How to Rank SEO #1 Forever, ChatGPT Traffic Crash, and a Short Form Sales Hack

27 Aug 2025 · 16 min

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Podcast Episode Summary: Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Episode Title

How to Rank SEO #1 Forever, ChatGPT Traffic Crash, and a Short Form Sales Hack

Hosts

  • Neil Patel
  • Eric Siu

Episode Overview In this episode (#3030), the hosts discuss the evolution of SEO strategies, the impact of traffic fluctuations, particularly from platforms like ChatGPT and Reddit, and effective content creation techniques, including leveraging YouTube and webinars to enhance engagement and generate leads.

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Time-Stamped Show Notes

(00:00) The Evolution of SEO Strategies

  • Emphasis on the ongoing changes in SEO.
  • Importance of creating high-quality content rather than quantity.
  • Need for brands to stand out in a 'cesspool of crap' online.

(02:13) Understanding Traffic Fluctuations

  • Discusses a report showing a 52% drop in ChatGPT referral traffic since July.
  • Highlights the unpredictable nature of traffic sources and platforms.

(03:29) The Importance of an Omnichannel Approach

  • Advocates for a diversified marketing strategy across channels.
  • Historical context of SEO's evolution over 15-20 years.
  • Consistent quality content is essential for long-term ranking.

(05:13) Content Creation and Marketing Strategies

  • Recommendations for creating content that resonates with audiences.
  • Discussion of the current trend towards video content, especially on platforms like YouTube.
  • Mention of how different content types (e.g., webinars) can affect lead generation.

(08:56) The Role of Quality in Content Creation

  • Quality content drives engagement and organic traffic.
  • Importance of continuous content updates to maintain relevance.

(10:03) Leveraging YouTube for Engagement

  • YouTube serves as a powerful platform for engagement and brand recognition.
  • Hosts share their experiences adapting to various content formats.

(11:50) Webinar Strategies for Lead Generation

  • Discusses the effectiveness of webinars for capturing leads.
  • Differences in approach between high-level concepts and detailed step-by-step content.

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Key Takeaways

  • Quality Over Quantity: Focusing on creating one high-quality piece of content is more effective than several mediocre ones.
  • Omnichannel Marketing: Utilizing various platforms (YouTube, Reddit, etc.) is essential as traffic sources are volatile and can shift dramatically.
  • Content Types: Effective marketing requires being adaptable to different content formats, as each serves different audience needs and engagement levels.
  • Webinar Dynamics: The structure of webinars can significantly influence the type of leads generated. High-level content attracts different viewers than detailed, instructional content.

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Conclusion Neil Patel and Eric Siu highlight the need for marketers to adapt to the changing landscape of digital marketing, emphasizing the importance of quality content, an omnichannel strategy, and innovative approaches to engaging audiences through various platforms. The episode underscores that while traffic may fluctuate, consistently delivering valuable and well-structured content will yield long-term success in SEO and lead generation.

Additional Resources

  • Suggest a topic at [Marketing School](https://www.marketingschool.io).
  • Check out Eric’s Leveling Up with Eric Siu YouTube channel and Neil’s Neil Patel YouTube channel.

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Connect with the Hosts

  • Eric Siu: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/neilpatel), [Instagram](https://instagram.com/neilpatel)
  • Neil Patel: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ericosiu), [Instagram](https://instagram.com/ericosiu)

Feedback If you enjoyed this episode, please consider dropping a review!

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Transcript

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0:00I saw this post from Matt Diggity and I thought this was interesting. So when you think about doing SEO, how to rank highly on SEO forever, what are the things that you're supposed to do? Okay, you build content that is maybe content that stands out from what everyone else is doing. So maybe instead of publishing 20 pieces of crap, you publish one thing that's really good and one thing that stands out. So I think an example is, Neil, that the charts that you have are actually things that stand on that are worth retweeting. And the brand mentions too, not just the backlinks anymore. So you think about the brand mentions.

