What Does Google Want from Your Content?

Every marketer’s aim is to appear as high up in the search engine results pages (SERPs) as possible. Part of doing this effectively means knowing and understanding what Google wants from your copy. What does Google like when it comes to content? What does it look for and favour in comparison to other content pieces? In this article, we’ll be taking you through everything Google is looking for when it comes to content creation and ranking. Let’s dive right in:

Quality content

By “quality” content, we’re talking everything from correct spelling and grammar right through to a structure that is easy to read and follow. Google needs to see that your content holds more value than other pieces of content that might be out there. Quality content also needs to be compelling, interesting, relevant and audience-focused, which are all points that we’re going to delve deeper into later on in this article. Essentially, quality content involves adhering to all of the rules of Google, and everything that Google wants, which is detailed for you right here in this blog post. 

Interesting, useful & compelling content

What does good, quality content really look like? Well, firstly, it needs to be interesting, useful and compelling to the reader and your audience overall. Google loves content that is easy to read, well-organised and structured, free from errors, original, up to date, relevant, helpful, interesting and reliable. It refers to content that has been created with people and a specific audience in mind. Make sure your content is clear, genuinely helpful and engaging if you want Google to notice it. 

Trustworthy & relevant content 

Trust is something that helps a business build a solid and loyal customer base. Not only does it help to retain your existing customer base, but it also aids in the development of a new one. Trustworthy content can lead to higher conversion rates, which is in every business owner’s best interest. Not only this, but your content also needs to be relevant, which is arguably more important. 

Google cannot display your content to those searching for it if it’s not relevant to any of the search terms people are using. This is where your keyword research comes into play. See how well certain terms are ranking already. What is their search volume? What is the competition level? If the search volume is high and competition is medium-to-low, then you’ve identified some low-hanging fruit. 

Audience-focused content

Write your content with your audience in mind. Think about your customer or client base. What age are they, typically? Are they usually a certain gender? Consider your audience carefully and write your content with those people in mind. From blog post topics to the tone of voice you’re using, not every audience is the same. If you own a flower shop, then your readers will be different, overall, when compared to a car garage owner, for instance.

Content that’s written by humans & not AI

While Google no longer penalises writers who use AI to develop their content, it’s still not something that’s favoured across the marketing community. While AI-written content might suffice for link building or micro-copy, it just isn’t adequate for writing long-form content. 

It might be tempting to use it to save time and effort, but in the long run, you won’t see much of a benefit when it comes to ranking highly in the Google SERPs. Google will always look more kindly on content that’s been written by a human and that contains all of the right keywords and phrases. Essentially, as long as you’ve written a piece of content that contains everything we’re mentioning in this article, it’s going to perform far better than content that has been written using AI. 

This is mainly because AI content contains a lot of repetition, lacks correct grammar and can often become confused. When you have control over your content, it’s almost guaranteed to perform better than AI-written content.

Content that demonstrates experience & expertise

We’ve already touched on the importance of trustworthy content. Demonstrating your expertise and experience only enhances that trust and builds a rapport between yourself and your customers and/or clients. If your readers can see that you have many years of experience and have the knowledge behind you also, they’ll be far more likely to choose your business over that of your competitors. 

This is especially the case if they don’t have as much experience or cannot demonstrate their expertise in the same way that you can. If you’re a specialist in your field, then showcase that knowledge to your audience. Let them know that you’re the best at what you do and keep going from there. You can do this by displaying information on your website and throughout your content, such as:

• How many years of experience you have 
• Some hints and tips relevant to the field you work in 
• A few facts and statistics, provided they’re accurate and up to date 
• How many years of combined experience you have, if there’s more than one owner, CEO, director and so on

Content that flows & can be easily read

Content needs to flow and have a structure. If it doesn’t read very easily or is difficult to interpret for a human, then the Google algorithm isn’t going to be able to gauge it very well either. As such, it will rank it low down in the SERPs, therefore making it less likely to get any exposure, unless you’re going to share it all over social media to your many followers. If you want your content to rank high up in the SERPs, then make sure the content flows and has some structure to it as well. You can do this by adding the following things to your content:

• Headings
• Subheadings
• Bullet points
• Listicles 
• Numbered points
• Shorter paragraphs
• Images 
• Conclusion sections

Content containing images, photos & videos

Images, infographics, videos and other multimedia elements will always do your content well. It’s something that the Google algorithm will be looking for when it crawls the web. This is because it simply makes the content more engaging, appealing and trustworthy. Let’s say a blogger is reviewing a product, but there’s no picture to prove that they actually have it in their possession, are you going to trust their review? It often comes down to something as simple as that. When creating content, add a couple of images here and there for good measure – Google will lap it up.

Kumo is pleased to provide marketing services to clients throughout the UK, offering SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, to name just a few. We will endeavour to propel your business into the spotlight, setting you apart from your competitors in the process. If you would like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team – we’re always pleased to hear from you.