Google has acknowledged and confirmed that the “Phantom Update” many publishers suspected had occurred in May is real. The update is about how Google assesses content quality and there were changes to its core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals. So alhtough it is not strictly a Panda update – it is related to quality of content.
Quality Content Checklist
This is direct from Google as to what they regard as quality content.
- Useful and informative: If you’re launching a site for a restaurant, you can include the location, hours of operation, contact information, menu and a blog to share upcoming events.
- More valuable and useful than other sites: If you write about how to train a dog, make sure your article provides more value or a different perspective than the numerous articles on the web on dog training.
- Credible: Show your site’s credibility by using original research, citations, links, reviews and testimonials. An author biography or testimonials from real customers can help boost your site’s trustworthiness and reputation.
- High quality: Your site’s content should be unique, specific and high quality. It should not be mass-produced or outsourced on a large number of other sites. Keep in mind that your content should be created primarily to give visitors a good user experience, not to rank well in search engines.
- Engaging: Bring color and life to your site by adding images of your products, your team, or yourself.
- Good writing: Make sure visitors are not distracted by spelling, stylistic, and factual errors.
- Advertising: An excessive amount of ads can also be distracting for visitors.
- Engagement: Engage visitors by interacting with them through regular updates, comment boxes, or social media widgets.
- Build Trust: Be careful of things that can make visitors not trust your site or leave
- Errors such as broken links or wrong information
- Grammar or spelling mistakes
- Excessive amount of ads
- Spam such as comment or forum spam
