Main point
- High-quality content satisfies the “purpose” of the page
- PQ (Page Quality) evaluation is determined by the following requirements
- Purpose of the page
- Expertise, authoritativeness, and credibility (EAT)
- Quality and quantity of the main content
- Information about the site and information about the creator of the content
- The reputation of the manager of the site or content
- Expertise is the expertise of the
Content Creator Authoritativeness
Credibility refers to the
credibility of a content creator, their content, or a site Needs Met rating
refers to the evaluation criteria for search queries and their search results PQ
rating refers to Needs Met rating by reading the search quality
evaluation guidelines, you can see the direction of site design and content
creation
1. What are Search Quality
Evaluation Guidelines?
This guideline is primarily used
in tests that Google does to make sure the search engine is doing its job for
its users. Because you can't tell if content is "good" just by
looking at the data, so you need to get people together and test the search
results. In other words, evaluators look at these guidelines to evaluate
whether or not search results for specific keywords benefit users.
Since Google has gone to great
lengths to say, "We will evaluate this kind of content," I don't
think it's possible not to use it. However, since this guideline has 172 pages
in English, I will extract and post only specific and useful parts.
2. What does Google mean by
“good content”?
According to the guidelines, each
page has a "purpose" , and a page that fulfills that
"purpose" well should be evaluated as "quality content".
For example,
·
News sites: Notifying you
of recent important events
·
Video posting sites:
Sharing videos Forum
· Sites: Giving opinions
E-commerce sites: Selling products and services : Converting one currency to another 404 page: Telling that the page does not exist
·
Etc.
3. What is the YMYL region?
This is a topic that has a
significant impact on well-being, health, financial security and security. YMYL
stands for Your Money or Your Life.
For example,
Important news
, international events
, business
, politics
, science
, technology, etc.
* Sports and entertainment
related to daily life are not included in YMYL.
Government and legal matters
Voting
Government agencies
Public institutions
Public services
Legal matters (eg divorce, child
protection, adoption, wills)
Finance
, Investing
, Taxes
, Retirement Planning
, Loans
, Banking
, Insurance
, Sites specifically for buying
things or transferring money
Sites for shopping
, information on products and
services, or
for buying something in
particular
Health and safety
/illness
/medicine
/hospital
/emergency measures (disasters,
etc.)
/dangerous behavior
Matters relating to specific
groups
・Age
, caste
, disability
, ethnicity
, gender identity
, status of residence
, nationality
, race
, religion
, gender
, sexual orientation
, presence or absence of military
membership,
victims of discrimination,
alienation, domestic violence, etc.
Other topics that greatly affect
our lives, such as
fitness
, nutrition
, housing
, university selection
, and employment
The above is a specific example
of the YMYL area indicated in the Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines.
4. Types of page content
According to the guidelines,
there are three types of site content.
・Main content (MC)
・Supplementary content (SC)
・Monetization such as advertisements
(Ads)
a.
Main content
The main content plays a central
role in achieving the very “purpose” of the page. If it's a note, the article
you're reading right now is the main content.
The "purpose" of this
page is to convey the contents of the Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines in
an easy-to-understand manner and how to use them. So everything else (popup
screens, icons, etc.) is not main content.
Also, pages with main content
should have a descriptive title at the top. The title should be a good summary
of the main content. Because you can immediately understand what page the user
is visiting.
b.
Supplementary content
Supplemental content is what
provides a great user experience. For example, navigation bars and table of
contents.
c.
Monetization such as advertisements
Today, advertising and digital
are inextricably linked. There are arguments that digital advertising is
becoming less effective because there are so many advertisements everywhere .
However, it is also true that
providing quality content comes at a cost. According to the Search Quality
Rating Guidelines, ads by themselves do not determine the quality of your
content. This is because there are many sites that cannot survive without monetization.
Below is a list of monetization
methods . Of course, these are not all, but for your reference.
・PPC (Pay Per Click) Ads
・Banner Ads
・Affiliates
・Data Monetization
・Subscriptions
・Donations
5. PQ (Page Quality)
evaluation criteria
The most important things in
evaluating a page are:
・The purpose of the page
・Expertise, Authoritativeness, and
Trustworthiness (EAT)
・Quality and quantity of the main
content
・Information about the site and the
content creator
・Reputation of the site or content manager
Expertise is the expertise of the
content creator.
For example, if there is an
article about law, it can be said that the article written by a lawyer has a
higher degree of expertise than the general public.
- Authoritativeness can be the authority of the content creator, the content itself, or the site.
