Information Gain for Blog Writing [With Examples]

Google’s search algorithms measure the unique value of your content.

If someone has read a bunch of articles on a topic, information gain is the added value that makes your content stand out as the best.

Google ranks this kind of content because it wants to avoid promoting copycat articles that don’t address search intent and don’t offer anything new.

In this post, I’ll suggest strategies that you can use to add information gain when writing blog posts.

Top Highlights

• Google scores information gain and adjusts rankings dynamically for each article
• Content strategies with varying difficulty levels (e.g. case studies, original research) can boost information gain
• High information gain combined with strong EEAT is the formula for lasting SEO success
• SEO experts believe information gain is an important ranking factor, especially in competitive search engine results pages (SERPs)

What Google Tells Us About Information Gain

The term information gain first surfaced in SEO circles after a 2018 Google patent titled “Contextual estimation of link information gain”.

The late Bill Slawski wrote about this patent back in 2020. He defined information gain as:

Bill’s summary of the patent is excellent, and easy to understand.

You can also review the patent yourself. Admittedly, it’s not easy reading. But here are some excerpts from the patent I’d like you to read to understand Google’s ranking decisions:

“An information gain score for a given document is indicative of additional information that is included in the document beyond information contained in documents that were previously viewed by the user.”

We learn from this that information gain is a score. It’s a definite number that Google can measure for every article in its index.

It goes on:

“In some implementations, these search results may be ranked at least in part based on their respective information gain scores.”

Here, Google spells out that information gain scores can be used as one (of many) ranking factors.

Elsewhere, it clarifies that the information gain score isn’t a static number.

“...information scores [...] may be recalculated based on one or more of the new documents being presented to the user…”

The score changes in real time based on how users interact with the content.

This is good. It means a bad information score isn’t a death sentence for your content. You can always audit your content, update it, and make Google recalculate your score.

But the opposite is also true:

“... one or more documents may be excluded (or significantly demoted) from the search results based on the new information gain scores.”

Just because you currently have top positions, this isn’t a guarantee that your article contains high information gain.

As Google recalculates scores over time for ranking articles, you can always lose out to one with a better information gain score (other things being equal).

These are some of the highlights of the Google patent. Let’s summarize my understanding of the key points.

Key Takeaways from Google’s Information Gain Patent

1. Information Gain is A Ranking Factor

Google can score how much “new” information a page offers beyond what the user has already seen. This score can impact search result rankings and visibility.

Google’s guidelines on helpful content also confirm this:

The heavy emphasis on originality clearly shows that information gain isn’t just a patented idea.

Google’s search algorithms actively use it to rank content.

How can you measure information gain for your existing content?

There’s no way to measure information gain for existing content using a precise score. We can’t reverse-engineer Google’s scoring algorithms.

The best way to ensure your content is information-rich is to:

• Use Semrush to analyze your competitors’ traffic and see what type of content is successful for them, then make that your benchmark for quality
• Use Google Scholar for original research
• Get expert quotes from sites like featured.com
• Sign up for Exploding Topics to find unique content ideas

2. Redundancy Can be Penalized

If your content repeats what’s already been presented to the user (especially in a search session), it may be demoted or excluded from the results.

That means tactics like simply copying ranking articles on SERPs and aggressively riddling content with keywords are more likely to hurt than help your rankings.

It also means that simply copying what someone else wrote is not going to result in good rankings. I’ll come back to this topic later.

3. Diverse, Novel Content Wins

Content that offers unique angles, additional insights, or unexplored subtopics is more likely to score high in information gain and have a better chance of winning top rankings.

9 Ways to Add Information Gain for Blog Articles

Adding information gain is one of the more challenging aspects of content writing.

If you get it right, you can grab top rankings and keep those rankings for a LONG time, especially if you combine it with an SEO copywriting checklist.

I’ve seen expert content marketers use different techniques to boost their information gain scores. Here are some that are applicable to most niches.

1. Case Studies

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Moderate to Hard)

Case studies are powerful because they offer real-world insights. These insights usually belong to your business and reflect your own experience.

This makes them unique, novel, and difficult to copy.

Example of Info Gain with Case Studies

Brian Dean often publishes case studies (like how he boosted organic traffic by 110% in 14 days) that no one else can replicate because it’s based on his own site’s data.

