How Has Google’s Search Quality Guideline Impacted SEO?

1. How Has Google’s “ear?h Quality Guideli?e Impacted SEO? Google recently released the 160 page guide that outlines how the search results we all see in Google are evaluated. Google stated that this guide is not the end all be all for “EO’s, but still provides the valuable insights that Google uses to measure the effectiveness of their search results. The guide contains critically important implications, some of which might make you change the way you do things. The first of which is- Your Money or Your Life Abbreviated YMYL, Google categorizes some online pages as YMYL if they can sig?ifi?a?tly i?pa?t a pe?so?’s life, su?h as the health o? ?ealth of a sea??he?. After a page has been placed in this category, Google hold it to a much higher standard and grades it with more scrutiny.

2. Not su?e if you? page falls i?to YMYL? He?e’s the list they ?eleased. Medical information pages Financial information pages Legal information pages Shopping pages with transactional ability Safety procedure information pages Child adoption pages ?Other? pages that impact wealth and health YMYL is ?e?tio?ed ?a?y ti?es th?oughout the guide, so it’s safe to say Google sees this as a top priority. Extremely important for those in the YMYL category but also for others, Google tells us how we can make their pages more attractive to them. Ho? to ?ake you? page ?ette? i? Google’s eyes? Add Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness Abbreviated EAT, Google raters look at the results and judge if your page has all of the above. Showing that you have expertise is something many websites lack. Listing where a degree or certification came from, how many years has an author been in an industry, or using a well-known name sounds easy on paper but is forgotten by too many.

3. Authoritativeness is different from expertise in that Google wants to know how long, how far you have been covering a topic or industry, and what level of quality your community is. Trustworthinessis up to the ?ate?’s a?ility to ?elie?e ?hat a page is telli?g the?. I? ?ost ?ases, ?isito?s ?espo?d ?e?y diffe?e?tly to pages they do?’t t?ust a?d behave in a certain manner, which Google can track in numbers. How can I up my EAT value? Mentioned as an extreme priority rating by Google, online pages should always be interested in upping their EAT value. Here are some things Google tells us we can do: 1.Look at your ?About? page Especially for YMYL pages, this information is critical. This is the easiest and most direct way to tell Google about you. Talk about yourself both to document your EAT values, and to tell your visitors what you do. 2.Design your pages for a good user experience You’?e p?o?a?ly see? you? pages a ?illio? ti?es a?d thi?k they ?ake total sense. But if you get a f?esh pai? of eyes to look at the? a?d they ?a?’t ?uite tell ?hat to do o? ?hy they’?e the?e, you’?e doi?g so?ethi?g ??o?g. Make thi?gs as direct as possible a?d do?’t ?o?fuse the ?isito? i? a?y ?ay. 3.Ad experience If you do?’t ha?e ads o? you? pages, do?’t ?o??y a?out this o?e. If you do, you need to make sure visitors can clearly tell what on the page is an ad and what isn’t. Google does this to make sure that those that do not want to read the ads, can simply do that.

4. 4.Your various reputations There is likely information both about your company and about those who make up the face of your company scattered across the internet. You want those reputational sources to be as easy to find as possible and to show each ?face? of your company in an obvious location. Your company reputation also comes in the form of reviews. What are the standards set for my page content? Besides offe?i?g a lo? EAT ?alue, Google’s guide sho?s us a pletho?a of other blunders pages make on the daily. He?e’s you? ?he?klist fo? ?o?te?t e??o?s i? Google’s eyes. Is the amount of information in your main content satisfying the readers? Is there enough helpful content? Are you keyword stuffing? Do you have mechanisms for user sharing on the page? Is there distracting content on the same page? Are you moderating and engaging with any commenters? Are you fully-functional on mobile devices? (if not, this is no. 1 priority) Are there many broken links on your pages? Is your content outdated or irrelevant? Are you linking to or have any scam site affiliations? Is your content all original and well written? Some of these are no-brainers, but all of them are required to rank highly. Conclusion

5. At the end of the day, all Google is doing with this guideline is making sure your pages completely fulfill the searchers needs and give them credible information. So if you work on your pages with that first and foremost in your mind, all of these bullet points and numbered lists should fall right into place. But we know that putti?g the ?ight pie?es i?to you? ?e?site ?a? ?e ha?d ?o?k, so you do?’t have to go at it alone. We’?e ?ee? helpi?g ?o?pa?ies ?ith their “EO for o?er 15 year, a?d ?a? help you too. Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/paper-texture-old-structure-535969/