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What are the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content?

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Key elements of high-quality and engaging content

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content.

Once you know the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content, and then write content accordingly, you can

  • Attract new customers and clients with greater frequency.
  • Increase brand awareness.
  • Improve your search engine rankings.
  • Generate more leads and sales.
  • Build sustainable relationships with your audience.
  • Increase social media shares and engagement.
  • Come across more opportunities for collaboration and partnership.
  • Increase the chances of your content going viral and gaining widespread attention.
  • Position yourself as an authority figure in your field.

Why is it important to know the key elements of creating high-quality and engaging content?

The importance of knowing about the key elements of high-quality and engaging content

The importance of knowing about the key elements of high-quality and engaging content.

What is engaging content? Here are its attributes:

  • Relevance: Engaging content should be relevant to the target audience’s interests, needs, and preferences.
  • Originality: Key elements of engaging content include uniqueness and originality. It should provide fresh and valuable information or perspectives.
  • Value: High quality content is valuable to readers by offering practical advice, insights, or entertainment. It should provide a clear benefit or solve a problem.
  • Clarity: Engaging content is easy to understand and digest. It should be written in a clear and concise manner, avoiding jargon or complex language.
  • Visual Appeal: Including visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, or videos can enhance engagement. These visuals should be relevant and complement the written content.
  • Emotional Connection: Engaging content evokes emotions and resonates with the audience. It could be through storytelling, relatable examples, or addressing common pain points.
  • Authenticity: High quality content is authentic and genuine, establishing trust with the audience. It should reflect the brand’s values and voice consistently.
  • Interactivity: Engaging content encourages interaction and participation. This can be achieved through surveys, quizzes, contests, or inviting comments and discussions.
  • Variety: Providing diverse content formats and styles keeps the audience engaged. This includes articles, videos, podcasts, interviews, or case studies.
  • Call-to-Action: Including a clear call-to-action guides readers on the next steps and encourages them to engage further with the content or the brand.

There may be a slight difference between engaging and high-quality content so I’m listing the attributes of high-quality content separately.

Attributes of Superior Content:

Attributes of superior content

Attributes of superior content.

  • Relevance: High-quality content is relevant to the target audience’s interests, needs, and preferences.
  • Originality: Key elements of great content include uniqueness and originality, providing fresh and valuable information or perspectives.
  • Value: Outstanding content offers practical advice, insights, or entertainment, providing a clear benefit or solving a problem for the audience.
  • Accuracy: Superb content is factually accurate, supported by reliable sources and research.
  • Clarity: High-quality content is written in a clear and concise manner, avoiding jargon or complex language that may confuse the audience.
  • Depth: High-quality content delves deeper into the topic, providing comprehensive information and going beyond surface level coverage.
  • Authority: Exceptional content establishes the author’s expertise and credibility, supported by qualifications, experience, or evidence of thought leadership.
  • Readability: First rate content is easy to read and digest, with proper formatting, headings, and paragraphs that enhance readability.
  • Structure: Top notch content has a logical flow and structure, making it easy for readers to follow along and understand the information presented.
  • Engagement: Superior content engages the audience through storytelling, examples, and relatable experiences, capturing their attention and interest.
  • Visual Appeal: High-quality content incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, or videos to enhance engagement and comprehension.
  • Variety: Great content provides a variety of content formats and styles to cater to different preferences and learning styles of the audience.
  • Actionable: Premium content provides actionable steps or recommendations that the audience can implement to achieve desired outcomes.
  • Evergreen: Exceptional content has lasting value and remains relevant over time, not being limited to trends or specific timeframes.
  • Shareability: High-quality content is shareable, compelling readers to share it on social media platforms or with their networks, increasing its reach and impact.
  • User Feedback: First-rate content encourages user feedback, comments, and discussions, fostering engagement and creating a sense of community around the content.

The key elements of high-quality and engaging content

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content-second

Key elements of high-quality and engaging content-second.

1. Compelling Headline:

  • A captivating headline grabs the audience’s attention and entices them to click and read the full content.
  • It should be clear, concise, and highlight the main benefit or value the content offers.

