Mueller Explains The Relevance Of Comprehensive Content

SEO content checks are done to ensure the clarity and relevance of articles and blog posts. In an Office-hours hangout, one SEO asked Google’s John Mueller if writing quality SEO content would help them build trust with Google. Mueller advised the SEO to stop stressing about gaining Google’s trust and instead advised on how to develop excellent content.

Google And Trust

There is a notion that if Google does not rank a site, it’s because it doesn’t trust it. That isn’t an unreasonable fear to have.

However, Google’s algorithms aren’t structured around trust metrics, to say the least. Some link-related algorithms evaluate whether a site is normal or not. A not-normal site is one that attempts to tamper with search rankings, using methods like paid guest posts and links.

Outside Google’s point of view, poor performance may be interpreted as evidence that Google doesn’t trust the site, and this might lead people to believe it isn’t ranking because it is not trustworthy. It’s not about trust, though, but because the site is a not-normal due to links or certain types of content.

It appears that Google does not trust it, but it’s a completely different issue. And it’s best that the SEO community understands and knows about these advanced theories; if so, they won’t have to worry about performing tasks to “earn trust” that have nothing to do with why their web page isn’t ranking in the first place.

Trust Rank Patent

There’s a Trust Rank in a patent that was filed in 2006. It focuses on user intent and personalisation. One should begin with the first section of the patent and read it repeatedly until they understand what it’s about. Most individuals who make mistakes with patents skip over the beginning portion and go straight to the middle section. However, without understanding the context of the patent’s first part, it results in mistaken ideas about what the patent is all about.

The goal of the Trust Rank patent is to identify user intent through signals, such as whether a person has been to a website before.

The patent’s second paragraph indicated its true meaning. It claimed that a basic problem with search engines’ design is that the relevance of search results to a specific user is dependent on factors that are extremely reliant on the user’s search intent, which is what made them conduct the search in the first place. These factors also depend on the user’s circumstances and their need for information.

Therefore, if two separate users type in the same question, a given set of search results might be relevant to one and irrelevant to another due to different intent and information needs.

Most efforts to solve the issue of inferring a user’s intent usually relies on weak factors, such as predefined methods of query reformulation or static user preferences. These factors are only educated guesses about the user’s interests based on the query terms.

Such approaches can never comprehend the user intent because it is highly dependent on many situational facts that can’t be extrapolated from the usual query terms.

Based on the patent’s explanation, it is not about trust. Instead, it is about user intent.

Googlers have announced multiple times that Google does not employ a trust signal. In 2011, Google engineer Matt Cutts debunked the myth of a trust signal in an online video. Despite Google’s assertions that it does not use a trust indicator, many online businesses and site owners still believe otherwise.

Mueller On Comprehensive Articles And Building Trust With Google

The person posing the question wants to know whether or not writing comprehensive content improves Google’s trust.

Mueller explained how comprehensive content might be beneficial in certain circumstances and detrimental in others. But before that, he stated once again that Google does not use a trust metric. Afterwards, he set aside the topic of trust and advised the SEO how they should write better content to rank higher in the search results.

Mueller said that site owners and publishers should focus more on the user side, asking themselves if their content builds trust with their users and if the readers appreciate the article.

If the article is meaningful, useful, and comprehensive, then the readers would probably appreciate it. The most crucial aspect is to figure out who their intended users are and conduct SEO content checks to ensure that the written piece is relevant to them, especially in the language aspect.

Suppose a site owner writes a highly detailed technical article about a certain topic. If their users want something more general or less detailed that explains the subject a bit better, then that highly specialised technical article may be a poor fit. However, if their users are mostly technical experts who want to discover all of the high-tech information, then perhaps it’s the right match.

Understand The User First

Mueller advised the SEO to first understand the user. For instance, just because a website ranks for rental cars doesn’t necessarily mean that the publisher should blindly write long comprehensive articles on rental cars because users are probably not looking for this type of information. Therefore, site owners should figure out who their users are before working on their content.

Some SEOs may notice that their top-performing competitors publish content that’s rather simple. They see this as a chance to produce more advanced articles, believing it will help them win against entry-level content. However, a lot of times, that entry-level content is what readers want, and that is why Google has placed it there on the top of their search results page.

Create Quality Content With Position1SEO

Quality content is a necessary part of any online business. It’s not enough to have an attractive website or social media profile; you need high-quality content. It increases your website’s value and helps people find your brand faster on search engines. The more quality content you produce, the better for your company.

Position1SEO is a UK-based SEO agency that excels in writing high-quality, user-friendly content. We create easy-to-read and informative SEO content on your products or services for your website.

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