Quality content is the number one factor that influences Google’s indexing and crawling decisions, according to a recent podcast discussion.
Quality is a critical factor that affects nearly every aspect of search, according to a recent discussion between John Mueller and Gary Illyes from Google’s Search Relations team.
During the recent podcast “Search Off the Record,” the two delved into the role of quality in everything from crawling and indexing to ranking.
While quality content does not guarantee high rankings, it can affect how Google interacts with a site.
Additionally, the conversation dispelled common SEO myths and clarified that affiliate sites can produce quality content.
Here are the highlights of the latest episode of the podcast.
Quality affects all aspects of research and indexing.
According to Illyes, quality is a significant factor in all search systems, influencing everything from sitemaps to rankings.
“Quality affects practically everything that search systems do,” Illyes explained, highlighting the breadth of quality’s role, from sitemaps to rankings.”
The discussion revealed that Google’s crawling scheduler uses quality signals to prioritize URLs for crawling. If Google knows it has X URLs to crawl on a site, it tries to create a ranked list based on predicted quality.
Moreover, quality is a significant factor when it comes to indexing decisions, explains Illyes:
“The most important thing is quality. It’s always quality. And I think that, externally, people don’t necessarily want to believe that, but quality is the most important factor in most of the indexing and crawling decisions we make.”
The quality of a site can affect the crawling process, even for new sites. For example, if a new page is discovered through sitemaps, Google will assess the quality of the previously crawled homepage to decide whether to crawl the new page.
The role of quality in classification
Although quality influences how Google crawls and indexes pages, it does not necessarily mean that it results in higher rankings.
Illyes clarified that having high-quality content does not automatically guarantee a prominent position in Google search results.
The variability of quality on a website
Illyes explained that quality can be specific to different parts of a website.
For example, if one part of a website consistently provides high-quality content, it may be treated differently from another part known for low-quality content.
On the other hand, if certain parts of a website consistently provide low-quality content, those areas may be crawled less frequently.
User-generated content (UGC) was cited as an example where quality can vary. If a pattern of low-quality content is detected in a section of the UGC, this may influence Google’s crawling behavior for that specific part of the site.
The ability to improve the quality of the site
Illyes assured listeners that they can improve the quality of their websites, even if they previously contained low-quality content. This encourages website owners to remove low-quality content to enhance the rest of the site.
Removing low-quality content can increase Google’s perception of your site, which may influence how Google crawls and indexes the remaining pages.
Removing low-quality content can enhance Google’s perception of the site, which may influence how Google crawls and indexes the remaining pages.
Clarify misconceptions about SEO
Illyes debunked some common misconceptions about SEO during the discussion.
Contrary to popular belief, duplicate content is not always a problem, and affiliate links are not either, as long as the surrounding content is unique and valuable.
The same applies to translated content, although it is highly recommended that automatic translations be reviewed by humans.
Affiliate sites and quality
Regarding affiliate sites, Illyes emphasized that it’s not just about the affiliate link. The quality of the content surrounding the product is equally important.
He states:
“If a product is reviewed, photographed, and exclusive content is created, that counts as high-quality content.”
In summary:
Improving the overall quality of the website can positively influence how Google crawls, indexes, and perceives a site. When low-quality content is removed, the rest of the site can benefit.
Although quality content alone does not guarantee high rankings, dedicating resources to producing valuable and unique content is likely to improve the site’s position in search results.
Source: Search Engine Journal
