Blogging Strategy

I started blogging in the SEO industry in 2007, when blogging was the new “in thing”, and I used it to power visits and sales for my company a bit before it was commonplace.

I’m often asked if blogging is still relevant for SEO. It’s a fair question, especially with the rise of AI-generated content and the constant churn of Google algorithm updates. My answer is always the same: the old way of blogging is dead, but a new, more powerful form has taken its place.

Forget about the content farms of the past, churning out thin, keyword-stuffed articles designed purely to game a predictable algorithm. That model was rightly destroyed by updates like Google Panda and, more recently, the Helpful Content Update. Today, your “blog” has a much higher purpose. It is the single most important tool you have for building your canonical source of ground truth. It’s the factory where you manufacture proof of your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T). It is how you feed search engines the signals they desperately need to understand who you are and why you deserve to rank.

This is not about chasing keywords; it’s about building a library of helpfulness that establishes you as a credible, trustworthy entity. This guide will provide you with an evidence-based blueprint for this modern approach. We’ll connect high-level strategy to the practical, on-the-ground tactics and tools you need to create content that satisfies users and aligns perfectly with Google’s core quality systems.

The Hobo Blog – A Multi-Year Journey in Helpful Content

Before we dive into the modern blueprint, I think it’s important to share some history. The Hobo blog didn’t start in 2025; it began as a personal project, a place for me to document my own research in a way I could understand it better at a later time. And other folk found it valuable.

My blogging strategy from day one was simple and long-term: create valuable, high-quality content that wasn’t self-serving, help others, and be generous. It was a work diary others could read. Over the years, this simple philosophy has attracted millions of visitors and helped the blog be recognised as the #1 Best UK SEO Blog in 2025 by Feedburner.

The journey of this blog mirrors the evolution of SEO itself.

The Early Days (2009-2012): Back then, SEO was a more mechanistic discipline. The focus was on tactical, on-page checklists and manipulating a fairly predictable algorithm. The advice was direct and centred on acquiring “link heat”.
The Age of Reckoning (2013-2016): The arrival of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates changed everything. The industry shifted from accumulation to remediation. Our content became a “manual for recovery, adaptation, and survival,” focusing on defensive strategies like link hygiene to navigate Google’s penalties.
The Shift to Quality (2018-Present): This period marked the point where SEO best practices became “largely indistinguishable from best practices for building a quality, user-focused digital business”. The focus solidified around user experience and helpfulness.
The Post-Leak Era (2024 onwards): Today, thanks to evidence from the U.S. v. Google trial and major data leaks, we’ve moved from interpreting ambiguous guidance to reverse-engineering a known blueprint.

Throughout this evolution, the core principle of putting in the effort has remained constant.

The goal was always to create the most original and informative content possible. It’s a philosophy that our readers have recognised over the years. As one user recently commented about one of our tools, “Yeah, it’s a labour of love… I can appreciate the amount, yeah. The amount of detail that went into this software”. That comment perfectly captures the spirit I’ve tried to embed in this blog for over 15 years. It’s this history and commitment to detail that informs every piece of advice that follows.

Your Library of Helpfulness, Not a Diary of Updates

The first step is a mental one. I want you to abandon the word “blog.” It comes with too much baggage – chronological posts, personal updates, inconsistent topics. Instead, I want you to think of your content hub as your company’s “library of helpfulness” or its “centre of excellence.”

This simple reframing forces you to adopt a “people-first” mindset, which is the absolute cornerstone of modern SEO.

Creating “people-first” content isn’t a vague aspiration; it’s a specific methodology that Google has laid out for us

In their official documentation on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, they provide a framework for self-assessment. This isn’t my opinion; this is Google telling us precisely what their systems are designed to reward. The entire framework revolves around three simple but profound questions you must ask of every piece of content you create:

Who created the content? This question probes for transparency and accountability. Is it clear who is responsible for the information? Is there a real person or organisation standing behind it?
How was it created? This gets at the effort and methodology. Does the content show evidence of original work, deep research, or unique experience, or is it just a lazy summary of other sources?
Why was it created? This is the most important question of all. Was the primary purpose to genuinely help an existing or intended audience, or was it simply to attract clicks from a search engine?

