Are Comparison Posts, Roundups & Listicles Dead or Still the Secret Weapon for SEO Success?

Ever get that sinking feeling when your carefully crafted roundups and comparison posts suddenly feel like they’ve lost their magic touch? Like you’re shouting into a void while traffic just… evaporates? Yeah, I’ve been there—and it’s tough. But before you toss these formats into the discard pile, let’s pause. Are these content styles truly obsolete, or just in need of a fresh, savvy approach? Spoiler alert: comparison content, roundups, and listicles aren’t the dinosaurs many proclaim them to be. When done right, they’re still powerful tools in your SEO arsenal—just not the “silver bullets” we once hoped they’d be. It’s about quality and intent, not gaming the system with AI-generated fluff or trying to exploit loopholes. In this deep dive, I’ll walk you through why these formats still matter, how partnering with bigger brands can open doors, and why trust and credibility are your secret weapons in a world crawling with content noise. Ready to rethink your strategy and give those posts a smart reboot? Let’s get to it. LEARN MORE

This week’s Ask an SEO question is about comparison content, roundups, and listicles:

“The traffic from our roundups and versus comparison posts has collapsed. Should we abandon this format or can we change how we approach it?”

The short answer is yes. Comparison content, roundups, and listicles can still be useful for SEO, and large language models (AI) are not the only channels out there. Using them for SEO and AIO/GEO is never a good idea. Many people bought into this “silver bullet” strategy and are paying the price. The same goes for scaled content, and Google went after it multiple times with the spam updates, updating its best practices.

Lists and comparisons are not spammy if they are done for users vs. traffic. The quality guidelines and spam updates don’t need to stop anyone from creating them; you just need to work with this type of content in a smart way.

First, some definitions:

• Comparison content is when two or more items, brands, or services are compared.
• Roundups are a collection of things to check out and content to read or consume for the week.
• Listicles share ideas and options.

If you’re using any of these types of content to try and game an algorithm, you will get caught and lose your traffic and referrals and it is easy for the tech companies to detect trends and patterns and know who is on them. But, this has been covered in detail, so I’ll jump into some of the reasons to continue working with and creating this type of content, but in a strategic way.

Generating Customers From Bigger Brands

If there are two, three, or five big brands in your space, and each has search volume, this is a golden opportunity for you as a smaller company or brand. Find YouTubers that already do comparisons and rank in your niche, then ask them to create comparison videos with two of the big brands, with you added in as an alternative.

By optimizing the video for the big brands, the creator is able to get traffic to their video. If you are a new brand, most likely you will have limited searches, but you are now getting exposure to the users already in the two big brands’ funnels by being included. The YouTube creator not only places you in front of them, but they are an “unbiased” third-party selling why you are able to compete and where your product or service beats the two big ones.

Best of all, you can do this as a media buy, an affiliate relationship (although much harder to get done), PR by sending product out, or a hybrid deal. It’s customer acquisition and getting your name on the radar while building brand.

Bonus: This may help AI like ChatGPT or Claude, and search engines learn about your products and how you compare if the content is consumed and trusted.

Credibility For Potential Customers

Large financial and time commitments like hosting, SaaS systems, or a moving company require substantial research. We can all say we’re the best, but third-party content from unbiased individuals can add trust to a consumer that cannot decide. Working with comparison and list content, especially websites and videos that allow comments and reviews, allows the third party to build the trust for your brand in a way that a brand cannot do on its own.

Pro-tip: If your customer support team is flooded with questions about a specific issue, have the comparison content feature the solution and fix to let the person know you are or are not the right choice. It can help to save money on support from having to constantly repeat the same thing multiple times.

In the B2B and service space, a “best” listicle can add trust and credibility if they are a trusted publication or creator. Examples include the U.S. News and World Report best school lists, the 40 under 40 lists, and locally there are publications like Washingtonian Magazine with the best doctors and other local businesses to go to. Because we trust these publications to research for us (even if some are affiliate now vs. non-incentivized), there is a level of trust built in that helps a potential customer, client, or consumer make a decision.

Crawling And Traffic

When you’re featured in a roundup or a list, there are a few benefits that can happen:

• Spiders can crawl to your new page or your content, then follow internal links for crawling and indexing.
• New consumers, readers, and journalists/editors can discover you.
• You get traffic from their internal promotions.

Two industry examples are SEO Roundtable by Barry Schwartz and SEOFOMO by Aleyda Solis. Both create roundups of content they or their teams hand-select and publish. They promote it to their social media channels, email lists, and other promos. At this point, people and spiders find the content, visit the page, and if there is interest, click-through to your website to learn more.

Once on your website the bots and spiders will consume and evaluate your content, and they may try to find more pages that haven’t been discovered yet. Consumers will experience your products, content, or services and decide if they want to opt in to your lists, shop, or add you to a preferred source for Google Discover and search.

If you’re not in the roundup, you don’t get access to the owner’s audience or this opportunity. Both examples above are proven models as their readership and subscribers keep growing. People do like quality lists. For example, in the consumer world a roundup of the best places where kids eat free locally or bars with espresso martinis on happy hour that week could resonate.

Building An Audience

Having a roundup can build your audience for a few reasons:

• People who trust you will know the content is vetted.
• Many consumers don’t want to have to spend time sorting through what is happening, and you’re providing a quick way to know.
• The people and businesses featured within your roundups may share with their audiences.

Each of these can and do happen, but if you stop doing roundups because search engines and LLMs started penalizing, you’re alienating a legitimate traffic and audience acquisition channel.

Google Does Not Hate Listicles

It’s no secret listicles make money through sponsorship fees, affiliate commissions, CPM/RPM payouts, and more.

Consumers and B2B shoppers are looking for gift ideas, point-of-sale (POS) systems for small businesses, and which insurance or credit cards are best for their needs. These lists help them learn about products and services they may not have known, give an easy way to learn the pros and cons of each, and help them make a decision. At this step in their journey, they are ready to make a purchase. That is why this type of content converts sales and is valuable to a brand.

And no, Google does not hate affiliate links or listicles. What search engines do not like is when large domains abuse their authority and create content at scale to make money vs. focusing on their niche and their area of expertise.

Comparison content, listicles, and roundups are still good types of content to produce, be included in, and to have in a marketing plan. It is a matter of using them in a way that is not meant to game an algorithm, but instead benefit both consumers and your business.

When you put intent and quality first vs. silver bullets for rankings and AI, you’ll be able to gain and grow in a natural way.

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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal