How to make sure your articles meet user intent

Welcome to the latest edition of SERP Scoop!

And a warm welcome to the 100+ new subscribers since the last issue (that makes over 400 of you now)!

Let’s jump right in:

How to make sure your articles meet user intent

This tip comes from Lily Ray:

Basically, if your article meets (or exceeds) the expectations a user had prior to clicking on it, your content is helpful. Otherwise, it’s not.

We all know Google wants you to create helpful content.

Lily shows how you can use ChatGPT to check what a user would expect after clicking a particular headline.

Based on ChatGPT’s response, you can adjust your article so that it better meets user expectations.

Here’s a copy-paste-able prompt to save you a bunch of typing:

I am going to provide you with 3 article headlines. Based only on the information in the headline, I would like you to clearly describe the intent of the article, what you think the article will discuss, how the article should be structured, what structural elements or additional media you would expect to see on the page, and how the article can optimally and thoroughly meet the expectations of the headline.

Please provide the answers in a table with the headline on the left and each requirement in a column on the right.

1. Article headline 1
2. Article headline 2
3. Article headline 3

Feel free to adjust the number of headlines. Three is just the example Lily gave.

SEO News

• Google Reduces the Visibility of HowTo and FAQ Rich Results in Search - Google is restricting FAQ rich results to select authoritative sites and limiting How-To results to desktops. The change, rolling out globally next week, may reduce website clicks, but site owners are advised not to remove structured data.

• Does the ARTICLE Semantic HTML Element Have Any Impact? - Google's John Mueller clarified that the <article> HTML element doesn't impact rankings but aids in defining a page's main content. It helps in webpage structuring, accessibility, and can be used for product listings.</article>

• Google Warns Against Content Pruning - CNET deleted thousands of articles to enhance Google rankings, as reported by Gizmodo. While CNET views it as SEO practice, Google's Danny Sullivan suggests old content isn't harmful. However, opinions on content deletion as optimization vary among experts.

• Google Wants All Online Content to be Available for AI Training - Google proposes allowing AI to access online content unless publishers opt out. This could impact brand identity. They suggest an opt-out system similar to robots.txt.

• Google Ranking Algorithm Research Introduces TW-BERT - Google introduced a new ranking framework, TW-BERT, that improves search accuracy by assigning weights to search terms, bridging statistical and deep learning methods. While its ease of deployment and success suggest it might be in use, Google hasn't confirmed its integration.

• Ways to Block Google from Indexing AI Chatbot Content - John Mueller from Google advised website owners to block AI chatbot content from indexing to avoid diluting site quality. He suggests using a ‘robotted iframe,’ a ‘robotted JavaScript file,’ or the ‘data-nosnippet’ tag to prevent chatbot responses from appearing in search results.

• John Mueller Says Linking to Authoritative Sites Won’t Help SEO - John Mueller of Google debunked a myth on r/SEO, stating that linking to sites like Wikipedia doesn't boost rankings. He emphasized that links should prioritize user value and relevance. The key takeaway is to focus on user experience rather than ranking benefits when linking.

Something I LOVE (You Might Too)

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Look at this treasure trove:

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I’m an affiliate for lowfruits, but I also use it all the time and it honestly is my favorite keyword research tool.

Thanks for reading SERP Scoop! Hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great rest of your week,

Ian

P.S. If you’re interested in sponsoring an issue of SERP Scoop, hit reply!