2. Relevant and WellResearched Information:

  • High-quality content provides accurate and reliable information that is relevant to the target audience.
  • It demonstrates thorough research and incorporates data, facts, and examples to support the main points.

3. Unique Perspective or Angle:

  • Engaging content presents a unique perspective or angle on a topic, offering fresh insights or a different approach.
  • It adds value by providing a new viewpoint that hasn’t been extensively covered before.

4. Clear and Concise Writing:

  • High-quality content uses clear and concise language, avoiding unnecessary jargon or complex terms that may confuse the audience.
  • Short sentences and paragraphs improve readability and make the content more accessible.

5. Visual Elements:

  • Engaging content incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, infographics, charts, or videos to enhance understanding and engagement.
  • Visuals should be relevant, high-quality, and support the main message of the content.

6. Storytelling:

  • Incorporating storytelling techniques in content makes it more engaging and relatable.
  • It helps create an emotional connection with the audience and makes the content more memorable.

7. Use of Examples and Case Studies:

  • High-quality content includes relevant examples and case studies to illustrate concepts or demonstrate real-world applications.
  • This adds credibility and practicality to the content.

8. Personalization:

  • Engaging content speaks directly to the audience, addressing their specific needs, challenges, or aspirations.
  • It uses language that resonates with the target audience and makes them feel understood.

9. Variety of Content Formats:

  • High-quality content offers a variety of content formats, such as articles, videos, podcasts, or interactive quizzes.
  • This caters to different learning preferences and keeps the audience engaged.

10. Easy-to-read Formatting:

  • Engaging content utilizes proper formatting techniques, such as subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists, to improve readability.
  • It breaks down complex information into digestible chunks and makes it easier to scan and understand.

11. Actionable Tips and Takeaways:

  • High-quality content provides actionable tips, steps, or takeaways that the audience can implement immediately.
  • This empowers the audience and adds value by helping them achieve specific outcomes.

12. Emotional Appeal:

  • Engaging content evokes emotions, whether through storytelling, relatable examples, or addressing pain points and aspirations.
  • Emotional appeal captures the audience’s attention and creates a deeper connection with the content.

13. Audience Interaction and Participation:

  • High-quality content encourages audience interaction and participation through comments, surveys, or social media discussions.
  • This fosters engagement, builds a sense of community, and encourages sharing.

14. Credible Sources and References:

  • Engaging content includes credible sources and references to support the information presented.
  • It strengthens the content’s authority and builds trust with the audience.

15. Mobile-Friendly and Responsive Design:

  • Premium content is optimized for mobile devices, ensuring a seamless reading experience across different screen sizes.
  • Responsive design allows the content to adapt and display correctly on various devices.

16. Engaging Introductions:

  • Engaging content starts with a strong introduction that captures the audience’s attention and sets the tone for the rest of the piece.
  • It may include intriguing statistics, compelling questions, or intriguing statements.

17. Well-structured Organization:

  • Exceptional content follows a logical and well-organized structure, leading the audience from one point to the next smoothly.
  • It includes clear transitions between sections to maintain flow.

18. Engaging and Relevant Subheadings:

  • Engaging content uses subheadings that are not only informative but also capture the audience’s interest.
  • These subheadings break down the content into smaller sections, making it easier to navigate.

19. Inclusion of Quotes and Expert Insights:

  • High-quality content incorporates quotes from industry experts or thought leaders to add credibility and provide diverse perspectives.
  • Expert insights contribute to the overall authority and quality of the content.

20. Call-to-Action:

  • Engaging content includes a clear call-to-action that guides the audience on the next steps to take.
  • It can be a request to subscribe, share the content, or explore related resources.

21. Authenticity and Transparency:

  • Outstanding content reflects the author’s authenticity and transparency, presenting information in an honest and genuine manner.
  • It establishes trust with the audience and strengthens the content’s credibility.

22. Voice and Tone Consistency:

  • Engaging content maintains a consistent voice and tone throughout, aligning with the brand’s personality and values.
  • This creates a cohesive reading experience and reinforces the brand’s identity.

