What Is Good Quality Web Content?

Dave Holland

High Quality Website Content

Google looks to show the best quality content to its users, so that people who are searching for information about a particular topic are directed to the best sites.

They use a complex algorithm to analyse each page and to determine the ‘quality’ of that page and it’s suitability to rank well for specific terms.

The Most Important Quality Metrics Are;

Uniqueness of Content
Quality of Written Text
External Links To Trusted Resources
Keyword Density
User Engagement

In basic terms, you need to provide well written text that is completely unique to your site, providing links to authority sites where necessary (rather than regurgitating information that lready exists elsewhere).

duplicate content and site quality

You should write this content as naturally as possible, so it has a natural keyword density (less rather than more) and so that your visitors engage with your site.

This generally means that you want your visitors to click through to a second and third page, to share your page on their social networks and to link to it from their websites, blogs and social media.

Google trusts sites that real people like. They measure this by assessing how your traffic behaves when they visit you and then compares this information with your competitors.

If your content is not very good then your visitors will 'bounce' back to Google to find another result and that is a key indicator that your site is not suitable for that search term.... (and that's why you drop in Google SERPs).

Authority References

Google especially like to see good quality content that references other 'valuable' resources.

For example, if your page discusses facts and figures, and there is perhaps an official Government website that lists those figures, it is better to link to the government website page rather than reproducing the facts and figures on your own page.

There are several reasons for this;

1. Your duplicated content will be a 'poor quality' copy of the original, devaluing your site.

2. By linking to the 'authority' resource, you demonstrate the true nature and spirit of the 'web'.... namely that it should be a series of linked, high quality resources.

How Much Web Page Content Is Enough?

Web page volume is an area that often raises a certain amount of conjecture.

There are a few basic rules to adhere to that will insure that your content meets at least minimum requirement to avoid any penalties for thinness or lack of depth.

While it's important not to add meaningless text just for the sake of it.... as padding if you will, you should aim to cover the topic in as much detail as necessary.

A bare minimum for a page should be considered as 300 words.

Below this, your page will lack much meaning and intent. There are some subjects that can be covered in a few words, but that doesn't mean that you should consider 300 as a target.

If you need 5000 or 10,000 words to cover your topic in depth then use them and create an awesome page that your readers will derive a significant benefit from.

How much can you really describe something in 300 words?

In truth, in many instances, you will find that you struggle. Google likes to see meat on the bones, so give it to them.

See Is Content Length important for SEO for more info