---
type: Checklist
title: Content rubric
description: A small checklist for whether a piece of content is worth publishing — for users, and for the algorithm that has read everything else.
resource: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content
tags: [content, rubric, helpful-content, e-e-a-t]
timestamp: 2026-06-19T08:00:00Z
---

# Content rubric

A practical checklist for whether the next piece of content is worth
publishing. Run it before queue-up, not after launch.

## Yes if all of these are true

- **It answers a question someone is actively typing into a search box.**
  Not "interesting tangents that might attract someone someday."
- **You have something to say that the top 10 results don't.** Doesn't
  have to be exotic — could be a clearer explanation, a fresher
  example, a more honest opinion.
- **The page can pick up from where the snippet ends.** If the user
  scrolls past the headline and immediately finds out what they came
  for, they stay. If they have to scroll past three paragraphs of
  preamble, they bounce.
- **A subject-matter expert has either written it or vetted it.**
  Google's E-E-A-T framework rewards content where the author's
  qualifications match the topic. The "Expertise" is the hardest of
  the four to fake.

## No if any of these are true

- It exists primarily to rank for a keyword, with little judgment
  about what value the page adds.
- It's a thin gloss on someone else's article. Google reads everything.
- It promises in the title something the body doesn't deliver. This
  shows up in pogo-sticking (return to SERP within seconds) which
  Google measures.
- It duplicates content that already lives elsewhere on your site
  under a slightly different URL. See
  [canonical URLs](/technical/canonical-urls.md) — fix that first.

## After publishing

Linked from a hub (see
[internal linking](/content/internal-linking.md)).
Indexable (see [robots + sitemap](/technical/robots-and-sitemap.md)).
Marked up for the right rich result (see
[/markup/](/markup/index.md)).

If you can't tick the first three, the rubric above probably failed.