Answering these questions honestly is the first step to aligning your content strategy with Google’s core mission. It transforms SEO from a game of technical tricks into a discipline of empathy and expertise. To make this more practical, here is a checklist of Google’s key questions, along with my interpretation of what they mean for your business.

Google’s “People-First” Self-Assessment Question	My Practical Interpretation for Your Business
Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge?	Have you actually used the product, visited the place, or performed the service you’re writing about? You must provide proof of real-world experience, not just theoretical knowledge.
Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?	Are you trying to be a resource for everything, or are you a specialist? A tightly focused site that covers a specific topic in depth sends a much stronger signal of expertise.
After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?	Does your content fully solve the user’s problem, or does it leave them with more questions? Your goal is to be the last click in their search journey.
Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?	This goes beyond just information. Is the content well-written, easy to read, and free of annoying pop-ups or excessive ads? The overall page experience matters.
Is the content primarily to attract people from search engines, rather than made for humans?	This is the ultimate test of your “Why.” If your intended audience wouldn’t find the content useful if they came directly to your site, you’re creating search engine-first content, which is a major red flag.

Google’s question, “Why was the content created?” is more than just a quality check for a single page; it’s a direct challenge to your entire business model. The Helpful Content Update (HCU) introduced a site-wide signal. This means Google isn’t just evaluating the “Why” of one article; it’s assessing the aggregate purpose of your entire website.

If a significant portion of your site is populated with unhelpful, search-engine-first content, the whole domain is at risk of being demoted. This forces a strategic-level decision.

You must shift your entire marketing focus from “How can we get traffic?” to “How can we be the most helpful, authoritative resource for our target audience?” This fundamental shift in purpose is the only durable defense against Google’s relentless push for quality.

E-E-A-T: The Public Blueprint for Google’s Quality Score

If the “people-first” philosophy is the strategy, then E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is the tactical scorecard. This isn’t just another SEO buzzword; it’s the public-facing rubric that directly informs Google’s internal, algorithmic quality scoring systems.

The “source code” for understanding E-E-A-T in detail is Google’s own Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. This is the 170+ page manual given to the thousands of human raters around the world whose feedback is used to evaluate and train Google’s ranking algorithms. What the raters are told to look for is the clearest signal we have of what Google considers a high-quality page.

For all practical purposes, you should think of E-E-A-T as the human-readable version of Google’s internal quality score system, which we now know is called Q-Star (Q*).

The concepts outlined in the rater guidelines are the very same principles that are encoded into the algorithms that rank your site. When you optimise for E-E-A-T, you are optimising for Google’s core definition of quality. For a much deeper dive into the technical mechanics of how this works, I highly recommend reading our detailed guide on the E-E-A-T Quality Score.

A Practical Blueprint for Demonstrating E-E-A-T Through Your Blog

So, how do you translate this theory into a tangible content strategy for your “library of helpfulness”? You do it by systematically creating content that provides undeniable proof for each pillar of E-E-A-T.

E for Experience: Show, Don’t Just Tell

The addition of the first ‘E’ for Experience in December 2022 was a pivotal moment. In my view, it was Google’s direct response to the looming threat of sterile, soulless, and often inaccurate AI-generated content flooding the web. Google needed a way to algorithmically reward content grounded in authentic human observation.

Actionable Advice: Your content must prove you’ve actually “done the thing.”

Product Reviews: Don’t just list specs. Include your own high-quality photos and videos of you unboxing and using the product. Share your unique, first-hand observations—the good, the bad, and the surprising.
Tutorials & How-To Guides: Show the process. Use screenshots, step-by-step photos, or a video walkthrough. Share the common mistakes you made along the way. This demonstrates you’ve actually been through the process yourself.
Case Studies: Publish detailed case studies of your work. Share the real data, the challenges you faced, and the specific results you achieved. This is one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate both Experience and Expertise.