0:30Okay, we get a lot of reach outs and I'm sure you do too. A lot of people are looking for Reddit now. A lot of people are looking for YouTube now because they're looking for citations. They're looking for brand sentiment overall. They want to be able to control the narrative. They also know that if you're trying to rank on AI overviews, you're trying to make an AI mode. Guess what? Google is going to favor their own properties, YouTube, right? Reddit is number one when you think about what the LLMs are citing. So that's the game that you're trying to play. You're not just trying to game anything anymore.

0:55You're trying to understand that you have to, if you're trying to rank on Perplexity, which you did a video on, your perplexity loves fresh citations, right? ChatTuber cares more about clean structure. They all care about how much you update your content. So SEO, I think 15, 20 years ago when you and I first started doing SEO, it was a lot more gameable. But now if you take a more long tail or a long-term approach to it and do the things that are hard to do, but most people aren't willing to do, that's how you're going to rank on SEO forever. It doesn't matter how much this stuff shifts because quality is what moves to the top at the end of the day.

1:27And the quote that you've liked to use quite a bit in the past is that the Eric Schmidt quote, right? How brands will rise to the top because the internet is just – it's a cesspool of crap, right? And brands usually – the reason they're a brand is because they try to approach things from a quality standpoint. Yeah, and you saw the article that Searching the Land posted, Profound ended up releasing data that there was a 52 % drop in chat GPT referral traffic since July. Yeah, you and I both put this in here. Yeah, based on 100 million keywords that they were looking at on ChatGPT. But what's interesting here is ChatGPT traffic will go up and down.

2:07Not too many people are talking about it. But the real question is, is it going to be another Google? And I think it's going to be another Google in which sometimes you get more traffic, sometimes you get less. You can't necessarily rely and focus on the algorithms. You got to just do what's best for your audience and create the best information out there. And sometimes you'll win and sometimes you'll lose. But over time, you should grow. And that's the true reality. Yep. By the way, I'm on the screen right now. I'm sharing a profound graph. And this is the cool thing about when profound is a good example of sharing data that's interesting that other people are interested in sharing.

2:45So look, 1 ,100 likes on this, 138 comments, 120 repost. But you can see based on their data, 52 % decrease in chat, TV, referral traffic. Whereas you can see with Reddit, 87 % increase. Wikipedia, 62 % increase. Top three sources combined, 53 % increase. So yeah, this guy, Josh Blizzkell, worth following. Check him out. Yeah, no, that's definitely worth following. But I look at all this kind of traffic because it's like, this is why Eric and I have been pushing for so many years to take an omni-channel approach. You have no choice. It's the only way to do really well. and on the web and in today's world because you can't control what a platform does.

3:28Dude, we've been doing this podcast for like seven, eight years or so. And I remember back in the day, I think I was probably shouting at you to say YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, right? And then you started doing YouTube. And then I was like, what else should we do, right? And you've always evolved. A lot of times you've tried different things that other people wouldn't try. And then if I find something new, I'm always gonna bring it up, right? And some stuff's gonna work, some stuff isn't. Like when I remember, I was like, hey neil check out clubhouse okay that was a waste of time and i was like neil check out air chat also a waste of time right but some stuff like did i ever check out air chat yeah you did you checked it out for like a second and you quit right you're like i think it was uh the naval the naval star brian norrgarden yeah yeah yeah but okay we started the podcast okay we saw that start to get movement and we just continued doing that um we saw youtube like even though you and i i wouldn't say we we love making videos um we we started quite a while back and we just continue to do it right it's because this stuff works and um we try to do what works and we try to play the game to at least uh an optimized level and if we don't think we can play the game well we'll quit like neil and i we're not making satire shorts right whereas uh other people are so um i found this last night this this girl i think it's travel by livy or something i don't know if you see this account but um she does content here actually let me let me show this to you right now um this is kind of similar to what I'm talking about.

4:49So check this out. Do you see this?

4:53Okay. Yeah, I can see it. Okay. Travel with the movie. Yeah. Yeah. So check this out. Let's go here. I'm good. I'm good. I just wanted to say thank you again for the house. It's been spectacular. I know I gave you shit about the price, but I'm just so grateful you found something for the entire family. So last minute. Of course. You're welcome. Thank you. I do however need a favor from you. I didn't want to call and be difficult because you know I'm not difficult I probably consider myself one of your easiest clients actually okay what is it how can I help so I'm not sleeping and I have a feeling it's because I don't have my pillow so I'm gonna need you to get my pillow just go into my home get my pillow and then you ship it to me oh those wind pillows you have yeah I'm not in LA I can't um I can't do that.

