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Just as I was preparing for an upcoming webinar on How to Create a Blogger Page, and Get Started with Content Marketing, this article from Search Engine Land popped up in my Google Alerts:
… the company[Google] told Search Engine Land that while no spam-related update had happened, there were changes to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals.
Source: The Quality Update: Google Confirms Changing How Quality Is Assessed, Resulting In Rankings Shake-Up
The article talks about yet another algorithm update by Google on how it determines what types of Websites/content will rank higher in search results.
Why this matters regarding the subject of my upcoming workshop — if you want your business to be found online, you’ve got to have quality content. And in order to have content, you’ve got to start blogging.
What is content?
For online marketing purposes, content most often is in the form of blog posts or articles that will give your target customer useful, educational information relating to your business industry. If you’re in real estate, it’s not just published listings of homes, but also blogs posts about the area you serve. The community, the culture, the lifestyle, the real estate market in general. It’s information that your audience seeks before making a purchase decision. Content also includes videos, images, infographics, and more.
For your content to be found online, it’s got to be of high quality.
The article by Barry Schwartz ( @rustybrick) goes on to say that Google representatives did not name the latest update, so Search Engine Land gave it the moniker: the “Quality Update,” and referred readers to a 2011 post by Google on the last officially announced algorithm change — the Panda update.
Here’s what Google had to say about how the Panda update affected ranking of Websites four years ago:
Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites
Source:More guidance on building high-quality sites
By user experience, Google means the quality of the site as a whole: the content, the design, a users ability to understand and navigate the site.
What does this mean to you, the business owner who wants their website to be found in search results?
In addition to having a well designed Website, you must also focus on publishing high quality content. The best way to do this is by blogging. If you don’t have a blog set up yet, you might want to check out my upcoming free Webinar that will show you how to set up a Blogger page, and write your first post. You can sign up here.
Once you get started blogging, follow the guidelines from Google below on what consists of high quality content:
- Would you trust the information presented in this article?
- Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
- Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
- Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
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