photo credit: Burst

photo credit: Burst

Quality content – in the online world of SEO, rankings and search results – involves content that achieves its marketing goals. Those goals vary by business. For some, it’s to boost brand awareness; for others, it’s to rank well on search engines; for still others, it’s to improve click-through rates. Whether you’re looking to generate leads or get social shares, the root of all your goals is quality content.

Research Good Content

This is a two-pronged approach: researching good content is the first half; accumulating a backlog of content ideas for the future is the second. Quality content starts with great ideas. Both impact the other.

Developing the right content ideas that appeal to your audience will ensure your readers will not only consume it but share it with their friends. Not sure where to start? Check your competitors’ sites to see what they’re doing, what’s working, and who’s seeing it. Online tools such as BuzzSumo will show you what’s popular on any site you can think of. Topic generation is one of the hardest parts of coming up with good content. Make sure you put the time in to research what would appeal to your audience.

Do Exhaustive Research on Your Chosen Topic

Whether the content is visual, audio or written, research will form the foundation of your content. Even if you’re writing based off personal experience and subject matter expertise, you still need a good basis for your research, statistics, and other facts to back up what you’re saying.

Remember, you’re not here to regurgitate what the sources on page one of Google are saying. You’re here to tell your story and be unique. So, while some amount of research is good, it can become detrimental to use too much research done by others. Share your unique insights in your own words. Your readers will know the difference.

Choose a Unique Perspective

Like we said above, creating content that is too similar to what others have already written about is a pitfall of many business owners and bloggers. Sharing thoughts with others is inevitable; however, use this space to stand out with careful forethought and planning, suggests Search Engine Journal. Use your research as a jumping off point, not as a strict outline for your own stance.

Apply Your Own Experiences

If you have personal experience in a particular area or have generated your own data, by all means, share that with the reader. They will appreciate the personal viewpoint and it will lend credibility to what you’re saying.

Create Visually Appealing Pieces

Written content is important, as it establishes trust with your users, but many businesses fail to look at the big picture before posting. The entire page or piece should be visually appealing, flow well and grab attention from start to finish. Complement your written text with the following:

  • Photos
  • Screenshots
  • Memes
  • Infographics
  • Charts
  • Videos

Remember, multimedia enhances your content!

Review the Final Piece

Another big mistake of content creators is failing to review the final draft before posting. Yes, you’re a business owner and your time is precious. You’re just trying to crank out a piece of content and go on with your life. As a result, quality can suffer. Reading your final piece one more time – or better yet, having a fresh pair of eyes review it – will help you determine if it’s good enough for publishing.

Train yourself to write well ahead of your deadlines so you can take the time to write a rough draft, leave it for a day or two, then come back to it for polishing. Rushing equals poor quality in almost all cases. Always make sure your content is refined before putting it out there for consumption by your audience.

Ideally, professional writing should come from a professional writer. The writers at Content Runner do this for a living – some of them have been at this for decades. Give one of our amazing writers a try and you’ll see how they can produce stellar content on a strict deadline so you don’t have to! Your business will benefit in the end.