Entering 2018, it's easy for publishers to remain in defense mode as they brace for another year of battling the duopoly. The growing space occupied by Facebook and Google continued to be a neverending ping pong battle in 2017, with Google eventually clinching the year by bringing more traffic to publishers than Facebook. It's been a delicate, nerve-racking dance for publishers to play the platform game, and it's even caused some rivalries to transform into alliances.
For us at RebelMouse, 2018 is about continuing our goal to create and fuel content that doesn't fight the platforms, but rather allows content to move across platforms seamlessly. Ease across platforms enables organic growth — a term some consider to be obsolete.
But in reality, organic defines the two most important concepts for content this year. Organic reach and organic loyalty are crucial springboards to amplifying your message and creating new loyal followers.
Organic Loyalty
The concept of loyalty has made quite a lot of evolutionary growth over the past several years. From the birth of the home page to the rise of social, what creates loyalty changes as often as the algorithms do.
You can pay for loyalty by giving into pay-to-play entirely — organizing sweepstakes and posting clickbait — or you can connect with people in a deep and meaningful way. In 2017, you saw this happen with BuzzFeed's powerhouse Tasty. By deep diving into niche, relevant, and reliable content, new loyal followers can be created consistently. There's no way to master reach without organic loyalty. The truly valuable and beloved companies have built a sustainable content model — one that drives repeat, direct visits.
Companies who abandon the priority of building a loyal audience are deciding — consciously or not — to build a much less ambitious business. A business that relies on an ecosystem that can change its rules on a whim. They're also unlikely to build a substantial extended audience because they lack the consistent seeding of content that loyalists bring to the table.
We now live in an ecosystem where one viral moment isn't enough to garner meaningful awareness for your brand or media company. It takes many shining moments that nurture your followers into a loyal partnership with your content.
Organic Reach
Facebook traveled a turbulent road in 2017, battling both the fake news fiasco and the fallout from Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The shakeups forced the platform to enact sweeping changes throughout the year, including implementing new guidelines for publishers. The adjustments brought on more algorithm changes, which has led to an ongoing headache for publishers who are fighting to stay on top of how to "win" on Facebook — publishers that are already dealing with fleeting rules and a market oversaturated with content.
Visibility in the News Feed is competitive. RebelMouse worked hard last year to stay on top of every algorithm change and pivot within the platform for our clients, allowing them to instead focus on dynamic content creation. It paid off for new media properties like Azula, who saw 398% growth in their Facebook traffic after switching to our platform.
Growth like Azula experienced can only happen by vigilantly keeping up with the ebbs and flows of Facebook. This means understanding what kind of content and strategies are creating organic reach at a particular moment in time. For instance, earlier last year we learned that long-form content still has a meaningful place on the platform. Writers are still valuable, and the pivot to video may have been a knee-jerk reaction — though not completely in vain. Leveraging Instant Articles continues to be a way for publishers to monetize on the platform without sacrificing user experience.
Organic reach on Facebook is still possible with the right finessing, but luckily other platforms made it easier last year for content to get recognized. Instagram continued to break records for number of users, with the new Stories feature bringing in 200 million users in 2017 alone. LinkedIn adapted to native video and saw huge increases in content shares as the year progressed. Twitter continued to reign over the news cycle in 2017 as well, often being an early indicator — much like Reddit — of stories that would later go viral on Facebook.
As these other platforms begin to make distributed content more commonplace, it makes the case for organic reach more obtainable too — both on and off Facebook. As the audience widens, so does content's path to viral success.
Go Organic in 2018
Organic loyalty truly can't be created without first optimizing your content for organic reach. That's why these two concepts are the two most important things in content this year. We can help you implement the right strategies to make sure your site is set up for organic growth and real revenue in 2018. You don't even have to switch to the RebelMouse platform.
Our platform is a complete digital publishing toolbox that's built for modern-day content creators, and includes game-changing features such as our:
Why RebelMouse?
Unprecedented Scale
RebelMouse sites reach more than 120M people a month, with an always-modern solution that combines cutting-edge technology with decades of media savvy. And due to our massive scale, 1 in 3 Americans have visited a website powered by RebelMouse.
120M+ Users
550M+ Pageviews
17+ Avg. Minutes per User
6+ Avg. Pages per User
Today's Top Websites Use RebelMouse
Thanks to the tremendous scale of our network, we are able to analyze a wealth of traffic data that informs our strategies and allows us to be a true strategic partner instead of just a vendor.
What Clients Say
We’re here to help you weigh and understand every tech and strategic decision that affects
your digital presence. Spend less time managing everything yourself, and more time focused on
creating the quality content your users deserve.