23. Regular Updates and Freshness:

  • Valuable content is regularly updated to reflect current information and trends.
  • This ensures that the content remains relevant and provides the most uptodate insights.

24. SEO Optimization:

  • Engaging content incorporates relevant keywords naturally throughout the content to improve search engine visibility.
  • It also optimizes meta tags, headers, and descriptions for better indexing and ranking.

25. User-First Approach:

  • High-quality content prioritizes the needs and interests of the audience, focusing on providing value and a positive user experience.
  • This includes considering accessibility, page load speed, and overall usability.

To create prime and engaging content, include compelling headlines, well-researched information, unique perspectives, clear writing, visuals, storytelling, personalization, varied content formats, easy-to-read formatting, actionable tips, emotional appeal, audience interaction, credible sources, mobile-friendliness, engaging introductions, well-structured organization, relevant subheadings, quotes and expert insights, clear calls-to-action, authenticity, consistent voice and tone, regular updates, SEO optimization, and a user-first approach. Incorporating these elements will help you produce valuable and captivating content that engages your target audience.

The impact of high-quality and engaging content on your SEO: 15 Key Benefits

The SEO impact of high quality and engaging content

The SEO impact of high quality and engaging content.

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), superb and engaging content plays a crucial role in improving your website’s visibility, attracting organic traffic, and driving meaningful engagement.

Let’s explore 15 ways top-of-the-range and engaging content can positively impact your SEO efforts.

1. Enhanced User Experience:

  • High-quality content improves user experience by providing valuable and relevant information to your audience.
  • Engaging content captivates users, increases time spent on your website, and reduces bounce rates, signaling positive signals to search engines.

2. Increased Organic Traffic:

  • Producing high-quality content that aligns with user search intent attracts organic traffic to your website.
  • Engaging content encourages users to visit, explore, and share your content, leading to increased visibility in search engine results.

3. Lower Bounce Rates:

  • Engaging content reduces bounce rates as it holds users’ attention and encourages them to explore other pages on your website.
  • Lower bounce rates indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable, which can positively impact your rankings.

4. Improved Dwell Time:

  • High-quality and engaging content increases dwell time, the duration users spend on your website.
  • Longer dwell times signal to search engines that your content is valuable and satisfies user search queries, potentially boosting your rankings.

5. Increased Social Signals:

  • Engaging content is more likely to be shared on social media platforms, generating social signals.
  • Social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can indirectly influence SEO by increasing brand visibility, driving referral traffic, and attracting backlinks.

6. Higher Clickthrough Rates (CTRs):

  • Compelling headlines, meta descriptions, and featured snippets can significantly impact CTRs.
  • Engaging content with enticing titles and wellcrafted meta descriptions can attract more clicks from search engine result pages (SERPs), leading to increased organic traffic.

7. Lower Bounce Rates:

  • Engaging content reduces bounce rates as it holds users’ attention and encourages them to explore other pages on your website.
  • Lower bounce rates indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable, which can positively impact your rankings.

8. Improved Keyword Relevance:

  • High-quality content naturally incorporates relevant keywords and phrases that align with user search queries.
  • Engaging content that effectively uses keywords can improve your website’s visibility in search results and increase organic traffic.

9. Increased Backlinks:

  • High-quality content that provides unique and valuable insights is more likely to attract backlinks from other websites.
  • Engaging content that is cited and linked by authoritative sources can significantly boost your website’s domain authority and improve your rankings.

10. Improved Page Authority:

  • Engaging content that attracts high-quality backlinks can improve the page authority of your content pages.
  • Higher page authority increases the likelihood of ranking higher in search results and gaining visibility for relevant keywords.

11. Higher Time on Page:

  • Engaging content that holds users’ attention leads to longer time spent on your webpages.
  • Increased time on page signals to search engines that your content is valuable, potentially boosting your rankings.

12. Reduced Duplicate Content Issues:

  • High-quality and original content reduces the risk of duplicate content issues, which can negatively impact your SEO efforts.
  • Engaging content that is unique and provides fresh perspectives helps search engines understand the value your content offers.

