Many business leaders and marketers have been told that content is king online and to fill their websites and blogs with quality content in order to get the best page rankings on search engines like Google. But what exactly constitutes “quality content”? How can business owners and marketing professionals know if their content meets Google’s standards for high page rankings?

The following guide will provide direction to company leaders as they draft content for their website and blog. By following these simple guidelines, business owners and marketers can be confident in the content they’re drafting for a website, blog, and even social media.

The following tips are based on Google’s Webmaster content recommendations, which can be found here.

Informative and Useful Content

When Google and other search engines review websites for content quality, the algorithms are looking for content that will be appreciated and used by readers. These algorithms are so sophisticated that they look well beyond just what keywords are included on a page. Rather, search engines are effectively reading the content to make sure it is actually informative and useful.

With that in mind, a good rule of thumb is to draft website content for the user, not the search engine. By that we mean that companies should be writing content with the reader in mind: will this information be easy to understand? Will it provide instruction and expert advice? Does it show the company’s position as a thought leader? Will the reader walk away with actionable information? Don’t just throw together a garbled jumble of keywords hoping a search engine will see it an approve the page for high rankings.

Credible Content

Along with being useful and informative, the content on a website needs to be credible. When appropriate, a company should include research, links, citations, reviews, and testimonials to show the company and content’s credibility. Having “proof” for your claims shows both the readers and search engines that what you’re saying has backing and is credible.

Engaging Content

In today’s ultra-connected world, consumers want to interact with the companies they’re interested in. One of the best ways to feed that desire is to connect with customers on social media. However, that doesn’t mean a website can’t do the same.

By creating engaging content on a website, site visitors can develop a relationship with the company and its employees from afar. Great examples of engaging content are images and information about the employees and products, testimonials, comment boxes where visitors can leave feedback or ask questions, and social media widgets where followers can stay up-to-date on the company’s social platform posts.

Granted, not every company will benefit from each of these suggested engagement methods, but most will find value in at least one or two. As you better understand your customer base, you’ll know better which engagement methods to select.

Quality Spelling and Grammar

It goes without saying that quality website content is free of grammar and spelling errors, but it’s amazing how often this is overlooked. We’ve seen many examples of people who sit down and write out their entire website content, then simply toss it online without reviewing for errors. It’s imperative that businesses thoroughly review any content before it goes on a website to make sure it’s error free.

Get Help with High Quality Website Content

We at Web International understand that business leaders and marketers are busy. Fortunately, our team has a long track record of drafting and editing content for websites, making sure it’s ready to go online. If you’re in need of website content, or are looking for some guidance in preparing content for your website, give us a call at 501-372-0393.