In Part 2 I want cover some of the things you absolutely need to
understand when deciding if a web page is actually high quality.
Google’s latest Panda update will most certainly be looking to
penalise more “low quality” sites so it is imperative you
make sure your web pages are truly high quality.
In few days I will also post [part 3] that covers identifying
web spam and other things that will put your pages into penalties.
I have created an extensive tutorial on this whole subject of web
page quality based on the the published (and unpublished) guides
and guidelines of Google. It’s available at the link below. I
don’t normally produce products at this low price but I want as
many people as possible to take this one up. Without this
understanding every website and web page you ever create will an
uphill struggle at best.
User Intent
I spoke last time about User Intent. That means “what does the
user actually want to do when they type in query in the Google
search engine”. This is crucial that you understand this. If
the web page the searcher lands on does not “fulfill” the
user intent the they will simply move on elsewhere. Ads, sales
pitches, affiliate links, opt-in forms will all be ignored as the
simply “BackPage” to the search results to try something
else.
When I say “User Intent” for the search query I really
mean your target keywords. The keywords you are expecting people
you find your site with
There are three types of user intent.
1. Action (want to something like take a test or compare prices)
2.Information (want information about something like how high is
Mt. Everest)
3.Go (go to a specific page i.e. Google homepage or AdWords Keyword
tool)
These are know as ” Do-Know-Go”.
Of course you need to identify the precise user intent, for
instance the keyword “Makita 2350 Power Drill” is most
likely to have a user intent to purchase that item (Do) . While
“Makita 2350 Power Drill spec” would be looking for the
technical specifications of the product (Know) and Makita”
would probably be looking for the manufactures web site (Go)
These “intents” are quite specific. So let’s take a
typical example of the mistakes webmaster make with this (you may
recognize this 🙂
Your keywords “Makita 2350 Power Drill” is for a web
page that gives an in depth description of the technical
specifications of the product. Even offer some great information
on how to use it, safety tips and explanation of many of the
add-ons and attachment that are available. Lots of pictures of the
product and even a cool video of it in action. The page may have
taken you days to complete. You’ve added a couple of AdSense
blocks on the page, nothing too intrusive.
Is this high quality page? Quiet Simple NO
It does not fulfil the user intent. The user (of your keyword)
wanted to buy a drill NOT learn all about about a drill. It is a
classic error of sending a “Do” query to a “Know” page
(or any other combination). Not fulfilling the user intent
means all your good work on that page has been wasted.
Google will not rank a page for a keyword that does no fulfill the
user intent.
Purpose
Next think about web page “Purpose”. This is NOT the
same as user intent when assessing your web pages. To assess the
“content quality” you need to ignore user intent. Look at
a page in isolation and decide what the purpose of the page is.
i.e. to sell something, to calculate currency exchange, to show the
latest news items etc.
When you understand what the page purpose is then you need to
ensure it is in fitting with the overall objectives of the site. So
what is published in “about us” and what you can see on
the home page. This is why “niching” your site is a good
idea and sites with “random” subject posts or content do
not do well.
Looking at “content” quality specifically you need to
identify the main and supplementary content of the site. i.e. the
main content will be that which achieves the purpose of the page.
Supplementary content helps and adds value to the page purpose.
One common mistake is to have no supplementary content or
supplementary content that is unhelpful.
Of course you need to look at all the usual things you would think
of as quality content” like spelling grammar, does it read
well? is it interesting? do you believe it? Would you trust your
credit card to it?
There is an awful lot more to assessing the quality of web page (in
Google’s eyes) and I will cover some more in my next email.
However I cannot possibly cover everything in emails so I have
produced an in-depth tutorial of over 100 pages (not for the
faint-hearted) plus self -assessment check-list/forms you can use
on your sites or even your clients. It is the very basis for all
good websites. If you intend to be successful with SEO then you
must understand and apply this information. There will still be
work to be done after this but without it you could literally be a
non-starter. It may actually be the very reason why many of you
just do not see success with your web sites.
You can get the full 100+ pages of tutorial and the self-assessment checklist by clicking here