People-First SEO: why your content writer maybe isn’t the right person for the whole job.

So we have 13-year-olds writing articles about Particle Physics. WTAF.

After 25 years of doing this stuff and working with hundreds of businesses, I’m sick to death of seeing agencies pump out content written by people who’ve never actually done the job they’re writing about.

Person-first SEO doesn’t mean writing in a friendly tone or using simple language – it’s about fundamentally changing your approach to search engine optimisation.

This post is not a jab at copywriters – after all, they are the experts at actually writing: this is an article about making what they do more effective.

It means getting the actual experts – the people with real experience – to create the content, not farming it out to some freelance writer who’s spent an afternoon researching your particular niche.

Google’s automated ranking systems aim to present helpful content primarily created for people, not search engine-first content designed to manipulate search engine rankings.

If your plumber’s website content is written by a marketing graduate who’s never fixed a pipe, you’re entirely missing the point of person-first SEO.

The brutal truth is that creating content should focus primarily on the needs of your target audience rather than trying to gain search engine rankings, and most agencies still haven’t figured this out.

What person-first SEO means.

Let me be crystal clear about what creating helpful content actually involves, because most people in our industry have completely missed the point.

People-first content prioritises the needs of your target audience over search engine rankings, which means the person creating it must genuinely understand those needs through real experience.

Original, first-hand insights are essential for creating helpful content – something no amount of keyword research can replicate.

When someone searches for “how to fix a leaking tap,” they want advice from someone who’s actually fixed hundreds of taps, not from a content writer who watched a YouTube video.

The above is what we refer to as ‘thin content’ and thanks to AI, it’s getting spat out everywhere.

Creating helpful, reliable content involves understanding your existing or intended audience’s questions and problems at a level that only comes from facing those same challenges yourself.

The key elements that define genuine person-first content include:

• Demonstrating real-world experience with the subject matter
• Providing substantial additional value that comes from actual practice, not research
• Understanding the nuances and edge cases that textbook knowledge misses
• Offering solutions based on what actually works, not what should work in theory
• Writing content with confidence that comes from genuine expertise

Google’s Quality Raters use specific criteria to assess the quality of online content based on helpfulness and reliability, and they can spot the difference between genuine expertise and researched content immediately.

This is why your accountant should be writing your tax advice blog articles, not your marketing team.

Why content writers can’t magic-up expertise.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve reviewed website content that’s clearly been written by someone with no real-world experience in the subject they’re covering.

You can spot SEO content created by non-experts immediately: the advice is generic, the examples are theoretical, and there’s no depth of insight that comes from actually doing the work.

Content writers excel at research and structuring information, but they can’t manufacture the kind of expertise that search engines now reward.

When a content writer researches “WordPress security,” they’ll regurgitate the same advice you’ll find on dozens of other website pages.

When a WordPress developer who’s cleaned up after hundreds of hacked sites writes about security, you get valuable content with real insights about what actually works in practice.

The difference shows up in several ways:

• Generic advice versus specific, tested solutions
• Theoretical knowledge versus practical experience
• Recycled information versus original insights
• Surface-level coverage versus deep understanding
• Safe, obvious recommendations versus nuanced, expert judgment

Person-first content helps improve connections between users and brands because it demonstrates genuine understanding of their search intent and provides solutions that actually work.

This connection is impossible to fake through good research alone.

So Mrs or Mr Client: your content writer needs you: you have to put the work in if you want your site to rank.

E-E-A-T: Why experience trumps everything else.

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness – everyone focuses on the last three and completely ignores the most important one.

E-E-A-T is a framework that Google uses to evaluate the quality and credibility of web content, but while E-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor, it’s absolutely crucial for creating helpful content.

The first ‘E’ – Experience – is what separates real experts from content creators who’ve done their homework.

This is what you need to get on your site – do this right and even a small site can outrank big companies that throw seemingly endless budget at thin content.

Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness is linked to the creator’s formal or informal education or how they acquired their skills, but experience goes deeper – it’s about having actually applied that knowledge in real-world situations.

According to Google’s Documentation, “Consider the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic.”

Trust is the most important aspect of E-E-A-T, and trustworthiness is considered the most crucial factor in E-E-A-T assessment because everything else builds on it.

Content that demonstrates strong E-E-A-T is particularly important for topics that could impact health or safety, but it’s becoming essential for all industries as Google’s algorithm becomes more sophisticated.

High E-E-A-T signals can improve the likelihood of better search rankings, but more importantly, they create content that genuinely helps people.

