Define: Good Content
-
I am curious to hear what you guys consider to be the characteristics of good content and in which order if you have a preference.
Here are a few I can think of:
- Informative (you can learn something new)
- Substantial (enough of it and thorough)
- Complete (doesn't give half-baked information or ideas)
- Unique (not regurgitated original content)
- Helpful (practical actionable information)
- Visual (content complemented by media)
- Referenced (claims made are substantiated through citations)
- Entertaining (or otherwise emotional, e.g. surprising, sad, shocking, controversial)
- Formatted (easy to read and follow)
- Timely (right content at the right time, applies for news)
- Professional (writing style, grammar, spelling and sentence structure)
Can you add to this list?
-
"quality content = ranks well."
Well that's what Goog keeps telling us. ... so are we talking real world or pixie land?
Honestly, I knew I was stepping into a pile of crap when I put the "Ranks Well" criteria in there. But, it sure makes for a good litmus test. So yes... quality content = ranks well. ...and the vicious circle continues.
-
I guess, as far as SEO goes, all content is written with an action in mind. So whatever increases the action is what I would measure
Bounce rate/time on page is not a good one for me, you could have a great reference piece that people return to over and over but dont stay long or they naturally bounce from it - like the BBC or CNN homepage, continuously checking for news - youd have to be super careful what you measured on that type of site, as you could unintentionally skew what you produce
-
1 part, should be that it grabs you visually straight away - like a glue value, keeps you glued to that page to actually engage with the content - that can be a good headline, or image or typography or any combo
- Actionable!
-
We're working on the duplicate posts. I was able to delete some of them, but not all.
Keri
-
Well, one would assume that quality content = ranks well. It's kind of a loop, isn't it
Demand is a very interesting point!
If there are 200 content pieces on a topic versus only 2 pieces of content and one is really good value would undoubtedly be much higher where there is less such content available.
-
I am surprised that as a bunch of SEOs that no one has said SEO friendly.
So can I add:
- Ranks Well.
- Demand Research (Keyword/demand/competition)
Demand researched content also makes for more engaging content, but any of the current list could be classified as engaging. The difficulty with defining "good content" is that it's an opinion. But you've got a great list going. I wonder how individuals would prioritize that list based on their verticals.
-
Good Content is specific to what ever would get the site book marked, and that is very specific to the topic and purpose of the site. Give the visitor the information they were seeking, and you have great content. It doesn't need to be deep or wide , it just has to tell them what they came to see.
I would be interested in how you all measure great content? Bounce rate? Conversions?
-
I read this post and it reminded me of when this actually clicked with me recently. I have read thousands of words on blogging, writing good content and the list above resonates across the top bloggers that you can read who all beat this drum constantly. I was recently in the process of putting a guest post together for a blogging forum when after a day I realised that I had put more effort into the guest post than any post that I had for my own blog. So I **abandoned **the planned submission and used it on my own blog. I had spent 2-3 hours tweaking, looking for good images, deleting wasted words, working on all the formating and so on.
A lot of us who are email slaves and quick content junkies should revert back to our English High School class where we spent time on our essays for exams and tests. I have even applied this logic to forum replies like this. In the past I would have been much pithier and not as informative (I am being informative I hope !!)
It is worth looking at some of the blogging resources out there Problogger to see that they constantly expound on this topic. Even guys like Matt cutts say it again and a again about making your content STAND OUT like just thereWe
You may say how do I do this for a product like a Blue Widget. At first glance this may seem impossible. But if I am looking to buy a blue widget and am doing research over the web I would like to see
- Product Information in depth
- Reviews
- Some usage of it
- How to use it in different situations.
- A user forum
- Some evidence of good product support
- Some social media juice about it and some fan love
Replace blue widget with website design (my area), cameras, puppy dog collars and so on.
You might say that this sounds like complete overkill but believe me it isn't as the effort will pay off as over time your site will become a rich resource of solid quality information that can't be gotten anywhere else and there will be good payoffs.
There is a well known saying you wont get better by doing the same things every day so work on your blue widget page today then move onto the red widgets and keep going. Then revisit them all and polish again.
-
I use two columns for articles.
Left column is for text with multiple subheadings. (scanable)
Right column is for images, captions, data tables, references, video embeds.
Really important promotions and links to related content on my own site are floated to the left side of the left column or roadblocking it.
This makes for easy scanning and a big stack of images/data/video in the right column gives a rich and substantive look.
-
Well, I guess a well-formatted content does not always mean scannable. Little eye catching elements, bolding of key terms and colour would aid in the process.
