WritingThoughts

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Along with social media engagement, quality web content is one of the vital elements of effective content marketing. Yet many small businesses get content wrong.

Most small businesses think that just because they publish often or publish extra long pieces, it’s enough. They’re wrong and that mistake could be costing them clients.

In this post, we’ll explore what really makes quality web content.

Your web content is the public face that your small business presents to the world. It has to be top-notch or your business will suffer. In addition, sites with better content rank better in the search engines.

Although many sites strive for frequent publication or long posts, publishing often or publishing extra long pieces isn’t particularly useful if what you are publishing has no real value to anyone. It’s possible to publish junk daily, or even several times a day. It’s also possible to create long posts that have little or no value.

The Characteristics of Quality Content

How can you tell whether you are publishing high quality content?

Here are seven characteristics of high quality content:

1. Useful. First and foremost, your content needs to be useful to someone. It should be something people are interested in and want to know. It should have value.
2. Accurate. The information in your content needs to be correct. If you haven’t done your homework and the information is wrong, your content doesn’t add value.
3. Easily understood. Generally speaking, shorter words and shorter sentences are more easily understood. This is especially true for web content.
4. User-friendly format. Most web audiences do not spend much time on long blocks of text. Web friendly formatting and images are important, so use them.
5. Targeted. Your intended client is who you are trying to reach. As a small business, your web content should be designed specifically for them.
6. SEO and social media optimized. Both search engine optimization and social media will help determine whether your content is read. Learn the basic principles of writing for each of them.
7. Original. Your content needs to be your own. That doesn’t mean that no one has ever discussed the topic. It does mean that you should present the material in your own way.

Bonus Characteristic

8. Entertaining. Not all effective web content will be entertaining, but audiences love to be entertained. If you can add something fun or humorous to your content, you may attract more readers.

Your Turn

Can you think of any other characteristics of quality web content?

Share your thoughts below.