E for Expertise: Go Beyond the Obvious

While Experience is about first-hand involvement, Expertise is about demonstrating a deep and comprehensive understanding of your topic. It’s about providing insightful analysis that is hard for a non-expert to replicate.

Actionable Advice: Your content must be the most thorough resource available.

Answer the Next Question: Don’t just answer the user’s initial query. Anticipate their follow-up questions and answer those too. Your goal is to create a resource so complete that the user feels no need to go back to the search results.
Provide Original Analysis: Don’t just summarise what others have said. Bring your unique perspective to the topic. Connect disparate ideas, challenge conventional wisdom, or present original research.
Use Precise Language: Use the correct, industry-specific terminology. This signals to both expert users and Google that you are a knowledgeable member of that field.

A for Authoritativeness: Become the Canonical Source

Authoritativeness is about your reputation. It’s about being recognised by others—and by Google—as a go-to source of information on your topic. This is built over time through relentless focus.

Actionable Advice: Own your niche.

Maintain Topical Focus: Don’t try to be a jack-of-all-trades. A website that publishes deep, expert-level content on a narrow range of topics will build authority far faster than one that publishes shallow content on everything. Your goal is for your website to become the official System of Record (SoR) for your specific area of expertise.
Build Your Library: Consistently publish high-quality, helpful content on your chosen topic. Over time, this creates a dense, interconnected library of resources that reinforces your authority and makes your site a valuable destination for users.

T for Trust: The Unbreakable Foundation

I’ve saved the most important pillar for last. Google’s own rater guidelines state it unequivocally: “Trust is the most important member of the E-E-A-T family”. A page can be written by the world’s foremost expert, but if the site itself is untrustworthy, it will be assigned the lowest possible quality rating.

Trust is built on transparency and accountability. A user (and a Google quality rater) needs to know who is responsible for the website and the information on it.

Actionable Advice: Make it obvious you’re a real, legitimate entity.

Clear Authorship: Every article that warrants it should have a clear author byline. That byline should link to a detailed author biography page that outlines their credentials, experience, and expertise.
Accessible Contact Information: Make it easy for users to contact you. A comprehensive contact page with a physical address (if applicable), phone number, and email address is a powerful trust signal.
Transparent Policies: Your site must have easily findable and comprehensive Privacy Policies, Terms of Service, and other relevant policy documents.

Failing to establish these basic trust signals is one of the biggest risks a website faces today. My research has led me to formulate what I call the “Disconnected Entity Hypothesis“. This theory posits that websites lacking clear, verifiable information about their ownership and purpose are at high risk of being algorithmically misunderstood and classified as low-quality or even spammy. Google’s quality systems need to connect your online content to a real-world entity to properly evaluate your Authority and Trust. Without that connection, the entire E-E-A-T evaluation framework can break down.

This is not just a theoretical risk. It’s a direct, existential threat to your organic visibility. To address this critical need, we developed the E-E-A-T Tool. It’s a practical, automated solution that takes your company’s core information and generates the essential, professionally formatted policy documents that build foundational trust. Using this tool isn’t just about “compliance”; it’s a strategic act of connecting your digital presence to a real-world entity, providing a robust defence against being algorithmically flagged as a “disconnected entity.”

How Your Helpful Blog Influences Google’s Core Quality Score

Now I want to connect the dots for you. All this effort you’re putting into creating helpful, E-E-A-T-rich content isn’t just being sent into a void. It is actively feeding a real, measurable system inside Google.

Thanks to evidence from the landmark U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial, we now have confirmation of an internal, site-wide quality score system called Q-Star (Q*). Testimony revealed that this is a largely static, query-independent score that functions as a measure of a website’s overall trustworthiness. A high Q-Star score means Google considers your site a reliable source, giving you an advantage across all the topics for which you might rank.

Further research and a major Google API leak have suggested that the output of this Q-Star system is a metric called Site_Quality. This appears to be a score from 0 to 1 that acts as a critical gatekeeper for search visibility. For instance, sites with a score below a certain threshold were found to be ineligible for prominent features like Featured Snippets.

