About.com CEO: What we’ve learned in pivot from one-site-fits-all to several vertical sites

It’s not every day that you find a veteran website publisher willing to share details about their marketing strategy, from SEO to social media to content marketing and beyond. It’s even more unusual when that publisher is in the middle of remaking itself the way About.com is, pivoting from an all-inclusive website covering innumerable topics into a series of separate websites focused on specific verticals like health, home and finance.

“The market is really different now and there isn’t a place for a general interest site,” says About.com’s CEO Neil Vogel in this week’s episode of Marketing Land Live.

Vogel says the decision is paying off. After crashing About.com into the ground, the new sites are seeing significant gains in search traffic and on social networks, especially Facebook and Pinterest. But Twitter is practically a dead zone: Vogel says the company’s content performed better after the Twitter sharing buttons were removed. He also talks about how showing fewer ads on pages has helped the bottom line, and why the company isn’t a fan of Facebook Instant Articles.

It’s a fascinating conversation with Marketing Land’s Tim Peterson, so be sure to stay tuned for the full 51 minutes. You can listen here or use the link below to subscribe via your favorite podcast service.

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Show notes

USA Today: About.com is about to change its name

Marketing Land: About.com takes new direction with launch of standalone health website Verywell.com

Thanks for listening! Join us again next week for another episode of Marketing Land Live.