The importance of quality content
Although Google’s algorithm is constantly evolving, one thing has remained relatively constant: the importance of quality content.
In 2013, Google implemented the your money or your life principles, recognizing pages with content related to a person’s well-being with higher page quality.
In 2014, it shared guidelines around EAT rewarding content that possessed these three qualities.
That’s why its new useful content update comes as no surprise, although it has caused a stir among content marketers and SEO specialists.
Given the site-wide impact of the update, any domain with a large amount of poor-quality content is likely to see its search engine rankings drop.
The update uses machine learning to determine whether a site’s content is useful, and sites that are deficient in this respect will be penalized accordingly.
This update is yet another reminder that quality must always be a top priority for anyone seeking to improve their search engine rankings.
Google’s new useful content update is yet another reminder that quality must always be a top priority.
5 tips for creating useful content
To produce useful content, you need to better understand your target audience, their search intent, who you’re targeting and what you’re creating.
1. Think about how audiences are frustrated by sites and, more specifically, by content.
They don’t like it:
- Visit Web pages that don’t meet their needs and desires.
- Pages whose content lacks insight or value
- Content that looks like it was created by a machine
- Content that doesn’t provide answers, empathy and/or added value.
- Content that is primarily aimed at search engine ranking and is not relevant.
Take a step back and really think about your target audience’s experience.
Once you’ve got it right, you can update or create content better aligned with their interests.
It’s also essential to ensure that your authors know the subject matter.
If they are not experts on the subject, make sure they do the necessary research to provide accurate information.
2. Follow these five steps to ensure your content attracts searchers (and higher rankings):
- Perform an audit.
Look for areas of your site, such as pages, articles and posts with out-of-date or useless content. - Monitor keywords and rankings.
See what content works and what doesn’t in real time and over a longer period. - Leverage data and information.
Understand where opportunities lie and align them with readers’ intentions. - Target audiences relevant to your business with content that meets their needs.
- Write better content, keeping in mind humanity and the need to be expert, authoritative and trustworthy.
Instructions on what to do are often followed by instructions on what not to do.
3. According to the new guidelines, you must avoid:
- AI-generated technologies that automate content creation around keywords.
- Target trending keywords outside your site’s core competencies.
- Repeat content from other websites or manufacturer descriptions
- Over-optimization of keywords on pages
- Clickbait titles that don’t match what the page offers
- Pages that force the user to go back and perform another search to obtain more details.
- Summarize what other content says without adding value.
By following these rules, you can create content that is attractive, informative and relevant to your target audience.
And that’s a big help in the eyes of Google.
4. Text-based image generators: Job killers or friendly robot assistants?
How to use AI-generated content the right way (and avoid the downsides).
Thinking outside the search box for SEO keyword opportunities.
Potential impact of useful content updates on different industries.
Some business sectors may feel the effects of this update more than others.
According to Google, the sectors most affected by this update include online educational material, entertainment, shopping and technology-related content.
The role of data-driven insights is a key factor in content performance and results in the era of useful content.
For example, if you look at shopping (e-commerce), SEO data reveals patterns and informs content marketers where to focus useful, quality content.
As this graph shows, article and category pages have the highest click-through rates based on the number of keywords, indicating that these are crucial content pages.
5. Finding a useful balance
It’s how SEO and content work together in the future that matters most.
You need to strike a balance between content that meets user needs and content that can be discovered.
Focus on data-driven, intent-based modeling, write from people for people, and think about how you optimize.
In the past, organizations could get away with producing large quantities of low-quality content to game the search ranking system and attract attention.
Today’s algorithms are more sophisticated.
It’s essential that organizations invest in high-quality, human-generated content.
Marketers who take the time to think, for example by using qualitative research and empathy, about their users or customers are more likely to succeed in the long term.
Only time will tell exactly how this update will change things.
It needs a few months to roll out and gather speed, so we can see the wider effects and get a better picture for the future.
Stay tuned.
