The HCU and March 2024 Core Updates were, without question, two of the most destructive updates Google has ever unleashed on the web publishing world. Overnight, they may have erased millions of blogs and small publishers from search results, mine included.
(Here’s the full story, along with an investigative insight from a fellow web publisher)
That insane experience? It left a lasting lesson etched in my brain: Focus on creating people-first content.
Yes, that’s what I’m doing now. But not mainly because Google says so in their documentation. It’s because people-first is just the practical way to build a blog.
It’s built on trust and focused on giving readers what they need. That’s the key to building an audience. That’s what really matters for long-term sustainability. And you know, for algo-proofing.
Why Still Do SEO If the People-First Approach Is the Priority?
To be clear, I’m not cutting SEO out of my content creation workflow entirely.
You read that right. Even though there were times I wished I never learned SEO at all. It probably made some of my old posts sound robotic and awkward. Turned off my readers. Made them click away.
The reason I’m keeping SEO is simple:
Well, who doesn’t want passive, organic traffic? Everyone in blogging, web publishing, and digital marketing wants it.
It’s the holy grail of web traffic. The intent (also curiosity) behind each search visit makes it the easiest to monetize and the easiest to use for growing an audience.
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3 Steps to Balance SEO with a People-First Approach
With all that in mind, there should be a balance between SEO and the people-first approach in every blog post. The content needs to engage and satisfy readers while making its meaning and quality clear to search engines.
Here’s how I do it in three steps.
Step 1 — Get Rid of the Obsolete and Harmful SEO Practices
First, stop using outdated SEO tactics that do more harm than good. Like those old-school on-page methods, especially keyword stuffing. It kills the reading experience and can even hurt your rankings.
If readers don’t engage with your content, that signals to search engines that your content isn’t high quality. Google reportedly measures user engagement through Chrome.
Now picture this. You’re reading a 1000-word blog post titled “10 Things to Do in Rome.” The headings go like this:
- #1 Thing to Do in Rome: Roman Colosseum
- #2 Thing to Do in Rome: Trevi Fountain
- #3 Thing to Do in Rome: Roman Forum.
Then under each heading, the paragraph starts with something like, “One of the best things to do in Rome is…”
It’s ANNOYING, right?
(I’m guilty of doing this in many of my early blog posts on my first blog LOL)
If I put myself in the shoes of an average reader today who has no idea what SEO is, I’d say to the writer, “Come on, man. I already know I’m reading about things to do in Rome! You think I don’t know the Roman Colosseum and Roman Forum are both things to do in Rome? I’m checking other articles!!!”
Okay, maybe that’s over the top, but you get the point.
So, forget keyword density. Train your mind to stop the habit of stuffing repeated words into headings, paragraphs, even image alt text.
One more reason to avoid keyword-optimized writing? It ruins your natural voice, which is key to building an audience and brand.
That said, keywords still matter. But only where they help the reader.
Use them in the title, excerpt, or meta description so it’s immediately clear what your post is about when it shows up in search or on social media or search.
Step 2 — Place Elements of People-First Approach
My second step focuses on the people-first approach by building a real connection and adding trust to the content.
Show your expertise. Share your experience. Say why the post was written (this often adds context). State its purpose.
All of these build trust, and trust is key to satisfying readers. And that’s the whole point of people-first content.
But wait… how exactly is trust tied to reader satisfaction?
Isn’t it enough for a blog post to fully explain a topic, cover everything from A to Z, and answer every question? Not really.
Again, we’ve got to look at it through the lens of the reader, the researcher, or the user.
Imagine reading a 20,000-word guide on how to get rich. It covers everything: paying off debt, investing, UITFs, building passive income. It even lays out step-by-step tasks and day-to-day routines!
Sounds helpful, right?
But then you realize it’s published on a blog you’ve never heard of. No name. No face. No contact details. No proof the anonymous author ever paid off debt or became a millionaire.
Would you still find that guide satisfying? I wouldn’t. It would start to feel like spam.
That’s why trust matters.
