Strategy
Hiring an SEO agency after getting burned: the 30-day test
Find which of 4 patterns burned you, then hire the next SEO agency on a 30-day strategy month you own.
Readers can tell when copy was written by AI, and it makes them trust you less.
In other words: I know when you're using AI to write.
If you're unfamiliar, the uncanny valley is this strange unsettling feeling people get when they see audio or visual simulations of humans.
When humans look at a human face that isn't quite right — it grosses them out.
It was a really big deal back in the early 2000's when movies like the Polar Express, the Phantom Menace, Matrix Reloaded, and Beowulf came out. It's why Pixar decided to make their first movie about Toys and not people — the animators just couldn't figure out how to get past that.
Most of the latest Marvel movies still can't figure it out.
I never expected to see it in TEXT though.
Now, I get that uncanny valley feeling EVERYWHERE.
- its in my comment sections
- its in my LinkedIn feed
- its in my Google Searches
- its in the resumes of job applicants
- its ALL over my email inbox
You think you're being clever and you've found a way to cut a corner without anyone noticing — but you're wrong. We can tell when your posts aren't real.
I can't quite explain how I know its fake but there's some subconscious spider-sense that tells me that "this isn't real."
Think about that before you over invest in it.
Led content and SEO at HomeLight from Series A to a $1B valuation.
I've worked in SEO for 16 years, and I've always measured it in revenue. I was employee #27 at HomeLight, where I led content and SEO and grew the team to about 30 people as the company went from Series A to a $1B valuation. Before that, I ran enterprise SEO programs at BrightEdge and Catalyst. In 2023 I started Narrative Bent to do the same work for proptech, fintech, and B2B companies with long sales cycles.
Blog leads a month in 10 months, in a rough housing market.
Demo requests from 1 webinar we built and promoted.
The content and SEO program our founding team built.
We'll review your content program for free.
A 30-minute diagnostic of your search and AI visibility with the people who'd run your program.
The newest posts from the same topic.
Find which of 4 patterns burned you, then hire the next SEO agency on a 30-day strategy month you own.
A year of client work changed my mind about GEO as a discipline. I still think the shortcuts are a waste of money.
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Readers can tell when copy was written by AI, and it makes them trust you less.
Skip the algorithm chasing. Talk to customers, answer their questions, and earn attention.
People use every platform to learn about everything, including the topics your buyers care about.
What a steady content and link program built for a fitness startup, with no growth hacks.
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Almost 90% of our writer applicants skipped the writing samples. Here's why that matters.
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