The implication here is profound. Your helpful blogging is not just about ranking individual articles. Every piece of high-quality, E-E-A-T-aligned content you publish is a deposit into your site’s “trust bank.” You are actively, tangibly improving a persistent, site-wide reputation score within Google’s core ranking architecture. This transforms blogging from a short-term content marketing tactic into a long-term, strategic process of building a durable digital asset.

Tools and Resources for Building a High-Authority Blog

Understanding the theory is one thing; putting it into practice is another. Here is a clear, step-by-step path forward, complete with the resources you need to succeed.

Step 1: Master the Modern SEO Fundamentals

Before you write a single word, you need to understand the new rules of the game. The SEO landscape of 2025 is fundamentally different from that of even a few years ago. It’s less about tricks and more about building a quality, user-focused digital business.

To get you started on the right foot, I strongly recommend you download our free ebook, the Beginner’s SEO Guide. It’s a foundational guide built on the hard evidence from the Google leaks and DOJ trial. It will teach you the “people-first” approach from the ground up and provide you with actionable checklists to implement what you learn.

For those who are already experienced professionals, we have more advanced guides in the series. I encourage you to explore our Free SEO Ebooks Library to find the right resource for your level of expertise.

Step 2: Ensure Your Technical Health Supports Your Content

The most helpful, expert-level content in the world is useless if users and search engines can’t access it properly. Technical SEO is the foundation upon which your great content rests. A slow-loading website, crawl errors, or improper indexing can completely undermine all your hard work.

This is why continuous monitoring is non-negotiable. To manage this, we built the SEO Dashboard. It’s an essential tool that plugs directly into your Google Search Console account to provide a clear view of your site’s technical health. It helps you diagnose technical issues, monitor Core Web Vitals, and provides automated “Winners & Losers” reports that let you track the real-world impact of your content efforts and Google’s algorithm updates. It’s the critical feedback loop for your entire helpful content strategy.

Key Takeaways

Shift Your Mindset: Stop “blogging” and start building a “library of helpfulness.” Your content hub is your primary tool for proving your value to users and Google.
Use Google’s Framework: Build your content creation process around Google’s own self-assessment questions: Who created it? How was it created? And most importantly, Why was it created?
E-E-A-T is the Blueprint: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust are not abstract concepts. They are the public-facing blueprint for Google’s internal quality scoring systems. Optimise for them relentlessly.
Trust is Paramount: Trust is the most critical E-E-A-T factor. Build a strong foundation of trust with clear authorship, accessible contact details, and transparent policies. Use tools like the E-E-A-T Tool to automate this process.
It’s a Site-Wide Game: Every helpful article you publish contributes to your site’s long-term, query-independent Site_Quality score. You are building a durable asset, not just ranking a page.
Don’t Neglect the Technicals: Your content’s success depends on a technically sound website. Use a tool like the SEO Dashboard to monitor your site’s health and performance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How long does it take to see results from helpful blogging?

This is a long-term strategy, not a quick fix. You are working to build a site-wide quality and trust signal. Google’s systems run continuously, but the classification of a site as “helpful” or “unhelpful” is a persistent signal that can take months to be applied or removed after significant changes are made. Think in terms of quarters, not days. This isn’t about short-term wins; it’s about building a resilient, high-authority digital asset that will stand the test of time.

Can I use AI to help write my blog posts?

Yes, but with extreme caution and total transparency. AI can be a powerful assistant for research, outlining, and drafting – what I call the “Marketing Cyborg” approach. However, the final content must be heavily edited, fact-checked, and infused with your own genuine, first-hand Experience by a human expert. If you use AI, you should disclose it. Most importantly, the “Why” must still be to help people. Using automation primarily to manipulate search rankings is a violation of Google’s spam policies.

Is it better to update old posts or write new ones?

A balanced approach is best. Auditing and significantly improving your existing content to ensure it remains the most helpful and accurate resource on that topic is a critical activity. This is especially true for your most important “cornerstone” articles. At the same time, consistently publishing new, high-quality content demonstrates ongoing Experience and Expertise in your field. I recommend a cycle: publish new content, then circle back to audit and improve older pieces.

