We often talk of “Quality Content” every now and then but no one has bother to ask “what is quality content”. With all the Google updates especially the Hummingbird update now in full swing, there has been more mention of quality contents around the web.

In this article I will explain what quality content is all about and how to create quality contents regularly. But before then we have to understand what Google and other search engines consider a quality content.

What do search engines consider a quality content?

Search engine is all about providing the best results for a search. Over time searches are becoming conversational and direct and search engines are expected to return only results with useful and related content explaining the searchers query.

When you use the search engines to look up something, you expect to get only results that will solve the problems you are searching for; you expect to get only results to best answers your question. Google and other search engines see search as a product and have thus poised to improve it and have refined their ability to find the best and most useful contents online.

In the past search engines used keywords to find contents but when SEO companies and content creators began to abuse this, stuffing keywords into low-quality contents to get them to rank well, strategically using keywords to deceive search engines into thinking their content is the best fit for a search when it is indeed nothing, has lead to a change in the main ranking factors today.

Google and other search engines have improved their knowledge graph to consider a lot of other ranking factors especially the value of content you provide and how it addresses your users’ problems. Google is only interested in contents that provide searchers with the information they are searching for, contents that people want to engage with and talk about.

So what is quality content?

By my definition quality contents are contents that meet the following criteria;

1. Solves people’s problems

2. Provides enough information to a query

3. Addresses issues without requiring more resources elsewhere

4. Worth sharing and engaging with

5. Easily understandable and well organized

6. Timely and relevant

7. Easy to find when searched with the right keywords

8. Well written in appropriate style and voice

9. Well formatted and properly structured and

10. Long enough to contain every necessary point.

How to consistently write quality contents:

Know what people are searching for: To consistently write quality contents, you must understand what people are searching for. When you know what people are searching for and how they are searching for it, you can tailor your contents to meet their needs.

You must find what your users are interested in, what questions they are asking, the keywords they are using for their searches, their problems and most importantly the answers they are looking for.

You can use your analytics tool to analyze and discover these things. Tailor your contents to meet these needs and always write contents that answers such questions.

Write for your audience: Instead of using keywords tool to look for high ranking keywords, listen to your audience. Connect with your audience, ask them what they are interested in, look at the comments on your site and the questions they always ask and create contents to address their issues.

What words are they using to talk about your products? How do they ask questions on your site? Then write for your audience using these words.

Write for humans, optimize for search engines: Always bear in mind that the contents you produce are read by humans not search engines. Write in a manner that people will love to read, think like your audience and write to address their issues.

Optimize your posts properly with the right SEO methods so as to be easily found on search engines. You can’t be writing about cars and optimizing for food. Make sure your content is based on the keyword in focus and that way you can produce good contents.

Write Original Contents: The days when copied contents used to rank on search engines are gone. Google and other search engines have modified their algorithms to discover and punish such sites.

Explore the internet and read other sites, discover topics you can comfortably write about without having to copy anyone, gather enough resources and write from your head, don’t be scared of sharing your ideas and views – that’s what makes your posts unique and original.

Make notes always: To consistently produce good quality contents, you must ensure to makes notes of ideas as they come into your head always. Nothing frustrates a writer or could make you produce low-quality contents than sitting down and not knowing what to write about.

So keeping notes will help you stack good ideas up your sleeve and can help you produce quality contents consistently.

Invest time in writing: Invest time when you write, don’t just rush to write up a topic in few minutes. The main aspect of blogging is in writing the contents, take your time to consider all the points you want to write about, research for fresh ideas and resources such as photos and links.

Gather all you will need before you set out to write and you will see that when it’s time to write, you’ll feel like the post is already half done. Having all the resources you need before writing will help you get into a good writing mood and the ideas and words will naturally flow with your writing.

Always stay updated: As a writer, your main challenge is to stay updated on the latest events and happenings in your niche. Staying updated will provide you with useful information to produce quality contents consistently.

Keep it simple: Keeping your writing simple will help you stay in line with the topic you are writing about. Too often writers let posts ramble on too long or wander off into multiple trails and tangents and end up losing focus and wander away into unrelated topics.

Quality over Quantity: If you can’t consistently write quality contents every day, then reduce your posts. I’ll rather publish few times in a week than compromise my blog quality with low-quality contents.

Now over to you…

I guess I have used a lot of the word “quality” on this post. I hope I have explained what “quality content” is all about and how you can consistently produce high quality contents on your site. I have also tried to keep it simple.

What are your challenges in creating quality contents? What is your view and understanding of quality content? Share your opinions and ideas in the comments.