Google crawls, scores, and then ranks all online content. Search results are based on these rankings. Writers can have an advantage by understanding how Google scores their online writing. Here’s how search engines read.

What Google Scores  

Google uses more than 200 ranking factors to score online content for searchability. Readability and keywords, domains and backlinks, originality, and the amount of passive (versus active) voice counts.

Lower-scoring sites are downranked, while higher ones go up. A 2024 Google searching algorithm change meant that many websites, including Great Bridge Links, had to alter content to keep scoring high.

According to Google Blog, the update meant “45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results.”

Unfortunately, the update is also harsh on legitimate content and media houses. New York Magazine lost 32% of its traffic. A BBC piece says, “the internet will never be the same.”

Write with search engines in mind.

AI Content

Google doesn’t like artificial intelligence content. Simply, don’t use it.

However, human writing can still be wrongfully identified as AI if not unique enough to sound original.  Score your finished drafts against a free AI checker like Quillbot or Scribbr and you’ll guarantee a higher content ranking.

Original writing avoids cliche, and prefers complex, nested sentences above too simple ones. Google your headlines, making sure they’re truly unique.

Keyword Usage

Keywords are what people type in to find results. Choose a minimum of three (but maximum of five) short-tail and long-tail keywords for every post or article that you write. Use them but don’t overuse them.

Google scores keyword usage in the first paragraph, but also how fluid its use is throughout. It knows (and penalizes) when you’ve overused a keyword, called “keyword stuffing,” for promotional clout.

Check Google Trends for keyword ideas, or check what was hot before. During 2022, celebrities Adam Levine and Mary J. Blige ranked at the top alongside gas prices and election data. Writers can also search for keywords and they popularity.

Backlinks and Internal Links, Oh My!

Google gives a higher score for including reputable links, and a lower score for “bad reputation” websites or links.

Academic, news, organizational, or authoritative links are always good. Google wants to see these! Include at least two of them linked to a sensical place. They’re called backlinks.

Imagine things an encyclopedia would call “Further Reading,” and you have a clear idea of what good backlinks are.

Internal links are ones linking back to your own website, domain, or post. Never use more than two, but feel free to use at least one.

Anti Plagiarism

Plagiarism is bad and could get your website blacklisted.

Complete originality is about statistics. Thousands of articles Pro Writing Aidmight use the phrase “the black cat” although each article is still original when statistically measured. That’s okay.

Use Google Search, Copyscape, and Duplichecker, to check yourself.

Plagiarism checkers “score” articles against existing internet and library content, telling you which percentage (and sentence fragments) could be accidental duplicates.

Passive or Active Voice

Passive voice is awkward, forced, and something your teachers taught you not to use, and Google hates it. Rewrite content with good active voice scores, and you have the advantage.

Grammarly’s passive voice checker and Pro Writing Aid can help. Word processors like MS Word also include a readability and voice checker.

Transition Words

Google and some readability helper tools like Yoast score transition words, too. Transition words connect sentences and counter-arguments, meaning less likely to be AI. Examples are: like, however, but, although, on the other hand.

Search engines look for main keywords, but also scan for these transition words, so include them. Words like “however” and “likewise” count in your favour, according to Yoast.

Google is more than “just” a search engine. Modern search engines push for better, human writing, and being aware can raise the rankings of your writing naturally. Your chances of having an article published become much greater.

About the Author: Alex J. Coyne is a journalist, author, and proofreader. He has written for a variety of publications and websites, with a radar calibrated for gothic, gonzo, and the weird. Sometimes he co-writes with others.