I love the control panel. Awesome work. I have to say, what an amazing creative team RebelMouse is. I am so grateful!
Terrence O'Hanlon
Founder and Chairman Reliabilityweb
It’s like we’ve been riding horses to commute all our lives and someone just showed us a Tesla.
Brendan Farley
Vice President, Product Management Strada Education Network
Thanks to RebelMouse, United doesn’t have to sacrifice great content for speed. You can have both!
Ryan Bujeker
Director, Social Media Strategy & Digital Engagement United Airlines
We're in a much better position to make it through the current crisis in part due to RebelMouse and their platform. We've not only saved on overhead costs, we've more easily optimized our traffic with their smart measuring and SEO tools, as well as their social integrations.
Jill Braff
President/Chief Operating Officer Brit + Co
THANK YOU for all the good, fast work you put into making our public rollout such a big success. I know we threw a lot at you very quickly, but you were calm under pressure and pulled it all off perfectly. Very glad to be working with you all.
Tim Grieve
Executive Editor Protocol
So inspired and impressed by these results from RebelMouse. Check them out and ask Andrea Breanna how they got there! Just goes to show that spending millions doesn't necessarily get you to the right destination. It's spending no more than you need on the right technology with the right platform that does! 🌐💙🏎️
Andrey Lipattsev
Partner Development Manager Google
It is not often I jump out of my chair and scream in a positive way, but I just did! This is the happiest I have seen my Managing Editor in 2021! Thank you.
Nick Smith
CEO Investing News Network
Working with RebelMouse is an actual treat. From the CEO down, every single member of the team has partnered with us to meet our needs. Everyone willingly (and with endless patience!) shares their expertise and insights to ensure we optimize search and create a great audience experience. As we have implemented the various search tactics, positive results are almost instantaneous. Training our content creators has been simple. The system is incredibly user friendly. As a co-worker commented, "RebelMouse doesn't just sell you something, they partner with you to deliver exactly what you want." I couldn't agree more!
Emma Schofield
Director of Change Management Investing News Network
We continue to be huge fans of RebelMouse and envision a very long-term relationship with the platform. The service has been impeccable.
Douglas Fischer
Executive Director Environmental Health News
I am a HUGE RebelMouse fan, and basically tell everyone I meet who's looking to overhaul their website to get in touch right away.
Susan Hassler
Editor Emeritus IEEE Spectrum
Every member of the RebelMouse team, but especially our project team, are superstars! Our site launch on the platform met all our expectations and we love the technology. We are positive about the future of our site and look forward to improving our approaches and processes with RebelMouse's guidance!
Terrence O'Hanlon
Founder and Chairman Reliabilityweb
RebelMouse's Layout & Design Tool is one of the most comprehensive and flexible tools I have ever used of any CMS. Their product team is also extremely helpful and constantly supports to make sure your properties are up to date and use the best industry standards, especially in terms of page speed.
Chuck Lapointe
CEO Narcity Media
The best thing about RebelMouse is how much they care about their customers. When working with them, I always get a sense that they go above and beyond for their customers. When working with the RebelMouse team, I very much consider them to be a partner, rather than just a vendor. Upon migrating to their technology, we have seen tremendous improvements in many key areas, particularly technical SEO. They have out-of-the-box functionality that is tremendously helpful to customers. At the same time, their system is flexible enough to allow us to adapt it to any new business needs that we have.
David Nguyen
Senior Director of Digital Marketing Investing News Network
RebelMouse has shepherded us through the modernization phase, and has been keen, practical, and nimble throughout the entire journey. They have helped modernize our website through an infinite scroll setup that allows us more advertising real estate while creating more time on site to capture reader engagement. Plus, the RebelMouse team has helped educate our own team on the various aspects of programmatic advertising and worked to best implement them. Premier Guitar joining forces with RebelMouse in 2020 was one of the best choices we could have made!
Luke Viertel
Digital Strategist Premier Guitar
RebelMouse has stepped up our content management process by providing a user-friendly interface, robust customization options, and seamless collaboration tools. The platform's analytics and reporting capabilities have empowered us to make data-driven decisions, while their exceptional customer support ensures any issues are promptly addressed in a professional, respectful, and friendly way!
RebelMouse employs a unique, diverse, and decentralized team that consists of 70+ digital traffic experts across more than 25 different countries. We have no central office, and we cover every time zone to ensure that we’re able to deliver amazing results and enterprise-grade support around the clock.
Our team is well-versed in all things product, content, traffic, and revenue, and we strategically deploy ourselves to help with each element across all of our clients. We thrive on solving the complex.