If you’ve invested time in web marketing or researching effective marketing strategies, you may have come across the term “quality content”. It’s a buzzword that gets thrown around the marketing world, with experts preaching its importance. But what is “quality content”? What are the characteristics of content that is high-quality, and why should you care about it?
Quality content is information (eg. blog posts) that you put on a website that is designed and structured to help you in a variety of areas. For example, if your content is high quality, it will help you rank well on search engines. If it is high quality, it will be shareable, so you can gain more exposure on social media platforms. If it is high quality, it is engaging, so it will keep your target audience coming back.
We hope that this article helps you better understand the value of well executed web content and how it can help your business speak to your target audience! Here are the elements of high quality content.
Article Length
The word count and length of an article play an important role in achieving goals, but it is the goal that will determine the length. If your goal is to achieve higher rankings on search engines (eg. Google) so that more people can find you, a higher word count is important. You want to be above 750 words, with 1000+ words being ideal. Google and the other search engines want to know that you are offering content that is valuable, and they have determined that a short article doesn’t necessarily offer a lot of depth on a topic.
If your goal is to pass along information to your audience in a manner that is easy to consume, a shorter article is preferable. This is particularly true for those reading articles on mobile devices. Investing time to read a 1000+ word article is far less likely to occur on a smart phone than on a desktop or laptop computer. So if your target is conveying information to those on mobile an article length of 500+ words works well. And don’t discount the mobile audiences: over 65% of search engine queries occur on mobile devices.
Images/Video/Infographics
It has been proven that visual contact outperforms text content when it comes to engaging your readers. You could certainly have a text-only article, but it won’t have the same impact. Articles with visuals such as video, images, and infographics also seem to perform better on Google rankings, so there is a good chance this is a contributing part of Google’s algorithm. Visuals have also proven to make an article more shareable. Incorporate these into your post writing where appropriate, ensure that they support the article, and that they are high-quality assets.
Read: 5 Reasons to Use Video In Your Marketing
Formatting
With the enormous amount of information available to us via the internet, many people find themselves more inclined to “scan” an article than to read an article. Format your article in a manner that makes it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. This includes breaking up the copy into sections with headings and subheadings and bullet points.
Quality Writing
As Google’s algorithm has evolved over the years, it is becoming very discerning when coming to well-written articles, particularly with regard to spelling and grammar. This is a good thing! If you want your articles to rank well, they need to be well written. Poorly written articles with bad spelling and grammar also have a significant impact on the reader. It degrades trustworthiness significantly. It looks like you don’t know what you’re doing or you don’t care. Pay attention to spelling and grammar at all costs.
Other Site Content
Regardless if you are trying to rank well or to sell your services to prospective client through your website, it is vital to have high quality content throughout your website, not just on your posts. Google’s algorithm looks at the whole website as an indicator of the quality of a post not just the post itself. If the content on your website is poorly written or if the website’s poorly structured, it will negatively impact SEO rankings for your article.
Value
This is the most important aspect when it comes to having an impact on your readers. Is the content you have written valuable? Is it actually educating people, or helping them to achieve a goal or solve problem?
This has less of an impact from an SEO standpoint, as Google is not likely able to determine the value of a piece of content, but if it doesn’t benefit your readers, it will negatively impact your brand and they won’t continue to read your articles.
Read: 4 Ways to Show Your Customers You Care About Them
Reach out to us at info@bushmarketing.ca if you would like to discuss your business, your company goals and the future of your marketing.
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