Google has always insisted that “high-quality content” is crucial to appearing at the top of relevant search engine results pages, but offered little advice to webmasters and developers on what that looked like until last month, when it released a series of five guides on the subject.
The new Developer Documentation Style Guide provides insights for any content marketing agency or web development team in need of direction. Last week, Search Engine Land columnist and Razorfish SEO director Brian Ussery helpfully summarized the guide and provided a few important takeaways.
For content creators
In general, your content marketing agency should create relevant, accessible content that appeals to your target audience. Google encourages using a “friendly, conversational tone with a clear purpose,” Ussery writes. In other words, your language should be clear, concise, knowledgeable, and easy to process. Overly complicated sentence structure and inaccessible vocabulary could hurt your quality score. The guide also calls for numbered lists and outbound links to reliable and respected sites.
For developers
Crafting easy-to-understand and informative content containing target keywords are important, but without proper back-end optimization, it won’t achieve the intended results. Small moves like opting for SVG or .png files over JPEGs, including <strong> and <b> text in appropriate settings, and choosing HTTPS for embedded image and media files can make a big difference.
Other tips
In his summary, Ussery included a useful list of things to avoid when creating content, including buzzwords, technical jargon, and slang; using the words “please” in instructions or “click here” in anchor text; and overusing metaphors.
As a Premier Google Partner All-Star Agency with access to valuable insights on Google’s preferred practices, GrowthEngine Media works hard to deliver relevant, well-crafted content that rivals the production of any content marketing agency.