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Writing For Humans And Search Engines Like Google Is Not Mutually Exclusive

When I served as Content Marketing Director for a telehealth startup, I learned a lot. Mostly, I discovered it’s possible to write great content for people’s enjoyment, education, and readability, while also writing for search engines like Google. This was during the pandemic, and telehealth was taking off in a big way as a crucial and safe solution for patients to connect with their providers. 

At the time, everybody was searching for answers about telehealth – office managers at independent physician practices, IT leaders at the largest health systems in America, and consumers of all ages, from teens to seniors. It was this big telehealth pivot that provided new insights about creating readable-yet-searchable content.

I recognized it’s possible to address human readability while ensuring high-ranking content. In fact, it’s not only doable, but also necessary so that people searching for answers can find helpful, readable content.

Earlier in my career, I was told you couldn’t do both — that writing for humans and Google were mutually exclusive. That’s not true, and content creators can deliver engaging and easy-to-understand content for readers that is optimized for search engines to drive traffic to your website and raise awareness for your brand. The trick is generating high-value information that answers the top-of-mind questions from your target audience and provides easy-to-understand content incorporating relevant keywords in the storytelling. To achieve this content “holy grail,” writers should have a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices, especially for on-page SEO must-dos.

When you balance SEO with the reader experience, you can generate powerful results. All this is truer with thought leadership communications, in which content strategies aim to establish a company or brand as an expert – and “trusted authority.”  

Here are some tips to help writers create content for both humans and Google:

  • Survey Your Target Audience: If you can, conduct a quick survey of your target audience to ascertain their most urgent, burning questions. If you can’t, get with those closest to your customer/prospect organizations – such as sales leaders or customer success experts — and interview them to learn what they believe the top-of-mind questions might be.  Answering these questions can drive your content plan.
  • Create a Working Title: Draft a working headline that strategically differentiates your company or brand and succinctly articulates the storyline you believe is essential to tell your target audience. Headlines are powerful as they deliver — in a short bit of copy — the strategic intent of the story. As you write working titles, know they can and usually will improve, especially with feedback from content reviewers and experts included along the way in your collaborative review process.
  • Conduct Keyword Research: Good writers conduct thorough keyword research using tools like MozPro, SEMRush, and others to identify the keywords and phrases readers most frequently use to search for answers online. Doing keyword research for content is different than for paid ads, where you may look at the competition and identify costs for purchasing those keywords. For organic content, SEO research is inspiring because you can see which keywords are popular and used most often for searches, as well as which may hold “white space” and could be ownable.  This should be conducted for each strategic piece of content. This research helps ensure the content you are creating is relevant and of value — optimized for search engines people use every second of every day. It’s essential to limit to 1-2 keywords or phrases that make the most sense per each content piece, given the strategic intent of your storyline and your working title. This research phase also can change your working title and probably should!
  • Naturally, Incorporate Keywords. Use keywords in the content, but use them strategically and sparingly. Keywords should fit naturally in the heading, subheadings, and the first 100 words of the piece. Make sure you incorporate the keywords in a way that helps both the human reader and the search engine. After all, when we are all Googling, we want to be served up the most trusted and easy-to-review content that answers our questions. Remember to use keywords in the file names of images you post with the copy, in the alt text, and the meta tag. 
  • Think About the Reader’s Experience. As you pull your content together, focus on creating an engaging, informative, and easy-to-understand story. Use visuals like photos, infographics, and even videos embedded within the content for a superior reader experience. Keep it tight, though, as nobody has time to read 2,500 words. Go for the sweet spot of 800-1200 words, if you can.
  • Optimize for Search. Google rewards those who do this best! Your content should have internal and external links to trusted sites. Ensure that the content is well-structured and easy to navigate.
  • Deliver High Value. Make sure your content is valuable and informative for readers. You will  know when you read it and when you write it. And if you are creating Thought Leadership content, infuse a bold point of view with authenticity. As you read your first draft, ask yourself, is this insightful and useful information? Will a reader enjoy reading this? Does this content make an impact?

As content creators today, we should think about humans and about the search engines like Google that can ultimately deliver your content to a broader readership (of humans). Addressing both forces will result in online content best worthy of answering questions from top searches and telling an engaging story.

You Still Have To Write For Humans (And Not Just Eighth Graders)

Anyone who has been in marketing eventually is advised to “write like an eighth grader.” People who offer this advice may cite legitimate literacy studies showing that the “average American” reads at the level of a seventh- or eighth-grader. If that is true (especially since more than 90% of adult Americans 25 years or older have graduated from high school), I’d like to have a word with our education system.

