Google Defines Good Content

20 replies
  • SEO
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This is exactly what we've been talking about for years. Provide good content, get good search results. Don't bother trying to game the system.

It was terrific of Google to finally post something definitive.
#content #defines #good #google
  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    So, basically, Google finally decided to explain what common sense should have told anyone with a minute's thought on the subject?


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  • Nothing new here, just the same thing being repeated over and over.

    Just writing good content isn't going to do it, not always. In very rare cases it could work out due to word-of-mouth, but not often.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jayshankar Dangre
    There is nothing to notice there, it's the same old thing about good content, must read for noobs.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    It's their internet apparently so we better do what they say or we're not allowed to be on it with our sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      It's their internet apparently
      I believe you misspelled 'index.'


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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    It is common sense but still a good article for anyone that's wondering why they are struggling to rank. Although it's common sense, there are a lot of people out there that just don't use common sense and need to read this!
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Morgan
      This is common sense for experienced marketers and SEOs who have been in the game a while. I've been doing SEO for 10 years so this is extremely basic, however I consult and work with people new to the biz, and they are extremely focused on (useless and outdated) tricks like meta tags, keyword loading and white text on white backgrounds.

      Google has to put out things like this for people like them to try and steer them in the right direction. When I get a client who mentions these crap trick tactics I always send them to the Google webmaster guidelines page as a reference to back up what I'm trying to tell them.

      And Jason I agree good content isn't the end all solution for SEO, but it is a key part of the overall picture. You can do every trick in the world, buy a million backlinks and get #1 spots for high competition terms, but if your content is junk and your design is crap they will just hit the back button and go somewhere else. Content deserves focus and refining if anything to keep the few visitors you do get until things pick up.
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      • Originally Posted by Jeremy Morgan View Post

        This is common sense for experienced marketers and SEOs who have been in the game a while. I've been doing SEO for 10 years so this is extremely basic, however I consult and work with people new to the biz, and they are extremely focused on (useless and outdated) tricks like meta tags, keyword loading and white text on white backgrounds.

        Google has to put out things like this for people like them to try and steer them in the right direction. When I get a client who mentions these crap trick tactics I always send them to the Google webmaster guidelines page as a reference to back up what I'm trying to tell them.

        And Jason I agree good content isn't the end all solution for SEO, but it is a key part of the overall picture. You can do every trick in the world, buy a million backlinks and get #1 spots for high competition terms, but if your content is junk and your design is crap they will just hit the back button and go somewhere else. Content deserves focus and refining if anything to keep the few visitors you do get until things pick up.
        Sorry I didn't mean that you shouldn't have good content, only that good content is not going to rank on its own merit.

        That is if were talking about ranking on the search engines. On the other-hand, if you have a good following, or, gain interest through social mediums, those could help slightly with the rankings.

        Naturally you gain backlinks from others when you gain viral status.

        Getting to my initial point. Yes, you should write the best content you can, or hire others to do so, but being a new site, or a site with no following, just good content isn't going to be enough if organic rankings is what you want.
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    So, basically, Google finally decided to explain what common sense should have told anyone with a minute's thought on the subject?
    Yeah, something like that.

    But now we have a link to point to whenever anybody asks What makes a good website?

    The only problem with the list, they forget to mention always including kitten pictures. Everybody loves kittens.

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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      Now if only Google's algorithm could actually tell the difference...
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  • Profile picture of the author Joshua Rigley
    Banned
    Out of all of the points, I think this summarizes everything nicely: "Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?"

    If it fits the above criteria, chances are it's high quality content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
    Feel "safe" giving credit card info to?

    How is that going to be applied? Some scam sites out there would fool anybody not an experienced webmaster ... including a thread here about the FTC crackdown on "fake" (though very realistic) news sites.

    Factual info is one thing - but how does one determine -"enthusiasm" ... mathematically (algorithmically)?

    "outsourced to creators ..."

    Ever read some of the major "news" outlets?

    Does this mean paid "creators", kind of like "journalists" are now a bad thing, regardless of their knowledge on a topic?

    Just seems to me like a good "wish list" at this point.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Franklin
    Interesting thread, the one thing I believe that Google has sort of forgotten along with a great deal of other online service providers, Is that Google does not actually define good web content, (People Do) Google makes money by charging advertising fees for its search engine, and other web ventures.

    However no matter how much money Google makes if people do not buy products that are advertised, then Advertisers will stop buying advertising space on google it is as simple as that, when people go to bing.com to get better more relevant search results, what happened?

    Big changes resulted, which proves that people are the driving force behind the search engines, while executives may at times have some difficulty in determining, how the "real world operates" regular people do not have that problem.

    When I see companies such as EZA and other user generated content providers ASSume that google has defined what is good and what is not good, I have to laugh because again real people are the only consumers that matter, now perhaps some over paid executives with little or no practical experience in managing a large corporation may "think" they know more than the consumers that really drive their business, but eventually consumer trends will define what is good content and what is not good content and the sooner companies like EZA and ehow, understand and act on that knowledge the sooner benefits can be realized.

    Google is also as guilty as these other websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert20
    Having good content I think has been the best SEO you can do, but I do think that even with spun content you can still rank high in the SERPs
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Thanks for the link. I should follow Google's blog more closely, but then a fellow Warrior usually keeps us updated.

    Sounds like Google will be manually reviewing more sites if they expect to rank according to that list. That's not a bad idea in my view since I try to write decent content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jermaine Tabor
    If you were pitching in person you would use your best pitch so why would you slack online?
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad789
    Fantastic post - exactly what the quality trainers have been saying all along.

    The "thread" that I see in the google post is one of "comfort" - would I be comfortable "doing this?"

    If the answer is not - black hat, trick, spin, or some other knock-off - I answer No and actually feel better about my work. Doing it right always took longer with my Dad but - you know what - I was always proud of the results.

    Take your time, build the list, do it right, earn respect and confidence of the reader - that following will be the true reward for all that work - and delivering quality products and services to them will enrich them and you.

    Best of luck - great idea to post here - very helpful!

    Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    In reading through that list, I find every item to be so arbitrary that two people looking at the same article could determine two exactly different conclusions based on that list.
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    Tim Pears

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    • Profile picture of the author Dellco
      It was a good read, I guess, even if that list only seems to apply for big keywords and niches, mostly.

      So Panda is just 1 out of 500 improvements this year?

      Should be interesting.
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  • Profile picture of the author phpnetpro
    I wouldn't say that good content alone will get good search engine rankings for you, but I can assure you that it is a large part of it.

    The latest "craze" of products that everyone is trying to push these days is any kind of software that will automate your work for you, especially content writing.

    The sad truth is that marketers are really just playing on your desires to sell products that will never do any good.

    A long time ago, I decided to stop trying to come up with a trick or a way to automate success and just dig in to do the work. Believe it or not, but that simple decision changed my life and I've been working online ever since.

    You do need to know some SEO basics to get good rankings, but you don't need to know any special tricks. Build a site about a specific subject and load it with targeted pages of 100% unique content - then you will see the results that you've been after.

    I regularly make new niche websites that are able to get into the top ten of Google within a couple of weeks of being created, which obviously leads to a lot of sales. My secret is that I do all of my work myself and will only put original content that I write on my sites.
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