Instead of regurgitating theories, he’s showing practical results, and Google recognizes that as uniquely valuable.

Bear in mind that this strategy made sense for Brian Dean because his business is content marketing and SEO.

For your business, it may not be ideal to reveal too much information about your own business operations.

But you can still contact your customers and perform case studies on the impact your business has made for them.

Often, you’ll discover fresh perspectives from customers that you can then incorporate into articles targeting your core keywords.

Case studies can be time-consuming. But a single case study can give you many different insights to incorporate into multiple related pages of content.

Tools & Strategies to Create Case Studies

• Be methodical: Think carefully about questions to ask your customers, focusing on problems, solutions, and how they were measured
• Frame your results from unique angles: Focus on unexpected challenges, mistakes, and surprising results to boost information gain score

2. First-Hand Survey Data

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Moderate)

Your customers can be your greatest source of unique information.

Even with a relatively small sample size, you can create new knowledge and add something different to the conversation by drawing on insights from a poll or survey.

• Ask questions about problems that you feel aren’t covered well enough by competing articles on the same topics
• Incorporate the results into articles to expand their depth and boost their uniqueness factor

Example of Info Gain with Surveys

Sleep foundation’s core topical authority is around mattress buying guides.

They also do a great job of improving information gain in their articles by inserting results from surveys they’ve conducted in the past.

This is an effective way to mention topics at the edge of Google’s Knowledge Graph.

Google’s algorithms are capable of recognizing the value of this information, and Google hasn’t seen enough articles discuss those underserved topics yet: that’s the sweet spot for your content team.

Tools & Strategies to Create First-Hand Data

• Use your email list: Your best respondents usually come from your email list, so connect with customers and be sure to read the results of surveys you send to them.
• Survey resources: Free tools like Google Forms are sufficient for acquiring survey data. Use Canva or invest in a designer to create visually appealing charts for your survey results.

• Ensure relevance: In the pursuit of freshness, try not to stray too far from topics that are relevant to your niche. Your goal is to inform your main topical clusters with new perspectives and knowledge, not dilute them with ideas that have no clear relationship to your niche.

3. Sharing Original Research and Tips

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(Hard)

For an average content writer with no subject matter expertise, it can be exceedingly tough to come up with original content.

But if you’re experienced, a real practitioner in your own right on the topics you write, this just might be the easiest way to inject high information gain.

Brian Dean did it regularly on Backlinko by using his SEO expertise to share original content. Any expert in any field can replicate his process.

Example of Info Gain with Original Tips

At Exploding Topics, our senior writers and editors have extensive marketing experience.

We often share strategies based on techniques we’ve innovated and applied to our own projects.

For example, in our guide on finding related keywords and topics, Claire shared this AI technique that she and I often use to speed up our topic planning.

(The image illustrates a hypothetical topic, but the technique works for every niche).

The goal is to help our visitors finish their search by feeling they gained something new that other search results on the same topic haven’t shared yet.

Tools & Strategies to Create Original Strategies

• Use your private notes and knowledge base: If you’ve worked hands-on in your field, you have checklists, processes, templates, or techniques you follow. Comb through old notes, project docs, or even Slack conversations for hidden gems you can publicly share.
• Document your experiments: Try new variations of known methods and keep detailed records. Even if the results are small, they’re yours. And that uniqueness is pure information gain.

4. Citing New Research

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Moderate)

Keeping tabs on cutting-edge studies (especially before they go mainstream) lets you inject new information into your articles.

In fact, it’s not even necessary for the research to be completely new.

What matters is that it should be new to your audience.

Review new research, technical papers, and studies. Bring relevant information from these sources to your audience in an easily digestible format.

Example of Citing Academic Research for Info Gain

Parents.com shares parenting guides and advice.

I noticed them using ideas from scientific research to add greater depth to certain subtopics relative to other ranking content.

It’s OK if the ideas you’re sharing aren’t necessarily unique.

Simply extending the conversation beyond existing content can still be a powerful way to differentiate your article with deep, helpful knowledge.

Tools & Strategies to Find Fresh Research

• Google Scholar alerts: Set alerts for keywords in your niche.
• AI research assistants: Tools like Consensus.app and Perplexity.ai can help you find relevant research and statistics quickly.

5. Hands-On Product Testing Niches

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Moderate)

If you’re writing review content for products, you can generate information gain by using and testing out the product yourself.