13. Improved Crawlability and Indexing:

  • High-quality content with clear structure and formatting is more easily crawled and indexed by search engine bots.
  • Engaging content that is well-organized and utilizes appropriate HTML tags can improve the visibility and accessibility of your content to search engines.

14. Enhanced Semantic Relevance:

  • High-quality content that incorporates semantically related terms and concepts can improve search engine understanding.
  • Engaging content that provides comprehensive coverage of a topic signals expertise and relevance, positively impacting your SEO efforts.

15. Higher SERP Visibility:

  • High-quality and engaging content that satisfies user search intent is more likely to rank prominently in search engine result pages (SERPs).
  • Improved rankings and visibility in SERPs increase the likelihood of attracting organic traffic and establishing your brand as an authority in your industry.

How do key elements of high-quality and engaging content improve conversion rate?

High quality and engaging content improves your conversion rate

High quality and engaging content improves your conversion rate.

High-quality and engaging content plays a crucial role in improving conversion rates for businesses. Let’s see how the key elements of high-quality and engaging content contribute to higher conversion rates.

Relevant and Targeted Messaging

High-quality content begins with understanding your target audience and crafting messaging that resonates with them.

By addressing their needs, pain points, and aspirations, you can create content that speaks directly to their interests.

This targeted approach captures their attention, keeping them engaged and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Compelling Headlines

The headline is the first thing users see, and it needs to grab their attention instantly.

A compelling headline communicates the value proposition of your product or service and entices the reader to explore further.

By piquing their curiosity and generating interest, a strong headline encourages users to stay on your page and increases the chances of conversion.

Clear and Concise Writing

High-quality content avoids jargon and complex language. Instead, it utilizes clear and concise writing that is easy to understand.

Short sentences make the content more digestible and engaging for readers.

By presenting information in a straightforward manner, you can effectively communicate your message and capture the attention of your audience, leading to higher conversion rates.

Visual Appeal

Engaging content goes beyond text.

It incorporates visually appealing elements such as images, videos, infographics, and charts.

Visuals help break up the text and make the content more visually stimulating.

They can effectively convey information, evoke emotions, and enhance the overall user experience.

By incorporating relevant visuals, you can engage users on multiple levels and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA)

A high-quality and engaging content piece is incomplete without a compelling call-to-action.

A CTA directs users to take the desired action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information. It should be clear, persuasive, and prominently displayed.

By guiding users towards the next step and creating a sense of urgency or value, a strong CTA encourages conversions.

Social Proof

People are more likely to trust and engage with content that is supported by social proof.

Including testimonials, case studies, reviews, and social media mentions in your content provides credibility and builds trust.

Social proof showcases the positive experiences of others, reinforcing the quality and value of your offerings.

By incorporating social proof, you increase the trustworthiness of your content, thereby boosting conversion rates.

Personalization

High-quality content is tailored to the individual needs and preferences of the target audience.

Personalization can be achieved by segmenting your audience and creating content that specifically addresses their unique requirements.

By delivering personalized content, you demonstrate that you understand and value your audience, which in turn leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

Storytelling

Humans are wired to respond to stories. Engaging content often weaves storytelling elements to captivate readers and create an emotional connection.

By sharing relatable narratives, anecdotes, or case studies, you can evoke emotions and make your content more memorable.

Storytelling helps in building a connection with your audience, which increases their engagement and the likelihood of conversion.

Consistency and Frequency

To maintain engagement and build trust, high-quality content should be consistently delivered to your audience.

Regularly publishing fresh and relevant content keeps your audience coming back for more.

By offering consistent value, you establish yourself as an authority in your industry, enhancing credibility and increasing the chances of conversion.

Optimized for SEO

A crucial aspect of high-quality and engaging content is its search engine optimization (SEO).

By incorporating relevant keywords, meta tags, and optimizing headings, you increase the visibility of your content in search engine results.

When your content ranks higher in search engine listings, it attracts more organic traffic, resulting in increased conversions.

