High Quality Content: What It Is & Why Your Website Needs It for SEO
You’ve likely heard people refer to “high-quality content” online. This phrase is typically used in reference to website content, search engine optimization, or SEO. You’ll often hear people say that if you want to rank high in Google’s search index (or organic rankings) then you need to produce high-quality content. But what does that mean?
Content should be unique. Most importantly, “high quality” content shouldn’t be plagiarized or lifted off of another website (or copied from your website or anywhere else you’ve used that content online). That criteria alone won’t qualify your content as “high quality.” But it is a start.
More and more, Google is looking at the authority rating of the content producer. In the old days, Google wanted to know that a specific website on which content was published was a credible website. They still do, to a degree. However, Google is also now looking at the reputation of the individual author of content. In other words, if you regularly write a column for a well-known and well-respected website in your niche, then simply being published on that site isn’t enough. You need to maintain a credible reputation everywhere else online or Google may not see your content as high quality.
How do you do that?
That’s a good question, but it doesn’t have a simple answer. Here are a few key principles to use.
Your website should be free of malware. You don’t want your content associated with spam, blacklisted websites and does not have spammy links pointed to it from less reputable sites online.
Make sure your website does not have duplicate content. If you’re writing all your own content, this shouldn’t be a problem. However, others can steal content from your website and add it to their site, which could create a problem for you. It’s always good to check for possible duplicated content and make adjustments to your site if any is found. In addition, if you’re reposting credible content such as a press release, be sure to use canonical tags to avoid content duplication problems.
Stay active in social media. Focus on producing quality content on your social media sites. Associate those social media accounts with your website and/or blog as your main hub. In addition, tie your website to your Google my Business account and make sure it has its own solid reputation apart from yours.
Today, you’ve got to be diligent to protect your online identity and online reputation, especially if SEO is part of your integrated marketing strategy. If you build yourself as a social authority in your niche and operate within Google’s guidelines, you are more likely to be considered an authority and your content will be looked upon favorably and considered high quality.
Published on: June 18, 2020