Quality Content: What Is It, Why Is It Important and How to Create It?
Ágnes Huszár
Content is the primary determinant of the user's experience of the site. Therefore, content is the basis of search engine optimization (SEO): content determines what queries a page ranks for and the position in the search results list.
In some cases, the quality of content is of less importance.
For example:
- our website is not for commercial purposes,
- organic (non-paid traffic from search engines) is not an important customer acquisition channel for us,
- the website is intended to inform our existing customer base,
- it is sufficient to rank for the brand or company name,
- or there are few competing sites.
However, most websites aim to
- rank in the best positions possible,
↓ - so as to drive organic search traffic,
↓ - with sessions length enough to
↓ - gain visitors' trust so they contact the business (or buy from the website, or subscribe to its newsletter, etc. – in other word, they convert).
Business websites also usually have plenty of competition.
Therefore quality content is important for such sites—here we give you some ideas and considerations for creating such content.
Criteria of Quality Content
Quality content
- provides valuable, authentic, genuine and original information, knowledge,
- in a carefully edited form.
The Google Search Central Blog published a post titled More guidance on building high-quality sites with a list of questions that supports this. This list of questions helps us to put ourselves in Google's perspective when judging the quality of our content.
Following Google's quality criteria, all content should be read and viewed with the visitor's eyes, and the following should be considered:
- Does the content give the impression of reliability? Would you trust the credibility of the information it contains?
- Would you bookmark the page? Would you link to it from your own site? Would you recommend it to others as a useful resource?
- Can you imagine this article published in a print magazine or book?
- Is this piece of content written by an expert or an enthusiastic author with a good knowledge of the topic, and as such, is it a thorough, complete, comprehensive description of the topic as defined in the title (or is it rather superficial)?
- Does this piece of content provide original information that goes beyond the obvious?
- Does it provide significant added value compared to other sites in search results?
- Is it carefully edited, or does it look sloppy, hastily put together?
- Are there spelling mistakes, stylistic errors or factual errors in it?
- Was it written to be authoritative, or was the author trying to figure out what would rank well in search engines?
- Does the website have duplicate, overlapping or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
But what does this exactly mean, and how do we achieve it?
What makes content valuable and original?
Quality content is valuable and original.
In other words, it has something to say, and it says it clearly, and it has a purpose, and it fulfils it. For example, it can inform us, answer our questions, inspire us, help us, entertain us or teach us something.
Also, it does not or does not merely repeat information found elsewhere, but at the very least adds something unique, something more, something different.
What to create content about?
For a new website, it is a good and, in fact, essential starting point to thoroughly describe all services and products it is offering for prospective customers.
This usually keeps content managers busy for a long time—or even continuously.
We are already doing a lot for quality by describing each service and product in detail: what would prospective customers want to know? What can help them decide? What do our customers regularly ask? What would we ourselves want to know if we were looking for something like this?
Websites and ecommerce sites that have been around for some time may also find the opportunity to add useful details to their pages—for example, based on new questions and feedback from visitors, leads and customers.
Example #1
In a fashion ecommerce site, customers buy clothes without seeing, touching or trying them on in person. That's why we help them a lot by providing as much detail as we can in the product description copy. Besides the basic information like the brand, sizes, fabric composition and colour, we can help them make their decision with such information as:
- if a piece of chothing has a lining or is multi-layered,
- if it has a zipper or button
- what shape is the neckline, what shape is the cut-out at the back,
- the shape of the sleeves,
- what is the shape of the bottom part,
- if it's folded over, zipped, pleated,
- if it has an elastic part,
- if it has pads,
- how to clean it…
These technical details can be supplemented by a more subjective description. As technical details can be published by competing ecommerce shops, this is one of our opportunities to create unique and memorable, enjoyable content, which offers added value compared to another site selling the same product. For example
- tactile characteristics,
- visual characteristics,
- what body types it fits the best,
- what fashion styles it matches the best,
- in which season it is ideal,
- what to combine it with, what outfits one can build with it,
- what accessories go perfectly with it.
Besides images from the manufacturer, which can be found in many other places, we can add our own tasteful, high-quality photos. Our models for the photos can be models, influencers, or ourselves, our colleagues, friends, clients, or even mannequins. Not only do our own photos add to the uniqueness of the content, but they can also show details of the item that are not shown in others.
