Quality Content Is More Important Than Ever to Google SEO

Posted by Sandy in SEO

May
20

Everyone wants their website to rank better with Google. After all, Google is the king of all search engines…

On February 24, 2011, Google changed the formula it uses to generate search results, with a change code named “Panda.” In regards to these changes, Google states:

Our recent update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites, so the key thing for webmasters to do is make sure their sites are the highest quality possible. We looked at a variety of signals to detect low quality sites. Bear in mind that people searching on Google typically don’t want to see shallow or poorly written content, content that’s copied from other websites, or information that are just not that useful. In addition, it’s important for webmasters to know that low quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole. … Removing low quality pages or moving them to a different domain could help your rankings for the higher quality content.

This part is really important: If part of your site has what Google considers low quality content, the ranking of the rest of the site could suffer from the Panda impact. The good thing is that the recent change will provide better rankings for high quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

How Does Google Work?

Let’s get a little insight into how Google works: When you enter your search query, Google’s Googlebot (web crawler) takes this query, then analyzes billions of web pages in a fraction of a second to see which pages are relevant to the search request. They then apply more than 200 signals, and their patented PageRank algorithm (which is top secret) to determine which sites will appear in the search results. Of the possibly millions of pages that match the query, Google claims only about 1,000 are displayed, based on their overall importance and query-specific relevance. Click here to view a detailed map of how Google works

Tips to Ensure Your Site Has Quality Content

The ‘Google Gods’ tell us that interesting, compelling, informative content is the #1 factor in website ranking. With that in mind, here are a few things to keep in mind when writing content for your website:

Make sure your text is well written, easy to read, and without spelling or gramatical errors.
Keep your content organized – break your content up into logical chunks, and use headings and lists where appropriate. This will help readers scan your content and find what they want faster.
Create fresh, unique content on a regular basis. Try to offer something different on your site, or a different spin on a popular topic. New content not only brings people back to your site, but it attracts new visitors as well. This can be done on your website, via a blog, etc…
Be sure to offer an appropriate amount of quality content. Little or no content can affect your page ranking, which can affect your entire site’s ranking.
When writing your content, think about words a user might type into Google to find you, your services, or a piece of your content. Remember, there are all kinds of people searching for your content – people who know your industry, and people who don’t – and they will use different terms to find the same thing. To illustrate, someone unfamiliar with the Prosthetic industry’s terms might search for an ‘arificial limb manufacturer’, but someone who knows the field would search for a ‘prosthetist.’ Try to think outside the box. Anticipate these different search terms and use a good mix of them when writing your content.
Google’s Keyword Tool can be helpful in discovering different keyword variations.