As you test things, you’ll naturally form opinions about the product based on your unique perspective and experience.

Google's quality raters are tasked with evaluating the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) of web content.

Adding unique information is an excellent display of EEAT.

A reader stands to gain more information from an article written based on your real testing experience than one that just rephrases feature descriptions from a product’s homepage.

Example of Info Gain with Hands-On Testing

The review posts we do on Exploding Topics are based on real, hands-on testing.

For example, in the Semrush review written by my colleague Claire, she didn’t just rely on the opinions of others about the responsiveness of Semrush’s customer support.

Instead, she created a separate test account to check how the customer support handles her real refund request with as little bias as possible.

She made sure to include both the highs and lows of her experience.

And that’s just the kind of original contribution that Google expects from the best content.

What's the most effective way to display information gain in product review content?

To get plenty of information gain into your reviews, be sure to actually test the product. Don’t just pretend to.

Claire recommends that you should document problems you run into along with the solutions. This is helpful to the reader and helps to prove that you’ve walked in their shoes.

Tools & Strategies for Testing-Based Content

• Start small: Even a basic “I used this for 7 days” format adds value in low-competition niches.
• Document the experience: Photos, short clips, GIFs, side-by-side comparisons. Anything you can get that isn’t already available from the product page or ranking articles
• Log friction points: These lend themselves nicely to info gain. Friction points don’t appear in product spec sheets, so it’s valuable to discuss them plainly based on your findings.

6. Gather Original Quotes from Experts

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️ (Easy to Moderate)

Quotes from experts are good for EEAT. But they don’t necessarily represent fresh knowledge if you’re only picking from what’s already out there.

A much more powerful way to contribute fresh insights to a familiar topic is to round up a few completely original quotes from experts.

This works particularly well if you’re focusing on an aspect of the topic that hasn’t been explored deeply enough yet.

Example of Info Gain with Expert Insights

GoodFirms created a uniquely helpful guide on organic click-through rates (CTR) by taking a different approach from existing content.

Instead of writing a listicle with generic best practices, they crowdsourced real examples of blog posts having higher than average CTRs.

They also added quotes from the writers responsible for creating these top-performing pages. This allowed them to share the exact strategies they used to win high CTRs.

It’s the kind of content that gives you a clear edge over templated content that echoes conventional wisdom without adding anything new.

Tools & Strategies for Collecting Expert Insights

• Use expertise platforms: Featured.com is a great platform for collecting quotes from expert sources. HARO is also launching again.
• Niche communities and newsletters: Find experts in Slack groups, niche Facebook groups, Subreddits, or by subscribing to industry newsletters. Engaging in these spaces often gets you more enthusiastic responses.
• Ask a Focused, Specific Question: Broad questions ("How do you increase CTR?") invite generic answers. Narrow it down ("What’s one small tweak you made that doubled your CTR?") to prompt thoughtful insights

How can I prevent competitors from copying my unique information gain elements?

To prevent competitors from copying your content, you’ll need to find angles that can’t be replicated by someone else.

That sounds challenging. But as an example, you could take your own photos of a product and watermark them.

7. Reframing Existing Statistics

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Moderate)

Sometimes you don’t need new stats and research. You just need to frame them differently and explore facets of information that others might be glossing over.

Creative angles breathe new life into widely cited data.

When Google compares an article that uses existing data to explore new aspects with articles that simply repeat the same talking points, it can assign you a higher information gain score.

Example of Info Gain with Reframed Stats

It’s a widely cited statistic that only 10-20% of startups generally survive.

But at Exploding Topics, we often try to flip existing statistics around and pore over implications from more information-rich angles versus available content.

The success of this tactic depends on how new a statistic is.

There’s a higher chance for an older stat to have been explored from different angles already.

With relatively new stats, you can gain an advantage by enriching your content by approaching it from a perspective that’s lacking on SERPs.

Tools & Strategies to Reframe Statistics

• Pivot your angle: Ask “Why is this happening?” or “What does this trend imply?” or “What if the opposite were true?” instead of just reporting numbers.
• Create charts: Visualizing data makes it feel fresher.
• Compare time periods: Show how a statistic has evolved and shifted over the years.

8. Upgrading the Format of Existing Content

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️(Easy)

Sometimes, the information is already out there, but the presentation is lacking.