Example #2
Any or all of these may be of interest in the description of a body treatment service:
- where the treatment takes place, in what environment, on what kind of lying or sitting surface (add photos as well),
- what happens when the customer enters the room,
- how does the treatment happen exactly, what the customer will feel, how long it will last, what comes after what,
- what will be the immediate effects, and what will be the effect an hour, a week, a month later,
- how often should this treatment be given to be the most effective,
- how to prepare for it, what to eat and drink beforehand,
- what should the customer wear for the treatment, what should they take with themselves when they visit you,
- for what conditions, diseases, circumstances are the treatment not recommended...
Creating content describing services and products usually generates ideas and uncovers the need for a lot of additional content.
But you can create content on anything else that is related to the subject matter of the site (that is relevant), and
- what you just feel like writing about,
- what you're really good at,
- that you'd like to know more about, so you're happy to research it.
Even if the need for it is not justified by the results of keyword research.
About writing content for keywords
Google doesn't recommend that you try to figure out what would get you good search rankings and focus on that when creating content. Instead, think about what your visitors might be interested in, what information they come to your site for, what information you can provide to help them.
It's not necessarily a good idea to write only about what keyword research suggests.
For one thing, with keyword research you will not find absolutely every term, phrase combination and thus approach that people might use to search on your topics. According to our latest information, 15% of daily searches are completely new! If we rely only on the results of keyword research, we may be missing the chance that someone from that 15% will find us.
Maybe what we have to say or would like to create content about is not currently visible in the keyword planner, but there is a need for it. If not today, and not immediately by hundreds of searchers, but tomorrow someone would find it who needed exactly this. Next week, three people will find it, and one of them will subscribe to your service, sign up to your newsletter or follow you on social media.
Perhaps it is precisely with content like this that we can offer something different from our competitors. Or even discover (or create) demand with them!
"High quality in the eyes of Google" is no longer a text containing certain specific words, described in a specific way, in a certain ideal proportion.
For most searches, Google will also find pages with the right answers if you search for synonyms or even related words and phrases. So exact matches are becoming less and less important. Google is getting better at determining the relevance and value of a page by interpreting the text as a whole, and the context within it, when it returns results for a given search.
If you don't focus on writing for specific keywords (you don't focus on "SEO copywriting"), but choose a well-defined topic and write about it, you shouldn't have a problem with keywords.
Example
If your well-defined topic is the changes in the appearance of the Porsche 911 up to the present day, it is difficult to imagine writing copy without including the primary and secondary keywords ("Porsche" , "Porsche 911", "change", etc.).
It is highly likely that you will even use synonyms for these and many other related terms (car, sports car, model, windscreen, hood, rear, door, German, etc. and combinations of these), which is a natural consequence of the detailed elaboration and a sign of relevance.
The main key phrase is likely to be included in the strategically important parts of the content like the Heading 1 and in the page title—as this is what the text is about. The related terms will most probably appear in the subheadings.
If you write naturally, for your readers or visitors, you do not need to worry about keyword density: it will always be clear what the topic, i.e. the "targeted keyword" is, and you won't overuse keywords either.
What format should the content be?
If only the nature of what you have to say allows, you can prefer whatever format is easiest for you to create in. Regular content creation will be sustainable if you love doing it. If you choose a format that you enjoy, the result will also feel the most natural and authentic.
For example, if video-making comes easiest, then feel free to choose it whenever possible. If writing short copies is the most enjoyable, choose that; if you like to go deeper in writing long, detailed blog posts, then that. If image-based content is what you prefer, base your content on photos, charts, infographics.
Eventually, non-written content should be paired with its written form if you want to drive traffic to your site with it. For videos or podcasts, you need to create a transcripts, for image (photo, infographic, graph, etc.) based content, you need to write descriptions and explanations.
However, this does not mean coming up with a new idea and implementing it, only "translating" existing content into another communication channel: written text.
Example
For a bicycle shop, for example, it can be not only almost effortless, but also enjoyable to produce various text, image or video-based content, such as:
- "How to replace your ..." video series, which can be recorded when they are doing such a work anyway. The technician explains what he's doing, why he's doing it and what he's looking out for. Work processes, parts and tools are clearly visible.
- "What to look at before buying a used ... bike" video, or a series of videos with different types of bikes (MTB, BMX, road bike...).
- A series of guide articles on different types of parts and accessories (gear types, brake types, lock types, axle types, helmet types, pedal types, etc.), with photos, advantages and disadvantages for each type.
- A series of image-based guide articles to help visitors identify which type and size of part they need to buy for replacement.
- A video-based blog post series in which colleagues showcase their own bikes or their favourite bikes.
