The Changing Landscape of SEO: From Content Kings to Selective Indexing

A Glimpse into the Past

Imagine this: It's ten years ago, and you've just launched a new WordPress blog. Within hours, sometimes even minutes, your content is indexed by Google. You search for a unique sentence from your latest post, and there it is, right on the first page of Google. It felt like magic, didn't it?

Back then, Google was truly living up to its mission: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." For users, it meant that if the information existed somewhere on the web, a bit of clever searching would unearth it. For content creators, it was a golden opportunity: create content, and Google will make sure it's found.

The SEO Arms Race and Google's Response

But where there's opportunity, there's also exploitation:

• Low-quality content flooding the web
• Link buying and selling
• Various grey and black hat SEO tactics

To combat these manipulative practices, Google introduced a series of algorithm updates, each more sophisticated than the last. Panda, Penguin, and their successors aimed to clean up what Google saw as manipulative SEO practices.

This wasn't a one-time event but a two-decade-long dance between SEOs and Google. Each side continually adapted, with Google rolling out updates and SEOs finding new ways to optimize within (and sometimes outside) the guidelines.

The Rise and Fall of "Content is King"

Amid this ongoing battle, a new mantra emerged in the industry: "Content is King." This concept had two main aspects:

1. Good content will naturally attract links and generate positive user interaction signals, which could improve rankings.
2. Google's algorithms would inherently value and rank high-quality content.

The idea was that by focusing on creating great content, websites could improve their SEO without resorting to more technical or potentially manipulative tactics.

However, this concept was never fully true. Many creators of genuinely good content never achieved the rankings they felt they deserved, showing that quality alone wasn't enough. At the same time, it wasn't entirely false either—good content did often perform well in search results.

One of the fundamental issues was that neither Google nor anyone else could algorithmically determine "good" content.

The mantra served as a useful simplification for SEOs and content creators, giving them a clear goal to aim for. It was also a convenient explanation for Google when SEOs delved too deeply into technical details—they could always fall back on "just create good content."

The AI Content Revolution

Fast forward to 2018. OpenAI releases GPT-1, and suddenly, the future of content creation becomes crystal clear. AI-generated content, indistinguishable from human-written text, is on the horizon. The "content is king" era is coming to an end.

Google's Existential Crisis

Now, put yourself in Google's shoes. You're facing a future where AI can generate infinite amounts of human-like content. What do you do?

Google's response was twofold:

1. Promote the vague concept of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). In practice, this translates to favoring well-known brands and established websites.
2. Abandon the mission of indexing everything. Instead, become selective. Very selective.

The New Reality: Selective Indexing

This brings us to the current state of affairs: Google is no longer trying to index the entire web. In fact, it's become extremely selective, refusing to index most content. This isn't about content creators failing to meet some arbitrary standard of quality. Rather, it's a fundamental change in how Google approaches its role as a search engine.

From my experience, Google now seems to operate on a "default to not index" basis. It only includes content in its index when it perceives a genuine need. This decision appears to be based on various factors:

• Extreme content uniqueness: It's not enough to write about something that isn't extensively covered. Google seems to require content to be genuinely novel or fill a significant gap in its index.
• Perceived authority: Sites that Google considers highly authoritative in their niche may have more content indexed, but even then, it's not guaranteed.
• Brand recognition: Well-known brands often see most of their content indexed, while small or unknown bloggers face much stricter selectivity.
• Temporary indexing and de-indexing: Google often indexes new content quickly to avoid missing out on breaking news or important updates. Soon after, Google may de-index the content, and it remains de-indexed thereafter. So getting initially indexed isn't necessarily a sign that Google considers your content valuable.

I've observed this shift firsthand. In the past, when I set up a new domain, it would be indexed within an hour or faster, sometimes in seconds. This was true even for brand new domains with no mentions anywhere and no backlinks. When I searched for the title of one of those brand new blog posts or some unique sentence from the article, it would be right there on the first Google page.

Now, for each piece of content, Google decides if it's worth indexing, and more often than not, the answer seems to be "no." They might index content they perceive as truly unique or on topics that aren't covered at all. But if you write about a topic that Google considers even remotely addressed elsewhere, they likely won't index it. This can happen even if you're a well-respected writer with a substantial readership.

Interestingly, I've noticed that when content does manage to get indexed, it often ranks surprisingly well. It's as if the hurdle of getting indexed has become so high that once you clear it, you're already most of the way to ranking. However, getting to that point has become exponentially more difficult.

Importantly, this extreme selectivity isn't applied equally. Big, recognized brands often see most of their content indexed quickly, while small bloggers or niche websites face a much higher bar for inclusion. For these smaller players, it's not just about creating good content anymore—it's about convincing Google that your content is absolutely necessary for their index.

The Consequences

Google has transformed from a comprehensive search engine into something more akin to an exclusive catalog.

For users, it means that the information they're looking for might exist but remain undiscoverable through Google.

I'm sure that a vast amount of valuable content is being overlooked. Information that you might search for may never appear in Google's results. Not because it doesn't exist, but because Google has chosen not to include it.

For content creators, it presents a significant challenge: how do you gain visibility if Google refuses to index most of your content?

By understanding these shifts and adapting strategies accordingly, content creators can navigate the new SEO landscape and find ways to ensure their content is seen. This might involve focusing on building a strong brand, demonstrating expertise, and creating truly unique content that fills gaps in Google's index. While the path to visibility has become more challenging, it's not impossible for those willing to innovate and evolve.