High-quality and engaging content is characterized by relevant and targeted messaging, compelling headlines, clear and concise writing, visual appeal, compelling call-to-action (CTA), social proof, personalization, storytelling, consistency, and SEO optimization.

By incorporating these elements, businesses can create content that captures the attention of their audience, builds trust, and increases the likelihood of conversions. It is essential to offer value, resonate with the audience, and guide them towards taking the desired action.

How to write remarkable content for your website

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Write remarkable content for your website

Do you know there is scarcity of good, remarkable content and therefore, there is a big opportunity for you if you can write and publish content on your website or blog?

The success of your website depends on your content.

You get search engine traffic because of your content. Your visitors turn into your paying customers and clients because of your content. People recognize you or your brand on other websites and social networking platforms because of your content.

You can read on this AdWeek link that 90% customers prefer tailored content before they decide to do business with a brand.

Your prospective customers and clients need information before they can decide to buy from you.

They want to familiarize themselves with your business and what you stand for, before they can make up their minds.

Your content allows you to have conversations with your customers and clients.

The more conversations they have with you, the better acquainted they get with you. The better acquainted they get with you, the more eager they are to do business with you in the hour of their need.

But the biggest challenge faced by online entrepreneurs is, creating and publishing good quality, remarkable content.

What is remarkable content?

Remarkable content makes your visitors happy about visiting your website.

Remarkable content should be conversational, to the point, easy-to-read, and helpful. People should be able to find it quickly on your website or blog.

Important attributes of remarkable content

The three attributes of remarkable content are:

  1. Purpose: What purpose does your content solve? Why does it exist? What will your customers and clients achieve after having consumed this particular piece of content? Is it meant to create awareness? Does it educate your visitors? Does it provide them valuable, useful information?
  2. Format: In what format does this particular piece of content exist? Is it a blog post? A web page? A landing page? A white paper? An ebook? A video? Remember that remarkable content exists in a format preferred by your target audience.
  3. Topic: Topic is a somewhat narrower version of the purpose. Whereas the purpose attribute can be applicable to multiple pieces of content on your website or blog, topic is narrower, and is confined to a single link. Does the topic deal with a sales related question? Does it explain something complex and technical? Will your customer be able to achieve a task after going through this particular link?

Whom are you writing for?

Remarkable content is persona-centric. It’s like, when you talk to someone, when you have a conversation with someone, your talk is more meaningful if you know the other person.

This is why creating a persona is very important for writing or creating remarkable content.

Defining a persona helps you write content for a well-defined personality.

How to write remarkable content for your website or blog

Listed below are few points that can help you write remarkable content or at least, keeping these points in mind, you can attempt writing remarkable content for your website or blog.

You don’t necessarily have to stick to these points and even if you pay attention to one or two of these points you will be able to write remarkable content.

Provide solutions to people’s problems

People will love you if you solve their problems.

Your every web page, your every blog post, your every email broadcast should solve some problem.

This is because when people search online, they are constantly looking for solutions to their problems. They always look for information that can help them achieve something. If your content helps them achieve something they like you and remember you and this is how your brand presence becomes stronger.

Present a unique perspective

If you write content that is more or less the same as the others are writing, how do people distinguish you from the others? You have to present a unique perspective. Tell them something that they haven’t yet come across on another website or another blog.

They are on your website because they want to know what’s your take on a particular subject or topic.

Back your claims with credible data

Though personally am not a big fan of throwing around big numbers just to impress people, if you can present some credible data when making claims, it definitely helps.

Telling you that B2B buyers prefer to go through expert content before making a purchase decision might be less convincing than telling you that 96% B2B buyers prefer to go through expert content before making a purchase decision, and then linking to the source of the data.

Write in a conversational manner

Great, well-written content is always conversational.

When you write in a conversational style it seems as if you are talking to people, you are interacting with them, instead of delivering a monologue that is totally uninspiring and emotionless.

Conversational writing makes greater impact. It also engages your audience and encourages people to respond to your content writing.

