The days of ‘gaming Google’ are over. For marketers fixated on finding the right SEO keyword blend for search engine success, Google’s new focus on quality is a huge warning shot to content creators everywhere. In case you missed it, alongside an updated algorithm that prioritises web pages optimised for mobile, Google has also evolved its search ranking formula to redefine what constitutes quality content and prioritise pages accordingly.
As content marketing reaches saturation point, driven by social media and an industry of marketers with budget to burn, Google’s emphasis on the need for quality is something of a game changer. Previously, many content marketers lived by the ‘bite size is better’ mantra, and that attention spans were short, so content should be shorter. Not so much now. In our previous article, we looked at Google’s new focus on penalising thin, duplicate content, pages with poor engagement and perhaps most importantly pages with insufficient depth. In this (suitably lengthy) piece we’ll look at five ways you can create content that is worthy of Google’s seal of approval.
- Deliver a great cross device user experience
Forget about just building a great desktop website. Your visitors should enjoy a brilliant experience on any device they use. Your goal should be to encourage them to spend as much time on page, and ultimately on site, so consider if your content is optimised to work on mobile devices, as well as desktop. Google uses time on page as an indicator of the quality of UX, so you should do some basic analytics work to understand which devices your visitors use and how that impacts their behaviour.
- Make content relevant and readable
Covering a subject in enough depth takes time and also word count. Therefore it stands to reason that longer articles, when relevant, will provide a more thorough evaluation of a subject. The language used should also be clear and concise, with limited industry jargon used. Word count and Flesch readability have both been consumed into Google’s ranking factors in 2015, so you should consider these in your written content.
- Understand quality versus relevancy when measuring content
If you’ve previously relied on page views as a benchmark of the success of your content then welcome to 2015. Measurement of success in the world of the web is not a fixed concept and it’s important to understand that we need to delve deeper than just how many people landed on our page. The perceived quality of content can be measured by evaluating factors such as bounce rate, time spent on page, length of video view-through, page scroll depth and numerous other engagement signals. All of these factors feature in Google’s new quality control ethos, so get ahead of the game and understand how relevant the content you produce actually is.
- Engaging language over keyword clutter
If you have to include the name of your brand/product three times in the opening paragraph of an article, as well as the title of the piece, your chances of producing an Orwellian classic will diminish significantly. While keywords still have their place, Google’s new move to quality content over technical box ticking should ensure more engaging prose, which can only be a good thing for consumers and the marketers tasked with writing it. Focus on clear, concise copy that a human would want to read rather than for the benefit of a robot.
- Backlinks not driving Google success
A recent study found that correlations between backlinks and search rankings are decreasing. Google is picking up patterns behind unnatural link building and reflecting this in its results. Focus your efforts on developing content that people will want to share on their social channels and with their online networks than link building.
This is not the death of SEO, but it does signal Google’s intent to weed out some of the less compelling content and drive better experiences for users on all devices. If you build good quality, sufficiently relevant and thorough content, and make it work on desktop and mobile devices then you will improve your search ranking.
The truth is that marketers are going to have to work a lot harder on two fronts. Firstly, to generate content that both engages their audience and reaches Google’s new search requirements. But before that, they must understand what success looks like and the kind engagement signals that mean content is having a direct impact.
The good news is that this will benefit their visitors, who will be able draw distinctions between the worthwhile and the not-so -interesting content. Meanwhile digital marketers will be able to get their teeth into more meaty content that really delivers value to their audience, rather than destroying their brain cells creating lightweight ‘please click me’ articles that provide little benefit to anyone.
Making better quality content also requires more time investment, which means it can cost more. For that reason, being able to determine ROI is more important than ever. Each piece is going to have to pull its weight in a way that wasn't so important in the short form, copy and paste world. If you want to know more about measurement and determining ROI, you can get your hands on a free 30-day trial of Netbiscuits Analytics which makes it easier than blasting out a 250-word blog.
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