Google Advises to Focus on Content Quality – The Era of SEO Metrics Is Over

SEO best practices are constantly evolving, and recently Google has made some announcements regarding what we should focus on in our SEO. (Hint: it’s helpful, quality content as usual!)

The Importance of Content Quality for SEO

The main SEO announcement included:

• Content quality and real user experience should be prioritized over perfect Core Web Vitals scores (e.g. site speed)
• Google’s John Mueller says don’t obsess over SEO tool numbers. Examples include:
  • Number of words on a page
  • Keyword density
  • Domain/page authority

This announcement follows a familiar theme: content quality is in!

Using SEO Metrics from Third Party Tools

Google’s John Mueller recently cautioned against relying too heavily on third-party SEO metrics.

He stated “Many SEO tools have their own metrics that business owners and SEO folks are attempting to optimize for (because you see a number), but ultimately, there’s no shortcut.” These metrics don’t directly correlate with how search engines evaluate websites.

At DriveTraffic, we see this with NeuronWriter – having the highest content quality score does not guarantee a top ranking – not even when combined with a high domain authority! Although the worst ranked sites do not tend to have the highest content quality nor highest domain authority… 

Instead of focusing on metrics and numbers, he advised to focus on value. Think of what your reader wants and create the most useful, quality content possible.

Focus on Value, Not Numbers

Mueller suggested a holistic SEO approach, prioritizing unique value over specific metrics like

Domain Authority.

He admitted that creating unique content isn’t easy, adding: “Unique doesn’t mean a unique combination of words, but really something that nobody else is providing, and ideally, that others can’t easily provide themselves. At DriveTraffic we are seeing that as we incorporate our own experience into content, the content is performing quite well on Google.

Does this mean SEO is dead? Not necessarily. The introduction of SGE is one factor that led to these changes. Google appears to be focusing more on answers, rather than a list of links. This means that your content needs to anticipate the questions searchers will ask and ensure that these questions are answered in the content.

I’ve been pushing my clients towards following an E-E-A-T framework for a while now, and these announcements from Google solidify that this is the way to go. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are integral to Google’s guidelines for assessing the quality of web content.
Focus on these values instead of previously important metrics like word count –  remember, we are now in the era of quality over quantity.

Our Case Studies – Value Focus

At DriveTraffic, we’ve made a lot of content focused on delivering advertising information for services such as botox and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Advertising on Google Ads for businesses offering these services is tricky, so our content for these businesses is quite detailed and full of value.

We also have content that offers step by step instructions on tracking bookings in JaneApp – this is a common pain point for JaneApp users and our content tells them exactly what to do.

These content examples are not your usual GA4 or Google Ads content, but yet we drive more engaged traffic to these pages because they bring value to the reader and they follow the E-E-A-T framework. We’ve even managed to drive traffic from Reddit based on this content!

Content quality is in and metrics are out. Need help with your content creation to ensure it is providing quality to your readers? We can help boost your content’s effectiveness with conversion while remaining within SEO guidelines.

Contact DriveTraffic today!