- Credibility can be the credibility of the content creator, the content itself, or the site.
- So far, it sounds like you have to be an expert in that field, but that depends on the topic.
- Specifically, articles about "treatments for diseases" should be written or supervised by doctors.
- However, it doesn't matter if you are not a medical professional when it comes to "experience stories" of illness.
- So, find your specialties, such as your work or daily experience, and try to create content.
- Next is the quality and quantity of the main content .
- Each page has a "purpose" and must provide sufficient value to achieve that purpose.
- Therefore, the "quality" of the content includes functionality such as an insurance premium calculation app and whether the shopping cart works properly.
Also, if the article is for
informational purposes,
・Accurate: Refers to fact-based
information & external reliable information
・Specific
・Original: Unique information
・Comprehensive: Analysis from various
perspectives such as law, economy, culture
・Deep insight
・Expert consensus
Content that incorporates such
elements is of higher quality.
Also, if you are a shopping site,
you should have the ability to find and purchase products.
Online brokerage sites should
have a customer support page and contact information.
Site information and content
creator information is primarily information about who (a specific individual,
entity, or company) creates/operates the site or content.
This is because "who says
it" is important to win the trust of users.
If you are a business, explain
what your business is. Information such as store information, business hours,
menus, etc.
If you're an individual, a user
name you use online or a link to a social network is enough, but if you have a
background, it will help you evaluate EAT.
Especially in the YMYL area, we
have to provide more information that proves our professionalism,
authoritativeness, and credibility. So just providing your email address is not
enough.
A site or content manager's
reputation can get a good PQ rating even if it doesn't exist, but it's better.
However, please note that a site
with a negative reputation will not receive a high PQ rating.
Also, for topics that don't
require so much expertise, such as entertainment and recipes,
・Popularity
・User reactions
・Reviews
etc., can serve as a basis for
reputation.
6. Characteristics of
low-quality content
Basically, content that violates
the PQ rating criteria is low quality content.
In particular,
・Sufficient EAT is not guaranteed
・The quality and quantity of the main
content is insufficient
・The title of the content is
exaggerated and does not represent the content
・Ads and website UI are in the way of
the main content
・Poor information about the site and
content creators
・The reputation of the site and
content creators is not good
And so on.
The content of the advertisement
can also be subject to negative evaluation.
for example,
・Titles and images are exaggerated
・Contains adult, violent or grotesque
content
・Difficult to close & follows you
even when you scroll the page
・Forcing you to download the app
Etc.
Unless you have a bad business or
fraudulent reputation, an overall negative reputation, if not too severe, can
be considered a low-quality site.
7. Site Reputation
A site's reputation plays an
important role in the PQ rating.
And the reputation of the site is
basically,
・User experience
・Expert opinions
・If the site administrator is a
company or organization, the administrator's own reputation
・If the site creator and the content
creator are different, the content creator's reputation
determined by
PQ Ratings are designed to
evaluate natural third-party reviews rather than self-generated reviews of
sites and creators.
The search quality evaluation
guidelines are
・Reviews
・Reference sources (links to articles,
etc.)
・Recommendations from experts
・News articles
It is designed to check reliable
information by third parties such as.
User reviews are especially
important for sites that sell products and services. Of course the more
positive reviews the better.
Quality is important as well as
quantity. For example, if you win some prestigious award, it's pretty positive.
For authors and creators, their
biography is an important indicator of their reputation.
In the case of the YMYL area,
recommendations from experts in the field have a great impact on evaluation.
Simply put, the type of site and
topic will change the information you should focus on.
For example, a shopping site
might value user reviews, but a site about pharmaceuticals (YMYL) might be less
important and more important, such as expert opinion.
8. How to check a site's
reputation
As much as possible, please refer
to reliable sources that are not self-made.
This way, you can find out not
only your site's reputation, but also the reputation of your competitors'
sites.
It would not be an exaggeration
to say that the mission of people who are active online is to increase this
“reputation”.
for example,
・News
, Wikipedia
, blogs
, magazines
, forums
, product reviews
, expert opinions
・In the case of content creators,
biography, past achievements, awards received
・Other information from unaffiliated
organizations or bodies
Etc.
Some of these sources may not be
"perfect" in terms of reliability, but at least those written by
operators or companies themselves (so-called stemmers ) should be avoided.
Also, even if the number of
reviews for a product or service is small, it may be a scam, so you cannot
easily believe it.
On the flip side, it's perfectly
fine to have a few negative reviews or reviews. Because for small businesses
and individuals, that's the norm.
