Content quality [cheatsheet]

If you never read another article about SEO or advice on how to optimize your site for search, this is what I would want you to know.

The way SEOs approach understanding SEO is based on:

1. what patterns we actually see in Google results
2. what we know about how search engines function
3. what Google says they optimize for (and our interpretations of that)

Below I’ve made a cheatsheet for ball parking your content quality from what Google says they optimize for in returning search results

(Spoiler alert – its users who ultimately define content quality.)

I organized characteristics/questions by site and page specific high and low quality indicators from a now widely cited list from 2011 on the Google Webmaster Central (GWC) blog.

The author, Amit Singhal, a previous Google SVP and Head of Search, calls it, “the kinds of questions we ask ourselves as we write algorithms that attempt to assess site quality. Think of it as our take at encoding what we think our users want.”

Article-level quality measures

High quality content is

• expert
  • written by an expert on the topic
  • you would trust the info
• unique / valuable
  • insightful / interesting beyond the obvious
  • original content, info, reporting, research, or analysis
  • provides substantial value when compared to other pages
  • would bookmark, share, recommend
• complete
  • complete / comprehensive description of the topic
  • describes both sides of a story
• polished
  • could see article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book
  • appears edited well

Low quality content is

• “short, unsubstantial”
• “lacking in helpful specifics”
• “shallow in nature”
• “appears sloppy or hastily produced”
• “low attention to detail”
• has spelling, stylistic, or factual errors

Rinse and repeat on your content habits, and watch indicators of quality (good and bad) compound across your site:

Site-level quality measures (trust/authority)

High quality sites have

• topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site (see additional notes in below quote)
• users would recognize site as authoritative source on topic
• high quality control – pages produced with “great care” and “attention to detail”
• users would give credit card info to site

Low quality sites:

• low / no quality control on content
• individual pages “don’t get as much attention or care”
• “duplicate, overlapping, or redundant” pages with “same or similar topics”
• “mass-produced” (many authors, multi-site networks)
• content driven by “guessing what might rank well” (don’t over-optimize)
• users would complain when they see pages
• excessive amount of ads

More recent emphasis on quality as being what users think quality is

Every so often, someone from Google makes a clarifying statement about “content quality.” Now, the above notes from the bullet list are from 2011, a long time ago. But this all holds up.

A month ago, John Mueller (Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google – sort of the resident PR guy for SEO type questions) was asked again about this (2.5 minutes):

try to focus on your users and figure out what their needs are and what you can do to provide something that is really unique and compelling and different from everyone else in that area that you’re active in.

Short version: create content more like Google create its products, by baking a research driven understanding your users into how you create content:

He further recommends user studies, and inviting your users to give hard feedback of what they want, especially in cases you may not agree.