Google recently issued its updated quality raters’ guidelines. Changes in the document are significant and it appears to be a complete rewrite rather than just simple updates. These changes can have a significant impact on your search results ranking. One of the more significant changes is the importance Google is apparently now placing on supplementary content. This content is no longer after thoughts on the page. Google now sees it as adding significant value to the user experience. Now is the time to pay attention to the supplemental content on your website.

Let’s start with defining supplemental content. This is anything on the page that isn’t main content or advertising. Often this type of content was considered navigation. Now Google is giving high marks to secondary content that includes suggesting similar products or shopping items, or ways to increase or decrease the number of servings for a recipe, etc.

Google is also placing a greater emphasis on related content links as secondary content on a webpage. It could be links to how to videos for products, or nutritional information for recipes, or links from your website to similar stories to the one on the page.

Not all supplementary content is the same. Google sees two types of supplementary content. That which adds to the user experience and that which is merely a distraction and is in effect spammy. Supplemental content needs to be relevant to the webpage or the specific content on that page. Random links or content that is way off topic are considered a distraction and will cause your rating to go down.

And, if you happen to be a big company, Google expects you to put a great deal of effort into creating high quality supplementary content. The new guidelines clearly state that if large companies don’t have supplemental content quality raters should rate them accordingly.

SEOs recommend ensuring you have enough supplemental content on your website. Look at adding a related content plug in or script to your site and pay close attention to your ad onsite advertising and ad placement to avoid any potential confusion for visitors.