With the mission of helping you keep up with the challenging world of search engine optimization (SEO) and how pet web content works best today, I try to follow the latest guidelines, trends and events that make a big difference in search results.
Finding quality websites for searchers has always been the goal of Google and other search engines. But just what does “quality” mean?
Last year, several strides were taken to clamp down on “thin” pages that offered very little information, keyword-stuffed articles that offered nothing of value, and duplicate content you can find on dozens if not hundreds of websites. So one definition of quality has been “original, useful and highly relevant content,” which I talk about a lot.
Today I read this new definition of quality, and it helps clarify things for us further, to a point.
According to Google, “High quality content is content you can send to your child to learn something.”
Hmmm.
Here’s how I interpret that for pet-industry marketers, whether you’re marketing pet products, pet services, veterinary care, pet business consulting or anything else related to this industry.
- Be sure your content is very, very clear and simple; easy to understand.
This is where the “send to your child” part comes in.Avoid using jargon that most pet parents or other prospects wouldn’t understand. (Ask someone if they understand your content.) Use a clear headline: what will the visitor learn here? Format your content in a clean layout, with headlines, subheads, bullets and captions that make it very easy to grasp your messages. Make sure people can read your content and it’s not buried within graphics. - Deliver content that helps solve a need or a problem, or clarifies a confusing topic.
This is where the “learn something” part comes in. Here’s an example. Let’s say I’ve never had a cat with diabetes before, but suddenly my cat needs daily insulin shots and other specific care. I’ll want to know how to take care of my cat, what to feed it, what symptoms to watch for and much more. Content that helps me understand all this — and perhaps also provides a helpful solution (product, service, how-to video, etc.) will be considered quality to me, the cat owner. I may even need to find a new veterinary clinic if I move to another town with my diabetic cat, so a veterinarian located in that town, who shares clear and helpful content on their website about treating diabetes, will be an obvious choice for me.
This seems simple enough, yet most marketers I talk with are stumped about their content: why it’s not working to get better search rankings or attract more customers. In the next several weeks I’ll be talking about that. In the meantime, browse through my previous blog posts for lots of clues. 🙂
What do you consider quality content in the pet-marketing world? Share examples!
In the meantime,
Here’s to a prosperous pet website!
Pam
PetCopywriter.com