Publish in a format preferred by your target audience

There was a time when it was mostly text on websites and blogs. Gradually, images came up. Then GIFs. Then videos. Aside from these formats there are slides, presentations, infographics and all sort of other interactive content.

People have different preferences when accessing your content. Although what sort of format people prefer also depends on your niche – people in food and travel industry prefer videos and images and people on Twitter prefer shorter updates, but B2B buyers prefer longer, comprehensive blog posts and articles to get as much information as possible from you.

Some people also like slides and PDFs.

Worried how you would create so much content for different formats?

Normally, content marketers write a blog post and then out of that blog post they repurpose content into various formats. Want to know how you can repurpose your content? Read this: How to repurpose old content.

Make it easy to access and find your content

This is where content marketing plays an important role. Simply publishing high-quality content doesn’t help you much unless you make it easier for people to find your content.

Do the following to make it easier for people to find your content:

  • Search engine optimize your content so that it ranks well and consequently, it’s easier to find them for appropriate search terms.
  • Distribute your content using your social networking profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
  • Encourage other Webmasters and bloggers to link to your quality content.
  • Invest in PPC campaigns.
  • Build and use your mailing list to broadcast to your mailing list subscribers.

It should be your constant effort to write remarkable content for your website because mediocre content, although it’s easier to write or create it, doesn’t help you much. It does not make a positive impact. It doesn’t improve your search engine rankings. It doesn’t improve your conversion rate.

What is quality content and how does Google recognize it?

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what-is-quality-content-and-how-does-Google-define-or-recognize-itIf you want to enjoy good search engine rankings you need to understand how Google defines or recognizes quality content.

Since the Penguin and Panda updates Google has been putting more and more stress on quality content. All its ranking algorithms are focused towards crawling, indexing and ranking as much quality content existing on the Internet as possible.

Read 20 Evergreen characteristics of quality content

In order to understand what is quality content and how Google defines or recognizes it, you first need to define for yourself what is quality content.

For me, the definition of quality content is quite straightforward:

  1. Well-written content
  2. Content that educates and informs
  3. Content that does not mislead
  4. Content that delivers on the promise of the page title or the headline
  5. And in terms of copywriting, contend that improves your conversion rate

These are the basic definitions of what is quality content and these definitions don’t change no matter what the format of your content is. Whether you are publishing text, images or videos, the underlying purpose is to provide quality content that delivers value, whatever that value is, to your particular audience.

Read Why quality content writing matters and how to maintain quality

Why should you bother how Google defines or recognizes quality content?

Although there are multiple search engines in the world Google sends you the most traffic. So, this is why it matters to you how Google defines or recognizes quality content and then ranks your content accordingly.

As you can see in the chart below, almost 90% of the search market is dominated by Google whereas other “major” search engines like Bing, Yahoo! and even Baidu, have more or less remained at the bottom.

Google-search-marketing-share-2016-2017

But carefully note the red line representing Google at the top. If you notice, there is a slight downward slant. Although it is still miles ahead of its competitors, it is losing market. Since most of its revenue comes from search advertising, even a small drop in the share of search traffic means a lot to Google.

for-google-search-is-equal-to-money

So there are two reasons why you should bother how Google defines quality content:

  1. Most of your search traffic comes from Google
  2. Google would tenaciously like to hold onto its market dominance by continuing to provide quality content through searches

If Google is unable to find quality content – no matter how it defines it – people will move on to other search engines.

Give Google quality content and Google will rank your website or blog higher

give quality content to googleThis is not completely true, but it is indisputable that Google will only rank you higher if you have quality content on your website or blog. I have personally experienced that quality content alone doesn’t help you much unless you have tons of it. There are many other factors that affect your ranks including:

  1. The quality of your content, of course
  2. The frequency with which you publish content (the greater the frequency, the better the rankings)
  3. The quantity of quality content that you already have
  4. The age of your domain
  5. The keywords and search terms that you use in the title tag and the headlines
  6. The number of authority websites linking to your content
  7. The social validation your content gets (how many people share your content on social networking websites)
  8. The popularity of your content

A cocktail of these reasons gives you better search engine rankings but all these reasons originate from the fact that you need to have quality content.