The ‘who, how, and why’ framework for genuine content.

The ‘Who, How, and Why’ framework can guide content creation to ensure it is people-first, and this is where most businesses get it completely wrong.

The ‘who’ element of E-E-A-T refers to clearly indicating who created the content – not just their name, but their actual qualifications and experience on a dedicated author page.

Having accurate author bios and qualifications enhances the E-E-A-T of the content, but only if those qualifications are relevant to the topic being covered.

The ‘how’ element of E-E-A-T involves providing transparency in the content creation process – explaining where insights come from and what experience informs the recommendations.

The ‘why’ element of E-E-A-T emphasises that content should be created primarily to help people, not to capture search traffic or hit keyword targets.

This framework exposes the fundamental weakness in using content writers for expert topics: they can’t authentically answer the ‘who’ and ‘how’ questions because they lack the relevant experience.

E-E-A-T must be demonstrated both on-site and off-site, which means your experts need to be building their reputation as authorities in their field, not hiding behind anonymous content writers.

Google’s Helpful Content Update: The writing was on the wall.

Google’s Helpful Content Update emphasises the importance of creating helpful content designed primarily for people rather than for the purpose of ranking well in search engines.

The Helpful Content System has been integrated into Google’s core ranking algorithm, making it a permanent factor in search ranking assessments.

This wasn’t a surprise to anyone paying attention – Google had been signalling this direction for years through Google Search Console and other communications to site owners.

The focus should be on delivering genuine value instead of optimising solely for target keyword rankings to succeed post-update.

Google recommends that website owners self assess content using a framework to determine if it truly meets the needs of users, and most content created by non-experts fails this test.

The update specifically targets:

• Search engine first content created primarily for search engines rather than people
• Articles that rehash existing information without adding new value
• Low quality content that lacks the depth that comes from genuine expertise
• Material created by people without relevant experience

AI tools created primarily to manipulate search engine rankings can violate Google’s policies, resulting in penalties or reduced visibility in search results, but this extends to any content created without genuine expertise.

The businesses that saw their SEO rankings improve after this update were those already using their real experts to create content.

Why your subject matter experts must create your content.

This is where most businesses get it completely wrong.

They hire content agencies or freelance writers to create their blog posts, case studies, and resource pages, then wonder why their content doesn’t rank or convert.

The people who should be creating your content are the people doing the actual work in your business.

Your head of development should be writing your technical articles, not your marketing coordinator.

Your senior accountant should be creating your tax planning guides, not someone who’s never filled out a tax return.

Your experienced project manager should be writing about project management best practices, not a content writer who’s read a few project management books.

Evaluating your content using specific questions can help you gauge its helpfulness and reliability:

• Does this blog post demonstrate first-hand experience with the topic?
• Would someone with this problem find genuinely useful insights here?
• Does the author clearly have the expertise to provide this advice?
• Are the recommendations based on real results, not theoretical knowledge?

Having others assess your content can provide an honest evaluation of its quality – ask people in your industry whether your content demonstrates genuine expertise.

The technical foundation that content writers miss.

Here’s something that drives me absolutely mental: agencies that focus on creating content while ignoring the technical elements that make person-first SEO actually work.

Prioritising user experience means considering elements like site speed, usability, and design in content, not just the words on the page.

Core Web Vitals are essential for a good user experience and are considered by Google in ranking, yet I still see beautifully written content on websites that take five seconds to load.

Your SEO strategy should include both on-page optimization elements for both search engines and users, including:

• Optimised meta descriptions – one of the most fundamental elements of any successful SEO strategy
• Clean URL structures – having descriptive, user-friendly URLs helps users understand where internal links will take them
• Strategic keyword placement – signals to search engines what the relevant content is about while making it easier for users to scan
• Hierarchical heading structures – make content more accessible and help search engine crawlers understand the content
• Internal links – help users navigate through pages and assist search engine bots in discovering content
• External linking to credible, authoritative sites – can improve the credibility and context of the content

Using structured data, or schema, enhances the appearance of content in search results by providing more context to search engine crawlers.

A good page experience includes factors such as mobile-friendliness and easy navigation to main content, plus ensuring your page title accurately reflects the content.

Most content writers focus purely on keyword stuffing instead of these technical elements that are crucial for person-first SEO success.

Content quality assessment: beyond grammar and structure.

Google’s Quality Raters assess content quality based on criteria for helpfulness and reliability that go far beyond whether the grammar is correct.

Regular content audits can help site owners identify which pages might need improvement in quality and helpfulness, but most businesses audit for the wrong things.

