A few years ago, it used to be possible to get a website ranked in Google even if the content on your website is less than stellar. In fact, I can just take an article from Ezinearticles.com or any article directories, slap it on my website, and get it ranked on the number one position, simply by pointing thousands of low quality links to it. And the ranking can remain there for months or even longer.



That has never been truer than it is today. The updated search algorithms for 2014 all place major emphasis on content. Not just any content, mind you. Instead, the search engines are looking for the highest quality content possible to present to their users. What qualifies as good content? Essentially, anything that meets or exceeds the expectations of your visitors. Here are a couple of tips to help you create killer content for your site:

This is definitely something that all webmasters should pay attention to. In the past, there used to be this concept of authority favoritism. Basically, it is said that these big authority sites are favored by Google. Therefore, they tend to rank highly in the search engine. Apparently, this is just a myth now.

Personally, I have conducted a small experiment. I realized that it is now possible for an article to rank for hundreds or even thousands of long tail keywords without building too many backlinks. But for that to happen, you need to follow the guidelines mentioned above. Make sure the article is at least 800 words and written naturally without keyword stuffing.

Put yourself in the mind of one of your visitors. Is your content engaging enough that you would want to stick around and read it? Is it something you would be proud to show to your family or friends? If not, refine it until it lives up to your standards. These simple tips should help you create content that is a good fit for the updated 2014 search algorithms. By focusing primarily on quality rather than quantity, you can build a site that not only provides real value within your industry, but also dominates the search results.

There has been a lot of arguments regarding what makes a content high quality. A few years ago, any 500 words article that is considered unique, and read well without any obvious grammatical or spelling errors is considered high quality. Although the argument is obviously flawed, as far as the search engine is concerned, it worked. Those articles do get ranked with enough backlinks pointing to them. Nowadays, in 2014, quality content has a very different meaning. Being unique is no longer enough for an article to be considered high quality. It should at least be good enough so that visitors will not click the back button as soon as they land on the page. After all, most marketers agree that bounce rate and time on site can affect your search engine rankings.