Read How to strike a balance between SEO and quality content writing

If you don’t have quality content nobody is going to bother about it and if they don’t bother about it, they won’t share it, they won’t link to it and your content won’t get validation. Without getting social validation, it is very difficult to enjoy good search engine rankings no matter how much quality content you have (although it does have some benefits).

In fact, Google wants quality content so much that it has even created a tutorial on how you can create quality, valuable content.

Googles-course-on-how-to-create-quality-content

How does Google define quality content and then ranks it accordingly?

quality-content-according-to-google

To understand how Google defines quality content, again, you need to understand why Google craves for quality content and not for every type of content irrespective of what its quality is.

Why do you use Google and not another search engine? There might be two reasons:

  1. You are not aware of the existence of any other search engine
  2. You believe that Google gives you the best results for your searches

It’s the second reason that keeps Google hungry for quality content. Whenever you do a search on Google, Google wants to find you the best results. If it doesn’t find you the best results, gradually some other search engine will, and you will move on to that search engine.

This is why among the most brilliant minds on earth working at Google are constantly creating algorithms to find quality content on the Internet.

Now that we know why you need to bother with how Google defines or recognizes quality content and why Google craves quality content, we can come to the topic of how Google defines quality content.

Listed below are the examples of inferior content, according to Google:

  • Scrapped content
  • Thin content (Read What is thin content according to Google? Does it harm your SEO?)
  • Doorway pages
  • Pages and blog posts senselessly stuffed with your keywords
  • Webpages and blog posts solely created to draw traffic with no value
  • Content containing hidden text or links
  • Cloaking
  • Automatically generated text strings
  • Content lifted as it is from other websites and blogs

The folks at Google dislike inferior content or low-quality content so much that they penalize your website by lowering its rankings or worse, completely removing your links from its index.

You may also like to read quality content guidelines straightaway from Google.

Listed below are a few factors that Google uses to define quality content:

  1. Write content for your users not merely for search engines.
  2. Provide information people are actually looking for – don’t mislead people by deceptive titles.
  3. If possible write expert-level content. According to this Search Engine Journal blog post, Google’s human raters as well as algorithms can distinguish between content written by an amateur and content written by a pro.
  4. Become a resource. Link to high quality content from other websites and blogs. Cite reputed publications like the New York Times and Time whenever possible. When you come across quality content on other websites, refer to it from your own website.
  5. Publish fresh content as much as possible. Google is ravenous about fresh content. It crawls your website or blog repeatedly, sometimes multiple times a day to check whether you have published something new. Though, publishing with great frequency doesn’t mean you compromise on quality content. Publish less, but definitely stick to quality.
  6. Abundantly use images and videos. It enhances your presentation and it has been observed that the top 10 ranked sites in Google search results normally have around 6-8 images.
  7. Deliver what you promise in your web page title. Misleading titles attract penalty from Google. Your page title and content should always match.
  8. Create lengthy posts and webpages. Since it is difficult to create long content, and if you are publishing lots of long content, the Google algorithm assumes that you are publishing quality content. Longer blog posts and articles also tend to have lots of information and useful images.

These are the factors using which Google defines quality content. These factors may not play a crucial role all the time at the same time, a majority of these factors are considered when Google tries to assess whether you are publishing quality content or not.

Often the problem is not with outsourcing

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I was just going through a rant in an email newsletter about why businesses, especially small businesses, shouldn’t outsource and why it makes sense hiring people in-house.

On the surface there is nothing wrong in the argument because how you get your work done depends on your personal choice whether you want to hire someone full-time, part-time or outsource.

The problem is, when people have bad experience outsourcing their work, they start talking about how outsourcing sucks and why people shouldn’t indulge in it. They rarely try to observe the situation from the opposite angle, that is the person who is outsourcing the work rather than the one to whom the work is being outsourced.

