- April 2nd 2024
- Blog,Content,Content Creation,content marketing
Is more content or quality content better for SEO?
Content is one of those subjects that can cause a bit of a mental landslide. Once you start thinking about content and its value, you will unleash a rush of other questions before you start arriving at any answers. Like a landslide, it can be rather overwhelming to say the least! A partial reason for the flood of questions is that content is subjective; it relies on an audience or reader to attribute value. Those value scales are different for each person so we need to cover more bases with more questions.
The other reason is to do with the fact that we’re talking about SEO content here, and search engine algorithms are constantly shifting sands. This means that there’s never an ultimate definition of ‘good’ content. So, let’s start by rounding up the questions and we’ll be able to set some more solid foundations for the answers.
What defines content?
Online content is anything that your visitors interact with on your website. This may be by observing, reading or listening, and it includes all text, videos, audio, and images. In short, your website is entirely made up of different types of content. The important thing to remember is that users consume different types of content in different ways, so it’s important to be clear about how each part of your content is framed and directed.
How is fresh content different?
For ongoing SEO benefits, the content that we’re concerned with here is fresh content. It’s what we find in such areas as updates, news, blogs, diaries, and social media channels. For your fresh content to be worthwhile, you need to create it to be consumed in the right way, both by humans and by the algorithm!
Why more?
The logic behind more content is twofold. Search engines prioritise websites which are updated regularly because these are the most likely to carry relevant, up to date information. Users trust websites which are updated regularly for similar reasons, plus fresh content demonstrates that there’s a human somewhere taking responsibility for the online presence. This makes the users who encounter your content more likely to engage with your business.
Why quality?
Of course, we all know that just because content is new it’s not necessarily reliable. So Google has driven standards up across their criteria to identify markers for the quality of content. This has in turn driven up standards for other search engines too. You can find out more about authentic, quality blog content here. Essentially, content which is written by and for humans is prioritised over swathes of AI produced content. Readers are more likely to read high quality text in full, and the time that they spend on your site doing this improves your page ranking too.
How much is enough content?
It’s hard to know with certainty how regular your fresh content publishing schedule should be. This is an individual preference that will change from business to business. Some organisations prefer shorter weekly or fortnightly blog posting. Some find that deeper articles published once a month work better for them. Or others mix social media posts a few times a week with longer form intermittent articles. Your criteria may be based on how much time you can allocate to generating fresh content. Ideally, though, content policy should be directed by an analysis of your users. Do they respond better to shorter pieces, or do they engage with more detailed insights?
Can there be too much content?
What about the adage “less is more”, then? Does it apply for web content? In some situations, yes, and in others, no. Thinking about your overall website design and UX, excessive content is harmful. It makes your site appear “busy” and hard to navigate. This is why fresh content is ideal in a news or blog section, where it can be cleanly catalogued and indexed. As long as your content in this area is consistently high value, keep at it. Notice, though, the prerequisite for quality here!
Enough questions, let’s find some answers…
To work out a framework for your content strategy, it’s worth identifying some basic principles to work by. These principles can make achieving successful content more straightforward. The content still needs to be created, of course, but it can mean less fretting over the planning which can drain your time and energy.
Varied content
By varying the medium of your content, you can increase quantity without compromising on quality. A good content strategy will involve multiple channels, including blogs, video, social media, even podcasts! You can re-form the same high value content into a multitude of different formats and maintain the quality of information without creating content from scratch each time.
Realistic scheduling
A good content schedule should be structured with the user in mind. Once you’ve profiled your reader or audience, you’ll also understand the types, frequency and length of content that they prefer. More on targeting content to your audience here. The most important thing with a schedule is to stick to it!
Balancing quality and quantity
This is a common stumbling block, especially for smaller businesses where roles are multi-faceted. With other business pressures rearing their heads, it can be easy to let either the frequency or the quality of your content drop. Your blog sinks to the bottom of the pile, and you battle the knowledge that your site’s fresh content has plummeted to zero. Then in a panic, you upload a quick piece of AI just to find that this does more harm to your rankings than good. Of course, we think it’s good practice to outsource regular content to a blog service provider (a human one!) like ours: find out more here.
Update your content
Don’t forget to update your existing content. This means more than changes of business address or adding new staff members to your team pages. Across your blog, are there opinion pieces which can be added to? A great principle to work by is that nothing is ever fully complete. So revisit old articles or news and update or republish them with an added insight.
Your content strategy need not be a complex thing. Quality and quantity are both incredibly important in order for your content to be successful, but neither should compromise the other. As a starting point, user-centric content will solve most issues and answer most questions for you. This is the most basic principle that we work by here at Leapfrog – get in touch to let us use our skills for you!
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