Your website could be for building a personal brand, or for promoting your business. Whatever the case may be, you would want to make sure that you are creating content that both readers and search engines would deem as high quality.
Here are some of the most important characteristics of high quality content:
Contents In Page
Originality
Original content provides something that readers cannot find on the Internet. It does not say the same things that people already know and had read before. It also doesn’t plagiarize or spin any kind of information.
Original content doesn’t have to be a collection of completely new ideas. It could be your opinion on existing content online. It could be another angle to a story that’s already out there. As long as you can present it in a way that was never done before, it counts as original content.
Value
Your readers always search the Internet for valuable content. This could be an answer, actionable steps, entertainment, or information.
If you’re providing information, you need to back these up by high quality and verifiable sources. You have to set your content apart from those only using anecdotes and baseless statements.
If you’re writing well-known information, you can share your experiences to add something new for readers. Your personal views can even encourage your readers to share their own in the comments section.
Written for People
Search engines have come a long way since their creation. Before, sites could spam keywords in their content or titles that do not make sense for its readers. Now, this type of content can move you to the bottom of the search engine results page.
Optimized content only needs readable content for humans and natural keyword use. If you do it right, your readers can easily find your posts and get value from it at the same time. And since they find value from it, they are more likely share it in their social media accounts so more people could read it.
Readability
Your reader will understand your content more easily by improving its readability. You can do this by editing and checking your article for the following:
- the right choice of words
- appropriate use of active voice
- long sentences and paragraphs
- the proper tone for the intended reader
- unnecessary words or phrases
Aside from these, you can improve your style by using stories and visual imagery. You can also provide key facts and the context of your article to make it easier for readers to understand.
Generally, you would want your article to have a basic level of readability (grade 5 or 6). You can use the Hemingway Editor online tool or the Better Writing WordPress plugin to check its reading level. These will highlight parts of the article that you change to improve readability.
Interesting
Your content should be what your audience wants to read. Of course, you can write all about your blog’s niche. But regardless of how specific your niche is, there’s still a chance that your content is not aligned with what your audience wants.
You can look for these topics in your comments, forums, question-and-answer sites, and news aggregate sites. The questions posted in these sites show a lack of information that you can take advantage of.
You can take part in these conversations by providing short and straight-to-the-point answers. You can provide a link at the end of your answer for more details. This way, you are reaching out to those who might need your content and expanding your value’s reach beyond your blog.
Not a Sales Pitch
It is natural to earn from your blog. You could be linking to an affiliate site, or selling merchandise or content to monetize it. But if your blog posts look like advertisements, you are pushing away readers from your blog.
Avoid asking readers for clicking a link or pitching whatever you are selling. Instead, you can link to affiliates or your store through words that are relevant to the link.
You must also keep second-party content and advertisements on your site to a minimum. Readers and search engines do not like this. It would just hurt your search engine ranking and increase your bounce rate.
Scannability
You have a greater chance of retaining readers if they can understand the important points at the shortest time possible. This does not mean creating a post consisting of only bullet points, images, and bold text. What you should be doing is writing scannable content. This way, you are arranging your content to make understanding easier for those would scan it. while still providing a good read for those who would go through every line.
You can do this by writing short paragraphs and sentences, and using words with fewer syllables. Subheaders will also let you divide the different points of your content so readers can easily find them.
You can use bullet points or bold text to highlight the important points of your post. If there are more details or information available, you can use outbound links to another article for further reading.
Well-edited
Once you have all the previous points taken care of, you would have to go through the whole article again. But instead of improving its structure and delivery, you should check for proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
You can proofread your work by taking a step back from your finished article for an hour or two. Print it out and go through every line while marking every mistake you see. You can read your article aloud to determine if your words, phrases, and sentences go well together.
There are other characteristics of what makes a blog post “high quality.” But, these points are more than enough for you to create high quality content. Follow these points and you will have more of your readers sharing your content to others.
