Look, do everyone a favour and quit churning out rubbish content. You know, the half-baked blogs, the hastily-written features, the poorly researched ebooks. It’s all a big waste of time for you, your customers and Google’s Googlebot. Instead, go back to basics. Write with authority. Write about what you know. And write with care. Here’s why.
Quality really does matter
Google values and prioritises well-written and user-focused content, the kind that people want and need. It doesn’t like low-quality and spammy content because it’s rightly identified as being suspect or just plain nonsense. And Google is generally very good at making sure this type of content is kept as far away from people as much as possible – because it’s a win-win-win for all.
Think about it this way. Whenever someone types a query into search, they expect to be presented with high-quality and relevant results. This creates a rewarding and satisfying search experience: people get what they’re looking for, businesses and organisations enjoy more visibility in search, and Google feels good about delivering on its mission to make the world’s information super accessible.
Anyone trying to game the system or take shortcuts is always going to lose out. You’re either going to find yourself drifting in perpetual obscurity or being punished by Google. And you’re definitely going to struggle to keep your audience engaged. The Wild West days of the internet are long gone.
It’s not about you
If you often find that your content doesn’t perform to expectations, chances are you’re going about it the wrong way. You’re likely to be too caught up with thinking more about yourself and not your audience. You’re probably pushing out content too fast and too often. And you’re probably writing more for search engines and less for people.
The problem with all of the above, as Google explained in August 2022 when it announced its helpful content update, is that it’s a recipe for disaster. It fundamentally misses the entire point of a search engine – to help people find what they’re looking for.
There’s a nuance in how you look at it. Of course you want to rank well in Google. That’s a given. But there’s a proper way of going about it. All it requires is a shift in focus – less “what can I do to rise to the top of Google” and more “how can I provide value to my customers at every step of their journey”.
By asking the latter, you can start to address more meaningfully all the problems, concerns and questions your customers have. That’s what Google wants – to “better connect people to helpful information”. It doesn’t want to serve them crap.
Write well, write with authority
The secret to writing with authority is to write well. That means taking care with your writing by following best practices and paying attention to detail. It means using your expertise and demonstrating your depth of knowledge (or at least consulting with specialists and rigorously researching a topic). It means being original, whether that results in a unique perspective or a more engaging piece of content.
And it means always thinking about your audience and ensuring that your responses to their queries are markedly better than all the alternatives out there.
Do all of that consistently, with support from SEO, of course – think technical fixes to your website and keyword research that identifies new opportunities – and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t start to see positive results in Google. Quality always wins out in the end.
Whether you need support in putting together a content strategy or need someone to review what you’ve created, you’re in the right place – our editorial experts are ready and waiting. Simply get in touch and let us know what you need.