5:44I also don't think I can send somebody into your home. I could order a pillow from there and have it shipped to you. Potentially.

5:53So anyway, this, this, the reason I'm calling this out is she's doing, this is all satire, right? So she age, right? Yeah, it's all stage. And so, but, but here's what she sells. So travel with Livvy with two eyes at the end. So she helps with booking five-star accommodations. So like villas, private suites and things like that. So when you do satire like this, where she's playing out a moment where I was watching a video yesterday where one person's daughter is a stage, right? She's talking to the father and then she's like, yeah, your daughter spent about$410 ,000 this past weekend. And, you know, we booked her this villa.

6:28You know, she's going to spend this. And he's like, she's like$410 ,000. Are you effing kidding me? right so the type of people that end up watching this you're gonna because it's it's it's kind of tied in with the first world problems of luxury travel um she's getting the attention that's required and it's the right viewers to get her to um not only get views but get bookers for her to get people booking her five-star hotels villas and whatever so i think she's a travel concierge there's another guy who does this with jets um i forgot his name but i watch his clips every once in a while yeah and he has crazy stories and the guy would be like there's a girl named mckenzie like hey does your dad know about this can i book it then he calls the dad hey you're done and he's like how much does you want to spend to go from new york to nice and he's like oh 300 grand he's like tell mckenzie i'll only pay for this much you got to figure out a trip for her and her friends in this price you know and i'm like dude this just has to be made up because he even has employees He's walking in.

7:28I was like, hey, I just saw on our corporate card you had dinner the other day and you charged 10 grand. I'm like, man, this isn't realistic. Yeah. But look, look at this one over here. Client demands poppy steak from Miami in her$150 ,000 Dubai penthouse, right? A caviar baked potato from poppy steak. So, again, this is just first world luxury travel problems. And it's in satire, right? And you and I, we make fun of marketing quite a bit. And whoever does this in marketing will probably succeed as well. But my point of calling this out too is you and I were – as much as I would like to do this and as much as I think I would actually be pretty good at doing this, it's not what we do.

8:04And we just focus on what we're good at and we focus on if it converts, great, we'll continue. And going back to it, this is why you have to take the omni-channel approach because organic is spread everywhere now. When I first started my business, the overwhelm was real. I didn't have the tools to help me scale. If only I had Shopify from the start to handle all the behind-the-scenes work. Shopify is the platform behind millions of businesses globally from huge names like Mattel and Gymshark to the smallest brands just getting started. The best part about it, it has everything you could need. Say you're ready to launch your own design studio.

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10:17That's Framer.com, promo code MS. Framer.com, promo code MS. Rules and restrictions may apply. So this is not hate, but this kind of marketing is great if you want to create a lifestyle business. If you're trying to create something that's much larger, that kind of marketing isn't too effective. And by the way, so no hate on Livvy. She probably does really well for herself. Yeah, good for her. It's not like, I don't think she's trying to build like a massive company. I think it's just for her business and I'm sure she's crushing it on her own. Yep. No, I'm with you and good for her. She's making good money from it.

10:52I hope it grows. I hope she has to hire more people and makes more. And it is clever marketing and it takes her time. The big thing that Libby does that most people don't do is they don't put in the time to create content. And it starts with that. Dude, I mean, but to do that, you have to script it. You have to have someone on the other side and it's like different voices all the time. And it's really hard to do actually. To do one video like that, she's probably spending hours. Yeah, and it doesn't sound like it's AI. It sounds like it is another. It sounds like it's another person on the other side.

11:20Whereas you and I, we're just first, you and I just chatting and we get lucky every now and then. It's like a slot machine. Sometimes something takes off. Sometimes it doesn't. Dude, like I'm recording content after this, right? So we'll be done recording, call it in another 20-ish minutes. And then I'll drive to record more content. and as I record the content, no joke, show up, teleprompter, super detailed. I reviewed, I helped create the scripts, reviewed, et cetera. I reviewed the last one this morning because I was making tweaks to the intro and the hook. Yesterday, I was making tweaks to the copy as well when I was on the plane flying back.

