Not long ago, standard SEO advice was to include a specific keyword at least once every 100 words in your website articles to make them rank better on Google.

This led to a practice called keyword stuffing — the result of Google’s early algorithm favoring pages that repeated the main keyword multiple times. People discovered that the more often they added the keyword, the higher their articles could rank.

The outcome? Millions of unreadable, low-quality articles cluttered the web. Google eventually adjusted its algorithm and started penalizing sites that overused keywords. What human readers hated soon became what Google’s algorithm hated, too.

Around the same time, headlines like these flooded the internet: “12 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Cat (Number 7 Will Shock You)”. They worked for a while, attracting clicks and views. But once readers realized that Buzzfeed-like listicles were mostly fluff designed to generate traffic rather than offer real value, engagement plummeted.

I can’t prove that Google adapted its algorithm in this case as well—but I certainly adapted. Whenever I see an article with a typical clickbait list headline, I skip it. I even avoid returning to that website altogether.

The blogs I continue to read are usually one-person sites. The authors behind them feel real and authentic. They write about their lives, work, and hobbies as if they were talking to a friend. In short: they write for humans, not machines.

And that’s the best long-term strategy. Think about it:

Google (and other search engines) are ultimately trying to connect readers with writers. Its algorithm aims to understand what humans want to read—and over time, it’s getting better at imitating human interests.

On top of that, social media has become a major driver of website traffic. And on social media, it’s humans—not algorithms—who share links to your blog.

Another trend is that the traditional era of SEO is coming to an end. Now, everything is shifting toward optimizing content for AI. But what are tools like ChatGPT trying to do? They’re designed to think and respond like humans. So, in the end, writing for humans also means writing for AI.

Finally, you don’t just want traffic, clicks, leads, or sales—you want an audience. And that audience is made up of humans. So why not write directly for them instead of trying to game algorithms and machines? After all, Google, Twitter, and ChatGPT exist to bring human eyes to your work. And you want these humans to follow you (and even buy your products and services).

What’s the point of generating massive traffic with an SEO-optimized article if it’s so poorly written that no real human actually wants to read it? You’re not going to gain a following like this and you’re not going to earn the trust that is needed to sell books or other products.

In the end, writing for humans will always be the best approach.