Maybe this is unfair, but when I hear people say, “write like an eighth-grader,” it sounds a lot to me like “dumb it down.” Yes, I fully agree that marketers should express themselves simply and directly. As a consumer or B2B buyer, I wouldn’t have it any other way! Who has time for a lot of smoke and mirrors or hyperbole? We’re all busy and just want to solve our problems or enable opportunities.

Technology can be very difficult to understand, let alone explain – healthcare technology even more so. And don’t get me started about life sciences and advanced medicine. But it’s our job to make sure we’re getting our clients’ messages across in a crowded, noisy market.

Take this blog post. I am not writing this at an eighth-grade level because my target audience is marketers and healthcare professionals, and I’m supremely confident that most of the people in those jobs can handle a flashy four-syllable word or two.

Going back further, I’ve been writing about enterprise technology and healthcare technology for many years. My primary target audience has been CXOs, the people who make buying decisions or can influence buying decisions. CXOs tends to be well-educated and articulate. If they were placed back in middle school today, I’m convinced most would get gold stars for their outstanding reading ability. I believe in you, CXOs!

So while “write like an eighth-grader” is a pithy and memorable phrase that will get you lots of likes and fond references to Strunk and White on LinkedIn, understanding your audience and writing to their level is much better advice. If you do this effectively, you can connect with existing and potential customers on a human level, show you understand their problems and needs, and persuade them that you have the right solution. And that’s how sales are made and brands are built.

Resist SEO tyranny

Speaking of connecting on a human level, digital marketers also are constantly told they must “write for SEO” (search engine optimization) – almost always, incidentally, by SEO experts. (Just sayin’! 🤣) This process may require clumsily shoehorning highly rated “keywords” into the first 100 words of your text, writing “compelling” meta descriptions, inserting links in the text (but not too many), and other best practices that can change depending on Google’s latest search engine tweaks.

When I was freelancer, I worked for a content company whose platform literally wouldn’t allow you to submit an article unless it met about a dozen SEO criteria. The pain and shame of mutilating my copy to meet the exacting standards of a string of code in C++ forever will haunt me.

I don’t know much about SEO, but I do know a lot of smart people believe in its ability to help improve Google search rankings and raise a company’s visibility. But I worry that an excessive emphasis on SEO eventually can be counterproductive because the writer ends up writing to an algorithm. Not only does that feel restrictive, but you run the risk of sounding like everyone else writing SEO-driven copy.

SEO is a tool. “Write like an eighth-grader” is a concept. Don’t let either get in the way of you communicating on a human level with your target audience. Yes, you should be concise and direct, but there’s nothing wrong with showing a little personality or using humor when appropriate. These techniques might not register with an algorithm, but they will help your company or client connect with plenty of people on a human level. And that’s worth a lot.

Marketing In a COVID World

In mid-May we talked about the emergence of a new normal in public relations and marketing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media coverage of the virus has become all-consuming in the intervening four months. 

Over 100 million pieces of news focused on COVID-19 have appeared. In just one sampled day, 340,000 came from 30,000 media outlets. As the lingering epicenter of the crisis, the United States produces one third of all global daily coverage.

Even as pandemic fatigue sets in among the American population, our collective obsession with the virus and its toll never wavers. Potential vaccines linger on the horizon bringing hope.  However, even aggressive projections place their availability 5 to 6 months away. COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The brands and products that most easily resonate with Americans these days are those that fulfill critical needs, both physical and emotional. So, unless you’re selling hand sanitizer, outdoor entertainment, or any type of toilet paper, how do you keep your brand in front of your customers? 

By making your brand feel critical.

The Five Things That Matter

Brand Messaging

Gone are the days of simple promotions. In today’s world the only messaging that stands out and feels genuine is that which tries to connect with people on a human level. The mixture of isolation, fear of the unknown, and an overwhelming sense of community and empathy has hot-wired most Americans to see the world differently in a very short amount of time. It has crystalized the things that matter and those that don’t. To matter, your messaging must account for this shift in thinking.

Social Media

The isolation of social distancing has caused 32% of Americans to spend more time on social media as a way to stay connected to their friends and family. Leveraging this groundswell of attention, paired with appropriate messaging, is the key to remaining relevant and to gaining new audiences. Make your brand into a trusted news source that offers important information during this time of need. Engage your followers in a conversation that proves valuable.

Virtual Events

Our need to connect with one another is fundamental. While physically isolated, virtual events have skyrocketed 1000% during the pandemic. These events are a collective backbone offering education, networking, and collaborative opportunities. It cannot be overstated how important these events are for socializing your brand’s presentations, white papers, and case studies. These webinars and virtual roundtables serve as important touchpoints with your existing customer base and essential engines generating new client leads.

