Google Cares About the Quality of Your Content
It’s easy to get pulled into the trap of thinking of search engines like Google as nothing more than computer systems that you need to appease with your content. You start thinking exclusively about statistics and numbers: how many keywords to use, how to break them up, what the ideal word count looks like, where you should put your links, etc. And let’s be clear: All of this does matter. It’s all an important part of SEO, and it’s a complex process to get it right. But don’t think that these details are all that matter, as if you can write any content you want and rank well as long as you check off the right boxes. The quality of your content still matters.
How do we know? It’s right from Google itself. In their starter guide for SEO, they specifically note that the content must be “factually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive.” There is a clear emphasis on having authoritative content that is well-written and created specifically for the reader — not for a computer. You’re not just supposed to check those boxes and have the right elements in place. You’re supposed to craft excellent, helpful content that gives readers what they want, and then you can make sure that it satisfies the computer algorithm.
Google’s Example
To make this even more clear, let’s take a look at Google’s own example that they use in the Starter Guide. When writing a recipe page for a cooking website, they say that it should not just be a bland description of the food or a list of the ingredients. It needs to be a “complete recipe that is easy to follow.”
The takeaway here is that the emphasis is on the reader, not the computer. What does the human reader expect and need from your site? Does it give that to them in a manner that is as simplistic as possible — this changes depending on subject matter — and that also provides them with the comprehensive information they may need? Does it answer their questions? Is it helpful? If someone else asked them for the recipe, would that person talk glowingly about your site?
Google’s goal is to help readers find the information they want and get something out of it. A site that is messy, confusing, chaotic or lacking in critical information just isn’t going to rank as well, even if it has all of the right keywords, the right word count and all of the proper links. Don’t think about the computer algorithm checking off each box in turn, but about the experience someone has on your site. If that’s positive, the rest will follow.
Plus, quality content is almost always going to rank higher anyway because it gets more clicks, longer dwell times, more repeat visitors and more links back to it from other sites. All of these things impact how Google sees your page, but other humans make those decisions. When you write with them in mind, you get the best long-term results.
We Can Help
There is a lot that goes into creating the right pages for your site. Don’t look at your content like an afterthought. It’s not. It’s really the driving force behind your reader engagement and your success. Here at Content Customs, we can help you create the type of high-caliber content you need and we can make sure that it satisfies the algorithms, uses the right keywords and works well from a strict SEO standpoint. We do it all, and that’s when your site thrives. Just give us a call today to get started.
