This is the story of two fictional brothers, Evan and Drake. It is set around the year 6 AY2K. It had been 6 years since people were told the Internet and even computers themselves would be doomed because of something called the Y2K bug. Comment if you’re old enough to remember that. Anyway, onto the story…
The two brothers, so relieved that the Internet was still alive and well, they each decided to start a business. Each of them chose the product they would sell and began to plan their new businesses.
Evan wanted to build a brand name and he wanted people to really trust his brand and buy products from him. He wanted to be well respected and successful.
He knew the Search Masters controlled which searchers and how many of them would be able to easily find his products. The Great Google Search Master was the most powerful and the one that had the most Searchers using it. He realized it would take time and that he would have to put in some hard work so he studied the Search Masters, especially the Great Google.
Evan read and studied and became an expert at the subjects related to his products and how the Internet really worked. He studied people and figured out who his likely customers were. He studied their behavior. He hung out at the same places they did. He was helpful and started showing them what his products could do for them. He wrote helpful articles for them to read and find value in. He participated in the same communities they were in and became known. The progress was slow but steady and he could see that he was right about the hard work paying off. All he had to do was be patient and consistent.
Drake was just as ambitious, except for the hard work part. He thought “There just had to be an easy way to do it. I’ll show my brother. I won’t have to work hard at all and I’ll be just as successful.” He started out doing the same thing Evan was doing, but soon grew tired of having to work so hard on the articles to bring in customers. Participating in the communities and trying to be helpful was just something that took too much time. Compared to his brother he was struggling.
But he was also studying the Great Google Search Master.“Rather than working my butt off all I really have to do is find a way to trick the Search Masters into sending more Searchers to his website.” Instead of hanging out with his potential customers he participated in forums and communities of like-minded individuals who were also trying to find ways to trick the Search Masters.
Then he heard about being able to just buy links that acted like votes for his website. His content didn’t even have to be that good. All he needed was to sprinkle in the right keywords. And the Great Google Search Master would send the traffic that he needed. And his plan started working almost right away. Inwardly he laughed at how hard his brother was working.
The Age of Article Marketing & Free Backlinks!
Remember Article directories? The Great Google Search Master sent a lot of traffic to them and all Drake needed to do was write a whole bunch of articles that had the right keywords and he could get links back to his website without buying them. He knew he had discovered the way to win.
Writing articles and submitting them to article directories continued to work for him for a couple of years. Then along came the Article Spinner. It promised to cut his work down even more. All he needed to do was write one article with the right keywords and the Article Spinner, using synonyms and rearranging words, would automatically create five more articles from just that one and Drake wouldn’t have to write as much anymore and produce even more articles for backlinks. He was sure he had discovered the secret to success.
Meanwhile Evan avoided articles that focused more on the keywords and the Search Masters and continued to write helpful content for his potential customers. And he could see that the Article Spinner wrote content that was low quality and not really helpful to anyone. So he avoided the Article Spinner even though he saw that his brother Drake was making more money than he was.
What Happened After That? Which One Was Right?
The two brothers each continued their own ways for about 5 years, and Drake was doing very well. Then suddenly, the Great Google Search Master released the Giant Panda into the wild. (Google Panda Wikipedia Page) The Giant Panda hunted for low-quality or thin content, (pages with very little information of value, duplicate content, and content farms like article directories). It also hunted down sites with a very high ad-to-content ratio.
He wasn’t the only one, but hundreds and maybe even thousands of Drake’s spun articles we’re suddenly not being shown to the Searchers by the Great Google Search Master. It was devastating! “How could they do this to him?!”
He saw that his brother Evan was suddenly doing very well. The Giant Panda had made room for Evan’s original, well-researched, and high-value content and the things he wrote were suddenly ranking really well and he was making more money than ever!
Persistence Was A Quality Both Brothers Had
Drake thought to himself, “Well they may have killed off the article directories but I can still spin up a bunch of articles and buy backlinks again. I’ll start over and trick the Great Google Search Master again!” And soon Drake was doing well again while Evan just continued showcasing his experience and expertise through original, high quality, helpful content. And he continued to build trust in his brand with both current and potential customers.
And for a while both brothers were equally successful. Only Drake was still not having to work as hard as his brother Evan.
Then the Google Search Master unleashed the Giant Penguin! (Wikipedia Page) The Penguin hunted down manipulative off-page SEO practices, specifically unnatural or “black-hat” link building. This included buying links, participating in link networks, and heavy keyword stuffing in anchor text. The Giant Penguin devalued spammy, low-quality backlinks and penalized websites trying to game search rankings through fake popularity.
And almost overnight Drake was once again devastated by this latest creature from the Great Google Search Master! And he saw that his brother Evan, once again not only survived the update, but became even more successful because with all that junk removed it left room for content written by people who had focused on building their brand instead of gaming the search engines.
Over the next 10 years, the two brothers continued to build their businesses. Evan’s business continue to grow slowly but steadily. Drake kept finding new shortcuts that would work for a while until the Great Google Search Master released more Update Creatures. He really never noticed that he was working just as hard as his brother Evan because he continually had to start over or do massive changes every time there was a change in the way the Great Google Search Master chose what content to show The Searchers.
And Along Came AI
Then in 22 AY2K, a new creature was revealed, ChatGPT. And it didn’t come from the Search Masters. Artificial intelligence that anyone could use. Like the Article Spinner, it could write generic information content in just a few minutes and the content was better, not human quality, but better than spun content.
Drake was saved! It was going to be different this time! This is the shortcut he had looked for for more than 15 years. Nothing could stop him now!
Evan saw the value of AI but looked at it differently. Rather than seeing it as a shortcut to creating a lot of thin content, he saw a way to amplify the things he was already doing well. He continued the content and content marketing strategy he had always used. He wanted his brand to continue to be trusted and he wanted to be the source of the answers that the Searchers wanted even if they used AI.
Drake began letting AI write hundreds of articles targeting every possible keyword and he was back on top again! He was convinced that this was a completely new thing. Old SEO with all of its old hard work was over with. And it worked! His new AI generated content was bringing in lots of visitors. It took a lot of visitors because conversion rates were so low. Searchers who came from AI converted at a higher rate, but traffic from AI Search was still only a tiny fraction of website traffic compared with the Great Google Search Master, so Drake remained heavily dependent on Google like most people.
He hadn’t learned his lesson. And soon the Great Google Search Master released more of their update creatures to hunt down mass content abuse. Drake saw all those graphs going upward in the beginning only to suddenly drop off a cliff and go crashing down a little while later. He would get another domain and do it all over again and crash all over again while his brother Evan continued to grow slowly but surely and had a lot of very loyal customers that he had attracted over the years.
Summary | You Decide The Moral of the Story
To this day, Drake and his buddies are still looking for the next great shortcut and Evan and others like him are achieving great success using AI to help amplify their skills rather than using it as a shortcut. Evan’s work keeps compounding. Drake’s shortcuts work but they keep expiring.
Are you an Evan or are you a Drake?
Build something that compounds instead of something you have to rebuild every time the rules change.
