Did you know that most of the updates Google has made to its search algorithm over the past twelve months have concerned quality? The search engine is busy baking quality into its heart. And that means ticking every box at every stage, everything from quality backlinks to fast load speed to immaculate code, the right mark-up, easily-digestible formatting and, of course, content.
Google insight – What’s the latest on content?
For many years, marketers specified word counts for pages and posts. I was briefed to write 300, 500 or 700 word posts and pages, and that’s what I did. But marketing wisdom soon kicked in and I quickly realised it was much more important to write the right amount of content and do a brilliant job of a subject than limit its scope with an arbitrary word count.
Now Google is recommending much the same. These days the search engine expects people to create a ‘satisfying’ amount of content, whatever its subject or purpose. But what, exactly, does a ‘satisfying’ level mean?
What is a ‘satisfying’ amount of content
You want to know something. You make a Google search. They surface a list of possibilities. You click through the links, probably prioritising them depending on what the meta data says. You arrive on a page, article, news item or post and start reading.
Maybe you get to the end but you still have a question, perhaps more than one. In this case the content hasn’t satisfied you because you need to go elsewhere for a complete answer.
Say you’re looking for an answer to a simple question, maybe one that only requires a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. You click through a likely-looking search result and find a massive long article that has, somewhere hidden inside it, the answer to your question. Again, you are not satisfied because you have to trawl through an entire dissertation, something the size of War and Peace, to find the super-simple, straightforward answer you’re looking for.
If you want a content creation partner who focuses on quality rather than quantity and pulls out all the stops to genuinely please your prospects and customers, that’s exactly what I do. Let’s talk.