Email Campaigns

Email remains another reliable and consistent communication vehicle. Since the beginning of the pandemic email open rates have improved 8% with a corresponding click-through increase of 22%. Incorporating the critical elements mentioned above into a comprehensive email campaign can help drive the success of your brand’s overall marketing strategy.

SEO & Lead Generation

The consistent theme here is Americans are turning to alternative tools to stay connected. Social media, virtual meetings, email, and the Internet have replaced most traditional in-person communication. Internet usage has surged 70%. A clever SEO & lead generation plan will plant the seeds that flourish long after COVID-19 has disappeared. Providing evergreen content that engages customers and answers core needs remains the heart of successful lead generation. Whitepapers, eBooks, and blog posts will always matter. And SEO drives their visibility.

The world has changed. People have changed. It’s impossible to know for how long. But for now, connecting with people requires embracing this new normal. The five keys listed here will help your brand lead as we all step into this brave new world.

Walking the Tightrope between Great Content and SEO

It may not quite be Lincoln and Douglas, or even great taste/less filling. But the debate about which is more important to a brand’s online presence great content or search engine optimization (SEO) continues to rage on.

On one side you have the writers. Especially the “old school” writers (like me) who launched their careers long before Al Gore invented the Internet.

When I started writing we used typewriters electric ones. I’m not that old. The total focus was on the quality of the content. Clever, attention-grabbing headlines that led into powerful, motivating body copy that carried the message in an interesting way was “all” that was required.

Then came the Internet, and with it the omnipotent search engines. No longer was it enough for headlines and copy to be creative and interesting. The data wonks said it also had to include certain keywords that would tell the search engines a particular page or document was relevant to the search the user was conducting.

In other words, if the user is searching on the term “crazy bunnies” it was important for those keywords to appear in the headline, and in the little words that came after. Especially the first paragraph.

While that makes sense from a data point of view, it definitely created a dilemma for writers. Having a brilliant headline was no longer enough, because you weren’t just trying to capture the attention of humans. You also had to capture the attention of the machines.

That situation set up a sort of chicken-and-egg dilemma. You could write the best website, or article, or other content in the world, but if no one could find it in a marketing world that increasingly relied on search what was the point?

On the other hand, if your document was easy to find due to liberal use of keywords but not very interesting or engaging, again what was the point? You’d lose the audience you’d worked so hard to capture.

It also led to practices such as keyword stuffing (including keywords out of context for the sole purpose of raising searching rankings) and a host of other tricks such as putting keywords on a page in the same color as the background so they couldn’t be seen by humans but would be read by web crawlers. Didn’t take long for the search engines to figure that one out.

Keeping the balance

Fortunately, Google (and other search engines no one really cares about) have continually updated their algorithms to go beyond simple keywords. They are getting better and better at determining the context of the content to ensure it’s actually relevant.

Still, keywords are important to success. So how do you reconcile the desire to write content that reaches people on a deep, human level with the need to tell the machines yes, this is the information they’ve been looking for?

Here is a process I’ve found to be effective.

  1. Start by knowing which keywords are ranking for the topic you want to promote. If you don’t already have a list, you can use Google AdWords, a free service, to plug in some terms that are relevant to your product/service. Then see which ones have relatively high search volumes with low competition. That will tell you what terms your audience is likely to be searching on, and how difficult it will be to rank high for them. The goal, of course, is page one above the fold. Be sure to check Google’s suggested substitutions too. There may be a more effective word or phrase lurking in there somewhere. Of course, if you have an agency (such as, oh, I dunno, Amendola Communications) you can hand that work off to them.
  2. Once you have your list, set it aside. Then develop the content in a way that is the most interesting and speaks to your audience(s). Don’t worry about keywords right now. Just make sure you’re telling a good story that demonstrates your knowledge and/or experience and convinces your target audience that you would be the best choice. In other words, write as though the Internet doesn’t exist.
  3. After you have great content, go back and look for places to plug in your keywords. Start with the headline and the first paragraph. Is there a way to work in your most important keyword? Then sprinkle in others throughout the rest of the content. In some cases it may require a bit of rewriting, but often you’ll be surprised at how easily a keyword can be substituted for another word or phrase. Writing in this fashion, rather than trying to write to the keywords initially, will help the keywords fit more organically, and will keep you from writing dull and, well, robotic content.
  4. Finally, when you think it’s ready to go have someone who hasn’t been involved in the process read it to ensure those keywords are fitting in as well as you think they are. Taking this extra step doesn’t just help with human readers, by the way. With the sophisticated machine learning many search engines are applying these days it will also help minimize any appearance that you’re trying to “game” the system. Instead, your keywords will fit in the context of your content, and you will be rewarded by Google, the Great and Powerful.