There's no need to worry that customers won't come to you because the tutorial articles will enable them to repair their bikes themselves.
Most of them won't repair their bikes for themselves, but they will see that we are experts, approachable, have a friendly style, and therefore they might consider using your services. And if you have a lot of relevant content, people will come across your site sooner or later if they're looking for bike service content. The ultimate goal is that when they think of bike service, they think of you.
And those who repair their bikes themselves will manage without you, because they will find the tutorials elsewhere. But it's better if they also come to you if they need a professional service!
Well-edited content
The more enjoyable it is to read a page, the better the user experience, and therefore the better the site's performance. Copy that is optimised for the reader's experience creates a good impression and builds trust.
It never hurts to have your copy revised, but it's absolutely worth it if it's relatively unchanging content that is frequently visited, and it's almost essential if it's a website for a high-profile company or if it offers high-priced products and services.
If the quality of a piece of writing is "technically" good, i.e. it reads well, it is to the point, the sentences are well-formed, there are no mistakes and errors, no one will notice. The opposite, on the other hand, will most certainly be spotted by those you don't want to.
This can be a barrier to achieving your goals with the website in several ways.
For example:
- When visitors notice the mistakes, they get distracted and start to miss the point, the message. If they have this experience more than once, in their eyes it will diminish the trustworthiness of the site and even of the service provider or expert.
- In the worst case, they may leave the site and look for an answer on another website. For example, if they can't find the information they want easily and quickly in the text because it's obvious to the author and therefore it is not explained, or it's there somewhere on the website but not where they would expect it.
Having copies revised helps to avoid such cases.
Universal editing criteria
These always apply, whatever the medium for which you are producing textual content:
- there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes,
- there are no factual errors,
- the information is clear, it leaves no question marks in the reader's mind after reading the text (e.g. information not generally known to the target audience is not assumed to be common knowledge),
- text is as long as the subject matter requires and as concise as possible without compromising clarity,
- it is easy and enjoyable to read,
- the logically connected parts are grouped, and the ideas that come from each other are placed one after the other;
- there is no repetition or redundancy;
- the headings are functional, structuring the text in the right places, and/or the heading structure provides a meaningful page outline.
Line editing and proofreading corrects these unevennesses without altering the message, or the author's individual style.
The editor does not write additional parts to the copy, but makes suggestions if the content needs to be expanded or supplemented.
SEO aspects of editing texts for online publishing
The texts on a website are also generally expected to rank as high as possible in search engines. In addition to the universal editorial considerations, this should also be taken into account when editing the content of a website.
For example, continuity of information is not necessarily achieved within a single page. If there is an explanation on another page of the site (or even on another website) that may help the visitor to better understand the page, it may be sufficient to refer to that other page and link to it in the appropriate place.
Links to other valuable pages in the right place, with the right link text, not only benefit your SEO, but also help the visitor a lot, improve the user experience, increase time spent on the site and build trust. So when editing text for the web, it's worth being alert and spotting the truly legitimate linking opportunities.
We can do this if we are quite familiar with the content of the entire website, we know what set of pages we are working with: how many pages are there and what information is on which page.
Full content audit and content editing for website redesigns
Over the years, a lot of pages can be generated on a website. Therefore, if you want to improve your search engine rankings or you are thinking of redesigning your site, start with taking a good fresh look at your content first, have your content and information structure revised and your contents edited. When it's done, have the new graphic design created for the renewed page and website structures.
As the quality of content is the most important factor in rankings, it is the renewal of content that pays off the most.
A full content revision will reveal:
- opportunities to expand your content by adding more information within the page or even new pages,
- information that has become outdated over the years,
- the possibilities for improving the structure of the pages,
- content that is valuable but of thin content, which can be merged into a more robust new page or incorporated into other pages,
- orphan pages (pages that are not linked anywhere),
- untapped opportunities to make the link structure more user and search engine friendly.
At the end of the editing process, with updated and re-organized content, it usually becomes obvious how to improve global site navigation as well. For example, it becomes almost self-evident what should be linked into the main menu, secondary menu bar and footer menu to make navigation as easy as possible and to offer visitors neither too many nor too few options.
It is best to hire external help to revise a website's content for it is difficult to read your own writing through the eyes of visitors and see as much opportunities for improvement as an unbiased reader. The same is true of structure: it is often rather difficult for the author to step back from the site to see opportunities to map the conceptual hierarchy in the link structure, or even to discover missing pillars of the structure.
See how we can help with this.