Wil Reynolds hypothesized that by de-optimizing an existing SEO RFP blog post to make it more helpful and valuable for readers, even at the cost of temporarily losing rankings, the content would resonate better with the target audience.
The goal was to create content that uplifts brand perception, is worth boosting with paid promotion, and gets shared in private groups where trusted people act as filters.
Experiment
Will evaluated their own SEO RFP post and the top ranking competitors using ChatGPT.
He found that all the content sounded very similar and failed to address important topics like AI usage policies.
None of it was memorable or shareworthy.
To break out of this “sea of sameness,” Will revamped the post to be more helpful, even if it meant sacrificing short-term SEO metrics.
They added unique insights, like questions about AI policies that other posts neglected to mention.
He also avoided excessive internal linking and other common SEO tactics employed by competitors.
Results
After the changes, the Will’s rankings initially dropped from position 3 to 10.
However, they saw increased engagement and positive feedback, indicating the content resonated with readers.
Wil Reynolds was willing to accept this temporary ranking drop because they believed creating truly helpful content was more valuable than incremental SEO improvements.
Now the post has regained the #1 ranking.
