The document discusses human-centric SEO and how to optimize content for users rather than search engines. It recommends focusing on understanding user needs through questions from sales and customer service, user-generated content, and topic suggestions from zero search volume keywords. The document also recommends reporting on metrics like user behavior and interactions rather than just keywords, optimizing content to influence user engagement rather than just ranking factors, and having SEO experts collaborate with topic experts to create helpful content for users.

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Human-centric SEO
How to rock future-proof on-page SEO

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Who am I?
Marjolein Schollaert
● 5 years in on-page SEO
● Started out copywriting
● Moved on to SEO strategy
● All about the human-centric
approach

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Agenda
What we’re doing
What we should be doing
How I know it works
✓ Why easy concepts don’t work
✓ Why human-centric SEO is key
✓ What we have to show for it
✓ How you can rock your own on-page SEO even harder

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Evolution of on-page

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Which is why we need to optimise for us. Not for the algorithm.
Google is trying to understand
information like we do.

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Help people find the answers and solutions they need.
Google’s mission

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Help people find the answers and solutions they need.
Our mission

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Update and innovate to better understand what people need.
How Google tackles its mission

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Help Google interpret our content and navigate our website.
How we tackle our mission

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When people don’t like the
content you publish, it doesn’t
matter whether it’s 500 or 1500
words. They’ll leave, your traffic
will drop, and so will ranks.
Content is king, but kings can
also be lazy, absent, or
incompetent.
Make your content a generous
and helpful sovereign.

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Help people find the answers and solutions they need, regardless of
Google.
How we should tackle our mission

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By focusing SEO on people instead of the search engine, you’ll win
with every update.

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Organic traffic NL + FR
Introduction new way of working

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Compared to keyword trends

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Old way of working
• Monthly technical tweaks based on Semrush audit
• Yearly general keyword analysis
• Content creation per page based on client needs
• Briefings contain keywords and topical input
• Using the same keywords and semantically related keywords over and over across pages
• No URL suggestions (or input on site structure) and linking based on number of links
• Static reporting of metrics like bounce rate, time on page, keyword positions

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Current way of working
• Monthly maintenance hours to monitor, identify and fix on-page, off-page and technical issues
• Specific keyword analysis on a page level for every briefing, including zero search volume
suggestions, questions, long tails, input from customer services…
• Content creation per cluster based on user needs
• Briefings contain outline of the text, writers get in-depth SEO guidelines for a deeper understanding
• Use semantically meaningful language for a better user experience (persuasive copy)
• URL suggestions for better site structure (clusters) and linking based on relevance
• Dynamic reporting of growth, industry trends, search trends, contextual factors, innovations…

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What we often do What we should do
• Add a minimum word count to any page
for Google
• Add only the content people need
• Focus solely on keyword analysis and
tools to decide your topics
• Ask sales and customer services what type of questions they often get
• Find user-generated questions and answers → PAA, Reddit, Quora
• Add zero search volume keywords to the mix
• Report mostly on keyword data, CTR,
and traffic
• Report mostly on hard numbers
• Report on on-page behaviour with middle-of-funnel metrics, impressions of
snippets, interaction…
• Report mostly on growth
• Blame Google updates for fluctuations • Take context into account (sociocultural trends, newly uploaded content by other
websites, possible misinterpretations…)
• See what changed in the update and if adapting your tactics benefits your user
• Optimise for ranking factors • Optimise for anything that influences people’s interaction with your content
• Brief topical experts on how to write for
SEO
• Brief SEO-copywriters on how to write for specific topics and have experts perform
quality checks
• Translate SEO texts with a translator • Invest in transcreation by native speakers with an SEO background
How to rock on-page