Create content with purpose

Creating content for content’s sake, to just fill the content calender, will not do your business any good. If your content has no purpose, you cannot measure its success or failure. That is, in short, why whenever your create content you should do so while knowing the purpose of it.

But what about SEO and GEO, should your website not be full of keywords and those keywords need to go into content? No, your website should not be full of keywords. If the keyword density on your website is too high your website is likely to be penalised, not rewarded, and no just increasing the amount of text to lower the keyword ratio will not help either.

High productivity does not equal success

A lot of the time when people argue in favour of using generative AI it is because they believe it will speed up the work, increasing productivity and output. But increased productivity and output does not equal success, especially when it comes to content. In fact, it can do the opposite and make Google and other search engines mark you as spam instead of a reliable source.

VideoGamer, a once legendary games media site, has been completely de-indexed by Google after it moved from genuine human reporting to AI generated slop. The de-indexing happened two weeks after the site’s parent company ClickOut fired the human staff, though ClickOut’s take over of the company happened in August 2025.

After BuzzFeed went all in on generative AI for its content, the quality of their content declined massively too. Users no longer found their quizzes fun, instead they became underwhelming. And the end of their Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News division, was followed by nonsensical, regurgitated AI generated articles being published on the website.

Often, when companies announce they are going AI first, their stock initially jumps up. We have seen it with Klarna, Duolingo and BuzzFeed, but the positivity ended quickly for all of them. Today, Klarna has pivoted back to hiring people again at massive numbers; Duolingo’s stock has dropped 80%; and BuzzFeed is nearing bankruptcy.

To rank on search engines and to be cited by AI you need high quality and purposeful content

You may be able to prompt an LLM to generate a purposefully text but LLMs are incapable of generating high quality content. Human content marketeers, content or copywriters are what you need to be successful at SEO and GEO.

A good content writer will ask after your strategy, and if you do not have one they will ask questions about your business goals, your brand’s tone-of-voice and your unique selling points (USPs). They will not hallucinate incorrect information, nor will they have to start over from scratch with every revision. They will also remember what they have written before, so that when you hire them for a second project, you will not have to supply them with the background information all over again.

What purpose should your content have?

Most content will have the same underlining main purpose, namely to drive your business forward. But you need more specific goals for each piece of content, that together will reach your ultimate goal. There are different ways of thinking about these purposes, but they all go hand-in-hand.

One option is to base your purpose on the search intent you want it serve; informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional. Another option is to aim for a specific type of purpose, you can have content that:

• entertains,

• informs or educates,

• shows your work,

• builds authority and trust, and

• converts.

For the last two options, it is important to link to one or more of your USPs. Otherwise you are promoting your sector or industry, instead of your business. The purpose of the content will drive what type of content is created.

Case studies are great for showing off your successes with clients. Doing interviews or writing an opinion piece will help to build authority and trust. One piece of content can have multiple purposes, but there should be one main purpose.

For some purposes it is easier to track its success or failure than others. Some are long term projects, others can show near instant results, also depending on the content channel that is used. For instance, social media posts can be analysed within a few days or a week, while an interview with a magazine can be more difficult to judge.

The pillars of high quality content

A purpose is only one important aspect of high quality content. Having a clear target audience is another, so is setting your tone-of-voice, desired content length, and focus keywords. Writing high quality content is a multi-faceted challenge, that takes time to master, especially when you are switching between different clients.

When you hire a content writer it is also really important to manage expectations on both ends of the working relationship. A clear briefing from the client will make sure that the writer can deliver the desired work, instead of having to wing it and likely leaving both parties unhappy. Good and open communication are key here.