If you’ve ever perused a business’ social media feed, clicked on a blog page and had a read or watched a video on a topic that piqued your interest, you’ve consumed content. The creation of content in these forms (and others) has become a mainstay in a business’ marketing efforts and while some understand the game, there are many out there who see content marketing as a box-tick rather than a meaningful pursuit.
The truth is that now, more than ever, the creation of high-quality content has significant benefits for businesses and has become an essential part of business growth. But what distinguishes content from high-quality content?
In this blog, we’ll delve into the world of high-quality content marketing, exploring its different types, its profound impact on SEO, and its significance as a vital component for business growth. By understanding what sets exceptional content apart, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to optimise your online presence and enhance your website’s performance. Let’s dive in and uncover the secrets behind successful content marketing strategies, ensuring your brand stands out from the competition.
By the end of this blog, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of the critical role played by exceptional content marketing in improving your SEO rankings and driving business growth. Let’s embark on this journey together and unlock the true potential of content marketing for your business.
Defining High-Quality Website Content: Key Elements and Criteria
Anyone can create basic content (even machines – read about it here) – but for content marketing efforts to count as high-quality, it needs to be researched, relevant to its target audience and created as part of an overarching content marketing strategy to be effective. Content is helpful if it takes your user’s pain points into consideration and answers them in one fell swoop. It can include:
- Images or infographics
- Videos (short and long-form)
- Case studies
- Customer testimonials
- Press releases
- EDMs and newsletters
- Practically anything you see on a brand’s social media platforms
High-quality content might entertain or engage, inform, answer questions, provoke thought, and most importantly, provide value to the consumer. Content marketing and SEO have a mutually beneficial relationship and one will not dazzle without the other.
How Does Content Quality Affect SEO?
Firstly, here’s an SEO recap:
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising aspects of a website with the goal of improving its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Content marketing is the process of analysing your audience and creating valuable, relevant and high-quality content based on these insights to engage your current audience and attract new members. For SEO to be effective, you need quality content through which to optimise on-page elements, incorporate relevant keywords and attract backlinks.
But content needs SEO just as equally to ensure that it gets enough reach to justify its creation. Content creation for the sake of content creation is a waste of time and resources, while a solid content marketing strategy bolstered by SEO can contribute to increased website traffic, better conversions and ultimately, higher profits.
The Importance of High-Quality Content Marketing
So, why does quality content matter?
According to a study by Backlinko, websites with high-quality content tend to rank higher in search engine results. In fact, the top three organic search results receive over 75% of all clicks, emphasising the importance of content quality in driving organic traffic and visibility.
Quality content is paramount for improving search engine rankings, enhancing user engagement and experience, establishing credibility, increasing social sharing, and driving conversion rates. By investing in an effective content marketing strategy, you can create a compelling online presence that resonates with your target audience, driving long-term business growth.
We’ve established that high-quality content provides value to your audience, entertains and engages them and ideally, answers their questions. But its importance extends beyond its benefits to the audience.
Strategic use of keywords
Written content (like blogs) is your best opportunity to use relevant keywords from your keyword research, while visual content (like images or infographics) is an opportunity for meta descriptions.
Shareability
Valuable content is not only of benefit to your immediate audience but also to your prospective new visitors. Users who find your content valuable are more likely to share it with others, driving more traffic to your website and increasing the likelihood of future shares.
Page rankings
Since Google factors quality of content and the links within it when determining page rankings in their SERPs, websites with higher quality content (and with more credible links) have a better chance of ranking higher.
Click through rates or CTR
Improving the quality of your content has a knock-on effect on your click through rates (CTR) and backlinks; the more users who click on your content, the more stock Google puts into it when ranking your website.
The Advantages of Content Marketing
By now you’ll have grasped how important content marketing is for your overall digital strategy. Below are a handful of reasons why quality content marketing is an absolute must for your website.
Establishes trust with audience
Content focused on your niche shows your audience that you are an authority in that domain. High quality content that helps build credible backlinks incites trust in your audience and encourages them to view you as a reliable source of information. The more your customers trust you and your content, the more engaged they will become in what you have to offer (both in content and product/service offering).
Improves conversions
Certain types of content (for instance, blogs) are a natural way to include a call-to-action and guide your users to other parts of your website that offer them direct solutions to the problems they’ve searched. You can include CTAs in your social media content as well as in short or long-form videos, but make sure there’s a legitimate correlation between the information you’re offering within the content and the product/service available on your website.
Lead generation
In the old days, salespeople would cold-call prospective leads. These days, it has to be done more subtly. According to Hubspot, one of the easiest ways to direct a user to a landing page is via valuable content. The better the content, the more likely they are to take you up on your CTA and actually click on your landing page, bringing them one step closer to making a purchase.
Establishes a content library
As you get into the rhythm of creating and publishing high quality content according to your strategy, you’ll start to amass quite the library. While content creation can sometimes feel fleeting, it’s helpful to remember that your library is a permanent collection of information and education for your audience to find whenever they should need. And the larger your library, the stronger your authority becomes.
Reaching the right eyes
People go through different stages in life but one thing they’ll always be in search of is helpful information that’s relevant to their situation. By tailoring your content to your target audience’s interests, pain points and needs, you create a steady influx of people who are actively seeking the solutions you’re able to offer. And if your content has helped someone in the past, chances are, they’ll stay along for the ride and explore future offerings.
The path to content(ment)
The difference between cookie cutter content and high-quality content is night and day. It can mean attracting new visitors to your website, maintaining your current audience, brand awareness and business growth. It requires proper research and audience analytics, as well as a strong SEO strategy with which to work.
Finding the right content that works for your business takes some time and tinkering, but there are plenty of great examples out there. Next time you stumble upon a particularly well-curated Instagram page or a YouTube channel with remarkable numbers and a highly engaged audience, identify what’s valuable about them and see what you can apply to your own content strategy.
