It is no secret that one of the primary goals of SEO is to land your site on the front page of one website’s search results. Google has such dominance on people’s choice of search engine, that Search-Engine Optimisation is largely tailored around them. Being on the front page of Google can help drive a tremendous amount of organic and free traffic to your site, which is the entire point of SEO. However, the mechanisms that drive the Google machine are often elusive or confusing. A company that has been known to pioneer technological developments like artificial intelligence and machine learningMachine Learning is the branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. must have some pretty complex inner workings that require almost a degree in computer science to decipher.
Well, not really – Google wants websites to prioritise them for obvious reasons, and something that helps with that is when their coveted Google search quality guidelines get mysteriously leaked. These are not meant for the general public, but over the last two decades they have made their way out with leaks and eventually being released by Google themselves. However, they change quickly – Google quality guidelines in 2017 were rapidly subsumed by 2018’s quality guidelines, which were changed after only 10 months in May 2019.
Understanding what Google’s most recent search guidelines mean is an integral part of cutting-edge Search Engine Optimisation that can help your business grow and compete.
Things to Consider
Google assembles a team of hundreds of people to rate content quality, a feat done remotely. This is a manual job and consists of rating the content of Google search results and assigning quality scores to the websites that feature on each search. This may sound intimidating. How do people judge these ratings? Is there some Google quality rater’s handbook? What if someone just doesn’t like your site?
Well, it’s not quite dependent on the opinions of an individual rater. If a quality rater gives your site a bad score it doesn’t directly impact your page ranking. Google amalgamates their feedback so they can do experiments or analyse the content quality of their results. They assemble a typically vast textbook of guidelines based on these ratings (the last guideline handbook was 167 pages). These Google search guidelines are supposed to be a manifesto on behalf of the user, compiling together every little detail of what they think a user wants to see from their search results. Google then uses this to improve their algorithm so it provides the user with search results they want to see. The result of this is that Google will prioritise websites that according to their guidelines will satisfy their users and penalise those that don’t, which then require Google penalty removal.
Concepts you should Know
If you’re exploring Google’s content guidelines in any raw form, you will need to get acquainted with some of their original concepts, or else you may find their guidelines very confusing.
- This term stands for Your Money or Your Life, which they argue describes pages that can impact future health, happiness or wealth of users (not necessarily in a bad way). A YMYL page could be WebMD, any type of legal information page, online banking, e-commerce, etc. If your site can be described as impacting users’ money or life in any way, Google will hold it to their highest standards – they want to make sure only the highest-quality websites can impact people’s lives or wallets.
- This stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. This was a big name in the 2017 and 2018 Google page quality rating guidelines, but one major change in the 2019 release was that Google is moving away from this term as a substitute for page quality. EAT factors determine your website’s trustworthiness and whether or not your page can be trusted with sensitive information.
- Needs Met. This term is a measure of how the contents of a page address the original requirements of the searcher.
Now you know some of the terms Google uses, which give a sense of what Google values, let’s take a look at some of the main areas the guidelines focus on.
Automatically Generated Content
Google loathes site content that has been generated by a program instead of a computer. In many cases, this is because this is content that is intended not to help the user, but to manipulate search rankings. Automatically generated content has some tell-tale signs:
- When text makes no sense in human terms but contains search keywords.
- When text is translated automatically without any human checks before publishing, though this may not be the case with Google Translate.
- When text is generated through processes that mathematically mimic human processing – Google gives the example of Markov Chains.
- Content that is a combination of different sites’ content, but that adds no value.
Automatically generated content can in some instances be considered what Google describes as a ‘black-hat’ SEO technique. These are techniques that artificially increase SEO ranking by manipulating linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. pointing to the page in a way that adds no value to the user. Google compares it to hacking, which is clear by the term ‘black-hat,’ but they deal with the problem by using an algorithm with a comparatively nicer term: Google PenguinGoogle Penguin is one of Google's many algorithms, first released in April 2012 in order to identify and filter out spam webpages from search results..
