I help companies improve their website content to earn their ideal buyers’ trust and Google’s trust – and People-first SEO plays a big role in how I do this.
At its core, SEO (search engine optimisation) is all about improving visibility in the search engines, generally Google.
But in a world where everyone is fighting for attention, getting traffic from Google is getting more competitive and challenging.
So, how do you make sure that your website and your content are seen by the people who matter most, your target audience.
The answer is simple: put people first.
Making People-first SEO happen though is slightly more challenging. All too often, businesses get so caught up in optimising a website for search engines (SEO) that they forget about the most important part of the equation:
the people who are actually doing the searching.
People-First SEO is where your website is a beautiful haven for those people, your ideal buyers.
A place they can go to immerse themselves in everything they need to get educated before buying.
Once the trust and engagement is earned, your target audience is more likely to get in touch with you, without looking to get that same information elsewhere, or at least, you’re their first port of call.
Also, unlike the old way of doing SEO, where you have to wait months and years for significant results from Google, with People-First SEO you will get a quicker ROI from those buyers who are already on your website.
And if your content is good enough, Google is also more likely to sooner reward you with more traffic and switched on buyers.
By putting people before search engines, you’ll create super-charged engaging content and build levels of trust that make the selling easier. And of course, the ultimate goal if you do it well, is to get significantly more customers from Google.
That means creating content that appeals to your target audience first and foremost, rather than trying to game the system to rank higher in search results.
While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to rank well in search, if your sole focus is on search engines, you’re likely to miss out on opportunities to connect with your audience in a meaningful way.
What kind of content do you create in People-first SEO?
You need to brainstorm the actual thoughts and questions going on inside your buyer’s mind. Keyword research helps with that, but it doesn’t give you the full picture.
People-First SEO is a lot more nuanced than simply finding out what people are searching for by using Google Keyword Planner (though that’s obviously an important tool).
If you want to do well on Google nowadays, it pays to forget Google, at least to begin with.
Put Google to one side.
People-First SEO is a customer-centric approach to search engine optimisation.
It starts with understanding your target audience and creating content that appeals to their needs and interests.
Once you have a firm grasp on who your audience is and what they want, you can optimise your site for them. This includes everything from using the right keywords to structuring your content in an easy-to-read format.
But the main focus is on answering the key questions that your target audiences is typing into Google during the buyer’s journey.
By putting people first, you can create a better user experience for everyone who visits your site. And when your visitors are happy, they’re more likely to convert into customers or clients. Not to mention, happy customers are more likely to leave positive reviews and recommend your business to others.
So, there are plenty of reasons to focus on people first SEO.
Delve deeper into the mind of your ideal buyers more than you ever have before. Experience the thoughts flowing through their minds during the entire buyer’s journey.
Why is People-First SEO Important?
People First SEO is important because it helps you create content that resonates with your target audience.
When you create content with people in mind first, you’re more likely to produce content that they’ll actually want to read, watch, or listen to.
And when your target audience enjoys your content, they’re more likely to engage, learn and see you as a trusted educator of that product or service. Someone who they can trust if they were to buy it from you.
If you really engage people, Google should reward you. If you’re doing amazing educating, you’re exactly the type of website that Google will want to send its searchers to.
How Can You Implement People-First SEO?
If you’re interested in implementing People-First SEO, there are a few things you can do to get started.
First, take some time to really understand your target audience. What are their needs and wants?
Once you have a good understanding of who your target audience is, you can start creating content that appeals to them.
One of the best ways to do this is to create evergreen content.
Evergreen content is timeless; it doesn’t go out of date or become irrelevant over time. This type of content can be an incredible asset for your business because it continues to drive traffic and generate leads long after it’s been published.
What’s more, you can use the same content in your sales calls when you’re looking to educate the prospect.
Educate. Build trust. Make the selling easier.
Remember, quality is more important than quantity when it comes to People First SEO, so don’t pump out a ton of content; just focus on creating high-quality pieces that will resonate with your audience.
And then make sure that content is always up-to-date and continues to be of a high-quality. Don’t leave your content to roll over and die in a corner of your website.
To get ideas of your content, you need to work out what questions your target audience is asking in the sales process and during the buyer’s journey.
A good way of finding out is to type what you do into AnswerthePublic.com.
This powerful SEO/content marketing tool will pump out related questions that your prospective customers will ask Google. Hey presto you have your first ideas for your content.
But before you to to AnswerthePublic.com for content ideas, the best place to get the most important ideas should be your sales conversations.
What do you or your sales team get asked by your prospects over and over again? Make sure these questions are answered on your website.
These are questions which are asked by people at the end of the buyer’s journey. That means the people searching on Google with these questions are really well researched and almost ready to buy. Just think if you can attract lots of those types of people.
“Where on our website should we publish People-first Content?”
The best place to publish your People-first Content is not your blog. Instead, publish your content in a learning centre (AKA knowledgebase).
What is a knowledgebase or learning centre?
When I say knowledgebase, I’m not talking about a section of your website that you might find on a software website, where all the questions help customers operate the software after they’ve become a customer.
A learning centre or knowledgebase in this case is a powerful tool that can help you educate your target audience, mainly before they’ve bought your products/services, to help build trust and make the selling easier.
I’ve written a post here entitled: What is a learning centre or knowledgebase?
By providing relevant and timely content, you can build trust and credibility with your audience, which can lead to increased sales and loyalty.
What’s an example of a good learning centre?
Okay’s here’s a good example for you.
I work with a supplier of premium electric bikes to help them enhance the content on their website.
EDEMO’s beautiful e-bikes sell for £5,000-£10,000 so their target audience needs to know they’re making the right decision when purchasing.
