11/10/2021
"To show up in Google searches, you just need to write for people."
Wrong.
"How can you say that?"
Because the hundreds of competing brands who are each "writing for people" can't all be on Page 1.
Any time you have a limited resource, and multiple parties wanting that resource, you have competition.
The ferocity of the competition scales with the relative number of competitors contrasted to resource availability.
Page 1 of Google SERPs is an extremely scarce resource compared to the number of competitors wanting that resource.
Whatever the vertical—dentists, payment processors, or swimwear—there are hundreds, even thousands of competitors eager to displace the favored few on Page 1 (caveat: a new vertical, or "blue ocean" scenario, doesn't have the same level of competition. Yet.).
It's impossible to increase the available real estate on Page 1. Therefore, you have a zero-sum game. For you to gain a position, someone else has to lose a position.
You don't win a highly-competitive zero sum game by chance.
You don't gain a position on Page 1 by just "writing for people". Unless you get very lucky. And luck doesn't scale.
You gain (and maintain) a position on Page 1 by crafting search results that:
(1) add value
(2) match user intent
(3) demonstrate topical authority
(1) is writing for people. I never said writing for people didn't matter.
(2) is partially about writing for people, partially about understanding what Google wants to find in search result and matching your content to that expectation.
(3) is mostly about understanding what factors signal EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, and trust) to the mighty algorithms and making sure your site / content / assets are sending those signals.
Writing for people is a start. But it's not enough.
"But that's gaming the system."
It's the nature of fierce competition. Those who master the game win the game.
"To show up in Google searches, you just need to write for people." Wrong. "How can you say that?" Because the hundreds of competing brands who are ...
