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What You Need To Know About Google’s Updated Quality Guidelines

In today’s digital age, content is hugely important for companies to connect with their target audience, show their expertise, and promote their products/services. Content is king, but it is also crucial that a company is creating and sharing content which is high-quality, informative and engaging. High-quality content means writing accurate and valuable information which is…
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In today’s digital age, content is hugely important for companies to connect with their target audience, show their expertise, and promote their products/services. Content is king, but it is also crucial that a company is creating and sharing content which is high-quality, informative and engaging. High-quality content means writing accurate and valuable information which is beneficial to the user. You will find many brands not pay not enough to their content, however, which could have a negative impact in more ways than one.

The Importance Of Quality Content

First, low-quality content will never engage your target audience, and it will certainly not paint your company in a positive light. This can negatively impact your brand reputation and could see you lose out to the competition. Not only this, but Google has Quality Guidelines, and failure to comply with these could see you penalized and possibly even your website being banned from the Google index so that you will not be visible on the search engine. Keep in mind that Google is often the first port of call when a consumer needs any kind of product or service and that there are around 1 billion regular users of the search engine, so it needs to be somewhere that you are as visible as possible; this means that you must understand the search quality definition.

A Gigantic Platform

Google takes these guidelines very seriously, and this is for good reason because the internet is such a gigantic platform and one which can potentially be very dangerous and harmful. With so many people consuming content daily, Google wants to make sure that the content that is being consumed is accurate and does not lie to the reader.

Content that is created by brands as part of its marketing strategy should be helpful, serve a purpose and be truthful and this is what the updated Google Search Quality Guidelines strive for. Google is aware of how digital marketing evolves and changes and makes changes to guidelines to help keep the internet a safe and helpful platform that easily allows users to find authoritative and relevant pages.

Creating A Safe Online Space

One of the main reasons that the Google search quality guidelines 2018 were updated has been the sharp rise of the fake news phenomenon over the last few years, which has become an enormous problem online and one that is potentially very dangerous. Any content which is inaccurate or promotes hate or violence is deemed the lowest quality. What’s more, clickbait has also been addressed in the updates so that this will not get the readership that made it so popular in recent years. There have also been additions related to the Upsetting-Offensive flag and regards to when a site should be marked as offensive. This clarifies that just because a topic is sensitive in nature does not mean that it is offensive.

How To Abide By The Latest Guideline Updates

The Google page quality rating guidelines update places emphasis on quality content, so this needs to become a priority if you want your website to rank highly on SERPs. The most critical factors for page quality rating are authoritativeness, trustworthiness, expertise, leading content quality and amount, website reputation and information about who is responsible for the site. These need to be the key areas of focus when it comes to content creation so that you can abide by the updated Google search guidelines and avoid having your website penalized.

Key Principles & Techniques To Avoid

Google has outlined basic principles for content generation in the Google quality raters handbook, which should help a business to avoid any penalties and help to maintain a high ranking. These are:

  • Make sure that content is made for users, not for search engines
  • Do not deceive your readers
  • Do not try “tricks” which are intended to improve your rankings. Ask yourself if you would perform this action if search engines did not exist and if it actually helps your readers in any way
  • Make your website stand out from the crowd and think about what makes your website special

There are then specific techniques that you must avoid (some of these have proven to be popular in the past) which have been outlined by Google quality guidelines 2017:

  • Participating in link schemes
  • Creating pages with no original content
  • Sneaky redirects
  • Doorway pages
  • Automatically generated content
  • Scraped content
  • Sending automated queries to Google

Using Experienced Content Writing Services

So, how can you make sure that you are abiding by Google’s updated Quality Guidelines? At Click Intelligence, we have high-quality content writing services that can help you to rise through the SERPs while also abiding by the latest updates. We have a team of experienced and talented writers who know how to produce bespoke content on a wide variety of topics and for different audiences. This content will always abide by the updated guidelines, and a proofreader is used to approve each piece before it is published so that nothing slips through the cracks, and you end up being penalized. We use white-hat techniques that adhere to the guidelines so that you can rest assured knowing that the content is accurate, informative, useful and engaging for your target audience.

Google Penalty Recovery Services

If you are found to violate one or more of Google’s guidelines, then they may take manual action against it. You can then submit your site for reconsideration once you have corrected the issue(s). If you are penalized as a result of the latest update, it can be incredibly frustrating to see all of the hard work undone and for you to fall down the rankings. Additionally, this can have a significant impact on your sales, brand reputation and brand awareness, so it is crucial that you know what steps to take to recover quickly. Fortunately, Google penalty recovery services are available which can help you to recover your lost rankings and traffic quickly even in the most competitive industries. Penalty recovery campaigns use a variety of creative and technical techniques that enable a company to recover and minimize damage quickly.

Determining The Root Cause

The first step to take if you believe that you have been hit by an update to the Quality Guidelines is to try and determine which update has impacted your traffic and what the magnitude is. Often, you will find that although there has been a negative impact, there may be another update that has benefited from a data refresh. Once you can pinpoint which specific update has had a negative impact on your website, you can then find the cause of your penalty, and it is then much easier to make positive changes to help you to quickly recover your ranking and minimize the negative effects.

Advanced Recovery Processes

At Click Intelligence, we specialize in Google Penalty recovery services and have experience in helping companies to quickly recover their ranking and lost traffic after being penalized by the search engine. We have an advanced recovery process and make sure that you are compliant with the very latest guideline updates moving forward. Google often updates their guidelines to clean up their results lists and to reward owners of websites who have posted high-quality, informative and engaging content with higher organic search rankings.

The Importance Of Google’s Quality Guidelines

It can be frustrating when changes are made to the guidelines because it can undo a lot of hard work and negatively impact your company in more ways than one. Despite this, it is important to remember that the guidelines are in place to help the consumer and to help make sure that the internet remains somewhere that people from around the world can use to exchange ideas and knowledge, which is accurate, unoffensive, and valuable. The internet continues to grow at an astonishing rate, but this has also brought about a lot of issues regarding fake news, inflammatory content, and deceit. Google needs to make these updates to promote quality content and penalize negative content, and these updates have to made to keep this balance and make the internet a safer place for everyone.

From a business standpoint, the updates to Google’s Quality Guidelines mean that you need to adjust your content creation strategy and familiarize yourself with the latest changes to make sure that all of your content is high-quality, accurate, relevant, and engaging for your target audience. This can be a complex and time-consuming task, which is why it is worth using Click Intelligence’s proven content writing service. Our expert writers will ensure that all of your content is of the highest quality and will abide by the latest guideline updates so that you do not suffer and lose traffic from being penalized. Additionally, if you are ever hit by a Google update in a negative manner, then we can help you to recover as quickly as possible with our advanced and experienced Google penalty recovery services. We can help you to create great content, improve your ranking and avoid being penalized so that you remain visible online and you reach your target audience.

James Owen, Co-Founder & Head Of Search

James has been involved in SEO and digital marketing projects since 2007. James has led many SEO projects for well-known brands in Travel, Gaming and Retail such as Jackpotjoy, Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels, Hotels.com, Expedia, Betway, Gumtree, 888, Ax Paris, Ebyuer, Ebay, Hotels combined, Smyths toys, love honey and Pearson to name a few. James has also been a speaker at SEO and digital marketing conferences and events such as Brighton SEO.

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