6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

Understanding Information Gain: Inside Google’s Black Box

Ever stumbled upon a competing post and thought, “Damn, I wish I wrote that”? That feeling of envy mixed with respect?

It usually means you learned something new. This concept is known as "information gain" in SEO.

Information gain measures how unique and valuable your content is compared to existing content. It’s about offering new perspectives, data, or insights on a topic not found in other pages targeting the same search query.

It’s what makes your content fresh—often leading to better rankings.

To explore the concept in depth, check out these articles by Animalz and Clearscope. They’ve nailed the theory.

This post aims to complement them by providing practical, real-world applications of information gain.

I interviewed three content leaders in various industries about their best work.

Here’s who I talked to:

Note: Monthly traffic estimates are from Semrush’s Domain Overview tool.

In this article, you’ll get an inside look at how these pros approach proprietary content—so you can apply it to your strategy.

Information Gain Goals

Adding too much new information may be risky if you publish SEO-driven content.

Your content should satisfy the user’s primary search intent before adding new information. Overloading your content with new information might make Google doubt its relevance to the query.

As a general guideline, we aim for 10-40% information gain at Backlinko.

This should give Google enough new content to test for our target keyword.

Case Study #1: Angi’s Bathroom Remodel Cost Guide

Angi (formerly Angie’s List) is a home services platform that connects homeowners with local contractors.

Caroline Gilbert is the Director of Content and Editorial at Angi. Here’s the post she shared as an example of information gain: How Much Does a Bathroom Remodel Cost?.

Proprietary Data

Out the gates, Angi hits you with unique insights:

“The average cost for a bathroom remodel ranges from $6,634 to $17,594, with a national average of $12,080.”

Where’d they get these numbers? From customers.

Angi has built a massive database of real project costs over the years. This isn’t guesswork or aggregated data from other sources.

Deep Reader Empathy

Caroline emphasized that empathy is essential to how they add unique value.

“We must get into the audience’s headspace and walk a mile in their shoes. We need to understand what they want. This will inform the order of information, visuals, and how we explain complex ideas.”

Results

Angi’s article seamlessly connects homeowners’ bathroom remodeling needs with its service providers. It’s a direct pipeline to their business.

In September 2024, this single article had:

• 39.8K monthly organic visits
• $330.0K in traffic value
• Rankings for 2.8K keywords

Case Study #2: Rainbow Plant Life’s Thai Green Curry

Rainbow Plant Life, founded by Nisha Vora, is a vegan recipe blog that has exploded in popularity. We’ll be analyzing her Vegan Thai Green Curry.

Nisha applies information gain through:

1. Extensive research
2. Rigorous testing
3. Visual storytelling
4. Time investment

Results

Was all that time and effort worth it? The numbers speak for themselves:

• 222,282 page views over the past year, with 80% coming from Google searches.
• Ranks near the top for “green curry recipe”
• Shared over 1,200 times across various platforms

Case Study #3: Wistia’s State of Video Report

I spoke with Wistia’s Head of Content, Sam Balter about the piece: “State of Video Report.”

Unique Data

Wistia’s position as a video hosting platform gives them access to unique insights. They surveyed over 2,000 professionals and checked how 100,000+ businesses use their platform.

Results

This trust translates to:

• Increased return visitors to the website
• Positive feedback (users often refer to the blog as “Wistopedia”)
• High-quality backlinks

How to Add Information Gain to Your Content Workflow

Now that you know about information gain and have seen examples, I hope you’re excited by its potential. Here are four best practices:

1. Review The Content Standards in Your Niche

2. Create a List of Information Gain Ideas

3. Invest in Content

4. Build Information Gain into Your Brief

Implementing these strategies in your content workflow isn’t always easy. Experiment to find what works best for your team.