How many times have you heard the importance of creating quality content? It’s what bloggers, marketing professionals, online businesses and even Google look for. It’s what makes the difference between success or failure in your content marketing strategy.
The quality content is what will help your website to position itself in search results, attract links naturally (link building), generate trust and credibility among your customers and show you as a reference within your sector.
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The definition of quality may change depending on the sector you are targeting or the target audience but there are many common elements that serve as reliable indicators.
Checklist to create quality content and detect it
Next, I would like to offer you in the form of a list a series of premises or points that you must meet to ensure that the content you are creating is really of high quality.
1. Is the extension of your content adequate?
There are many discussions about the ideal length or extension that the content you create should have.
Google shows preferences for extensive content but above all it covers and treats all the details of a given topic. On the other hand, we must not forget that users of mobile devices, which are growing exponentially, prefer to consume shorter content quickly.
It is a battle that does not seem to yield, but rather to increase. So, better longer and in-depth texts or easy-to-consume pills?
In the end, as usual, everything depends on your goals and the audience you are targeting.
If you want your content to occupy the top positions in search engines and attract links naturally, texts of more than 1,000 words or more or even more if they are very competitive terms is what you need.
On the contrary, if you prefer to focus on mobile users to get the information they need quickly, you’ll have to cut back on the length of content you create.
For this, focus on articles that attack mostly long-tail keywords since they are searches that mobile users perform more frequently. At the same time, help yourself with lists, bullet points and outline your posts in sections to make it easier to read.
2. Do you use images, videos, infographics or other visual resources?
It is possible to create high-quality content without having to resort to images or other resources but if something is clear is that the visual content has a greater impact on the user. It helps attract natural links, encourage viralization in social networks or increase the time spent on the page.
When incorporating multimedia content into your texts, make sure that you answer the following questions in the affirmative:
- Do my images and videos support and complement my content?
- Are they aesthetically pleasing?
- Is my infographic or video content original and of quality that others would like to share or identify with?
- Do they adapt my website technically speaking?
If you are going to put an image with letters made in Paint or that is too small, a video that outlines the content or that really has little to contribute or to see with the topic that you are trying, better not do it for the mere fact of including content visual.
3. Do you take care of the spelling, the coherence and the tone used?
There are debates about whether spelling influences web positioning. The truth is that e star reading a post full of spelling mistakes is not pleasant for anyone and prevents you from being seen as a reliable and reliable page.
At the same time and especially when dealing with technical issues, it is very important to structure your content correctly and in a logical order. Make sure that your texts follow a coherent order and that you do not jump from one point to another giving explanation, you will only make the reader dizzy.
Finally, depending on the target audience you are targeting, it is advisable to use a more serious tone or a more casual tone. Adapt your language according to the context since it is not the same to be a community of animal lovers or a law firm.
In general terms:
- Is my grammar correct?
- Are my spellings correct?
- Is the content organized in a logical way?
- Is the language used correctly according to who I am addressing?
4. Is the understanding of your texts easy?
Quality content must be easy to read and above all to understand. You must adapt your content to the level, expectations, and preferences of your audience.
You can write about web design, but it is not the same to talk to programmers where you can use a technical language that people who want to start their blog for the first time and in which you will have to give everything very chewed.
If a user after reading a couple of paragraphs has the feeling that you are speaking to him in Chinese and has not understood anything, he will go and look for information elsewhere. Does that mean that the content is bad? Yes, and no, it will be good for a certain audience and bad for another, make sure it’s good for your target audience.
5. Do you format your texts?
Whether you like it or not, quality content is also aesthetically appealing as well as easy to read. Even to format your texts is essential to work on the SEO of your page.
A page with a good format should include:
- Use of bold and italics to emphasize and quote
- Short sentences and specific paragraphs
- Bullets and numbered lists that facilitate the reading and ordering of elements
- Headers (H2) and subheadings (H3) to structure the text and make large blocks of text more digestible.
6. Do you have enough knowledge to deal with the issue?
In short, do you know what you’re talking about?
For example, when writing a blog, it is always recommended to write about something that you are passionate about. Not only so that the fact of writing does not become an obligation for you, but because it shows that you like it.
The same thing happens if you write about a subject that you have no idea of for pure interest or that, on the contrary, you dominate and offer all your experience.
7. Is the content shared on social networks?
Although Google has already stated that social signals are not yet part of its algorithm, many studies show a strong correlation between the number of social actions and better positioning in search engines.
Although the correlation is not causality, it is logical that the more content is shared, the more relevance it acquires and the more links it obtains, an important factor of positioning.
Although Google does not have access to Facebook or Twitter, we must not forget that Google Plus appears in these studies as the social network with which there is a greater correlation between sharing and positioning.
That is why your bet should be to integrate and disseminate your content through different social networks and encourage your readers to do so. Make it easy with well-visible share buttons, distrust who conceals the possibility of sharing.
8. Are you contributing value to your content?
While it is true that for a search engine it is difficult to determine whether a content brings value or not, do not forget that what is really important are the people who read you.
How can I add value? Once again, answering affirmatively to these questions:
- Does the content help solve a problem?
- Can I answer a question?
- Does it make people laugh or entertain?
- Do I provide a unique and original view shot by an expert?
In the end, the search engines look for content that adds value to the users, but since these by themselves are not capable of detecting it, you have to trust the rest of the related signals.
It can be said that the contents that add value to the user, fulfill many of the premises that we have mentioned as a factor of quality.
9. Are the comments enabled and of quality?
Pages that have the ability to comment and have a high number of comments can be considered of higher quality than those that do not.
On the other hand, if comments are allowed but these are full of spam and often contain links without any control give a sense of sloppiness and lack of seriousness on the site, damaging its credibility.
If you have a good number of comments on your website, do not be afraid to continue encouraging your users to leave their opinions and shows the number of comments in a visible way.
10. Where has the author written?
The credibility and reputation of an author increases and improves as he makes quality publications either on his blog or in other portals.
If you have doubts about whether a content is really reliable or not or if you should let a guest author post to your blog, you can take into account what and where he has previously written.
It is known that Google seeks to end anonymity when it comes to generating content and for that, it helps with the rank of the author (Author Rank). It speaks about greater content quality created by an author, greater facility to position new contents.
11. Do you have a good link structure?
One of the most important indicators to give credibility to a site are its links. A page that links to fraudulent or spam pages, goes directly to Google’s blacklist, just as one that abuses an unnatural internal link is viewed with great suspicion by the search engine.
Probably the most important indicator of the quality of a page (especially from the SEO point of view) is the number and quality of links it receives.
How is this quality determined? If the links come from known pages and reputable sites, it is a good indicator for Google that the page is trusted.
On the other hand, if there are no links to the page or there are links from low reputations, unknown sites or spam, this becomes a sign of low quality or unreliable content.
12. What other contents are published on the page?
It is possible that a particular article or a part of the content can meet all the criteria to be considered of quality. However, we must take into account the rest of content pages on the site, since a percentage of poor quality, can affect the rest of pages in Google.
It is usually common in blogs that serve as link farms, as we find the content of all kinds and a very varied theme. When determining the quality of a content, it is also important to analyze the content that surrounds you, pages that links and other articles on the site.
Do you create quality content for your users?
If you are constantly publishing content thinking only of Google, without providing real value to your readers, you should rethink about your content strategy.
