The Impact of Human First SEO on Businesses

When trying to market your business, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic to your website. These days, though, consumers are savvier than ever, and what they want is high-value content, not an “optimized” piece of subtle advertising. Unfortunately, many companies still use outdated tactics instead of pivoting to customer-centric strategies.

One of the best ways to ensure your SEO marketing is actually moving the needle is to shift to “human-first” content marketing. What does that mean exactly, and why is it so valuable? Here’s what you need to know.

How Human-First SEO is Different

One of the core concepts of search engine optimization is the appeal to the “algorithm.” All big sites like Facebook, Google, YouTube, and others utilize algorithms to determine what content to show a user when they’re searching for a particular keyword. While these algorithms are designed to help users find what they need, they’re also too mechanical to fully understand “user intent.” Google is certainly the best at updating its SERP results, but it still has limitations.

Regardless, many marketers and companies try to appeal to the algorithm, not their audience. Unfortunately, this is a backward way of thinking. It’s not the algorithm that determines which pages reach the top spot; it’s user engagement. Pieces that get the most attention and deliver the best results for users are pushed up, while those with empty, keyword-centric content are pushed down.

That’s where human-first SEO comes into play. Rather than trying to “game the system” to get ahead, this method means producing content that satisfies user intent better than the competition. For example, one of the best customer-centric strategies is developing customer personas. Essentially, it means creating content for a specific user rather than a broad set of demographics. The more you can connect with a specific persona, the more engaging your content.

The Value of Human-First SEO

A big reason why companies don’t go all-in on human-first SEO is that it can take time to cultivate a wide audience. Instead, brands like to focus on “ego goals” like site traffic, SERP rankings, and even social media followers. While those metrics can illustrate your marketing reach, they don’t always translate to more sales or a stronger bottom line.

Alternatively, because human-first SEO is built around value-driven content, it leads to more engagement and a higher conversion rate. So, even if you only reach a “handful” of users compared to other SEO strategies, you’ll still wind up with higher revenue and better brand loyalty overall.

There’s also another compelling reason to invest in person-first SEO, and it’s the abundance of AI-written content. Since ChatGPT hit the mainstream, AI imitators are pumping out low-quality content en masse. To combat this, search engines like Google (which itself is using AI for search results) are focusing more on value, not keywords and other traditional SEO benchmarks.

So, if you want your brand to have long-term staying power and you want to cultivate a growing number of loyal customers, human-first SEO is a powerful strategy.

The Results of Human-First SEO

First of all, Google already says that one of the key best practices to rank higher in search results is to “create helpful, reliable, people-first content.” According to Google, this phrase means presenting “helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings.”

But are companies really benefiting from this? While it’s hard to crunch numbers on how much traffic human-first SEO generates, we can look at some real-world examples of brands leveraging their understanding of user intent to rank higher in search results.

For example, Canva is an online graphic design program, so many people who are creating designs use the platform. One particular keyword Canva has capitalized on is “color palettes.” The brand recognized that people search for that term to find design inspirations, so it created content related to that and is now one of the top results for the term.

Another example is the cosmetic company E.L.F. This brand leans heavily on “user-generated content,” which is about as human-first as you can get. Consumers love seeing social proof of different products, so when your customers are already making videos and posts about your offerings, you can expect higher engagement and conversion rates.

As far as SEO goes, customer-centric strategies can take longer to build momentum, but they have much greater staying power. While it’s tempting to lean on AI-generated content to pump out results quicker, there’s also a greater chance that your marketing will get derailed, forcing you to scramble and switch methods.

Overall, the main takeaway should be creating valuable, authentic content. This doesn’t mean you need high production values or expensive ad campaigns. Instead, it means knowing what your audience wants and appealing to their preferences and needs.

CSP – How We Do SEO Differently

Knowing the value of human-first SEO is much different than putting it into practice. You may have mountains of customer data, but how do you translate those metrics into actionable insights? Well, the simplest way is to rely on the SEO experts at CSP. We’ve been at the forefront of search engine optimization since the beginning, and our marketing strategies have evolved alongside the algorithm.

Simply put, we know how to implement a people-first marketing campaign, and we can help you understand your target audience and how to engage with them better. Let’s grow your business together—contact us today to get started.