What Content Ranks Best In Today's Fussy Google SERPS

 I am often amazed when people ask what type of content ranks best in today's search engine. The answer is and will always be the same, Google wants one thing and that is quality content. Google strives to provide its users with the best possible results.

There are several reasons why some sites rank at the top and others rank at the very bottom. 

Two of the main reasons why websites rank high in Google are:

1. Delivering high quality original content that is both legitimate and credible.
2. Updating the site with fresh content on a regular basis. 

So my first piece of advice is to stop trying to game the search engines with black hat techniques. Yes they may work for a short while, but eventually the search engines will catch up and put your site in the sandbox.

Once in the sandbox Google won't send you anymore traffic. Instead of spending hours trying to find a way to trick the search engines why not spend an hour or two writing a valuable piece of content the search engines will love? 

There are two main things Google looks at to determine if content is of good quality. 

1. Engaging Users

The first one is engagement. How engaging is your content? Are people actually reading the entire article or are they hitting the back button as soon as they see it? This is how Google measures engagement. They want to know how long people are sticking around to read your content. If they stick around for several minutes they know you are providing value. This metric is measured by what is called Bounce Rate, and lower bounce rates can help rankings.

If users typically click back, and your site has consistently high bounce rates, this can affect rankings in Google. 

2. Backlinks

The second thing they look at is linking patterns. Google and other search engines learned very early on that people link to content they consider valuable. Content that is considered useful almost always gets shared by users. Content that is considered useless doesn't. 

And while linking algorithms have advanced quite a bit over the last several years, the basic principles of this concept still hold true. So if you want your content to rank make sure its valuable. Make sure it helps the end user. That's the key to getting your content ranked. There are no magic methods or solutions.

Make Content For Users Not Search Engines

I am sure you have heard this said before and it’s true.  When one creates a web page for search engines their focus is keywords, making sure the Google bot understands what keywords the page should rank for, and overstuffing the content with such to the point that it may become unreadable to the human eye. 

But, these types of black hat tactics rarely work, and if they do, it’s only for a short while and then the site gets hit with a big fat penalty and ends up in the black hole of SERPS.

Make every effort to provide useful content. It’s sort of a merry go around:

Useful content leads to happy users and a low bounce rate, happy users link back and/or spread the word about the content through social media which leads to more traffic which leads to better rankings in Google.

So, it’s all about useful content. That's what Google wants and that's what your potential customers want. 

Anytime someone uses Google to make a search they have an intent. They either want to find out about something, learn about something, solve a problem, buy something or treat something. 

Google is going to provide users with information that fulfils that intent.

So do your research and find out what type of content your target audience is searching for. 

Make it a point to craft your content around their wants and needs. This will not only increase your rankings, but, it will also increase your conversions and sales. 

The one thing to keep in mind is people read content, not the search engines. Do away with the keyword stuffing and anything else that is designed to manipulate the search engines. Write good content that people will love to read and I your content will get ranked.