To succeed online in the long term you need to have a high quality website.<\/p>\n
Whether you are running a news blog, a content driven website or an e-commerce store, it has to be different (and better) than the thousands of other websites in the same niche.<\/p>\n
A high quality website will grow over time both in terms of loyal readers but also in terms of search engine trust, which is equivalent to more organic visits.<\/p>\n
Google engineers are trying for years to make their algorithms clever enough to identify and rank websites that are of good quality.<\/p>\n
It is not an easy task, taking into account that everything has to be decided by a computer program and not a human.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless with the introduction of \u2018Panda\u2019 a few\u00a0years ago, it seems that they are in the right path.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Panda\u2019 algorithmic changes made a good job in identifying which websites are better than the rest and and gave those a higher\u00a0position in the SERPS.<\/p>\n
I am not going to spend any more time on the theory behind Panda, you can read more here<\/a><\/b> if you want to find out more.<\/p>\n What I am going to explain below, is what Google considers to be a high quality website and most importantly what practical actions you can take to make your web property match the Google standards.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget that if a website is considered high quality by Google, then it will be considered as such by other search engines<\/strong><\/a> as well since Google\u2019s standards are stricter than those of Bing or Yahoo.<\/p>\n Over the years the whole SEO industry is talking about the need of producing high quality content<\/strong><\/a> and top experts came up with the clever quote \u2018Content is king<\/em>\u2019, meaning that content is the success factor of any website.<\/p>\n While this is true,\u00a0does it mean that a website with good content is also a high quality website?<\/p>\n The answer is NO.<\/p>\n Good content is not enough.<\/p>\n It is one of the factors (the most important) that separates low from high quality sites but good content alone does not complete the puzzle of what is considered by Google as a high quality website.<\/p>\n A high quality website has the following characteristics:<\/p>\n Unique content<\/b><\/p>\n Content is unique both within the website itself (i.e. each page has unique content and not similar to other pages), but also compared to other websites.<\/p>\n Demonstrate Expertise<\/b><\/p>\n Content is produced by experts based on research and or experience. If for example the subject is health related, then the advice should be provided by qualified authors who can professionally give advice for the particular subject.<\/p>\n Unbiased content<\/b><\/p>\n Content is detail and describes both sides of a story and is not promoting a single product, idea or service.<\/p>\n Accessibility<\/b><\/p>\n A high quality website has versions for non PC users as well. It is important that mobile and tablet users can access the website without any usability issues.<\/p>\n Usability<\/b><\/p>\n Can the user navigate the website easily; is the website user friendly?<\/p>\n Attention to detail<\/b><\/p>\n Content is easy to read with images (if applicable) and free of spelling and grammar mistakes. Does it seem that the owner cares on what is published on the website or is it for the purpose of having content in order to run ads?<\/p>\n SEO Optimized<\/b><\/p>\n Optimizing a web site for search engines<\/a><\/b> has many benefits but it is important not to overdo it. A good quality web site needs to have non-optimized content as well.<\/p>\n This is my opinion and although some people may disagree it is a fact that over-optimization can sometimes generate the opposite results.<\/p>\n The reason is that algorithms can sometimes interpret over-optimization as an attempt to game the system and they may take measures to prevent this from happening.<\/p>\n Balance between content and ads<\/b><\/p>\n It is not something bad for a website to have ads or promotions but these should not distract the users from finding the information they need.<\/p>\n Speed<\/b><\/p>\n A high quality website loads fast. A fast website will rank higher and create more conventions, sales and loyal readers.<\/p>\n Social<\/b><\/p>\n Social media changed our lives, the way we communicate but also the way we assess quality.<\/p>\n It is expected for a good product to have good reviews, Facebook likes and Tweets. Before you make a decision to buy or not, you may examine these social factors as well.<\/p>\n Likewise, It is also expected for a good website to be socially accepted and recognized i.e. have Facebook followers, RSS subscribers etc.<\/p>\n User Engagement and Interaction<\/b><\/p>\n Do users spend enough time on the site and read more than one pages before they leave? Do they interact with the content by adding comments, making suggestions, getting into conversations etc.?<\/p>\n Better than the competition<\/b><\/p>\n When you take a specific keyword, is your website better than your competitors? Does it deserve one of the top positions if judged without bias?<\/p>\n Taking into account the above characteristics of a high quality website, how do these translate in practice?<\/p>\n What can you do today to increase the quality and \u2018Google trust\u2019 of your website?<\/p>\n Check your site for content uniqueness<\/b><\/p>\n Ensure that you have unique content in all the pages. (I use copyscape to check all content before publishing to ensure that it is unique).<\/p>\n Check your existing pages and if you find duplicate content either remove it or de-index it. If you have pages with similar content merge them into one and redirect the pages with 301 redirections.<\/p>\n Pro Tip:<\/strong> How to find and fix thin content<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Go mobile<\/b><\/p>\n Your website should be mobile friendly. The experience of the reader is important regardless of the platform.<\/p>\n Tidy up your content<\/b><\/p>\n Check all articles\/pages for spelling and grammar mistakes. Make correct use of formatting tags i.e. H1, H2 and bold.<\/p>\n Use small paragraphs to make reading easier and add images, illustrations or infographics to make your content more interesting and appealing.<\/p>\n Find out what readers want<\/b><\/p>\n Use the Google keyword tool<\/a><\/b> to find out what people are searching and give them content they want but avoid over-optimization.<\/p>\n You can write content around the keywords they understand but try to make your posts social as well. Avoid using optimized titles all the time but keep a balance between optimized and non-optimized content.<\/p>\n Minimize the amount of ads above the fold<\/b><\/p>\n Google is penalizing websites having too many ads above the fold<\/strong><\/a>. This is also not good for the user experience. If you have good content, ads below the fold and at the end of your articles can also perform well.<\/p>\n Make your web site load fast<\/b><\/p>\n Check your web site with the page speed tool<\/a><\/b> and ensure that it loads as fast as possible.<\/p>\n I know that it\u2019s not the easiest task to do but it is very important.<\/p>\n Pro Tip: <\/strong>If you are using WordPress you can\u00a0read this guide: How to improve the loading speed of a WordPress website.<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Work on your social media promotion<\/b><\/p>\n Do you have a Facebook page, twitter account, Pinterest page?<\/p>\n If not, you are missing many opportunities.<\/p>\n Check your bounce rate<\/b><\/p>\n One of the measures you need to monitor, as explained in the Best Google analytics reports for beginners<\/a><\/b>\u00a0 is the bounce rate.<\/p>\nWhat is a high quality website?<\/h2>\n
Characteristics of a high quality website<\/h3>\n
How to create a high quality website?<\/h2>\n