Check a post against Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content before you publish it.
Put your lesson 6.2 outline on the table with a pen beside it. Then open the current version of the Google Search Central page on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content. Google Search Central is the part of Google's website for people who publish online. You'll check each section of your outline against the questions on that page and strengthen the weak sections before you write a full draft. Fixing a section is much easier while it is still a few lines in an outline than after it has become several paragraphs.
A lot of what turns up in search looks useful at first and turns out to be empty. You have probably read pages like this. The first paragraph only restates what you typed into the search box. The headings are stuffed with search phrases. The points under each heading are things you already knew. The page ends by asking you to buy something or sign up.
These pages usually come from writers who have never done what they describe. Their aim is to be found, and readers notice this quickly. A typical example is a post called "Ten tips for exam success" that lists advice any parent could have guessed.
Google's page draws a line between people-first content, which is made mainly to help people, and content made mainly to rank in search. The page is worth reading even if you don't care about search rankings, because it also tests whether a post serves its reader. A good editor would ask the same questions even if search engines did not exist.
The questions fall into three groups. The first group is about the content itself: does it offer original information or analysis, and does it go beyond the obvious? The second is about expertise: does it clearly show first-hand experience, such as having used the product, visited the place or done the work yourself? The third is about the reader afterwards: would they learn enough to reach their goal, and would they be satisfied with what they read?
The same page lists signs that content was made mainly to attract search visits:
choosing a topic only because it seems to be trending moving into a subject where you have no real expertise because you expect traffic from it producing large amounts of content on many topics in the hope that some pieces rank leaving readers needing to search again for a better answer
Small businesses most often slip into search-first writing through the content calendar. A slot needs filling, so a post gets written. A post like that tells no lies, but it gives the reader little and does nothing for the business's reputation. You met the remedy earlier in this module. A post that answers a question real customers have asked, puts the answer near the top and uses examples from your own work is people-first content almost by definition.
Google revises this page from time to time, and the exact wording matters. Read the current version before you publish, even if you have read it before.
Work through your outline section by section. For each one, ask whether it offers original information or analysis, whether it goes beyond the obvious, whether it shows first-hand experience, and whether the reader would learn enough to reach their goal and finish satisfied.
Be honest. A section is weak if it would not leave a reader better informed than a general article on the same subject would. Mark those sections with your pen.
Most weak sections can be fixed by adding a first-hand detail: something you have seen, done, measured or got wrong. Add it now, while the post is still an outline. If you leave it for the drafting stage, it tends to get left out.
Priya (an invented example) has taught upper primary maths for twelve years and runs the P5 and P6 classes at a tuition centre. Her outline had a section called "When practice at home is enough". When she checked it against the questions, she found it was generic. It said the same things any article on home practice would say. So she added a short case. A parent had tried tuition for their child, then switched to ten minutes of practice a day at home once the method clicked, and the student did well. With that case added, the section went from a list of general advice to something only Priya could have written.
Readers want to know who wrote a post and what qualifies that person to write it. Google's guidance asks whether the creator is clear, for example through a byline, which is the author's name shown where readers would look for it. It also asks whether the post gives information about the author's background.
Small business blogs often leave out author details, even though adding them takes about a minute. You need your name plus one or two lines about the experience that is relevant to the topic. A byline with Priya's name, her twelve years teaching upper primary maths and her P5 and P6 classes shows a parent right away why her view on tuition deserves attention.
Author details matter more on topics that affect people's money, health or safety. Google's guidance gives extra weight to experience, expertise and trustworthiness on these topics, and readers do the same. A post on insurance, investments, medical conditions or legal matters should show the writer's qualifications and experience clearly, and it must be accurate and up to date. For example, a financial adviser writing about CPF should say who they are and check every figure against the CPF Board's website on the day the post is published. If your topic involves money, health, safety or the law, check your facts and figures against official sources on the day the post goes live, even if you checked them while drafting.
A people-first post is easy to read. That means short paragraphs, concrete examples, and the plain words your reader would use themselves. This helps a busy parent scrolling on a phone at lunch, someone whose first language is not English, and someone who is simply tired.
Expect many of your readers to be on a phone. Seven lines of text on a laptop can fill a whole phone screen (a rough guide), and an unbroken block of text on a small screen is where people give up reading. Keep most paragraphs to three or four sentences. Use a list where the content really is a list, such as steps to follow or things to bring. Use prose where one idea builds on the one before it. Module 7 covers editing for clarity in detail.
Before you publish, open the post on your own phone and scroll through it from top to bottom. Note where you start to lose patience, and tighten those parts.
Your task: answer the people-first questions for each section of your outline. Wherever a section comes out weak, add one detail from your own experience now, before drafting begins. Don't leave it for later in the hope of slipping it in during drafting.
Go through the people-first questions in Google's helpful content guidance for your outline. Add one first-hand detail to each section that comes up weak.
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