Making a post people-first isn’t complicated. To me, it’s only a two-step process:
- First, I build trust from the intro. I briefly mention my experience on the topic. Sometimes I link to related posts that back up what I’m saying. I also state the reason and purpose behind the post, to show readers right away that this isn’t just written to make ad money or sell something.
- Then I deliver the value. Readers get satisfied. People-first goal met.
There’s a lot more to writing people-first content, though.
If you want to learn more, check out my blog post where I share my understanding of Google’s guidelines for writing helpful, reliable, and people-first content. I also have another post where I break down the four qualities that every people-first blog post should have.
Step 3 — Balance the Scales with Semantic SEO
If we’re not optimizing for keywords, what technique should we use to improve visibility in search engines?
Semantic SEO.
This approach focuses on optimizing for semantic search, the modern method search engines like Google use to understand the meaning behind content and user queries. It is powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Knowledge Graphs.
At first, Semantic SEO sounds technical, but from what I understand, it’s really just a fancy way of saying:
“Create content that is highly relevant to a topic, covers related subtopics, and is organized logically for both humans and machines to satisfy or answer what people need.”
For example, if the topic is a travel destination like Tokyo, your blog post(s) should talk about different parts of the trip:
- What to do in Tokyo
- Where to stay in Tokyo
- How many days to spend in Tokyo
- Where to eat in Tokyo, and etc.
See how each piece of content connects and helps answer what people are really looking for?
What’s great about Semantic SEO is that it lets you write more naturally, thanks to NLP, which is a big plus for bloggers trying to build an audience.
Before semantic search, if your blog post was about things to do in Tokyo, you had to repeat the phrase ‘things to do in Tokyo’ multiple times throughout the post.
With Semantic SEO, you can use natural variations like ‘top attractions in Tokyo,’ ‘Tokyo’s top sights,’ or ‘best places to see in Tokyo,’ which helps your content sound more human and less robotic.
By the way, that approach in Semantic SEO is called keyword clustering, and you can use it not just in the body of your post but also in image alt text, headings, and even the meta description.
Another practice in Semantic SEO is using semantic keywords. These are related terms that give search engines a clue that your content covers different angles of a topic and is helpful to readers.
In our example, a ‘things to do in Tokyo’ post, semantic keywords could include traditional tea ceremony, Shinto shrines, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree, robot restaurants, Don Quijote, and more.
Of course, you don’t want to overload your blog post with hundreds of semantic keywords just to appear authoritative to search engines.
Doing that can make your content too long, scattered, and hard for readers to follow, which often leads to low engagement, and in turn, lower rankings.
A smarter approach is to break down broad topics into more focused, niche posts and use a targeted set of semantic keywords for each one.
For example, instead of writing one massive article about “things to do in Tokyo,” create multiple posts that dive into specific angles like
- “fun activities for budget travelers in Tokyo” using keywords like Tokyo parks and sightseeing in Tokyo, or
- “things to do in Tokyo when it rains” with terms like onsen, arcades, Ghibli Museum, and so on.
Here’s some good news: if you’re an expert or have real experience with a topic, you don’t need to stress about researching semantic keywords. As someone who knows the subject well, those keywords will naturally come to you as you write and explain the topic in your blog post.
For me, however, the most important practice in Semantic SEO is creating multiple blog posts around one main topic and linking them together (interlinking). Make building content clusters and silos your top priority when planning and creating your content strategy.
Why?
Remember, the goal of Semantic SEO is to satisfy the reader. And one of the easiest ways to do that is by having more blog posts linked and ready to answer the questions your readers are already thinking about.
Also, keep in mind that Google sees user clicks as a sign that your content is engaging. So when you link related topics together, there’s a good chance readers will click through, and that tells the algorithm your blog deserves more traffic.
Wrapping Up
Looking back on everything we’ve discussed so far, Semantic SEO is the most logical choice for balancing SEO and a people-first approach. Because if you think about it, they share the same goal: to satisfy the reader.
With these three steps in balancing SEO and a people-first approach, anyone should now be ready to write content that satisfies readers and ranks higher in search!
However, to make your content stand out, be share-worthy, and worth linking to, there’s one more step to take: do a pre-publish checklist. It’s a must, especially if you’re future-proofing your blog or building a personal brand.