Kevin_Indig:
if you would write content for a site, how would you test / gauge / think about whether content is satisfying before publishing it?
Danny Sullivan:
I have written content for a site.
Several of them, including for Google now.
I don’t have any particular “testing” process for this.
As a writer, I think about who I’m writing something for, what I’m trying to share with them, what questions they might have, what things I think I need to cover to explain things for them.
I always have the potential reader in my mind.
I don’t know if that’s really helpful for what your looking for, though, sorry.
Arnaud Sion:
I have a site specializing in vanilla, a blog and a YouTube channel that explains everything.
specialist articles and everyone passes in front of me.
I rank higher in France on the word vanille.
an incredible fall.
Why?
Danny Sullivan:
I would encourage you — or anyone — to run a Search Console report and compare for the past three or six months, if you’ve had a traffic drop.
Then look at the top pages that have dropped and really self-evaluate what you have on those pages that perhaps you only put on to “show Google” something.
Then ask yourself if human visitors coming to that page are also going to find that useful.
If real people find it useful, great — keep it.
Sandi G:
I have a question about what you mean by “table of contents things.”
My readers use both the Jump to Recipe button and the Table of Contents.
(I look at the heat map.)
These allow readers to jump to where they want to go in the post.
Can you elaborate further, please?
Danny Sullivan:
If you have those things because you think they help your readers, that’s fine.
It’s more that sometimes people add content-related things to pages because they’ve heard “this helps Google” and potentially, it’s making a less satisfying experience.
Again, whatever you do for your readers, because you think they want that — that’s generally good.
Will Blears:
And how exactly is a TOC determined to have a positive or negative effect on your rankings, if the algo is just looking for specific criteria such as the mass adopters of TOC plugins.
How can it decipher between those trying to game the system and those trying to help readers?
Danny Sullivan:
I’m begging.
Please, I’m begging you or anyone to stop focusing on specific content things.
It’s not whether a TOC or saying someone is an “expert” is somehow a specific signal.
It’s that these things might indicate a pattern of doing too much “show Google” things that’s taking away of just being a good site for people — which is what Google wants to reward.