There are innumerable, hard-working, sincere and efficient people on the Internet. Here I’m not going to talk about myself, but almost 3 years ago my client Steve decided to hire a programmer from the Philippines using an outsourcing company and we have had a great experience. He does such a great job that recently when Steve was contemplating terminating the contract (because he felt the job for which the programmer was hired is almost done) I convinced him into not letting the programmer go just because it is so difficult to get such people. You may say I’m contradicting myself (that it is very difficult to get good people to whom you can outsource your work and hence, they are an exception rather than a norm) but I will just come to another point.

The problem is people are either too lazy to look for good talent, or they are simply cheap. I have been writing content for the past 12 years and 70% of the queries seek “world-class content” at “cheap rates”. They actually expect me to create 1000-word “high-quality” blog posts for as little as $5. By offering $5, how much time do you expect me to spend on your blog post?

More than that, how much value do you attach to building your own business assets?

As a content writer living in a Third World country, I (I as any other person) may have my own compulsions for accepting such low-paying assignments and eventually screwing up everything because it is not humanly possible to create enough content to make a decent living with such a rate, what is your excuse? If you cannot afford to spend $35-50 on a decent blog post, why in the first place you are in this business? Either create your own content or hire someone who charges decently, and does good work. If you think that your blog post is worth just $5, if you think that your content writer can be so cheap, then feel fine about getting a cheap deal. Don’t crib.

Why you can’t ignore content marketing as an SEO expert

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SEO and content marketing

The title of this blog post comes with a touch of irony. I address you as an SEO expert and then I try to explain why you cannot ignore content marketing. But it is not a complete irony – I still come across well-meaning SEO professionals who think that content is important, but it is optional and good search engine rankings don’t necessarily depend on good content. So this blog post is for them.

You may also like to read Why SEO companies are putting more stress on content writing?.

What exactly is SEO? Is it merely getting good search engine rankings? I remember once a client came to my office and requested me to set his website as my homepage so that every time I loaded my browser, it would increase his visitors count. I asked him what he was trying to achieve by that, and he said, it would instill confidence in his other visitors. When I asked him what effect a higher visitor count had made to his business, he flatly said, “None.” SEO hadn’t become a buzzword back then and nobody on this planet had heard of social media.

Why your SEO needs a healthy dose of content marketing?

I’m not an SEO expert but over the past 12 years that I have spent eking out a living on the Internet I have found out that there are 4 things that decide your search engine rankings

  • The quality of your content
  • General well-being of your website
  • The quality of your incoming links
  • The level of competition you face

The recent addition, the fifth thing that has an impact on your search engine rankings, is your author rank – how much social relevance your name enjoys on the Internet.

The relation between content marketing and SEO

What are people doing when they are using the search engines? They are looking for content in the form of information or entertainment. They seek information to keep them aware, to educate themselves, for researching, to find product or service they need, and to make good buying decisions.

Suppose you get good rankings for “garden sprinkling system” but when people come to your website they cannot make out what you are trying to do. The content is not convincing. Or it is full of errors. Maybe you haven’t highlighed the greatest benefits of the sprinkling system. Are you merely providing information or you want people to buy from you? And if they should buy from you then why? Just because you have got good search engine rankings or your sprinkling system is actually better than the others? People don’t do business because of your search engine rankings; they buy from you when your written content, your copywriting, is able to engage them and convince them.

This is just one aspect of content marketing. Once you have written credible and convincing content you also need to make it accessible to as many prospective visitors as possible.

The relationship between content marketing and quality incoming links

The days of paid links are gone, or going. Google heavily penalizes websites that aggregate incoming links by either paying for them or through link-exchange schemes. People should link to you for the value you provide, in terms of content or branding. Two legitimate ways of getting quality and reliable incoming links are:

  • Website owners, authors and bloggers voluntarily linking to you
  • You write for other websites and blogs and your link appears in the small bio or profile on the same link as credit

In both the cases you need high-quality content. If people voluntarily link to you then they must find something worth linking to. If you write for other blogs and websites then too, they won’t publish your blog posts and articles unless they are of a certain standard.

So you can see, whether you are focusing on onsite or off-site SEO, ultimately it’s the combination of the quality of your content and a well-coordinated content marketing strategy that decides what sort of search engine rankings you are going to experience.