77 Characteristics of Quality Content: The Complete SEO Content List [PDF]
One of Google’s top three ranking factors is “content,” but what does that mean? What is “quality” content?
It’s a common and very crucial question, because organic rankings are essential for effective content marketing. SEO-aligned content marketers drive 54% more revenue growth year-over-year.
That’s probably why 66% of best-in-class companies involve SEO in their content creation process from the start: that alignment the only way to make a brand stand out in a digital market that is saturated with content.
But how exactly does that work? How can marketers write website content that search engines notice and favor?
The Journey to Quality Content
Google’s own Quality Guidelines are fairly vague, so the SEO community has been hard at work for years trying to figure that out. We test theories, study organic ranking changes, survey SERPs, and build list after list of things that are working—content characteristics that create good user experiences and seem to earn Google’s favor.
Years later, however, we have lists of lists—nine factors here, seven qualities there. What if there was one, complete list of high-quality content factors?
The Complete List of Quality, SEO Content Factors
The Complete List of High-Quality Content Factors combines all of the most recent, authoritative, and reliable surveys and studies the SEO community has produced—plus dozens of our own, exclusive insights and best practices from years of modern SEO work.
This comprehensive list divides all of these quality content factors into seven categories, aligned with a basic content creation process:
- Content strategy
- Content structure
- Content creation and design
- Modern keyword strategies
- Technical SEO
- Search engine results page snippets
- Social sharing
The kind of effective, quality content that helps drive SEO and produces measurable content marketing results demands the best strategy from start to finish. This PDF will walk you through all 77 quality content factors, and concludes with a one page checklist that you can copy for everyone on your content team.
Fill out the short form on the right to download your PDF so you can start perfecting your content marketing today.
1. High-Quality Content Starts with High-Quality Strategy
The content strategy is too often overlooked both in practice and in content surveys and studies. The truth is, revenue-driving content doesn’t happen by accident.
The first section of The Complete List of High-Quality Content Factors discusses content strategy considerations like:
- RankBrain
- Modern keyword/user intent research
- SERP analysis
- Sales personas
- Buyer journeys
It also provides links to industry-leading articles, publications, and tools for more information and assistance.
2. High-Quality Content is Structured Well
Before you can start writing, drawing, or recording, each content piece needs a plan. Section Two of the PDF will help you determine how to structure and organize your content to provide a good user experience and to communicate clearly with search engines.
There are 30 items in this section that, together, create a complete checklist as your team plans and outlines a piece of content, including:
- Content is one of five “Patronus” content types.
- Content is better than current SERP winners.
- Subsections are organized by primary related keywords.
3. High-Quality Content is Crafted Well
As you put all that planning and strategy into practice, stay vigilant. This section of The Complete List helps content creators with:
- Titles and subheads
- Content introductions
- Using content to target featured snippets
- Building the brand story
4. High-Quality Content Uses a Modern Keyword Strategy
Keywords aren’t dead, but they do require a new strategy. Section Four of the PDF distills a modern keyword strategy into a checklist that is easy to follow. Factors include:
- Content
- Three image text fields
- Links
- Headers
Get some clarity on what a modern keyword strategy actually looks like, so you can create content that works for SEO without having to worry about penalties.
5. High-Quality Content is Built on Clean Tech
Most technical SEO considerations are site-wide, but there are some factors that can affect a singular piece of content. Make sure your content:
- Is included on the XML sitemap
- Loads quickly
- Is linked to appropriately from within the site
- And more
Resources and tools are available to help you navigate all of the technical issues that might come up with a new, or newly optimized, piece of content.
6. High-Quality Content Looks Good on SERPs
A piece of content’s representation on a search engine results page (SERP) has to be part of the content creation process. The search snippet—the SEO page title, URL, and meta description—is the gateway from organic search to your site. More than a dozen items in this section of the PDF will help marketers create compelling search snippets by making sure that the snippet:
- Includes a compelling CTA
- Matches SERP trends
- Stands out on the page
- Is designed for character limitations
- And more
Why design content to perform well in organic search if the snippet that represents it on the SERP hasn’t also been designed to engage the audience?
7. High-Quality Content is Shareable
Designing content for social media is different from , and sometimes contradictory to, designing content for organic search and SEO. Social shares are not our primary goal, but good content is inherently (and technically) shareable. The Complete List of High-Quality Content Factors wraps up with a few considerations for getting your amazing content started on social media.
Cheers to Great Content
So what are you waiting for? Turn your marketing department into a quality content machine. Start improving organic search rankings, growing the CTR rate, and driving revenue.
And take the time to do it well. The internet doesn’t need more mediocre content, but it—and your audience—does need the best of what you and your team can bring to the table. Download your list and get started today.