Concluding Summary

The bar for content quality has never been higher, but the rewards for meeting that bar have never been greater. The era of gaming the algorithm with low-effort content is over. The future of SEO belongs to those who commit to being genuinely, demonstrably helpful.

By redefining your blog as a library of expertise, building your strategy around the E-E-A-T framework, and ensuring your technical foundation is solid, you are doing much more than just “SEO.” You are building a trusted brand. You are creating a resilient digital asset that will not only survive but thrive in the face of future algorithm updates. You are building a business that wins by helping people first.

Author Bio: Shaun Anderson is an SEO specialist with over 25 years of hands-on experience in the industry. As the founder of Hobo Web, he has helped thousands of businesses navigate the complexities of Google Search. His work is rooted in a strict adherence to Google’s guidelines, focusing on actionable, “white hat” strategies. He is the creator of the tools mentioned in this article, including The Hobo SEO Dashboard and the Hobo EEAT Tool, and the author of the popular free ebook series, including Strategic SEO 2025. Learn more about him on the Hobo Web About Page.

What People Say About Hobo SEO Blog

I turned off blog comments on this blog many years ago to concentrate on working on the actual content.

I have archived below some comments people had about this blog over the years:

QUOTE: “I’m a know-it-all web dev with a heart for usability, and I was pretty convinced that SEO and SEOs were all magic smoke and fraud. I can’t remember how I stumbled on Hobo, but it’s really made me realize that there exists a sliver of SEO where the people are intelligent and balance logical SEO optimizations against steadily improving content for people. I can’t emphasize enough how refreshing it is to be able to read useful, logical tips about SEO that aren’t 99% “Google updated and they lowered my PageRank and Google is wrong…” Your month of tips was amazing“

and

QUOTE: “Your style of writing is easy to read and understand and usually backed up with evidence and personal experience. The current series of SEO tips I’ve found very useful, not only confirming what I believe to be the case but also making me rationalize and so think more about the why and wherefore.”

and

QUOTE: “I’m sure you hear this all the time but I have to say this is the best SEO blog I have ever seen.“

and

QUOTE: “I have to admit I read a lot of SEO blogs around the net. I find I keep coming back to this one though. It’s by far the most original and informative. So many people recycle the same old stuff”.

and

QUOTE: “I always read your blog when I lived in the US now I am back in Blighty (Devon) I still do and am amazed (but not surprised) when people in the biz say they have heard of you guys”

and

QUOTE: “I have worked in IT since 1991 and the information that you provide is FANTASTIC. Generally, in a niche such as SEO, the experts are the ones that can drive the content forward continually as they know what the changes / challenges etc are. You are doing a VERY good job at providing a happy balance of tips and information”.

and

QUOTE: “I’ve been reading your newsletters regularly. Their content is excellent. The style in which you write makes for easy reading (and understanding) especially good for someone like me whose mother tongue is not English.”

and

QUOTE: “The Hobo SEO Blog played a big role in helping me build up the SEO side of our business to the stage where it provides as much revenue as the other areas of our business and has a healthy client base of its own. I read quite a few blogs these days but Hobo has always been one of my favourites. You have an excellent balance between very well thought out theories, tested facts and with a bit of attitude thrown in to make it all very enjoyable to read.“

and

QUOTE: “Well before introducing myself I will say a few words on your “little SEO blog” Well I would not call it little. it is one of the best SEO resources in the world and is a good source of information to all categories of users.“

and

QUOTE: “We run a small online store in Australia and found the budget to hire a SEO for our huge product range beyond our budget. Whilst our business grew using google ppc I spent a year trying to get a grip on what SEO was about….when I started I had zero understanding. After 12 months part-time research and culling 100s and then 10s of other “advisors” I decided to use your free booklets and blog articles as the source for my DYI foray into SEO. Why you? Plain speaking, to the point, non-techical advice that was easy to read and more importantly understand! The results? I started, again part-time, SEO on my website about 3 months ago. I have increased my natural search from 2% to 18% of my traffic in 12 weeks.“