Helpful Content — People First
Two articles about snake plants. One, "Top 10 Snake Plant Facts", was put together in an hour from other websites to catch a popular search. The other is Asha's "I Watered 12 Snake Plants on Different Schedules: What Happened", with photos of the roots every two weeks. A searcher is plainly better off with the second. Search engines work hard to see that difference too.
The rule
Write for the person who arrives, not the engine that sends them.
Google introduced a "helpful content" system to reward content made for people and to reduce content made mainly to rank. It has since said these signals are part of its core ranking systems rather than a separate system. The name matters less than the idea, which has held steady for years: people-first content.
People-first content tends to have:
- A real audience. It is written for people who come to your site, on topics your site is actually about.
- First-hand experience or expertise. It shows someone has used the product, visited the place or done the thing.
- Something new. Original information, testing, analysis or perspective, not just a summary of what already ranks.
- A satisfied reader. Someone finishes it knowing what they needed, without having to search again.
Search-first content has tell-tale signs:
- it covers a trending topic the site has no connection to, just because people search for it;
- it is padded to a word count someone heard ranks well;
- it summarises other pages without adding anything;
- it promises an answer it never gives, such as a release date that has not been announced.
The shortcut
Ask the arrival question: "If a reader arrived here from search, would they leave satisfied, or go back and click the next result?" A page that sends people back to search is not helpful, however many keywords it holds.
Real audience?
Leafline sells snake plants, so the topic fits the site. Pass.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
Which is a sign of people-first content?
Leafline, a plant shop, considers writing about a new smartphone launch because it is trending. What does people-first thinking suggest?
What does the arrival question ask?
Is there an ideal word count that search engines reward?
Remember
- Write for the person who arrives, not the engine that sends them.
- Real audience, first-hand experience, something new, a satisfied reader.
- The trap: padding to word counts and chasing trends outside your site's purpose.