To secure your position in a market flooded with content, you need to focus on creating high-quality content. It is one of the best ways to establish your authority within your niche, attract and engage your target audience and create content optimized for search engines, thus further increasing your reach. Although creating high-quality content is one of the most challenging aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), Danny Goodwin, Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal, believes that it is “the best way to attract the most relevant audience”. Furthermore, due to increasing competition in the field of content marketing, the success of any content marketing strategy depends on providing the best content possible, observes Ashley Arcel, a content strategist and a content writer at scripted.com.
Ironically, while looking for advice on how to create high-quality content, I have come across many online texts of poor quality. Having filtered out the available information, I have found these 5 tips worth attention:
1. Provide value. To better connect with your target audience, you need to provide some value to them. “[…] the more value you provide the better,” argues Ian Cleary, Founder of RazorSocial, a digital marketing blog. To achieve that, first you need to research what kind of content your competitors provide, and then try to provide content that is more valuable than theirs. For example, instead of writing another article about building a persona for content marketing, try to create software that helps build personas automatically, explains Cleary. By providing exceptional value, you are more likely to gain a competitive edge.
2. Focus on a niche subtopic. To withstand the competition of other content creators, it is important to narrow down your topic as much as possible. For example, a topic like ‘dog training’ is too broad, and there are many competitors targeting that topic, explains Danny Goodwin, Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal. If you choose to write about ‘dog training’, your text will simply disappear within the vast amount of content that has already been created on that topic. However, if you narrow down your topic to ‘dog training behaviour’ or ‘dog training commands’, you are more likely to be ranked at the top of search engine results. To find good niche subtopics, Goodwin suggests using keyword research tools. He also stresses that it is worth analyzing if subtopics within your niche will resonate well with your target audience.
3. Create readable and engaging content. To make sure that your text is read until the end, make sure that your content is easy to read, suggests Marieke van de Rak, CEO of Yoast, the provider of a WordPress SEO plugin. To achieve that, you need to consider the structure of your text and the words you choose. van de Rakt observes that a text without headings or paragraphs discourages people from reading it. Therefore, it is important to structure it accordingly. Also, you need to avoid using difficult words and long sentences so that readers can read the text more easily. van de Rakt also recommends using variation in your text to make it more engaging. In practice, that means using synonyms and shorter sentences as well as writing from a personal perspective so that users could get to know you and your brand better.
4. Be thorough. “Quality content doesn’t just scratch the surface, it goes in-depth to address all of the obvious questions someone may have about a topic. This doesn’t necessarily mean it directly shares every detail of a topic, but it does offer some insight or even a link or additional resource,” explains Ramona Sukhraj, Manager of Demand Generation and DEI Editor at IMPACT, an inbound marketing agency. She stresses that the key goal here is to offer value. Quality content addresses user needs and intentions, and tries to deliver the value they are looking for.
5. Make your content unique. Online content is being posted at a rapid pace, which means that with a simple click of the search button, you can find a long list of similar articles on any topic you choose, says Ashley Arcel, a content strategist and a content writer at scripted.com. However, content marketing specialists note that creating a new blog post from the information available online will not deliver readers a lot of value. “Quality content is unique – it gives readers more information, more relevant insights, and more useful tips than any other content on the subject,” explains Arcel. This is what the Content Marketing Institute defines as the 10x rule: your content should be 10 times better than any other content available, and you should aim for becoming the only source of that information.
References: Danny Goodwin, searchenginejournal.com | Ashley Arcel, scripted.com | Ann Gynn, contentmarketinginstitute.com | Marieke van de Rakt, yoast.com | Ramona Sukhraj, impactplus.com