Search is obviously more human-centered than you could expect

I want to bring you up to a different way of thinking today. Sun shows up a bit more and the fresh air of summer is flowing. So why not pause the flow of technical content I’d got into the habit of publishing ? I’m aiming for a little more levity. 

Let’s discuss the hidden part of Search. Well I’m saying “the hidden part” but it is not really. It’s just that a lot of folks around aim to communicate on a highly technical aspect of SEO. 

Which is correct from a certain viewpoint. But not only. It doesn’t take too long to see that most of the content published and shared tend to shape Search as a technical-productivist activity more than anything else. Whatever the format of the content. 

Which takes you away, as readers, from the core of seo without realising it. 

Being found by other humans

This is your sole goal. To leverage enough information about you on the web so people seeking for something related to your predilection topic… find you first.

The question now is how can your company become foundable as f… ? 

There are around 8 billion answers to that question

Did you guess ? Human… People, folks, buddies, yes ! They are the solution you are looking for. They are the missing point about Search. 

Way before talking about entities, links, on-page optimization, conversion rate, lead generation or whatever, you need to focus on what really matters. Your audience and how you should discuss with her. 

That’s all. I constantly repeat it, there is no magic trick. Just logic. Your business exists because of people. So you must think and act, not as a business, but as ONE BIG PERSON. 

As my friend David Amerland nailed it :

The greatest challenge on the Web in the twenty-first century is to connect with your target audience in a way that enriches both them and you. For that to happen, beyond the glitz and gloss of “professional” styling you have to connect at a level that is personal enough to dispel misunderstandings, overcome perception barriers, and create the kind of trust that produces long-term business relationships. 

https://davidamerland.com/seo-blog/1189-the-empathy-curve-and-your-online-identity.html#gsc.tab=0

By playing this role, you will be naturally more empathetic and you will be more aware of what your audience could think and how she could act.

If we look closely, worshiping search engines will only earn you credibility for your website. You’ll fall into a kind of dependency on keywords and backlinks. Yes, it will bring you traffic. If you know how to do it right, it can even bring you more than you could imagine. But what will you do with it? How will you convert that traffic? What will you do with your top keywords in first position?

That’s where the limit lies. That’s why, by thinking ahead about how to approach people who could potentially buy your products or services, you give yourself a competitive advantage. Yes, you won’t take action right away. 

Yes, you’ll probably think you’re wasting your time. But the 2 or 3 months you spend studying the different platforms where your potential customers are, studying how they use those platforms, studying their language— all of that will ultimately give you many more points of connection to create content that aligns with their expectations.

Instead of just playing the brute force game with a keyword and hoping for results just because you’re ranking first.

It’s by analyzing the psychology and behavior of your audience that you’ll make an impact. Not by having a mechanical mindset.