‘Quality content’ has become something of a buzzword. This means that the content is effective in persuading the reader to do what you, the business owner, want them to do.
It is more important than ever to improve the quality of your content, as your audience is faced with many distractions. Anything in the content itself that would discourage them from reading further should be avoided. Having high-quality content on your business website can help it stand out from the competition and be seen as an authoritative source.
What strategies can you use to make your content more valuable, while still focusing on improving your organic search visibility? Here are the best ways.
1. Focus on Your Audience
Seth Godin believes that content marketing that is worth talking about is not simply repurposed advertising, but something that is actually made to be talked about.
Your reader is the reason you are creating content. Your content needs to be interesting and engaging enough to make your audience stop and read it.
One of the main reasons why marketers have difficulty creating interesting content is that they don’t think about their audience when they are making it. According to a Forrester survey:
Unlock (not provided) with Keyword Hero
- 71 percent of brands include case studies and customer stories in their content, but only 3 percent delve deeper into these stories to make them relatable to their readers.
- Only 12 percent prioritize publishing research and perspectives to offer actionable insights to their readers.
It is more beneficial to create content that is informational or entertaining rather than content that is designed to sell something.
Content needs to be targeted to a specific person in order for it to be successful.
To that end, you really need to determine whether your content needs to:
- Address problems your audience is facing.
- Promote discovery of your business solutions.
- Address comparison questions.
- Encourage a sale by providing persuasive information the person needs.
Buyer personas play a critical role in this process.
Whole Foods, for example, creates content that not only positions itself as a grocery store, but also as a lifestyle choice. The content of their site is focused on healthy living and eating in a way that is gentle on the environment.
The articles on the website range from topics such as how to eat healthy while saving money to changing your diet. The site is designed so that users feel empowered and like they are playing a role in the experience.
2. Fact Check
If you want your audience to trust you, it is essential that you fact check. When you’re writing about new topics or writing quickly to take advantage of trending events, it’s easy to make mistakes.
By making sure your content is unbiased and accurate, your audience will trust you to help them and see you as a thought leader.
3. Add Research to Back Up Your Points
If you want to make your argument more credible, you can reference research and data. If you can support your claims with evidence, your audience will be more likely to believe that you know what you’re talking about.
We could have just given you a list of the 12 ways to improve the quality of your posts, but we wanted to show you how to improve the quality of your posts. Instead of just telling you to pay attention to certain things, we use research and data to show you why they are worth your attention.
It’s always important to cite credible and reputable sources.
4. Use Quotes or Insights From Experts
If you want to make your argument more convincing, you can use quotes from experts in the field to illustrate your point. This provides social proof to your audience.
If you quote an expert in your industry in your marketing materials, it will make your business look more credible and imply that you are an authority in your field.
An additional benefit is that it can help broaden the scope of your content, permitting you to write about topics you have limited knowledge about.
5. Use Visuals and Examples to Illustrate Your Point
Sometimes there is a better way to communicate. Not every piece of content has to be text-based. This is where visuals and examples come in.
Graphics are generally more effective than written explanations when presenting data or processes. Visuals can also act as a metaphor. That stock photo is supporting the idea that pictures can be used to communicate a message. (Or she’s pointing, anyway.)
6. Avoid Jargon
High-quality content is always easy to understand. Jargon can be difficult to understand depending on your audience.
If some of your audience is more knowledgeable about the subject than others, you can adjust your language and the topics to accommodate them.
If you’re not confident that the language you’re using is appropriate for your audience, ask someone from your intended audience to read through your content and highlight any jargon they don’t understand.
7. Use an Editor
Don’t publish anything without a thorough edit and proofread. If there are mistakes in your content or the overall flow and structure is not good, it can ruin the reader’s experience and make them not trust you.
A proofreader’s job is to catch minor errors like missing commas, typos, etc. An editor’s job is to help you improve the story line, phrasing, order of points, and identify what is missing.
You may want to consider hiring a freelance editor or adding one to your in-house staff to help make sure your content adheres to your style guide and to help identify ways to improve your content.
8. Tweak Your Headlines
OK, so you have probably come across many articles that talk about how to write headlines that are attention-grabbing and persuasive. No matter how great your content is, if your headline doesn’t entice people to click, they’re unlikely to see it. In other words, it plays a role in:
- Driving more traffic to your site.
- Helping people notice and click on your content over other options. Headlines aren’t about value. It’s about getting people in the door.
- Helping people find your content so valuable that they’ll share it with their networks.
To improve the visibility of your headlines, consider the following tweaks:
9. Highlight the Value
Why should people read your post? When offering something to someone, think about what would be beneficial to them and make sure they understand what that is. Make sure your words are full of excitement, drama, and humor, while still being genuine and delivering on your promises.