-
I wanted to emphasize the scannable aspect in terms of bullet points etc. But, yes, I guess it's the same
-
Give Google content it strives/loves to deliver to it's users - the thing that is the core of their whole ethos: RELEVANT content - without that Google users go elsewhere to find it and you miss the opportunity to promote your product or service.
-
Ah, good point which goes well with "Formatted (easy to read and follow)".
-
I agree on that. That's a very important step. Reassurance that they are in the right place before they hit 'back'.
-
When the visitor arrives on your content the first goal is to let him know that he is in the right place with a very clear title and then let him know that he is in an interesting place with an interesting graphic above the fold.
Even before he determines if your content is gold or crap the appearance must pull him in. Then as with a good book you need a "hook" and after that the real quality of the content and the presentation style will have to take over.
Then... if you want the link or the tweet or the like, the impact must be there. This can be quality of content, substantiveness, engagement, impressiveness.
Bottom line... I think that you must have both academic quality along with aesthetic presentation - without stinking it up with too many ads and side-promotions. Its a fine balance and hard to know when you have it.
-
- scannable (aid people in natural scanning proces)
-
I consider user driven metrics as a big part of what Google uses to judge quality (citations, links, social buzz). Other stuff would have to be with their understanding of the content itself. I wonder how much of it they are able to figure out?
And when it comes to user motivation to spread and engage I am curious what the elements are and attempt to dissect and analyse what makes up a good piece of content.
-
I think of this question in terms of the effect that it will have on the visitor.... Will it motivate the visitor to link, tweet, like, share, email, bookmark.
If it doesn't do that then it isn't very good.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can I use expired domain content on My Blog
Hello Expert, I wanted to know, can I use expired domain content on my blog channel. I have done many searches on google but couldn't find a satisfactory answer. Please help me to find out this.
Content Development | | vijay77960 -
I want to use some content that I sent out in a newsletter and post as a blog, but will this count as duplicate content?
I want to use some content that I sent out in a newsletter a while ago - adding it as a blog to my website. The newsletter exists on a http://myemail.constantcontact.com URL and is being indexed by Google. Will this count as duplicate content?
Content Development | | Wagada0 -
Can anyone recommend a good reliable blogging platform for a small to medium sized manufacturing and services company?
I've been asked by my manager to investigate the best blogging platform for our company website. On a recent CIM course it ways suggested that Wordpress is not necessarily reliable. Could anyone advise? The blog is required to provide a space for current industry news, casestudies etc. It is also envisaged that the blog will allow comments. I've only got good things to say about Wordpress, but have only used the platform for my own small SEO company.
Content Development | | Catherine_Selectaglaze1 -
Reviving a (very) old blog - is it worth shifting the content onto a new blog?
I look after a few ecommerce sites, one of them doesn't currently have a blog, we are setting up a wordpress blog now for the site. Going way back in time the site did have a blog which was on a separate Typepad domain. What I'm wondering is whether it is worth redirecting this whole blog to the new blog section of the site and copying some of the content over to the new blog as historical posts? I don't think it will be possible to redirect each individual post to a new one so it will just be a straight redirect of the old blog domain to the new one with the same (most of anyway) content. Do you think it is worth doing this for the value of this content which is relevant but dated (many of the links are now expired)? Doing this will take some time to do so it's not 'free' content we'd be getting We have a lot of new content planned out so we won't be short of content, just would be nice to have some historical content on there too Thanks
Content Development | | PeterLeatherland0 -
Fresh content ideas for a static site?
I have an ecommerce site. My home page is set-up just as I want it. I'm not looking to redo it or change my site to a blog. Just looking for some new, different, SEO friendly ideas or concepts to keep it "fresh".
Content Development | | VictorVC0 -
How to deal with an media press content?
We have a company that create content and send as media press. We would like to use this content in our blog. We made it using RSS and having in our blog the same content. So right now we have some concern about duplicate content. How do you guys deal with deal? Would we be penalized by duplicated content?
Content Development | | kauelinden0 -
Duplicate content
Hello Seomoz team, i'm french and so my english is not very good ;-). I work for a brand site and we publish content about our products. The problem is : as a brand site, many sites that sell our products, copy our content. And we have duplicate content. And since these sites have worked SEO, they put in place rel canonical tag. as a brand, how to avoid being accused by Google duplicate content? tanks for you answer. I hope it's clear. Take care Denis
Content Development | | android_lyon0 -
WHAT IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF PRODUCING CONTENT
A lot of SEO is focusing on content these days and having unique blogs and articles. I understand how this would be great for a search engine, but doesn't that leave out businesses that are not there to make content but only want to advertise their services?
Content Development | | musillawfirm0