HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT: THE GOOGLE PERSPECTIVE

More than 90 percent of online experiences for consumers start with a search engine. Whether these consumers tap on their phone to query Siri or type a key phrase into Google's browser bar, the result is the same for your deathcare firm.

If you're not drawing a clear line between search engine results pages and your own website or offers, you're missing out on revenue opportunities.

This is one reason content is king—and has been for years. But it's no longer enough for content to don a crown and hold court over your marketing strategy.

The king has lots of competition for search engine optimization, and if neighboring kingdoms (aka your competitors, if you're still humoring this extended metaphor) are generating better quality content, your SEO performance could suffer.

And by "suffer," I mean your pages won't show up at the top of the search results—or potentially at all. Which means you have less of a chance of connecting with people who might be interested in cremation and related services now or in the future.
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What's a king to do about this conundrum? Luckily, Google itself publishes a battle plan that helps you create high-quality content that's more likely to perform in Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs. It's called the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

WHAT ARE SEARCH QUALITY EVALUATOR GUIDELINES?

Google publishes these guidelines for its human search quality evaluators. Actual humans (yes, that's rare these days) review pages to determine whether they meet the needs of a potential search in a high-quality manner. The higher a page is rated by evaluators, the higher it might potentially rank in search results.
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Evaluator scores aren't the only thing used to rank a page—Google algorithms are complex, after all. But the evaluator guidelines do provide important clues into exactly what Google considers important when it comes to content

PAIRING GOOGLE GUIDELINES DOWN TO A SUCCESSFUL CONTENT FORMULA

The guidelines comprise roughly 170 pages of small text, which is obviously a lot of information to get through. But you don't have to read everything in the evaluator guidelines to understand how to create great cremation services content. Consider this quick formula for high-quality content from Google:

Purpose + E-A-T = Quality

PAGES MUST HAVE A PURPOSE

High-quality content serves the purpose of the page. If your page doesn't have a purpose (which might be to inform, entertain, or assist readers), the content can't be high quality.

Or as Google puts it, pages "created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform or deceive users, should receive the lowest [quality] rating."

REMEMBER THE E-A-T ACRONYM

​When pages do have a positive purpose, Google rates the quality of their content according to "E-A-T." The acronym stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Per Google, E-A-T content…

• is knowledgeable about the topic
• answers the intent of the search completely and accurately
• is well-written and backed by research where necessary
• is cited by others via backlinks and shares
• is up-to-date and relevant to the reader
• is published on a quality site that loads quickly, is easy to navigate, avoids questionable off-page links, and has a high-quality, credible "About Us" page
• is authored or published by a person or entity that demonstrates expertise on the subject via:
  • Credentials (e.g., a funeral service license)
  • Applicable resume experience (e.g., a crematory staff member)
  • Previous high-quality bylines (e.g., a journalist, blogger, or bylined writer with clips relevant to the deathcare industry)
  • Brand authority and the overall quality of its website

WHAT ELSE DOES GOOGLE SAY ABOUT HIGH-QUALITY CONTENT?

Google likes the word satisfy. It appears in the evaluator guidelines more than 130 times in various forms. A high-quality page satisfies the needs of the searcher and the promise you made in meta descriptions and headings.

If you promise a complete guide to preplanning, your content should certainly be more than 500 words and cover all the questions someone has about that topic.

If your link is a buy link for an urn, the page should include everything a person needs to make a final purchasing decision. The shopping cart process and customer service options should also satisfactorily meet the needs of your cremation clientele.

Ultimately, Google's SERPs have one job, and that's to match searchers with pages that best meet their needs. By creating high-quality content that follows the above formula, you increase the chances that Google thinks your page is a good bet for the relevant keyword searches.

In turn, that increases your chances at winning the click, driving more traffic, making more sales, and proactively competing with the other kingdoms in your niche.

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Welton Hong, is the founder of Ring Ring Marketing® and a leading expert in creating case generation from online to the phone line. He is the author of Making Your Phone Ring for Funeral Homes, 2019 Edition.
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Welton recently launched Elevating Funeral Service, a podcast developed with Ellery Bowker. They have an entire episode about Zoom with practical how-to guides that you can see here.