How To Ensure And Assess The Quality Of Your Content

October 23, 2020

A solid content strategy is an important top of funnel strategy for generating awareness and creating a positive first impression in the digital landscape.  With so much content being put out on a daily basis, how do you ensure your content stands out and that your business is relevant in a crowded space? Producing quality, relevant content on strategic channels is the key to a successful content strategy. To ensure your content is performing and producing your desired results , it is important to set key metrics early so that your content plan is guided by goals and grounded in results.

From a tactical standpoint, a content audit or content analyzer can be extremely helpful. This provides you with an overview of all the most important content metrics and helps to highlight any issues 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 is much you can do to pivot and ensure you get  back on track quickly.

What Good Is Content If It Can’t Be Found?

Where your content is published and how your content is found matters. One of the best ways to drive more traffic (and the right traffic) to your content is by using search engine optimization. If your content can’t be found by your audience, chances are 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. Search engine optimization (SEO) provides the search engine with essential data to determine what your content and business are 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. Beyond that, it is also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as a trustworthy and familiar business in your field. Experts found that by using search engine optimization their clients’ websites traffic increased by 97%, their conversion rate increased by 37%, and leads generated increased by 60%.

Why Long-Form Works

The common misconception is that nowadays, people have a shorter attention span than ever. There is some truth to it but marketers often think that the only content that works has to be concise and can be read in seconds. Of course, no business wants to risk losing their audience’s attention but that isn’t as easily done as they may think. Long-form content does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s marketing that is delivered through long content. According to a study by serpIQ, the average length of the content in the top 10 results of search queries was over 2000 words. Brian Dean confirmed this data by analyzing almost 12 million google search results. He found that the longer content outperformed the shorter content.

There is no exact measurement of how long long-form has to be but it’s usually around 2000 words. In short, distributing long-form content will get your business more of what it needs – visibility, proof of expertise, trust, and community engagement. If you have trouble producing content as long as 2000 words and you tend to write more concisely, try listicles. A listicle is an article that’s also a list and it almost magically turns into long-form. You will also have the advantage of creating content that your audience can scan read.

First Impressions Matter

The headline and introduction of your content are critical, it is the biggest determinant of your content’s success. This is 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 and you’ve lost a customer just like that. 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 may as well not be there.

According to Copyblogger, on average 8 out of 10 searchers will read headlines before clicking on a post but only 2 out of 10 will actually read the post. Every element of the copy is important, but the first thing they read determines if they read on. Headline analyzers are a free tool that scores your headline. They give you some great insight ahead of time as to whether a searcher is likely to click on your headline. If you need some inspiration you can even use a headline generator. All you have to do is enter the keywords, hit the refresh button, and browse the results.

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 guarantee you will be providing your audience with the best content possible and also attracting new searchers. Remember that although going through these stages of quality assurance may take longer and feel arduous, bad copy often costs a lot more in the end from wasted resources, time, and money. Whilst churning out a large quantity of content is important to keep your audience engaged, making sure its great quality might be even more important.