Building High Quality Sites
Building high quality sites is really not that new if you consider the countless amount of information available to you on the internet. As a matter of fact, I think that it is widely spoken about topic, the difference being that most of the information out there are just being said in several different ways.
The Panda algorithm change, has apparently given quality a new meaning. It is now all about “quality”. Quality content, quality links, quality websites, quality navigational structure, and so on. Come to think of it, was this ever really an issue? I don’t think so. It just gotten more attention now because “someone” decided that enough is enough, and those who were affected by Panda, now seems to realize that search results has always had only one main objective in mind, provide users with meaningful, useful and top notch search results.
Google, determined to provide a better and faster web, recently announced that Panda is just but one of the 500 search improvements they are expecting to roll out this year. If you were one of those affected by the devastating effect of Panda, then you should know that it isn’t over and continued efforts should be made to improve your websites quality (if needed) in order to protect yourself from any similar moves in the future. As a matter of fact, Google also mentioned that after Panda, several other tweaks have already been made and that up until now, many sites and users are assuming that changes in their rankings is still related to Panda, whereas, it is no longer the case.
As Google states:
Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.
That said, and with the purpose of improving websites quality, Google has taken the time to create a shortlist of questions, one should be asking, about the quality of a page or an article, which are really the important components to assess the overall quality of a website.
What Is Considered A High Quality Site?
As I said before, there are many great articles out there that are indirectly giving you advice, where ultimately, contributes towards what is deemed to be a quality website. If you really want to stay ahead of the pack, and improve your rankings, then here is the shortlist that Google suggests to ask yourself about your site. This will help you step into Google’s mindset and provide you with guidance on how to build quality websites.
- Would you trust the information presented in this article?
- Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
- Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
- Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
- Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
- Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
- How much quality control is done on content?
- Does the article describe both sides of a story?
- Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
- Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
- Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
- Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
- Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
- Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
- Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
- Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
- Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
- Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
- Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
What You Can Do Now To Improve The Quality Of Your Site?
If you are amongst those that feel were impacted by Panda, rather than looking for ways to game the algorithm, focus on improving your pages and articles based on the above list (those that apply) and pay special attention to this message given by Google. I think this is extremely important.
One other specific piece of guidance we’ve offered is that low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content.
There you have it. While you may already be aware of this shortlist provided by Google, I thought I’ll share it anyway, in case you missed this one out.
Have you been affected by Panda? Was it positive or negative? Is there anything else you can add to help us improve and build a high quality site?
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