Firstly, do have a read Amit Singhal’s ‘More guidance on high quality sites’ [cite: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html]
Google SEO advice sometimes is like ‘how do I become a millionaire’ advice. Be great and you’ll be right.
However, I like this list from Amit Singhal because it attempts to pull you out of the old 2 dimensional world of search. In this post I have attempted to prioritise the 23 point checklist along with some example actions for you and your web team to explore. Best of luck!
Would you trust the information presented in this page? [Priority 1]
Prominent display of 3rd party accreditation / association
Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant pages on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations? [Priority 1]
Make your site page structure as economical as possible
Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site? [Priority 1]
Prominent display of authentication details
Does this page have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors? [Priority 1]
Copy and paste your written content into Microsoft Word and do a simple spelling / grammar check
Does the page provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis? [Priority 1]
Get a Copyscape account and do a deep scan. Therre is always the potential for others to scrape your content – compromising its uniqueness.
Are the pages short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics? [Priority 1]
Trim down your sitemap and consolidate content areas
Would users complain when they see pages from this site? [Priority 1]
Page by page content evaluation
Was the page edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced? [Priority 1]
Page by page content evaluation
Is this page written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature? [Priority 2]
Linkage to G+ authorship
Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines? [Priority 2]
Appraise your web and business strategy: is there a disparity between the 2?
Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results? [Priority 2]
Critically benchmark your content against the top 3-5 ranking web pages – particularly with a view to rich content (video, images and podcasts)
Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name? [Priority 2]
A long term brand led marketing strategy
Does this page have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content? [Priority 2]
Do some usability testing. Doesn’t have to expensive – even spending a couple of hours with Google in page Analytics is better than not understanding how your site could be more usable.
Would you expect to see this page in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book? [Priority 2]
See which businesses in your space do get this coverage and why/how
Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail? [Priority 2]
Create a calendar of content evaluation – spend days/weeks on each page prioritised against pageviews/commercial importance
Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend? [Priority 2]
Quantify any gaps in website content between you and market leaders
How much quality control is done on content? [Priority 2]
Implement a content quality control calendar
Does the page describe both sides of a story? [Priority 3]
Provide customer video reviews with a transcript should the user not want to watch the video
Is the site a recognized authority on its topic? [Priority 3]
Raise your profile offline as much as online. Attend conferences and local business networking
Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care? [Priority 3]
Delete ‘network sites’
Does this page provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic? [Priority 3]
Do some usability testing with small focus groups
Does this page contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious? [Priority 3]
Conduct your own market research using your customer database
This post was created by Duncan Colman – Digital Marketing Consultant of Spike Digital.