So I think it's questionable that
there are only a few extremely positive reviews.
Next is the specific research
method. Taking ibm.com as an example,
・Search with “ ibm -site:ibm.com
” ⇒ Articles about “IBM”, excluding articles on ibm.com
・Search with “ ibm.com -site:ibm.com
” ⇒ About “ibm.com” Excludes articles on ibm.com
・Search by " ibm reviews
-site:ibm.com
" ⇒ Excludes
articles on ibm.com among articles about "IBM reviews"
・" ibm.com reviews "
-site:ibm.com ”
⇒ Exclude articles on ibm.com among
articles about “ibm.com reviews”
・Search by name or common name for the
creator of the content
Simply put, it searches for
articles other than your own site.
So far, we've covered the PQ
rating criteria and how to find out a site's reputation.
Next, how can I improve my PQ
rating ?
9. Let users know your site
As I say many times, the site has
a "purpose", and the degree to which the purpose is achieved
determines the "quality" of the page or site.
The search quality evaluation
guidelines use an index called PQ (Page Quality) evaluation to measure page
quality.
And there is an evaluation manual
so that evaluators can make uniform evaluations as much as possible.
By using this manual as a
reference when designing your site and creating content, you will be able to
provide quality that will be appreciated not only by users but also by Google.
a.
Get people to understand
the website
The homepage is usually
considered to contain important information and links to the site, so it is
subject to a PQ (Page Quality) rating.
First, place a link back to your
home page.
Placing a "home" or
"main page" and a clickable logo at the top of your site makes it
easier for users to know where to click to return to your home page.
Other URL
// URL
https://site
It is also important to ensure
that you can reach the homepage properly when searching using only the domain
name.
A domain name is one that ends
with "example.co.jp".
・".com"
・".org"
・".net"
・".info"
It is the part that ends with .
b.
Specify the site administrator
every site is
・Site administrator
・Content creator
should be clarified.
therefore,
・About Us
・Contact Us
Create a page like this to make
it clear who is managing the site.
The administrator of the site
does not necessarily have to be a "person", and can be a corporation
or an organization such as a company.
If your site is a personal or
company blog, it's a good idea to also indicate who the content creator is.
for example,
・Artists
, authors
, musicians
etc.
This is because Google believes
that users need such information to better understand the site.
On the other hand, the site
administrator and content creator may be different .
For example, from SNS such as
Facebook and Twitter to question sites such as Yahoo Chiebukuro.
Youtube is run by Alphabet, but
the content is created by Youtubers.
So don't forget to check if the
content creator is listed on the individual page.
Finally, if you hire content
creators to post content on your site, be aware that it is the site
administrator who ensures the "quality" of the content.
c.
Add contact information
The presence or absence of
contacts is also one of the points to be evaluated.
Purpose of contact information
・Reporting pages that are not
functioning
・Requesting content deletion
・Inquiries
There are various reasons such as
On the other hand, the site
・E-mail address
・Telephone number
・Address
・Contact form
・SNS
We disclose this information to
ensure a means of communication with users.
The question is, "How much
information should I disclose?" It depends on the type of site.
Specifically, if your site is
about shopping, banking, or credit cards, a contact page or customer service
information is extremely important.
Conversely, depending on the
purpose of the site, it may be unavoidable to keep some information private.
It's probably not necessary to
post your phone number on your personal blog, and in cases where users create
content (bulletin boards, SNS, etc.), they don't even publish their names.
Regarding this point, since the
standards differ depending on the country and region, there was little
information that clearly had to be done in this way.
I think it would be a good idea
to find a similar industry/type of site and publish the same level of
information.
10. Understanding Mobile User
Search Intent
Most internet searches are done
on mobile. Google knows that too, so they're taking a mobile-first approach to
improving their search engine.
So far, I have explained good and
bad page content, but if you do not understand what the user wants to achieve
in the first place, you will not know what purpose you should create content
for.
Therefore, in this chapter, we
will focus on user search intent.
The Search Quality Rating
Guidelines define search query categories as follows:
・Know query
・Do query
・Website query: I want to find a
specific website
・Visit-in-person query: I want to find
a specific business, category, or organization
Of course, one search query may
contain multiple search intents. In other words, there are many users behind
one search query.
Know queries are keywords
searched when looking for information about a particular topic.
Real-world queries range from
simple and uncontroversial to abstract and unanswerable.
For example, a query such as
"Prime Minister Kishida Height" is simple and has only one correct
answer.