This is an algorithm that decreases search engine rankings for any websites that commit black-hat SEO techniques. Thankfully, this is a continual process and is not set in stone, which means that if you have been lured by promises made by black-hat search engine optimizers you can utilise a penguin recovery service to mend the damage done and get you back on track.
Scraped content is another Google no-no. It is similar to automatically generated content but consists instead of a webmaster just taking content from other reputable sites to increase the volume of pages on their site. Even if it is done in a way that doesn’t infringe on copyright, Google will penalise you if it doesn’t provide any added value to the site’s users. They are wary that content can be scraped from other sites and modified by automated techniques. Google instead recommends original content, which is often handled by content writing services.
If you have abused content generation in ways that Google believes is designed to manipulate them they will issue you with a penalty. These can cause massive falls in traffic, and you will need to undergo a series of (often aided) steps to reverse the damage and recover from the Google penalty.
Sneaky RedirectsA redirect is a web page that loads in place of another web page.
Some webmasters deceive search engines or use content that appears different to human users than to Google’s crawlers. This violates Google Webmaster GuidelinesThe Google Webmaster Guidelines are the set of standards created by Google to ensure that the best practices in web design, development, and content are being followed. and is a deceptive practice that tries to attract users by leveraging the trust they pose in the search engine. A clever technique that Google penalises is to redirect mobile users to a spam domain, but desktop users to a normal page. Engaging in this behaviour can result in a manual penalty, in which case you may have to rely on Google penalty recovery services to redeem yourself in Google’s eyes.
Link Schemes
There are several ways that a site can manipulate their PageRank with the use of links. They can buy or sell links that may increase PageRank; use link exchanges (link to me and I’ll link to you back); use automated programs to create links to your site and even require one as part of a Terms of Service. Engaging in any of these behaviours can cause your PageRank to decrease if noticed by Google Penguin, or can give you a manual penalty, meaning you will have to engage in Google penguin recovery or Google penalty recovery. To avoid the need to do this you should avoid link schemes diligently.
Affiliate Programs
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines recommend your website hosts original content that is high value to your reader, something that the best content writing services are proud to offer. Affiliate programs can be completely legitimate but sometimes sites that feature content from affiliate networks can have decreased PageRank as they don’t have enough value-added content. These include ‘thin affiliates’ which copy everything from various other sites and are described as cookie-cutter sites.
Google stresses originality, which can seem unfair on affiliate programs. However, Google suggests that good affiliates add value, by offering original reviews, ratings, product descriptions and comparisons. Ask yourself why anybody would use your affiliate site instead of accessing the original site.
Irrelevant Keywords
Google is wary of keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again., which is the term they use to describe cramming a page with keywords to manipulate PageRank. These are often bundled together in a list, out of content, or obviously unnatural. You may come across keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. stuffers on the net, often recognisable by repeating the same words or phrases so often that they are clearly not generating all content for the users’ benefit. If you use keywords relevantly in information-rich content you will be prioritised much more than those who resort to keyword stuffing. They recommend updated, relevant keywords, the benefits of which can be enhanced by specialised SEO content writing services.
Malicious Behaviour
This should more obviously be avoided – if you distribute content or software that is not what a user expects you will face a penalty. This includes content manipulation, unexpected downloads or even file execution without consent. In some cases, this also means instances of pop-ups or some ad-selection, as well as the more obvious and indefensible installation of malware. If you have received a penalty warning from Google based on your inclusion of advertising, you may want to utilise a Google penalty removal service.
In their quality guidelines, Google repeatedly stresses that they prefer sites that offer original content that adds genuine value to the user’s life. Google is perhaps indirectly stressing that they believe the internet should not be filled with websites that exist solely for commercial purposes but that the internet should be filled with safe, genuine websites that seek to enhance their users’ lives with a method that is compatible with a profitable model.
