SEO News You Can Use: What Google Considers as 'Quality Content' | SEOblog.com

SEO News You Can Use: What Google Considers as ‘Quality Content’

SEO News You Can Use

In a Webmaster Hangout, Google’s John Mueller was asked to explain what the search engine considers quality content. Mueller deferred by saying that content creators and publishers can identify what quality content is much better than Google can. But that’s not a particularly helpful answer, considering Google places content under a proverbial magnifying glass. Thankfully, Mueller clarified what digital marketers need to focus on to rank high on search pages and get Google’s nod of approval.

“Quality content” is bandied about online and in all digital marketing circles. Every Google update tackles content and highlights it as a surefire way to stay in Google’s good books. Even with Google’s BERT update, the introduction of RankBrain and other Natural Language Processing solutions, nothing seems to thwart the need for quality content across industries and online platforms.

Since the latest algorithm updates, Google started ranking search results based on user intent. The search giant now prompts content creators to develop useful, relevant and user-centric SEO content. The big shift focuses on addressing users’ search intent and providing a better online experience.

During the Webmaster Hangouts session, Mueller expanded on what quality content is all about. He answered one of the most common yet intriguing questions that every marketer has: How does Google decide who has created higher quality content if two websites are publishing on the same topic? 

“With regards to quality content, in general, this is something where you as the site owner probably know a lot more about what is actually quality content for your specific kind of site,” Mueller said. “What is quality? It’s a subjective opinion of excellence. There aren’t really any patents or research papers about creating a subjective opinion of quality across a range of topics. Something like authoritativeness has been researched. Authority is about accuracy and factual truth. A site that acquires links and other signals of affirmation can be said to be authoritative. A concept like quality is abstract and subjective. Search, in my opinion, is not about providing subjective answers but about providing useful answers that are accurate in terms of solving the question or need that underlies the search query, also known as search intent.”

In summary, Mueller encourages marketers and content creators to focus on how to answer user queries in the best way possible. He underpins being helpful and remaining relevant to your target audience. If you get a favorable response from your target readers, then you’re on the right track. This means you’ve successfully answered your target users’ search intent. The idea links in neatly with the formula of writing for informational, navigational or transactional intent and then gunning for the featured snippet. 

You can read more about this discussion and the key takeaways here, or watch the Google hangout here.

More SEO News You Can Use

The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Everyone, Including Google, Staying Home: Google has put out an announcement that its UK and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) offices shut down and all employees in these regions work remotely. Google has also advised its North American employees to follow through. Meanwhile, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter have also recommended their staff to work remotely and remain in their homes. 

Coronavirus is Disrupting the MarTech Sector and Causing a Large Decline in Revenue: Ginny Marvin unpacks the impact felt by Silicon Valley giants as COVID-19 takes hold of the global community. This article is packed with stats about what companies can expect in the second and third quarters of this year. Check out her post to get an idea of what market analysts speculate will come to pass as we battle global health and safety.

Customer Reviews and Feedback Are More Impactful Than Ever Before: Customer reviews impact how your business is viewed online. They provide valuable feedback that can be leveraged to improve your reputation and business operations. Plus, Google is watching how and what your customers say about your company. Studies show that consumers read reviews before making a purchase. If your brand has negative reviews, you end up losing a ton of potential customers. Here’s how to handle your online reputation and reviews.

The Digital Marketing Depot Has Released its In-depth Marketing Guide and It Looks Like 76 Pages of SEO Gold: The guide is called ‘Enterprise SEO Tools for Content Marketing, Search Intelligence, UX and More: A Marketer’s Guide.‘ In the guide, you’ll find reviews on platforms, trends, challenges and opportunities. The guide tackles implementation and integration concerns and examines the key drivers of SEO tactics and platform adoption. This report is born from a series of in-depth interviews conducted in January this year with industry heavyweights and search experts at the forefront of innovation.

Edwin Toonen From Yoast Analyzed the User Journey (Commonly Related to Purchasing) and How It Relates to SEO: This article considers the role of SEO in the user journey. While the end goal of the traditional user journey is pretty much always a purchase, do you have the right SEO tactics in place to optimize the journey at every point? Read on to better define this relationship.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop-shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

SEO News You Can Use: Google Adds “Your Growing Content” To Search Console Insights

Jun 05, 2023 by Arrabon Toribio

Content creators are treated with another Google Search Console upgrad...

SEO News You Can Use: Google Unfolds New Info on Topic Authority Ranking System

May 30, 2023 by Arrabon Toribio

In an effort to "share more about how ranking works," Google published...

SEO News You Can Use: OpenAI CEO Offers Insights Into AI Oversight

May 22, 2023 by Arrabon Toribio

It seems government regulators found an ally with OpenAI CEO and ChatG...