So what is quality content?
Content isn’t merely a blog post or Web page that you post to your website. In reality, it’s information you submit to search engines to be given to searchers.
So quality content is anything that Google decides is worth sharing.
It’s real answers to real people’s questions.
It’s content that people want to digest because it helps or entertains them, tells them how to do something or where to find something.
It’s information that people talk about in their own blog posts or around the water cooler.
It’s the stories they pass along to their own circles or mention in social media.
It gets quoted, linked to, and shared.
That’s quality content.
Create that, and create it well. Add to the knowledge graph, and you’ll rank well with Google and your users.
The challenge of creating quality
There are a few things you need to keep in mind when you make it a goal to create quality.
1. Quality is a subjective goal.
Who really knows what it is until you hit it? Is it long, short, funny, serious? It could be any of the above. It could be none of them. So an important part of your content strategy in
Digital marketing has to be defining this word for your brand.
2. Quality implies trust.
That’s why Google shares stuff that they see other people sharing. They see that as a vote of confidence, a tick mark on the quality scoreboard. So while you’re building the quality of your content, it’s important to put energy into building trust too.
3. Higher quality content may seem to directly conflict with your profit goals.
You can’t use content to promote your products. Yet most businesses don’t want to pay writers to write materials that aren’t promotional. From my perspective, this is one of the biggest challenges for MARKETERS—providing profit-building content to please the C-Suite and readable, useful content for users.
4. Higher quality content requires a bigger investment.
You’ll have to invest in better writers and graphic artists. You may also need programming help to create interactive content.
5. The ROI on quality content may not be immediately evident.
It takes time to build a reputation as the go-to resource. You may have to invest a lot of time and money on the front end, trusting that you’ll reap the rewards down the road. This is another reason you need to have a written content strategy that defines “quality” for your business, outlines the tactics you want to pursue and details your expected outcomes.
6. It’s risky focusing on quality.
Quality content is usually different than anything else out there. You have to be willing to make waves or stand out. Try hard not to simply copy other brands’ strategies, but to come up with something that works for you.
How you can consistently create higher value content
1. Get to know your readers.
Content marketing is a customer-centric strategy. Your blog posts, special reports and other content aren’t product brochures. They’re a way for you to connect attract and connect with your ideal customers.
Because of that, your first task as a content marketer is to get to know your readers.
You need to find out what they’re interested in, what questions they’re asking, what worries them, what their goals are, and anything else you can find out.
Remember, in the eyes of Google, quality content is content that answers your readers’ questions. So by all means, answer their questions.
2. Talk in their language.
This is especially important now that Google’s keyword tool is no longer available. Instead of asking Google what search terms people are using, listen to your customers.
Go to forums where they ask questions. Connect with them in social media. Watch their comments on your blog and other blogs in your industry.
What words are they using to talk about your products? Those are the words you need to use when you talk about them. And by doing so, you’ll automatically optimize your content—because it will match the queries they type into search engines.
3. Keep the focus on customers, not selling.
Blog posts aren’t sales pages. Remember that. Use blog posts to answer questions and generate interest in your products. Then link to sales pages in case readers want to learn more.
Create content that builds relationship. Your objective should be to build trust and credibility among your target audience. Not to sell. Not in your content. Let that come later, after you’ve earned their trust.
4. Create content for every stage of the sales funnel.
Write down every question your customers are likely to ask at every level of the funnel. These are the same questions they’re going to type into a search engine. So create content that targets those keywords.
But don’t stop there. Create additional content that simply provides useful, actionable information.
5. Create content on a regular basis.
Consistency builds trust. It also makes you credible. And the more content you produce, the more search queries your content can rank for.
So set a schedule you can reasonably maintain, and get busy producing content.
6. Go the extra mile.
To be higher quality, your content has to be better than the stuff everyone else is doing. So you have to step up your game if you want to have the highest quality content online.
Think outside the box. Get creative. Then start delivering.
Are you up for it?
It’s a new game, with little guidance except that weird, undefinable word, “quality.” But for now, it’s all we’ve got.
So are you up for it?
Image Credit: http://www.clickcabin.com
Content Credit: http://blog.crazyegg.com
