As content strategy continues to grow via online marketing, businesses are producing more content than ever before. While the quantity of content is important, we can’t let the quality fall by the wayside.
When your business is producing a large amount of content at an accelerated rate, it’s easy to think you’re doing a great job. But the truth is, the quantity of content doesn’t mean your content strategy is successful. To ensure it’s doing what you want it to do, you have to keep your content relevant and optimized.
You can make sure this is happening by using a content audit or content analyzer. This provides you with an overview of all the most important content metrics and helps to highlight any issues that may prevent your content from performing as it should. If, after using the analyzer, you find that the metrics aren’t quite what you were hoping for, there are many things you can do to get it back on track.
Content is no good if it can't be found.
One of the best ways to get more traffic to your business is by using search engine optimization. If your content can’t be found by your audience, it doesn’t stand a very good chance of being successful. This is why content optimization is such an important step in your content process. SEO provides the search engine with essential data to determine what your content, and your business, is about. It will then use your content in the search results they display for relevant keywords.
SEO is vital for visibility and searchability, but there’s even more to it than that. An organic search is often the primary source of website traffic, so it is likely to lead to an increase in traffic, engagement and conversions. In my experience, SEO can also help increase brand awareness and building relationships and trust.
Long-form works.
The common misconception is that nowadays, people have shorter attention spans than ever. There is some truth to this, but marketers often think that the only content that works has to be concise and readable in seconds. Of course, no business wants to risk losing its audience’s attention, but that isn’t as easily done as it might think.
Long-form content does exactly what it says: It’s marketing that is delivered through long content. According to a study of 11.8 million Google search results by Backlinko, the average length of content on the first page of Google is around 1,500 words, meaning longer content outperforms shorter content.
There is no exact measurement of how long "long-form" has to be, but I recommend aiming for around 1,500 to 2,000 words. Overall, distributing long-form content can get your business more of what it needs, such as visibility, proof of expertise, trust and community engagement.
If you have trouble producing content as long as 2,000 words and you tend to write more concisely, try listicles. A listicle is an article that’s also a list, and these types of pieces can often turn into long-form. You will also have the advantage of creating content that your audience can read by scanning.
First impressions matter.
The headline and introduction of your content are critical; they are the biggest determinants of your content’s success because they are your chance to hook your audience in and keep them reading. If your headline isn’t up to your audience’s standard or doesn’t interest them, they’ll click on your competitor’s content in seconds, thus causing you to lose a customer. Headlines have the power to drive more traffic to your site or drive the traffic away. Without a compelling promise that turns a searcher into a reader, the rest of the words might as well not be there.
Every element of the copy is important, but the first thing they read determines if they read on. You can consider using headline analyzers to score your headlines and gain some insight into whether a searcher is likely to click on your headline. If you need some inspiration, you can even use a headline generator.
Remember every step.
In this article, we’ve covered three of the most important ways to ensure your content is of great quality and likely to attract traffic before you even post it online: search engine optimization, the effectiveness of long-form and the importance of a great headline.
By following these simple steps, you can improve your chances of providing your audience with the best content possible, as well as attract new searchers. Although going through these stages of quality assurance might take longer and feel arduous, bad copy often costs a lot more in the end from wasted resources, time and money. While churning out a large quantity of content is important to keep your audience engaged, making sure it's great quality might be even more important.