How Google’s Quality Guidelines Impact Your Business

Your website needs quality content if you want it to survive. It might sound a little dire, but it’s true. In the old days of reaching an audience on the internet, you could right very low-quality content and it would still sit high in the rankings.

But, if you’re still using this outdated strategy and your blog posts are nothing more than a vehicle for your keywords, then it’s time for a change.

If you’re reliant on Google for any aspect of your business, then you’ll want to stay on their good side.

Below we show you how their latest quality guidelines will affect your business and existing content strategy, and give you a few recommendations for how you can implement their standards into your own content efforts.

What Are Their Latest Quality Guidelines?

Back in November Google released their latest content quality guidelines. Recently, that first document has gone through some updates to pare down the document.

Although the best we can offer is an “interpretation” of the document. The overall focus will be always be directed back towards the word quality.

We spell out a few main features of this document below:

1. Expertise, Authority, and Trust

The biggest changes coming with this update have to do with how you showcase your expertise and authority and the kind of content you’re going to write.

• Expertise refers to you actually being an expert in the topic at hand. Google’s human raters will come in and check to ensure your real-world expertise actually lines up with the kind of topics you’re writing about.
• Authority will be determined by external sources that validate your expertise and reputation. This can be things like having third-party credentials, or even strong relevant backlinks.
• If Google sends a user to a low-value web page, then they lose trust. In order to become more trustworthy you must cultivate a solid user experience.

2. Focus on Mobile

If you’ve read any of our previous blogs, then you know we have a strong belief that mobile will be the future.

Google seems to agree with us. Almost all of their algorithm updates have been pushing towards an increased emphasis on mobile, and these new guidelines are no different.

3. Emphasis on Local

Google has renamed local content to “Visit-in-Person” content.

If you have a small local business, then it’ll be incredibly valuable for you to create content that helps to educate your local visitors and highlight aspects of your local community.

Produce locally-relevant content and your business, and rankings, will thank you for it.

How To Upgrade Your Content Strategy

Obviously, Google is placing a large emphasis on how you showcase your authority. Below we offer three ways you can help to show Google that you’re a topic-level expert and have the necessary authority.

1. Highlight Your Authority

Whenever you get the chance to showcase your authority, make sure you do it.

Your authority can be conveyed by the quality of your content and your story. But, it can also be shown by reviews, testimonials, and strong backlinks from trusted sources.

2. Showcase Credentials

The credentials you’ll need will differ depending upon the space you’re writing in. For instance, if you’re offering medical advice, then you’ll need all of the proper credentials, while if you’re writing a humor column it might not matter that much.

3. Always Be Building Trust

Trust is built when your website and your content work together. If you have an outdated website that makes it hard for the user to actually read your content, this will only decrease your trust.

Make sure your website focuses on the user and provides a stellar experience for them.

This means your site must load fast, have a design that inspires confidence, and be incredibly readable.

As Google’s quality guidelines continue to evolve it’s important to align your strategy with what they’re looking for. We hope the tips above will help you create a stronger content strategy that’ll empower your business well into the future.

If you’re interested in a content strategy that’ll help take your business to new heights, then get in touch with our creative team. We love to help businesses across the Jacksonville areas excel online