LONDON
Rivington House, 82 Great Eastern Street, London, EC2A 3JF
AMSTERDAM
Brouwersgracht 278, 1013 HG, Amsterdam, Netherlands
REACH, INFLUENCE, IMPACT
CREATE IMPACT, REACH AUDIENCES WHEREVER THEY ARE. CHANGE THE WAY PEOPLE THINK, FEEL AND ACT.
These days, most, (not some, most) customer-facing content is digital. This is the stuff potential customers interact with on their smartphone screen and, to a lesser degree, on their PC screen. If a business tries to save a few pounds and present those potential customers with low-quality digital content they will pay the price in lost opportunities, and ultimately, lost sales.
It’s really that simple.
Great content is important for a number of very important reasons. First, as the saying goes, because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. And second, because Google ranks pages and posts (at least in part) based on what it perceives to be the quality of the content.
Is Big G always right in its content judgements? Of course not, but their guidelines must be taken into consideration unless you wish to be banished to the nether regions of cyberspace. Here are a few more reasons why quality digital content matters:
Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing provider and part of Alibaba Group. It is the largest cloud vendor in China, but wanted to stand out beyond its home market where competitors such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are more established.
See More
The use of terms like “good” and “bad” is often frowned upon. But the fact is, when it comes to the digital content that populates your website or supports your content marketing campaigns, those old school judgements still hold sway. There very much is such a thing as “good” digital content (high quality) as well as “bad” digital content (low quality), and it’s crucial to know what separates the two and why high-quality content is so important.
Quality content:
People peruse your website or read your Facebook post because they’re hoping it will provide them with something of value. That value may take the shape of:
If they feel the time they invested in your content was wasted then you have probably lost a potential customer. From that day forward whenever they encounter your brand, they will associate it with the unsatisfying encounter they had with your content. Worse yet, they may share their unhappy encounter, in which case your low-quality content may create viral blowback that undermines your entire digital strategy.
While it is vital that you are aware of Google’s content guidelines and that you do your best to adhere to them, that adherence should not come at the cost of potential engagement. For example: Google likes long-form content. But those perusing your site with their smartphone may not.
Keep in mind that the user experience can be just as important as keeping Google happy. After all, if people come to your site and are put off by articles that never seem to end they’re unlikely to return. In which case being high in Google’s organic search results won’t matter a whole lot.
The bottom line is to find a balance between what Google wants and what you need.
This goes back to the point we were making about value. People love to come away from an encounter thinking that they learned something. The best way to produce that happy endpoint is to make sure content creation is handled by people who know what they’re talking about and know how to transmit their expertise in a concise, easy to understand fashion.
It’s important to refresh the content on your website or social media page on a regular basis. But if you have nothing to say it is usually better to say nothing than to undermine your credibility by posting low-quality content. If you post content just to post content those who depend on you for reliable information will turn to someone else, your brand reputation will suffer and Google will take note as well.
If you have a blog you may be tempted to turn off comments in an effort to prevent trolls from undermining your reputation. But this isn’t necessarily the smart thing to do. During our time providing content marketing services, we have seen what happens to websites that disable comments, and it’s often not pretty.
If you have a blog Google is going to want to see that you have enabled comments. Otherwise, they’ll regard your blog as little more than a content dump. So enable comments but make sure they need approval before being published. This will require a little more work on your part but the end result will be worth it.
If your content appears to be little more than a collection of headings, subheadings, superfluous animations, links, images and other flashy visuals chances are it’s going to turn more people off than it’s going to attract. In most cases, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The wrapping paper is nice but it’s what’s inside that really counts. Make sure the main focus is on providing useful content.
Don’t just have someone on your staff copy content from another site and repost it to your site with a different header. Your customers may not notice but search engines will. The competition the content was lifted from may notice too, which could provoke some very unwanted negative buzz about you, your tactics and your brand. Original content is the gift that keeps on giving in that it will enhance your reputation, promote brand loyalty and score some nice brownie points with Google.
Including high-quality images is important. But those images need to have something to do with the other content they accompany. Some stock images have been used by so many websites, blogs and banner ads that, no matter how slick they may be, their presence can undermine your brand identity. If you’re going to use images they need to be:
Positive endorsement is proven to drive ecommerce purchases
Win credibility, trust and visibility to impact decision making
Creators and key opinion leaders deliver authentic content
Creative impact through stories that spark social sales conversations
Create content from inspired activations, partnerships and events
We live in a mobile and social world, where busy customers talk and share interesting new ideas with each other. High quality, relevant content, based on research and insights, positions your brand as a thought leader in the conversation, which drives engagement, leads and traffic online.