Google’s Panda Filter Algorithm goes through the Google-Index and looks for bad or low quality content and punishes websites where such content is found. In order to identify this bad or low quality content, the Panda Filter looks for a number of signals. Google already runs this quality evaluation during the indexing phase for new content, as they integrated the Panda Filter into the Everflux.
Which signals does Google use to identify high quality content?
Google advises all webmasters to create their content with the user experience in mind and not try to cater to possible ranking signals or algorithms.
Our advice for publishers continues to be to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals.
– Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, Software Engineer
A free interpretation of this would be that content should only be written for users and not ever with the goal to get better rankings within the search results. To consider the quality of your own content you should always ask yourself:
- Is this helpful for my reader/user and do I offer the best possible information about this topic?
What content can be considered high quality? How do I create such content?
It is not that hard to create high quality content. These points should be a guideline to figure out the quality of your content or raise it:
- Would you trust the information in this article?
- Was the article written by an expert or enthusiast who know their way around this topic, or is the content more generic and not very detailed?
- Does the website use multiple, redundant, or overlapping articles about the same topic with only slightly varied keywords?
- Would you entrust your credit card information to this website?
- Does the article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
- Were the topics and articles created because the readers of the website were interested in reading them, or does it seem the content was essentially created to “rank well on Google”?
- Does the article contain original or self-made content or information, was the reporting done by the writer, was it their own research or evaluation?
- Does the article offer a certain additional value for the reader, in comparison to other content about this topic on the first search result page?
- How high or how good is the quality control of the article or the website?
- Does the article talk about both sides of the story?
- Is the website a recognised authority on this topic or subject area?
- Does the content seem like it has been mass produced or outsourced (high number of different writers)? Or is the content released across a big network of websites? Do you have the feeling that the article does not get enough attention or care from its author?
- Was the article written with care or does it seem carelessly and hastily produced?
- If the article would be about something related to your health, would you trust the information in this article or on this website?
- Would you rate this website as an authority/considerable source for good information if you just hear its name?
- Does the article contain a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the article contain an eye-opening analysis or interesting information that goes beyond the obvious information about this topic?
- Would the article be worth bookmarking, sharing with friends, and recommending?
- Does the article contain an overwhelming number of ads that distract from or seem annoying when reading the article?
- Would you expect or could you imagine the article being printed or released in a newspaper, an encyclopedia (like Wikipedia), or a book?
- Are the articles of the website too short, without content, or leave out information that could be important to make the content special for the reader?
- Were the articles of the website created with great care and attention to detail?
- Would users complain when they find content from this website?
Writing an algorithm to assess page or site quality is a much harder task, but we hope the questions above give some insight into how we try to write algorithms that distinguish higher-quality sites from lower-quality sites.
– Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, Software Engineer
The above quality features are what Google may use as a starting point to separate high-quality from low-quality or bad content.
You should also avoid the use of SEO-Texts and try to move away from the thought that such texts even exist.
Video explanation by Matt Cutts / Google on this topic
The importance of content in the body of a page
A quick reminder from Matt Cutts on the importance of content in the body of a page.
Additional information about this topic:
- Google Webmaster Central Blog: More guidance on building high-quality sites
- Google Patent: Scoring Gibberish Content