You can cover that content gap by improving content delivery using images, interactive charts, or videos, you can fill a gap your competitors aren’t paying attention to.

Example of Info Gain via Format Upgrade

Information Is Beautiful turns data from research studies and other credible sources into eye-catching infographics and visuals.

Even though they’re not usually the source of the data, they make raw data meaningful by broadening its reach through illustrations that the average person can understand.

This can also work in your niche.

The trick is to find research and stats that intersect topics of interest for your audience.

Tools & Strategies to Upgrade Content Format

• Canva, Figma, or Loom: Use these to create visuals, explainer videos, or custom walkthroughs.
• Chart builders: Turn raw stats into graphs using tools like Flourish, Datawrapper, ChatGPT, or even Google Sheets.

How often should I update my content to maintain high information gain scores?

You can maintain high information gain scores by updating content in line with the pace of developments in the topic.

For example:

• Articles about a fast-moving technology like AI will need to be updated every few weeks to stay relevant
• Articles about garden or lawn care could be updated seasonally
• Articles about Christmas could be updated once a year, just before search interest starts to pick up

9. First Mover Advantage on New Topics

Difficulty Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Hard)

Finding different angles for an existing topic is one way to lock in information gain.

A content moat is one way to achieve this.

Your best original articles form your own unique content moat. These are the articles that establish authority and give you a competitive advantage.

If you want to build a content moat, being the first to cover a new topic helps to establish your topical authority and build a stronger moat.

Due to a lack of competing articles targeting such a topic, your piece of content will naturally represent the highest information gain for readers.

Example of Info Gain with First-Mover Content

Some topics seem mainstream today. But a closer look reveals they weren’t all that popular if you step back just a little in time.

For example, searches for “algae cooking oil” rose sharply in 2024 based on Exploding Topics data.

In 2023, it had a global search volume of only 130.

In just a little over a year later, Semrush estimates its global search volume as 10.5k.

During the same period, its keyword difficulty has also increased considerably.

Now suppose you were a diet and nutrition website and were one of the first to write an informative article about algae cooking oil.

Without much competition, you would’ve easily met Google’s criteria for helpful content.

Finding breakout topics of this nature isn’t hard with the right tools.

The hard part is producing quality content on an unfamiliar topic because you’d need real expertise to provide value to your readers.

You also need to cover the topic comprehensively, ensuring related terms and semantic keywords are included.

In Semrush, there’s a TD-IDF score that helps you to measure this. TD-IDF calculates how important and unique specific words are within a document compared to other similar documents.

Tools & Strategies to Find Untapped Topics

• Trend analysis tools: Use Exploding Topics or Google Trends to discover emerging topic trends early and predict future growth.
• Product Hunt, Reddit, Twitter/X, TikTok: Monitor early buzz in tech and lifestyle niches.

Information Gain vs. EEAT

EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) and information gain often occur together in well-written blog articles.

Yet, they’re distinct concepts.

The main difference is that EEAT is a qualitative evaluation, often done by Google’s human Quality Raters.

Some of the things that influence EEAT include:

• Clear background information about the website and the author who produced the article
• Evidence of expertise by highlighting topics an author writes about, their credentials, and the use of proper citations

Google’s Quality Rater’s Guidelines also state that AI-generated content is a problem if it represents “no effort, little to no originality, and little to no added value”.

That said, just packing information into a piece of content is not going to give it EEAT.

For instance, an article sharing original research on a topic by an article may fail to display credibility if the author has no demonstrable authority on the subject.

The best articles contain both EEAT and information gain. That represents the effort, originality, and value that Google wants to see.

In 2025 and beyond, these are the articles with the best chance of dominating SERP positions.

	EEAT	Information Gain
Focus	Credibility and reliability of content	Uniqueness and added value of content
Key Components	Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness	Uniqueness, Depth, Originality
Evaluation Method	Qualitative assessment based on guidelines	Quantitative measure based on content comparison
Impact on SEO	Influences content credibility and trust	Enhances content distinctiveness and relevance

Establish Your Authority With Informative Content

Creating original, information-rich content is critical to outranking competitors and maintaining your positions.

The key is to find opportunities to show your expertise.

I use Semrush to:

• Identify content gaps that your competitors have missed
• Research topics in detail
• Calculate TD-IDF scores to make sure important concepts have been explained
• Track rankings to ensure information-rich content is performing well