Chiang Mai SEO Conference: Ranking Without Link Building

Conference overview

The source records Nick Jordan's presentation about a process-led SEO content strategy. It also covers how he hired and retained writers, then preserves more than twenty questions from the audience.

Achievements reported in the talk

• More than 14,000 pages of content published over five years.
• Six projects reportedly grew from zero to more than 100,000 monthly organic visits; the largest reached 1.5 million.
• More than 100,000 paid subscribers were reportedly acquired.
• The agency worked with clients including ClickUp and Miro.
• The central argument was that content-first SEO keeps more success factors under the operator's control than a strategy that depends on tactics or backlinks alone.
• The talk emphasized user-engagement measures such as time on site, pages viewed and bounce rate as signals of whether visitors were satisfied.

Additional context from the source: Jordan treated the operating process as part of the SEO method, not merely as internal administration.

Processes and systems

• Document the project. Create a detailed brief covering the company, industry, competitors and brand voice before production begins.

• Map the content. Use a research tool such as Ahrefs to group keywords and build a topical map that includes important query variations.

• Scale production deliberately. Delegate repeatable work so senior people can concentrate on higher-value decisions.
• Standardize briefs for related subjects with a reusable series template.
• Prioritize topics using search demand, difficulty and potential return.

Team building

• Recruit globally. The speaker focused on strong writers in markets such as Serbia, where he reported finding a high proportion of qualified candidates at competitive rates.
• Support retention. Health insurance and sufficient paid time off were presented as ways to keep writers productive and satisfied.
• Delegate people decisions. Editors and content managers were trusted to make hiring and dismissal decisions and maintain editorial quality.

Tools and technology

• Airtable: content calendars, sprint tracking and task organization, with views tailored to each workflow.
• Knowledge base: documentation that lets team members answer routine questions without waiting for another person.
• Notification channels: automated updates through Slack and Airtable to reduce unnecessary meetings.

Challenges and effort

• Scaling high-quality content is difficult and labor-intensive, but the speaker considered the work necessary for durable results.
• AI-generated drafts were described as a shortcut that often lacked depth and could fail the agency's quality review, particularly after Google's Helpful Content changes.

Hiring strong writers

• The agency concentrated much of its recruitment in Eastern Europe, where it reported finding reliable writers with strong language skills.
• Candidates were tested carefully because a polished portfolio did not always predict the quality of new work.
• The team initially hired more writers than the long-term requirement, then retained the strongest performers.

Recruitment platforms and free channels

The source identifies a local Serbian recruitment platform, then lists free recruitment channels.

A small hiring tip

Promote your strongest people and let them grow into team management

The source notes that the Serbian team received employee benefits as part of the retention approach.

Make data public by default to improve team efficiency

The Chinese source adds that Feishu can cover many of these functions and automate them for teams operating in China. International teams can apply the same principle with an approved collaboration stack.

Documentation example

Content management dashboard

Email meeting summary and workflow notifications

A field change can trigger an automated workflow update.

Nick Jordan's conference Q&A

How would you create content for a full-service law firm?

• The speaker suggested recruiting a paralegal or another junior legal-industry professional and considering English-speaking markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom or New Zealand. This is a historical conference answer about staffing, not legal advice; a law firm must still control legal accuracy and professional review.

What recent client success could the agency share?

• The speaker cited an agreement with Miro, a privately held whiteboard software company, and referenced a Miro programming-flowchart article.

How did you respond when clients asked about AI-generated content?

• He said average-quality AI output was not enough to win in SEO and that the agency should concentrate on distinctive, high-quality work.

Why recruit mainly in Serbia rather than another non-native-English market?

• He reported that Serbia produced the highest proportion of strong applicants. The agency also used writers in Nigeria and South America. About 90% of that team came from Serbia.

How did you manage delays across international time zones?

• A 30-day production cycle gave the team time to handle illness, unavailable editors and other delays. It avoided a requirement to respond within 24 hours.

How did the process handle non-English content?

• He argued that the process could work especially well in languages where the average competing content was weaker.

How did editors check whether a writer used AI?

• Editors looked for recurring patterns and trigger phrases. They also checked whether a draft lacked the depth or nuance expected from a human writer.

Can SEO succeed without active link building?

• He answered yes and recommended creating the best available content for the target query. That was the speaker's reported experience, not a guarantee that backlinks never affect competition.

What was his view of semantic SEO?

• He said he did not fully understand the label and preferred to concentrate on producing the best content rather than relying on a complex method.

Did the process use AI-generated content?

• He said AI output had not met the agency's requirements for depth and quality.

How did the agency use Airtable?

• It used Airtable for the content calendar, project management and workflow tracking, and the speaker preferred its speed and ease of use to tools such as Asana.

How did the agency optimize content after publication?

• The team reviewed published work, tracked performance and updated pages to improve rankings and engagement.

How was content priced?

• The speaker reported an average price of $0.50 per word, sometimes reaching $0.75, and about twelve articles delivered per month. These were historical figures from the talk, not current rates.

How could work be accelerated when clients wanted to write their own content?

• He described that arrangement as difficult because the agency could not control quality as closely.

Did he recommend a particular publishing frequency?

• Frequency depended on site authority and backlinks. The source advised a new site to begin with less content, then increase output as indexation and impressions appeared.

How should a programmatic-SEO site plan its content calendar?

• Begin with lower-difficulty terms to gain indexation and rankings sooner and build the case for later investment.

Could the process be used for translated content?

• He answered yes and again noted that less competitive languages could offer an easier route to high rankings.

How did editors evaluate samples and allocate work?

• Editors assessed whether the sample sounded right, then used clear systems and templates to assign work through the production flow.

Which tools mattered most?

• Airtable, Google Docs, Slack and other project-management tools were central. Airtable received the strongest recommendation for speed and flexibility.

Should a company use an agency or freelancers?

• The speaker said an agency could be a better fit when the company lacked a process. With a sound internal process, freelancers could reduce cost and still produce good work.

What was his final advice for SEO success?

• Keep working over the long term, maintain content quality and build efficient operations.