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Dofollow Digest #24: Google’s new content quality playbook + webinar w/Kevin Indig

Author

Eric Carrell
May 02, 2025

Hey, it's Eric 👋

Google recently updated its search quality rater guidelines, with notable changes to how it defines " low-quality" content. It now looks more closely at the intentions behind content creation rather than just the content itself.

I've been reviewing these updates and noticed some interesting shifts that could impact content strategy for SaaS companies. Below, I'll explain what these changes mean for your approach and why this might actually create opportunities for businesses focused on delivering genuine value.

📣 Webinar: How Google’s AI Overviews Are Killing Your Clicks w/Kevin Indig

Google’s new AI results are changing the SERPs, but they are not in your favor. Kevin Indig & Eric Van Buskirk tracked 70 users across 400+ searches to see how AI Overviews affect organic traffic. The findings? Wild. Join me alongside Kevin Indig, Garrett French, and Eric Van Buskirk for a 45-minute deep dive on:

  • Real click loss data across devices

  • Queries that still drive traffic

  • How to show up in content users actually read

  • Why Reddit, YouTube & backlinks matter more than ever

Wed, May 14 | 11am ET / 5pm CEST - Save your spot → https://lu.ma/7u92t5fd

🔍 DEEP DIVE: Google's Refined Approach to Low-Quality Content

Google updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines with changes that give us insights into its current priorities. One of the most notable updates is a more nuanced definition of what they consider "low quality."

The previous guidelines stated a page deserved the lowest rating if it had "a harmful purpose" or was "designed to deceive." Now, they've added an important new criterion:

"The lowest rating is given if the page is created to benefit the website owner (e.g. to make money) with very little or no attempt to benefit website visitors or otherwise serve a beneficial purpose."

Let that sink in. Google is now explicitly telling their raters to evaluate publisher intent. Are you creating content just to rank, or are you genuinely trying to help your audience?

The second major change focuses on originality. Content can now be flagged as lowest quality if it's "created with little to no effort, has little to no originality, and adds no value compared to similar pages on the web."

Here's what this means for SaaS companies:

  1. The "content gap" strategy is dying. Finding topics your competitors rank for and creating "better" versions of the same content won't cut it anymore. Google's getting better at identifying when you're just playing the SEO game rather than adding genuine value.

  2. Differentiation is now essential, not optional. Google's Danny Sullivan specifically called out how indistinguishable many sites have become, using the example of travel blogs with those identical "smiling author in sidebar" layouts. In the SaaS world, we see this with product comparison pages that all follow the exact same format.

  3. Intent matters more than ever. Content created purely to capture search traffic without delivering value is precisely what Google wants to downrank. This means those thin "what is X" definition posts that exist solely to drive top-of-funnel traffic are vulnerable.

The good news? This creates a massive opportunity for SaaS companies willing to take a different approach. While your competitors chase keywords and employ content gap strategies, you can focus on building genuinely useful resources based on your unique expertise and data.

We're already seeing this work with several clients who've shifted from "covering every keyword" to "sharing insights nobody else has." One client reduced their content production by 60% while focusing on original research and proprietary data, and saw their organic traffic increase by 42% in six months.

The key is finding your differentiation. What can your SaaS company say that no one else can? What unique data do you have? What perspective can you offer that goes beyond the standard advice? That's where the real SEO wins will come from in 2025.

Remember: in a world where everyone's creating content, originality isn't just a nice-to-have—it's becoming a ranking factor.

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Til next time,

Eric