Google says that answering yes to any of these questions may be a warning sign that we should re-evaluate how we’re creating content.
Let’s round off our look at the questions we should ask about our content with Google’s final set of recommendations: focusing on being ‘people-first’. Here’s what it has to say on the subject:
“People-first content means content that’s created primarily for people, and not to manipulate search engine rankings. How can you evaluate if you’re creating people-first content? Answering yes to the questions below means you’re probably on the right track”:
- Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
- Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
- Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
- After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
- Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
In addition, the company says that answering yes to any of the questions below may be a warning sign that we should re-evaluate how we’re creating content:
- Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?
- Are you producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?
- Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?
- Are you mainly summarising what others have to say without adding much value?
- Are you writing about things simply because they seem trending and not because you’d write about them otherwise for your existing audience?
- Does your content leave readers feeling like they need to search again to get better information from other sources?
- Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t.)
- Did you decide to enter some niche topic area without any real expertise, but instead mainly because you thought you’d get search traffic?
- Does your content promise to answer a question that actually has no answer, such as suggesting there’s a release date for a product, movie, or TV show when one isn’t confirmed?
- Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?
- Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem “fresh?” (No, it won’t)
Bringing it all together, Google’s guidance makes one thing clear: people-first content isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s about genuinely understanding human readers. When our content serves a clear purpose for prospects, both humans and search engines will take notice.