11:54I'll go, I'll read, in and out, less than an hour, two videos cranked out. I'll do four a month, pretty much one a week. Sometimes it's five a month, sometimes it's four. and I'm trying not to spend more than two hours a month on creating the content, move on with my life. Dude, you know what I find myself enjoying more now with YouTube? It's doing screen shares because on a screen share, like it's like when you're doing a webinar, the time goes by really quickly, 30, 45, 60 minutes or so and your retention's higher and then people do like the walkthroughs and I'm just nerding on what I enjoy versus I hate it when I, so I'll go and record the teleprompters there but then the outline is based on like a loom video I made, but there's like bullet points and open loops that I don't like.

12:39And when there's things I read in the script or the teleprompter that I don't like, it throws me off, right? And I start to get more and more annoyed. And so I'm finding that I enjoy making the walkthroughs more and I'll probably do more of those. And one pro tip for everyone, I've been using YTjobs.co more to find pro YouTubers, pro YouTube talent, right? And these people are freaking amazing. Neil, like the people that are applying, you can see which channels they worked on how big those channels were, what videos they actually worked on. And the channel that they worked on, they have to verify that this person in fact worked on that channel.

13:10And so you're getting legit vetted people. And so if you want a script writer, if you want someone that's a strategist, a producer, you want someone that can handle thumbnails, all these things, it's all there. And we've been testing some other editors and some of these editors are far and above kind of what we we have on the current team. And what I would say is we want our editors to learn from these people. So we're probably going to bring on a couple of them and then they're going to learn from these editors because, um, again, like if they've been there, done that, then we don't need to tell them what to do.

13:41So, but we won't do screen shares and that kind of content for YouTube. We found it doesn't work for us for, for generating enterprise leads. So I think the screen share content does extremely well to generate views and you get a lot of smb leads we found that when we go too detailed and too much in the weeds it doesn't do as well for enterprise but don't you go you go pretty deep on your webinars don't you yeah but we don't go deep where we show them how to do it step by step ah okay you're showing them just like high level the concept the strategy so by sticking high level what we find is we get less webinar attendees but we get more leads that we can pitch versus when we go step-by-step, we have more webinar attendees, right?

14:26When we do top high level, we get less signups. But if we go step-by-step, we get more signups and we get more total leads. But out of the leads, the total number of enterprise leads is much smaller, like by more than like 40%. That's interesting. And by the way, when Neil says webinar attendees, he expects at least 5 ,000 per webinar. So it's a good amount of people. That's not normal for most people. But I will say to your point, Neil, when I do the screen shares now, I don't actually show them how to do it. I don't really explain as much. I'm just like, here's what I'm doing right now. Here's how you here's what I'm building.

15:01Here's what I'm building. So I am keeping a high level. And that's what gets them interested. Right. So to your point, it's I would just say double click on that one. And that is it for today, guys. And we'll see you tomorrow.

From the publisher
In this episode #3030, Eric Siu and Neil Patel discuss how SEO strategies are evolving, stressing the need for quality content and an omnichannel approach. They break down traffic shifts from platforms like ChatGPT and Reddit, while also exploring effective content creation through YouTube and webinars to drive engagement and leads. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES (00:00) The Evolution of SEO Strategies (02:13) Understanding Traffic Fluctuations (03:29) The Importance of an Omnichannel Approach (05:13) Content Creation and Marketing Strategies (08:56) The Role of Quality in Content Creation (10:03) Leveraging YouTube for Engagement (11:50) Webinar Strategies for Lead Generation To suggest a topic, go to https://www.marketingschool.io. For more content from Eric and Neil, check out Eric’s Leveling Up with Eric Siu YouTube channel and Neil’s Neil Patel YouTube channel. Connect with Us: Single Grain << Eric's ad agency NP Digital << Neil’s ad agency X @neilpatel, @ericosiu Instagram @neilpatel, @ericosiu Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!

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