A Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy often contains some actions to a website’s content, either in terms of improving what’s already there or creating new high-quality articles. The reason we do this is because it helps websites rank higher for certain keywords depending on how much time and energy goes into making quality pieces.
Search engine optimization is often misunderstood by many people. In the case of content, any website owner may ask themselves how much text do they need to make Google and other search engines notice them? Do pages with little speech get remembered less than those with more?
Let’s analyse this predicament.
How Search Engines Work
Search engines like Google are often the key to getting new audiences. When someone types a query, web crawlers look for potential relevant results and bring them back in SERP with particular order.
Whether your page makes the cut depends on a few different things:
- Is it indexed?
- Is it relevant to the search query?
- Does it match user intent?
If you have a relevant page on your website, then it will be included in search engine results. However, the position of that link depends entirely upon how SEO-friendly the site is.
Search engines have algorithms that automatically determine a page’s position in the SERP, and while the code isn’t public, we do know of the criteria Google and other similar platforms consider for ranking:
- Page load speed
- Navigation
- High-quality links
- Mobile-friendliness
- And yes, content quality
Search engines are always changing their algorithm to provide users with the best experience possible. That is why when there’s an update, new ranking factors may be added or some that were less important before could gain more importance in a search result now.
There are a lot of different factors that search engines take into account when ranking websites, and the content itself isn’t always what will make or break your SEO efforts.
When It Comes to Content, It’s Quality Over Quantity
The difference between a popular website and an article on the news is that one of these will have much more content than the other. Containing fewer pages means there’s less time spent developing each page which leads to poor quality writing as well as shorter articles for your readers’ sake.
Content is important to help website owners achieve their particular goals. In the case of news sites, it’s about informing a certain audience and so here you would need content volume for that purpose; but if your product page only has one picture with some short description then this may be enough too.
The amount of content on a page is determined by what it’s supposed to do. Even your industry may have something to say in this matter, like the healthcare field which prefers long-form copy because you can give users as much information without feeling too overwhelming or chatty about things that don’t really matter for their needs at hand – which could be anything from finding out if they’re sick all methodically down through how treatment works.
The tech industry is all about efficiency. When you’re writing an informative blog post or making some specs for your company’s website, it doesn’t really matter how much chit-chat there happens to be on the page– Google focuses more heavily on quality than quantity when deciding who gets ranked higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google’s Content Requirements
Google has become the most popular search engine in use today, so it’s only natural that we focus our attention on what Google expects from content when they rank sites.
The number one thing you should know about SEO is that Google wants original content. If your website has tons of copied articles with nothing new posted in months, this will get noticed by their algorithms and could result in being kicked out from the index entirely.
Some practices Google really hates can include:
Automatically-generated content
Interested in generating content that has a hook and draws people in? There are plenty of apps or programs you can find for this, like Hootsuite. These will not add any additional value beyond what’s already there but they often only contain strings rather than complete sentences – so keep reading.
Thin affiliate pages
Affiliate websites have product descriptions that exist across the entire affiliate network. However, be careful which program you choose as there may not be any original content on their pages and this will affect your rankings in search engine results.
Scraped content
Copying text from other sites is not only considered plagiarism but also a copyright infringement that could get your account deactivated. You might even have legal troubles because of this.
Low-quality blog posts
A blog post created just for the sake of adding more keywords is like a junk food diet. It may seem appealing at first, but you’ll eventually regret it when your website’s traffic falls due to neglecting real content.
Sneaky 301 redirects
By redirecting the search engine to a different page, you can trick them into thinking that your content is about one thing. But thanks again for taking us someplace else entirely.
Doorway pages
Some people create pages just for the purpose of ranking high in a search engine. These are known as “doorway” pages and they often have low-quality content on them with only one goal: pulling users into another webpage irrelevant to what you want out there.
Hidden links
Links are essential in SEO and can be signaled with anchor text so the public is able to click on them. However, some people hide links just for search engines to see them but not other members of society – this betrays their trustworthiness as a reputable source.
The way digital marketing efforts are currently done is a shame because the lack of user experience they produce seems to be what’s getting in Google’s way.
How to Improve Page SEO
The first thing you can do to improve your content is taking a look at the words and numbers. You might be surprised by what’s really important when it comes down to just one piece of text or graphic, even if people think they’re looking at something more significant like an essay! What can we do to improve what we have?
Quite a few things, actually:
- One way to combat duplicate content issues is by using the Canonical Tag. This allows search engines so they can more easily rank pages and reduce time spent on finding similar material, which in turn leads them towards your website’s ultimate goal: customer engagement.
- Focus on internal linking – your content is a great opportunity to support navigation, so consider adding some internal links when the copy warrants it.
- Run a diagnostics – Google Search Console and Screaming Frog are great tools to test your website or page for any SEO mishaps, including those relating content.
- Use essential keywords – Your content is an opportunity for you to use valuable keywords that users type in the search query. You should identify some essential words and integrate them into your page.
- Bring visibility to your content – You can also promote your content by running a social media campaign or email newsletter to increase the visibility of the websites.
To Sum up
You may have heard that SEO has lots of rules, but they’re not always black or white. Many website owners would love it if Google announced the 300 word limit for web pages in their next algorithm update – we don’t think this will be part though.
You should focus on the content, not SEO. As long as you provide something of value to your readers and adapt accordingly for Google’s requirements then they won’t care about volume.
If you need help with your website’s SEO, book a free 30-minute strategy session with Australian Internet Advertising now to get a taste of what your SEO efforts should look like.
