I’m sure you know at least a little about what quality content means. You’ll be thinking about keywords, readability, in-depth content and many more such attributes that we associate with quality content. And they’re not wrong but that’s not all.
We make sure that these qualities are in our content but we forget the core of all this. Curious to know? Let’s dive deep into this.
What is good quality content not?
Before discussing what does great content mean, let’s clarify what is quality content not?
Good quality content isn’t something that
- has no grammatical errors (it’s important but not the only thing)
- has a lot of keywords
- has a specific word count
- is longer than its competitors
- has short paragraphs
- is interactive and engaging
- is short and sweet
- is about you
- is about your product or services
Then what quality content is?
That’s in the next heading.
What is good quality content?
Good quality content isn’t about words, keywords, short paragraphs or grammar. It’s about your audience.
Just think about this for a second. Whatever tips you’ve heard to make your content good are sourced from the audience. All the traits that you can find on Google about quality content are related to the readers and customers.
Let’s understand this more clearly with the following 4 examples.
Readability
This is something that good digital content should have, but why do we even want our content to be readable? Only because of our readers.
We know that it’s not easy to read on screens and large paragraphs strip away the interest. That’s why we write in a way that’s easy to read for our audience.
Short and sweet
You might have heard this about copy, “keep it short and sweet”.
Ever wondered why?
Because we don’t want our audience to get bored and scroll without reading our message. So we stay on point and communicate our message as quickly as possible.
Interactive and engaging
We add images to our blog posts and web pages. We make our content interactive. Why?
So that the readers won’t get bored with just text. Images hook them.
Trust
Building trust is crucial for a business. People buy from those who they trust. Good content helps you build confidence but why do we need to develop that?
For our audience, to warm them up for sales.
The root secret of creating good content:
So the root secret of good content is understanding your customers and audience.
And great content is the one that
- caters to your readers
- addresses their pain points and concerns
- provides them with the answers or solutions they’re looking for in the best way possible
Think about your audience when creating content. Understand their problems and concerns. Think about how will your content sound and look to your audience.
This will help you in creating quality content for your audience.
You can write engaging content that answers your audience’s problems only when you know them. You can hook your readers only when you know what they’re interested in. You can keep them engaged only when you know their pain points.
So spend some time understanding your readers and brainstorming before jumping straight into content creation.
Great content provides value. Let’s simplify this statement!
I’m sure you’ve heard a million times that great content provides value, it adds value to its consumer’s life.
If someone is talking about content quality they’ll definitely talk about value so how can I miss that? But let’s break this down.
What does it mean to provide value through your content?
By providing value you can
- breakdown a complex topic into simple words
- give a step-by-step guide to something
- provide a mindset shift
- bring a smile
- deep dive into your industry-related problems or concepts
- offer quick tips
- inspire and motivate
This isn’t a complete list. You can add many more to it. Value can be in any form, it can be in the form of better communication as well.
Why is good quality content important?
Content quality is key to a business’s success. It’s what you tell people about yourself, and your audience creates an image of you through that. If your content is good it’ll build trust and position you well in the market but if it’s the other way around you’ll be wiped out by your competitors. So it’s worth investing in good content.
To summarize it all
If you don’t write for the readers and just start talking about your product or service people are not going to listen.
It’s not about you, your business, product or service it’s all about your audience. Put yourself in their shoe and then think about their problems and challenges.
