AI-generated content usage on your website. Relying on AI-generated content en masse could also result in a manual action from Google Search Console, so it would be a good idea to avoid this kind of situation by reworking your content using a more human-like approach.
3. Turning E-A-T into E-E-A-T
Search engine optimization has relied on three critical factors (Expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness, or E-A-T) for some time now, and the recent algorithm update has made it practically mandatory. There is also an extended version of this strategy called E-E-A-T, which adds Experience to the list of factors that must be considered for improving the resource’s position in search results.
Working on these four factors is an SEO growth hacking strategy on its own, making sure that the content has an experienced author behind their informative content. The “experience” part of this is represented by adding various case studies, personal stories, and real-life experiences of the author to prove their knowledge of the subject.
Product reviews or testimonials can also serve the same purpose, which is why it is always a good idea to encourage customers to leave feedback and reviews. Good-natured encouragement should be a relatively painless way to grow organic traffic in 2024.
4. Removing Unhelpful Content
Not only should website content be constantly improved and renewed to stay relevant, but it is also necessary to remove unhelpful content, following Google Search’s guidance on AI-generated content. Any information that does not meet the audience’s needs has to be obliterated.
Additionally, evaluating and removing various low-effort content should highlight and improve the effectiveness of the remaining high-quality content since Google’s Helpful Content systems assess all of the content at the page level. However, it would be wise to mention that content evaluation is performed regularly, and Google’s rule set tends to change and improve regularly, as well.
The point is that Google does not wait for each user to remove their low-effort or unnecessary content, meaning these changes should be performed as early as possible. Focusing on helpful and reliable content can offer better search results and performance in Google’s eyes while also improving the overall reputation of the resource in the customers’ eyes.
5. Keeping Content Up-To-Date
Updating existing content could also be an alternative to outright removing it. This would be a good way of showing that the website’s content is valuable and up-to-date, which search engines look for in every resource. However, it would be wise to mention that there are two different rules from Google’s Helpful Content guidelines one should keep track of:
As such, more than simply changing the content’s publication date would be required since Google can detect these meaningless changes, which would not provide any advantage to website positioning whatsoever.
BONUS – Optimize Content for AI Overviews
I also want to mention Google AI Overviews here. It is a system designed to work with complex queries in natural language using AI-centric generative language capabilities. Google’s Gemini language model is responsible for this feature, which puts even more pressure on providing valuable and well-structured content to succeed in search rankings.
While accurate information on the topic is very scarce right now, some recommendations could still be used to improve the company’s results for this new change specifically. First, a question-and-answer layout should improve the chances of the content meeting Google’s direct query response. Second, expertise and frequent references in different resources such as Reddit or Quora should also enhance your content’s visibility in AI Overviews. Your website should be straightforward to crawl through for any search bots, which is why it is essential to ensure that there are no obstacles to Google’s search engine reading through your valuable content.
Recommendations for Further Action
Empirical Validation
Experimenting with some or all of these strategies in different parts of your website should provide much information for analysis in your case specifically. That way, you can gather personalized information to improve your SEO decision-making process.
Strategic Foresight
To adapt to a new environment, keep track of Google’s algorithm updates and new engine features. Your growth hacking methods should also be refined and improved over time to ensure your ongoing competitiveness.
Conclusion
The overall SEO landscape is challenging to navigate without informed decision-making and the ability to adapt quickly to different situations in the industry. The latest Google March 2024 Core and Spam Updates, combined with the recent AI Overviews release, drastically changed the playing field.
Using multilingual SEO, contributing to improved content relevance, and removing useless content are all great ideas for keeping up with the recent changes to the formula. Improving your E-E-A-T score and optimizing for the newest AI Overviews feature can also enhance your organic traffic to a certain degree.
It would be true to say that the line between traditional SEO practices and new growth hacking methods is getting blurrier as time passes. Hence, emphasizing valuable and relevant content with a reputable resource behind it is always a great idea.
One last piece of advice: SEO was never a sprint, but it is a marathon. As such, the goal is to survive in the long run instead of trying to be the first in the field without considering any potential pitfalls. The best way to survive in this volatile and highly competitive environment is to be able to adjust your strategy dynamically based on the most recent news and changes.
