30-second summary:

  • Content quality is key to high rankings in Google organic but it is not easy to tell what a search crawler may deem high quality.
  • High-quality content is most surely one that is semantically relevant to a target query and covers the given topic deep enough to satisfy a search user, hence semantic relevancy is probably the most powerful SEO signal.
  • Content structure helps Google and its users to quickly grasp the main points covered on the page. So topical and logical subheadings may be a sign of a good copy.
  • Readability and accessibility may not be direct ranking signals but they may improve on-page engagement which may send some quality signals to Google.
  • Relevant outbound links that add to the depth of the content may (or may not) be direct ranking signals but they definitely add to the on-page user experience (and hence may influence what Google thinks of your page).

Google’s mantra has always been “create great content”. However while 15 years ago creating great content may have been not really that helpful, we are finally at the point when this recommendation has started paying off. In truth, nowadays high-quality content is key to higher rankings. But what is great content? In other words, how to tell a good copy from a mediocre one?

Answering this question is actually harder than it seems. A human being can somehow tell whether any text reads well and provides value but how can this be evaluated from an SEO standpoint, when a machine gets to decide on this pretty subjective criteria.

Well, we don’t know for sure. We can only make (educated) guess based on what Google reps say, various experiments, personal experiences as well as what we seem to know about search algorithms.

Read more from our friends at Search Engine Watch