Google’s Matt Cutts: While Scientific Content Is Great, Clarity & Focusing On The Searcher Is Important

In today’s video from Google’s Matt Cutts, Matt answers a question asking if Google prefers ranking content that is more scientific in nature or content that is “easier to read” with greater clarity.

First off, Matt said it was a question that made him think, which implies that there is no exact answer. If you think about it, it depends on the searcher. If you have a more scientific or technical searcher, who may be an expert in the topic you are covering, then writing a more scientific response with detailed technical jargon is probably a good strategy. But probably there would be more volume on the less scientific searches, so writing content that a
“6th grader” or non-expert can understand is going to get your more traction.

That being said, Matt recommends, when possible: do both. First explain things to a more novice user and then dig deeper into more of the scientific and technical areas, if that user is interested.

Matt said, “it won’t make that much of a difference in terms of ranking” either way.

Here is the video: