One SEO professional asked John Mueller in a hangout if it matters if they outsource content.
The SEO professional also asked: how much does it matter if a publisher is outsourcing content instead of having it written by staff writers?
John explained that Google doesn’t differentiate between this. It’s more about the quality of the content overall.
This is something where if you outsource the content, and you get good content back, then you publish that good content.
When it comes to overall quality, there is no difference between in-house content, and outsourced content.
This happens at approximately the 54:45 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
SEO Professional 9 54:44
And I guess this may be like a part B to that.. How much does it matter if a publisher is outsourcing content? For scalability reasons, versus having content created by staff or staff writers?
John 55:03
I don’t think for the most part that we would differentiate, it’s more about the quality of the content overall. So that’s something where if you outsource the content, and then you get good content back, then you publish that good content. So from that point of view, I wouldn’t say that outsource content versus in-house content is kind of different by definition, when it comes to the overall quality.
SEO Professional 9 55:39
How would you even know?
John 55:43
I don’t know. Yeah.
SEO Professional 9 55:48
I think there are ways that Google would pick that up, especially if you label that. I think that’s pretty easy to pick up.
I contest that. If you’re talking about Google understanding an employment contract. At that point, if I’ve got a staff member sitting in my office full time, or one thing sitting at home being paid by the hour, I don’t see how you’d ever know who’d written anything. Could be wrong. I have been before.
John 56:22
I don’t think so. Yeah. I mean, it would be different if you’re aggregating content from other sites. That’s something which we could pick up on. But if it’s really just someone in-house, or someone from an agency writing the content for you, it’s the content that you’re publishing.
SEO Professional 9 56:44
Okay, all right. Thank you. Appreciate it.