On the contrary, "Prime
Minister Kishida" is quite abstract. In such cases, multiple search
intents may be included.
Do queries are keywords that
users search for when they want to accomplish something.
Therefore, the query contains
words that can be "verbs".
In English, the verb comes first,
but in Japanese, it's at the end of the query.
In particular,
・"App name download": I want
to download a specific app
・"Personality test": I want
to take a personality test
・"BMI calculation": I want
to calculate my BMI
・"Movie name DVD purchase":
I want to buy a movie DVD
and so on.
A website query is, as the name
suggests, a query for finding a specific site.
For example
・"youtube": youtube.com page
・"ebay": ebay.com page
・"canon digital camera":
Canon digital camera page
Etc.
A Visit-in-Person query , as the
name suggests, is a query that finds places you want to visit directly.
Google gives weight to the user's
location when determining search intent for this query.
If the search query is 'spice'
and there is a curry shop named 'spice' near the user, Google may prioritize
this curry shop in the search results.
Conversely, if we don't have a
store with that name, we might simply show content about spice types and
definitions.
If you don't know the search
intent of your query, try Google search.
Even if there are multiple search
intents, a quick look at the first page of the search results makes it easy to
consider what kind of search intent is being searched for.
11. Evaluation of search
results
There are different queries and
corresponding search results, but the method of evaluation is the same.
Google regularly researches how
good search results are for mobile users.
Google search results are of the
following types:
Special Content Result Block (
SCRB )
SCRB is the box of content at the
top of search results.
There seems to be a tendency to
return search results in SCRB format for "facts" that have no room
for interpretation, such as definitions of words, weather forecasts, and birth
dates of celebrities.
12. Needs Met Rating
The Needs Met rating is a metric
that measures how useful search results are for your search needs.
On the other hand, please note
that the PQ (Page Quality) rating is for evaluating the page of the site.
By the way, a low PQ rating means
a bad Needs Met rating . Borrowing the words of the guidelines, it seems that
"useless is useless".
In other words, the PQ (Page
Quality) evaluation criteria is a prerequisite, and if you do not meet the PQ
evaluation criteria in the first place, you do not even have the
"qualification" to go to the top of the search ranking.
Among such high-quality content,
it can be considered that only those related to search needs are reigning high
in the search rankings.
Return the story.
The guidelines describe needs
・Completely satisfied (FullyM)
・Highly satisfied (HM)
・Moderately satisfied (MM)
・Slightly satisfied (SM)
・Not satisfied (FailsM)
evaluated according to the
criteria.
Of course I want to aim for FullM
, but to reach this level,
・Queries and user needs are clear,
specific, and unambiguous
・Users can meet their needs with
minimal effort
・Users do not need to see other
content
It is very hard to meet the
criteria.
Some examples were given in the
guidelines, but almost all
Result for Website Query
Device Action Result Block
Special Content Result Block (
SCRB )
correspond to these.
in short,
・Searching for a specific site such as
“youtube”
・Content that prompts the user to take
action (such as installing an app)
・Content that displays information or
facts that leave no room for interpretation, such as stock prices
was limited to
All of this information suggests
that long-tail keywords are a better target to meet users' search needs .
A long tail keyword is a search
keyword consisting of multiple words such as “iphone cover shop”. As the amount
of information is large, the search needs are clear, making it an easy query to
answer.
Conversely, a one-word search
query forces a single piece of content to satisfy multiple search needs. This
can be a little difficult.
In such cases, it seems that the
power of content alone is not enough to be displayed high in SEO, and it is
necessary to improve the reputation of the site and content creators.
In addition, even if the content
is good enough to meet the user's needs, if the information becomes outdated ,
the rating will also decline.
Continual rewrites will be
required.
13. Finally
The purpose of the majority of
people who do SEO measures is probably because they want more search traffic.
This is because search rankings and traffic flow are closely related.
According to Ignite Visibility
research (2020), search rankings and CTR (Click Through Rate) have the
following relationships on average:
Position - CTR
Position 1 – 43.32%
Position 2 – 37.36%
Position 3 –29.90%
Position 4 – 19.38%
Position 5 –10.95%
Position 6 – 10%
Position 7 – 5.28%
Position 8 – 4.13%
Position 9 – 4.13%
Position 10 – 3.11%
Google shows what kind of content
to evaluate through the search quality evaluation guidelines, so by following
it, you should be able to create content that is also effective for SEO.
In other words, web production,
content marketing, and SEO are issues that must be considered together.
Thank you for reading until the
end.