A Future For Publishers

Last week I returned from a 10-day trip to Rotorua, New Zealand, where I joined my husband for a part-work, part-vacation week away, sans kids – nothing short of an amazing adventure. And like many of you can relate, some of my best big-picture work thoughts happen while on, you guessed it, vacation. Normally, while out from behind the screen, I might get refreshed ideas about ad-tech products or advertising in general.???

This time was different. I’m typically very optimistic, especially as it relates to the industry I’ve worked in (and loved!) for over 10 years: digital traffic strategies for publishers. Nothing is dying, I'd say. Things evolve and change, as it should be – that’s the point even! But this has left me more unsettled and less positive due to two unarguable facts.

While I was out in the world, experiencing it mostly as a user, I visited almost zero websites. And the few times I did, the information was a challenge, if not impossible, to get to.?

In these ten days, filled with countless requests for on-the-spot search queries - restaurants, travel specifics, directions, events, excursions, airlines, flatlines, country facts, the meaning of phrases (chilly bin?! sweet as?!!), currency converter, things about hobbits (duh.), tipping etiquette, why no snakes NZ, time zone questions, bike trails – had led me to 2, maybe 3 websites.

No one will be more surprised to learn than I, that Google’s newly released search generative experience was the main culprit of my stunted clicks. Some searches were still solved by basic answer box results of old, or results based on structured data. But it was my interactions with SGE that got my vacation vibes frazzled.

These AI-generated search results are answer boxes on steroids. Full sentences that not only gave the answer but followed it with more relevant information after that. And this is version one, it will only get better.???

With the low-risk nature of our queries, and the high-probability that the search results further down would be unhelpful, I let the AI-results do the job.?

And remember how I was there to accompany my husband to a work conference? In one of the sessions, there had been a particularly inspiring speaker. He decides to use the goog to learn more, and when he finally weeded through the garbage pile of what is today’s search results, he lands on an article from a well-known publisher. I forget how working where we work impacts my own ability to see things as clear, because watching a *real* user struggle to get to content that used to be easy to get to and free, was painful. Three large boxes, with options of subscription plans equaled one rant about “the internet” and a promise to “never visit that site again”. He’s since calmed down and regained perspective on life, but I promise you, he didn’t scroll down just slightly to see in small print, the option to create an account to read the article for free. He bounced. It’s a frustrating time for both users and publishers.?????

The short version of my career reel includes early days of digital marketing agencies, followed by my first job in-house at a publisher, working on SEO, content strategy, and general audience development initiatives. Having now held leadership roles at two publisher networks, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with publishers over the last 5 years. These are real people, with digital businesses and staffs, with careers in editorial content creation, and the future of these things are very much at risk. At Freestar, we’ve watched publishers experience anywhere from a 50-90% loss of organic search traffic since mid-2023, the worst they've ever seen. We’ve listened to many stories of failed efforts and investments in traffic recovery. We've helped them put plans in place to pivot focus for an uncertain future.

What Publishers Must Consider

1. How you connect with your audience will be key, and much can be solved with clear and honest communication. Why should they log in? Why should they care about the ad experience and keeping the internet open? Why should they consent? Why do they want to experience your website vs. staying on Google SERPs?
2. Digital behaviors are moving in the favor of the user. Transparency, consent controls, easy opt-outs, privacy regulation, it's not slowing down. You need to imagine a world with customized search results, customized ad settings, all areas customized to where the user can choose what content is displayed to them at every step of the way. Is your content quality and website experience so exceptional that a user would choose to see it in the SERPs?
3. If walled gardens of any form is the path for your business, invest in making it the easiest, most seamless experience for users. SSO, collecting just one piece of data, like email address with direct access to the content after that, first-click-free, these things help to not sour the user to your brand.
4. No one promised things would be this way forever. History will tell us that change is imminent. It's already here. If this were to be the "new norm" for traffic, what business changes are you ready to make to ensure there is a future at all?
5. Find partners you can trust. Emotions are heightened, I completely get the desperation for revenue but if you want to enter this new era at all, creating a business / website that provides value, quality, and trust to users is the only way. Find partners that will help expand your vision and tell you the truth in good times and in bad.

I’m also hopeful Google realizes what is happening to thousands of publishers who are losing their exposure in the search results and reconsiders what search generative experience (as well as privacy sandbox) will do in the long run.