Clarifying High Quality Content for SEO

In the social media Internet era new questions are being asked in regards to what qualifies as high quality content. For well over a decade content has been king in the world of search optimization. Without it, page one ranking is pretty far-fetched.

Now that users are weighing in on social media and Google’s listening, SEOs are wondering if their opinions are going to influence what’s considered high quality content.

Google Clears Up Questions Surrounding Social Influence on High Quality Content

In one of the most recent Google Webmaster Central videos a number of topics were discussed, including high quality content. Given that content is one the most heavily weighed factors in search, every time Google makes an algorithm update or the online landscape changes, website owners naturally wonder how it will affect their page’s rankings.

Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, John Mueller, reassured everyone that they largely still gauge the quality of content on the same parameters that were set with Panda. The growth of social media, and even the latest Google update that added review rankings to local Knowledge Panels, shouldn’t influence quality assessments.

Mr. Mueller did offer up a few suggestions for all those that want to increase the quality of their content.

• 1.Read the Google blog post put out after Panda that outlines 23 questions about content. Answer those questions to begin increasing the quality. 
• 2.Have someone you trust go through your website and provide feedback on the content as well as overall user-friendliness. 
• 3.Check out the content on your top competitors’ websites. 
• 4.Take the type of website you have into consideration. 

Engaging content that’s 100% original and well written is always going to look good in the eyes of Google. It’s also going to outlive algorithm updates, which makes it worth the investment of time and/or money.

Mr. Mueller also reiterated that content is about more than unique text on a page. That’s not enough to get a high quality ranking. Google has progressively improved its technology so that spiders read more like normal users. Therefore, the content has to be something a reader would consider high quality (i.e. few if any grammatical errors, good organization and flow, useful information).

You have to also look at your website as a whole. The navigation, design and performance all matter in the grand scheme of things. Quality content is a top priority, but Google uses over 200 signals to determine search rankings.

See if your website is hitting all the search signals with an SEO audit. Our search experts can do a full analysis to find out where content and technical components can be improved. Once your site is running on all cylinders you’ll be better positioned to receive rave social reviews.

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By Michael Ramirez
SearchRPM Founder

Michael Ramirez is the Founder of SearchRPM, an Austin, TX based search marketing company that’s well-versed in Search Engine Optimization best practices. You can follow Michael Ramirez on Twitter @openmic0323 or on Google+ to see what he’s up to next.