Walk the line

Great content and SEO don’t have to be treated as opposing forces. In fact, they can (and should) work very well together.

By focusing first on what you want to say, and then bringing in the flags that will help that great content get seen, you can bring customers and prospects to your website and make sure they’re delighted once they get there.

Have press releases seen their day?

Have press releases seen their day?

Entrepreneur recently ran a scathing article blasting press releases titled, Is Sending Out a Press Release Really Worth the Money? The article questions the value businesses receive from issuing press releases, calling releases “borderline useless,” serving mainly as a way for PR agencies to fleece clients.

I beg to differ.

As someone who has been in PR her entire life (we’re talking 3+ decades), I have seen numerous benefits from press releases when done right. I have even seen how they optimize SEO, as long as you follow a few best practices, which I’m happy to share in this blog.

Among the accounts I currently handle, one issues a single press release per year, while another issues one per month. Guess which one gets a lot more press coverage?

Perhaps I seem a bit defensive given I work for a PR agency. Fortunately, several of my colleagues are former reporters and editors themselves.

Here is how they view press releases:

Michelle Noteboom, senior account & content & director (former health IT blogger and columnist)

How else can you communicate to the industry what’s going on? For example, announcing new clients (so that prospects and competitors know you are growing), new product updates (especially if they are innovative) or new funding.

Press releases can also help attract traffic to your web site so you can communicate even more about your company and offerings.

However, if you have nothing but fluff to report, I agree that you should not do a press release!

Brandon Glenn, content & account director (former editor, Medical Economics)

As a former reporter, I can say with certainty that journalists still pay attention to press releases and find them a useful tool to stay informed about the companies and industries they cover. Press releases are by no means the be-all-and-end-all of PR tactics; they alone aren’t going to create record-breaking sales numbers. They’re merely one tool in the toolbox and a generally useful one as part of an overall strategy to generate awareness.

Ken Krause, senior account & content director (contributing editor for a sports magazine)

Well-written press releases are a great way to organize information. They help companies think through how to present their stories and messaging, and deliver them in a manner that’s easy for reporters, clients, and prospects to absorb. They provide more depth when pitching reporters the pitch can highlight what’s most newsworthy while the press release can deliver more details as to why it’s newsworthy. If you use a wire service, they also guarantee that the news will be out on the web so it can be discovered in a search.

There is one other value, and that is in placing it on your web site in the news section. Job candidates and sales prospects use web sites for company research, and a lack of news makes it look like not much is happening. Having a full and active newsroom creates a positive impression of your organization.

Chad Van Alstin, content & media relations manager (former editor of a health IT magazine and a sports publication)

To be frank, as an editor, I thought only a small percentage of press releases were worth immediately writing a story on.

But, that’s not their true value. Press releases are useful for the dissemination of information, and are a great way to keep journalists apprised of relevant news. More than that, they’re a good reminder for journalists that your company exists and its leaders are available for comment when the need arises. Lastly, press releases serve the function of boosting SEO through shared publication.

Not all of these benefits can be quantified and measured, and the benefits certainly aren’t true for every release I’ve seen some bad ones. But, in general, a press release is a great tool that is as valuable in the new media, Internet era as it was during the days of print.

Tips for writing SEO-powered press releases

In order to maximize the ROI from issuing a press release, be sure to do the following:

  • Spend the time creating a powerful headline and subhead. Headlines should be under 100 characters to make it easily shareable on social media. Include the most important information in the first 50-65 characters, because that’s typically where Google cuts off the headline preview.
  • Be sure to use keywords in the headline and lead paragraph. You never want to stuff keywords into a release (Google punishes that), but when you write naturally and have a good focus, keyword optimization will fall into place.
  • Use variation in the text to break up blocks of text. One way to improve SEO is to make changes to the text that draws the user’s eye, and helps the information be absorbed more easily. Use bulleted or numbered lists, subheads, bolding and italics.
  • Include no more than three links per release. It’s important not to have too many or Google starts suspecting your content of being link spam. Did you know that duplicate links can hurt your SEO? This is why it’s best not to link to the company name in the opening sentence; save it for the boilerplate.
  • Consider multimedia news releases. Including any form of multimedia in a release boosts SEO (think about how much more likely you are to click on an article that has an image vs. text only). Click here to see a recent example.

If you read the Entrepreneur article and agree with it, it could be that you are issuing press releases on a wire and hoping something good will come of it. That’s actually why you need a PR agency, to make sure the release is SEO-optimized, to do the follow-up, to see to it that the news gets in front of the right journalists. With more and more companies fighting for the attention of fewer and fewer journalists, the value of the PR agency in this process increases considerably.