The Importance Of High Quality Content
“Content is King”: It’s a cliche everyone in the content-writing and SEO world will have heard at some point. There are pages and pages on the internet devoted to promoting this old adage, but not quite so much information available on what it actually is that goes towards making expert content. The ways people process information on the web varies greatly from how they might read a book, poem, or even a newspaper, so here are a few tips on how to produce quality content.
Be Clear — Whether you’re trying to write a witty blog post, an informative article, or a persuasive piece of product promotion, ideas must be communicated clearly.
Clarity begins with organisation, and although a detailed plan is not always necessary, noting down all the points you want to include in an appropriate order is a good start. In order to produce the best possible content, ensure you write naturally. A conversational style is often the most likely way to forge a connection with your reader, but don’t try too hard to sound funny or overly educated or you run the risk of alienating your audience. Keep it simple and easy to understand.
Be Concise — Studies indicate that by writing concisely, the usability levels of content can rise by up to 58%.
With this information in mind it is a good idea to focus on using short paragraphs and short sentences. By doing this, your writing will appear less intimidating, easier-to-read and much faster to process.
Avoid Jargon — Part of writing clearly and concisely is ensuring that any kind of unnecessary technical or business jargon is avoided. There is no need to ‘procure’ something, if you can ‘get’ it, and no need to ‘utilise’ if you can ‘use’ – lengthy, wordy explanations don’t appeal to web users, who have less patience than other audiences, and who will simply click away from your page if they get bored. Steer clear of irritating clichés and any potentially irrelevant information.
Target Your Audience — Communication is the central aim of all writing, and your content should be targeted at communicating a specific audience. From adults looking for the latest in quality home improvements, to students researching the best ways they can use the internet in a recession, make sure you know who you’re writing to. Good content is not about showing off how well you can write, but about your ability to make words mean something to a particular person. Any audience must be able to identify with and understand what you are telling them.
As one participant in an influential study into web users’ browsing habits said: “You can’t just throw information up there and clutter up cyberspace. Anybody who makes a website should make the effort to organize the information”. It’s not a difficult task to spend a bit of time on, but writing expert content can make all the difference to your site’s success.