They check for spelling mistakes and keyword density instead of asking whether the content genuinely demonstrates expertise.

Establishing a clear author identity helps strengthen content credibility and E-E-A-T perceptions, but only if that author has expertise in identifying relevant content in their field.

The transparency of the content creation process helps readers understand the expertise behind it – something that’s impossible when writers create content without relevant experience.

Using original images and videos can show firsthand experience with a topic and enhance content quality in ways that stock photography never can.

A positive brand reputation can improve trustworthiness and content quality perceptions, but reputation is built on consistently demonstrating expertise, not on polished marketing copy.

Feedback from users and experts is crucial for improving content strategy and alignment with audience needs:

• Are people finding your content genuinely helpful in addressing their search queries?
• Do industry peers recognise the expertise demonstrated?
• Are you getting enquiries from people who’ve read your content?
• Do readers take action based on your recommendations?

Content should be structured clearly to allow users to navigate and locate main points easily, but structure without substance is worthless.

The real impact on user engagement.

Writing with a focus on readers’ needs leads to better engagement and less bounce rates because people can tell when content comes from genuine expertise.

When someone lands on your website looking for solutions to their problems, they can immediately sense whether the person writing understands those problems from experience, not just from trying to attract search engine visits.

Genuine expert content creates measurable differences:

• Higher time on page because people actually read the content
• Lower bounce rates because the content delivers on its promise
• More internal page views as readers explore related expert content
• Higher conversion rates because trust is established through demonstrated expertise
• More social shares because the content provides genuine value instead of trying to mass produce content

Providing a great overall page experience is important for success with Google’s ranking systems, but experience goes beyond technical performance – it includes the experience of reading content that clearly comes from someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Regularly updating content ensures it remains accurate and relevant, which can positively affect rankings, but updates should come from the same experts who created the original content.

Why most SEO agencies get this wrong.

Most SEO agencies are set up like content factories, designed to mass-produce content efficiently rather than capture genuine expertise.

Their business model depends on writers being able to create content about any topic after doing some keyword research, which is fundamentally incompatible with person-first SEO.

SEO efforts by content agencies excel at:

• Creating grammatically correct, well-structured content
• Meeting deadlines and managing content calendars
• Optimising content for basic technical SEO factors
• Producing large volumes of content quickly to drive organic traffic

Content agencies struggle with:

• Demonstrating genuine expertise on specialised topics
• Providing insights that come from real-world experience
• Creating content that stands out from generic industry advice
• Building the kind of authority that search engines now reward through search marketing

This doesn’t mean all content agencies are useless, but it does mean you need to change how you think about content creation fundamentally.

Instead of outsourcing content creation, you need to invest in systems that help your actual experts create content.

How to actually implement people-first content creation.

Stop treating content creation like a task that can be outsourced to anyone who can write decent English.

Make content creation part of your experts’ roles, not an extra task they do when they have spare time.

Set up systems that make it easy for your experts to share their knowledge:

• Use voice-to-text tools to capture their insights during natural conversations
• Record video explanations that can be transcribed and edited
• Create structured interview processes that extract their expertise
• Implement content templates that focus on sharing experience and insights

Focus on documenting their genuine knowledge, not creating perfectly polished marketing copy.

Train your experts on basic content structure and SEO principles, but don’t expect them to become professional writers.

The goal is to capture and share real expertise, not to win writing awards.

Secure payment options and clear user experiences are important ways to demonstrate trustworthiness, but it starts with content that genuinely demonstrates expertise.

The bottom line: stop outsourcing your competitive advantage (sort of).

People-first SEO isn’t about writing style or keyword density – it’s about who’s creating the content and whether they have the genuine expertise to help your audience.

Google’s algorithm is sophisticated enough to recognise content that demonstrates real experience versus content that’s been researched and rewritten.

Your experts’ knowledge and experience differentiate your business from your competitors – that’s precisely what should be driving your content strategy.

The businesses succeeding with SEO in 2024 have made their subject matter experts central to their content creation process.

They’ve recognised that their competitive advantage lies in their expertise, not in their ability to produce polished marketing copy created by people without relevant experience.

If you’re still using content writers to create content about your area of expertise, you’re fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

Your competitors who understand this will outrank you, outconvert you, and build stronger authority in your field.

The solution isn’t complicated: get your actual experts creating your content and use professional editors to polish it.

Stop treating your expertise like a commodity that can be outsourced to anyone with decent research skills.

Your knowledge and experience are your competitive advantage – make sure your content strategy reflects that.