Content has always been regarded as the “king” but thanks to the indisputable importance of back links, it always gets the treatment of a lowly official. For quite some time, it were back links that get all the protocol, whilst the content remains a king that people acknowledge quite half-heartedly.
Back links were the establishment that moved things around, webmaster’s emphasis on quality content was more like a figment, they thought that they are putting good content on their websites, in reality there was little substance, and more noise.
The content added more fat to the Internet than muscles; understandably the web was getting more and more plump, thanks to all that spam.
Panda comes in:
I am not sure about the improvement in search results, but Google Panda update has been successful in shifting the paradigm, and chances are that we will finally be having an influx of good quality content in near future, or at least less spam.
So, what makes some “content” superior in quality?
According to the grapevine, Google Panda has also thwacked some websites that were providing the kind of content that fits the definition of quality, in more than one way. What we need to remember is that, at the end of the day, Google ranking algorithm is an algorithm, and it can deem a content to be of quality only if it’s getting the quality signals.
So, it is quite possible that, even though, those were quality websites, but they’d have failed to accumulate quality signals, whilst some low quality ones are topping the ranks, because they managed to arrange for the right signals. Bottom-line?
Apart from creating and publishing quality content, you should make sure that your Blog is giving the right signals to the search engines.
Does the originality warrant the quality?
Something that is synonymous to the quality is the originality, but is the originality good enough to make some content quality? And is the unoriginal content totally useless?
The fact is, all that hoopla about unique content has made people assume that some text that passes a trivial plagiarism test is unique, hence quality, while some content that directly borrows ideas from other content is not unique, hence low on the quality meter.
Both of these notions are quite off the mark. A news story or article that doesn’t take a totally new route, but bring together relevant information from the net and presents a comprehensive take on a certain topic (and then links to the main source) is still valuable.
On the other hand, an article that comes up with a totally unique idea but with little substance is still ordinary. The content should provide some value to its users to be considered quality content, and the more value the better.
How do you know if your content is quality?
Ask the readers, because looking towards some SEO expert for the definition of quality is a waste of time, the ultimate nod of approval that you can get will come from the readers. If the readers like your content, there is nothing that can stop your Blog from prevailing.
What are your thoughts on the recent Google Panda Update ?
12 comments
Sometimes I think looking towards a lot of the SEO experts out there is a waste of time and will do you more harm than good. They way I see it, people should have a good understanding themselves as to what would qualify as good content and as you already mentioned above, your readers will let you know where you stand in that regards.
SEOs may not have a great understanding of content, the blogger is the best person to know what works well for his blog
I think Google thinks that 30% Unique Articles are Quality articles
The Google Algo is much stronger now to detect low content quality sites, we may see a lot of sites being devalued in the next page rank update. Bloggers need to start working hard to ensure quality content on their blogs and work to get quality link backs.
After the Google Panda update I actually saw a small decrease in my Google traffic. But now traffic seems to be going up higher then it was prior to the update. Just like with any algorithm change you have to realize it takes time for the effect to spread.
One thing I have noticed though and a lot of people are talking about it. Scrapers seem to be outranking lots of people. Even I have seen some spam sites outranking me for certain keywords that I previously would have crushed them on.
I did notice some traffic increase too after the Panda update. I think that update is still going on and set to roll in for the next few weeks or even months. It’s a major algorithmic change targeting low-quality content. The full impact is yet to be seen. I can see some major fluctuations for certain keyword phrases in different niches. Hopefully all those who work hard for their blogs or sites will be handsomely rewarded. Those who play by the rules are in for the long term.
Yes and obviously if you are running a technology site or something similar, there will be posts that are gonna seem copied..I also agree to the fact that copied content is a major deciding factor before Google declares your site a content farm. But it is still just one of them. Hence there are more ways than one to counter Google panda update
I’m sure that sites which generally publish content for people rather than algorithms still win out in the end, and tend not to be disrupted too much by these changes. They also build up traffic from sources other than search engine result pages, making them less vulnerable to Google tweaks.
Quality Content always better than Quantity content. The best is you can push both of it but less people able to do it because less of time .
Quality content usually more easy to recognize by Google Algorithm with giving higher marks.
Simple yet informative post! I agree with the other comments. Looking for SEO experts would cost you and yet, you can do what they do too. Maybe, it’s just a matter of having the knowledge of what quality content must be. Tips are available in the internet; further reading about it is good. Thank you for this!
Natasha your article make sense but the panda is not working the way it’s supposed to be.. More over this new algo sucks big time because it’s letting copied content rank better in search engine.. I have reported almost 500 posts which is copied and many of them is not a part of Google anymore.. I can see an improvement in traffic but these copy bloggers are still doing the same thing…
One quick tip: Change your feed to partial from complete.
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