10. Use Adjectives and Power Words
Adjectives that create interest, such as beautiful, fun, horrifying, strange, useful, or ridiculous, will cause your audience to read on. If you want to be more persuasive, use power words such as ‘you’, ‘free’, ‘because’, ‘new’, and ‘instantly’ in your speech.
11. Create Curiosity
According to the author, headlines that are statements or questions can be effective in getting readers to notice the article. A good rule to follow is to avoid asking questions that your audience can answer with a simple “no.”
12. Only Publish Your Very Best Material—and Be Consistent
In the current economy, where so much content is being produced, competition for attention is fiercer than ever.
It is important to only publish content that is the best it can be if you want to be successful. It is of more benefit to produce one post of high quality per week than it is to produce five posts of middling quality each week.
You not only have to set the quality bar incredibly high, but you also have to keep meeting (or exceeding) this standard. There is no easy way to produce great content. It takes time, energy, and money to create something special.
13. Evaluate the Success of Your Content with Data
One misconception about content marketing is that blog posts will make your business successful and you will have prospective customers wanting to buy what you are selling.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Although producing excellent content is important for all marketers, smart marketers also know how to measure the results of their efforts.
Some bloggers believe that the number of social shares their latest post has accrued is a good indicator of its success.
Your business goals may not be met by even the most widely shared blog post. What are your content goals and how will you measure them?
You need to use analytics to see how well your content is doing. Otherwise, you could be wasting time and money on ineffective content.
The success of a website can be measured by the amount of traffic it gets using Google Analytics. Some people might care more about social media shares or attention metrics like scroll depth, which can be measured by tools like Chartbeat.
14. Repurpose Your Content
The most successful content is the result of time, effort, and skill. Granted, you’re not making money off of this content. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t receive a greater return on investment.
Many businesses repurpose content from one format into several because it is an effective way to reach a larger audience.
What made that post perform better than your others? If you can identify what made that post perform better than others, you can replicate that success in future posts. Did the text have a positive effect on readers because it provided useful information that can be used at any time? Did this offer something to your audience that they couldn’t find elsewhere?
Some blog posts might work better as an email blast or a live webinar. No matter how you choose to reuse your content, make sure you’re getting a good return on your investment in content production.
15. Reuse Your Best Headlines in PPC Ads
If you’re running a PPC campaign, you can use your best-performing headlines for your ad copy. If a headline is effective with your readers, a similar headline will probably be effective with potential customers.
PPC ad copy and content have a lot of the same elements that make them effective, such as an emotional angle, strong verbs, and clear benefits.
AdWords and Bing Ads have character limits that advertisers must follow, while shorter headlines tend to perform well.
If a recent blog post or other online content performed better than expected, try running an A/B test to see if it has the same effect as an ad.
16. Accept That Not All Content HAS to Tell a Story
While storytelling is important for content marketers, brand storytelling is one of the most effective ways to reach new customers. Not all content is storytelling, and not all content marketers are storytellers.
Not all content has to tell a story. A blog post that is straightforward serves a purpose, and provides value for your readers is usually more than enough.
The people who talk the most about storytelling in content marketing are those who don’t do it or don’t understand it. Don’t listen to people who say you have to be a natural-born storyteller to be successful in content marketing. You don’t need to be a natural-born storyteller to be successful in content marketing.
Although stories can be engaging, complex narratives are not always necessary for every piece of content.
17. Be Bold and Speak Your Mind (Especially When Others Don’t Dare)
One of the challenges that content marketers face is that there is a lot of content being produced and it can be hard to stand out.
Making your voice heard over the millions of blog posts being published every day can be difficult, unless you take a stand that nobody else is willing to take.
A lot of what is being produced as content (especially in closely related industries like digital marketing) just repeats and spits out the ideas and perspectives of a small group of people.
When readers find that there are hundreds of blogs all saying the same things, they become desensitized to the content and see no point in wasting their time consuming it. This is what makes producing contrarian content so powerful.
If you want your content to be effective, you should consider taking an unpopular stance, speaking your mind when others won’t, and flirting with controversy. You should take care not to offend anyone, but feel free to be bold and speak your mind.
If you’re honest with your readers, they will appreciate it. When you express your own thoughts and feelings, you will sound and seem more genuine than if you just repeat what other people have said.
Conclusion
You can improve your content quality significantly by using the methods described earlier. This will result in more people going to your website and talking about your brand. How? Because your content will:
- Stand out amid all the distractions that the internet holds.
- Help increase your industry authority and reputation. This, in turn, will lead to a greater presence in the marketplace.
Although this may take time and effort, it is necessary to improve the quality of your posts so that your audience will care about it. If you spend time and effort on it, you will see your search rankings improve.
