There are also site or brand-level factors, like credibility. Your site should be free of coding errors and use a modern design, so users aren't skeptical about your expertise or knowledge.Of course, it can be difficult to judge some of these factors. What makes a piece of content evocative and attractive? What makes it easy to read? Heck, something I find easy to read might be too dense for some people, and too simple for others.

This is partially by design. Every time Google says "hey, do this and you'll get an SEO bonus", everyone and their mother scrambles to do that so much they beat it into the ground. Remember Google Authorship? Freaking content mills were getting their unpaid freelancers to sign up just for their SEO benefit.Google just, in general, wants content to be of value to their users. If a web searcher performs a search and clicks on a piece of content, and that content isn't any good, that user is going...