The EDEMO e-bike learning hub that we created together. It’s a very good example of how you can present and organise your People-first content to make it easy for buyers to get the information they need.
The goal of the information in EDEMO’s learning hub is to help educate their buyers with high quality content that answers the exact buyer’s questions. This earns their ideal buyers’ trust and Google’s trust, making the selling easier, plus there’s the significant side effect of more Google traffic. Not any traffic, these are more switched-on buyers from Google.
The EDEMO learning hub was inspired by the knowledgebase at HubSpot which is another impressive example.
Another good example is my own learning centre here.
Website’s are a work in progress, and these learning centre examples, including mine, are always being enhanced.
Never stand still.
Always look to improve the user experience on your learning centre.
What’s the difference between a business blog and a knowledgebase/learning centre?
The different between a business blog and a learning centre can get a bit blurry, but there are significant differences.
The biggest difference of a knowledgebase is that everything in it is focused on answering the actual questions that your target audience is asking in the buyers’ journey.
Unlike a blog.
Your blog may answer the questions your customers are typing into Google, but usually there are a lot of other types of content on your blog. Examples of other content could be company/industry news, thought leadership, events and so on. Having all of this content in the mix can make it harder for people to find the buying information they need.
A learning centre makes it easier for your target audience to identify the questions that are going through their head during the buying/research stage.
If instead you put all your content on your blog instead of a learning centre, it would dilute the buying focused nature of your content.
With your learning centre, it is very easy to find information. This is because all of the articles are organised into categories and subcategories. A learning centre makes it easy for people to find the information they are looking for without having to search through hundreds or thousands of articles.
Compare it to a blog, where even though there are categories, often once the blog post is old, it just disappears off the bottom of the blog’s front page never to be seen again.
So create your own learning centre today and get creating.
“We’re already writing blog posts to cover the questions that we get asked by prospects?”
I was speaking to a business owner who said he already does blog posts which derive from conversations prospects have with him.
That was good news, as many don’t do this very well.
But when I quizzed him, it sounded like those posts were on quite technical subjects (something about presentation slide ratios) and on the surface, it didn’t feel as if they were buying questions.
When brainstorming topics, you want to cover specific questions that your prospects are asking in the buyer’s journey.
There are 5 key subjects areas for both B2C and B2B businesses that will attract the most engagement from website visitors and if you do it right, they will generate more traffic from Google.
- Pricing and Costs
- Problems
- Versus and Comparisons
- Reviews (of your products/services)
- Best is class
Pricing and Costs is the point at which to start.
“But we don’t have time to create content.”
How many times have you told yourself, “I don’t have time to create website content”?
If you’re like most business owners or company directors, the answer is probably “too many to count.” But the truth is, you can’t afford NOT to create website content.
You need to become a content company for the product/service you sell.
Of course, you can continue to rely on word-of-mouth marketing
Here’s why:
Quality content is key to People-first SEO
If you want your website to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to create high-quality content.
There’s no way around it.
Search engines like Google are constantly crawling the internet, looking for websites that offer valuable, relevant, and accurate information. The more high-quality content you have on your website, the more likely it is that search engines will find and index your site—which means higher SERP rankings and more organic traffic.
Content Helps You Build Relationships with Your Customers
Another reason why you can’t afford NOT to create website content is because it’s a great way to build relationships with your customers.
By creating helpful, informative, and engaging content, you can show your customers that you’re an expert in your field and that you’re here to help them solve their problems.
This will build trust and loyalty, which are essential for any successful business relationship.
Content Gives You a Chance to Showcase Your Personality
Last but not least, website content gives you a chance to showcase your personality—and let your customers know what makes you different from all the other businesses out there.
When you infuse your content with your unique voice and perspective, you’ll not only attract attention but also forge a stronger connection with your readers.
And that’s something you can’t put a price tag on.
How to get quicker at publishing quality content
Creating website content can be a time-consuming process.
If you’re finding it difficult to find the time to create content, try implementing some of these time management tips.
Set aside specific times for content creation. Dedicate a couple of hours each week to creating new content. If possible, schedule these hours into your calendar so that you can treat them like any other appointment. This will help you stay on track and avoid getting sidetracked by other tasks.
To be fair, you’ve probably got to spend longer than that, like an hour a day, but let’s start somewhere.
Outsource some of the work. If you simply don’t have the time to create all of the content yourself, consider hiring a freelance writer or virtual assistant to help you out. This will free up your time so that you can focus on other aspects of running your business.
Break down large tasks into smaller ones. Rather than trying to write an entire post in one sitting, break the task down into smaller chunks that you can complete over the course of a few days or even weeks. For example, you could devote 30 minutes to researching topics, another 30 minutes to writing the first draft, and an hour to editing and polishing the final product.
The ultimate goal is to create the content inhouse where you’re fully in control of the number of articles you can create and you give your true authentic voice to your content. That means eventually hiring a Content Manager and Videographer. Btu don’t let that put you off. You have to start somewhere.
Conclusion
By following these tips, you’ll be able to create engaging website content without letting it take over your entire life. Just remember to break down large tasks into smaller ones, set aside specific times for content creation, and outsource some of the work if necessary. By taking these steps, you’ll be able to create high-quality content without sacrificing your other commitments.
Creating website content may seem like a time-consuming task—but it’s one that’s well worth the investment. Not only will quality content help boost your SEO efforts, but it will also help build relationships with your customers and showcase your unique personality.
People-first SEO is the future of SEO and content marketing.
If you really embrace it, for businesses in B2C and B2C, People-first SEO will bring you increased sales and enable you to reach your company goals quicker, even in a downturn.