Feb 15 2008
Quality Content is Key
You can build the best looking website on the Internet and do your best at SEO but it means nothing without the filling inside. The number one key when building a good website or blog is to have quality content.
When you build a website, it should not be built for Google or any other search engine, it should be built for the people you want to visit your site. It does not matter if you are looking to sale a product or to entertain people or just provide information, quality is what you should have inside your website.
If you have the ability to write everything yourself, I highly suggest doing it. However, if you are not a good writer, I recommend you hire someone to write articles for you. Make sure you look at some samples of their writing and do not accept garbage for your website. I personally write many articles for people and I am available to hire to write articles if you find the need arises.
If you decide to write for yourself, make sure to use a good spell checker and if needed a good grammar checker. I love to write and I think I am good at it but I can not spell worth a darn. Luckily, all of the major web browsers have add on spell checkers and if you use blogging software, those also include spell checkers. You could also write all your articles in Word and then copy and paste it to your website. This will both correct many grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes. Just remember quality is key. You do not want a bunch of mistakes that make it difficult for your readers to follow.
When writing content for your site, know your audience. This means write in a way that is best suited to attract who you would like to read your content. If you site is geared towards the teen population, it is OK to have some slang in your content. However, if you are looking to sell business cards to professionals, it would be best to make sure you use correct terms and good grammar. A good example is this blog. I want to attract webmaster but I want the articles basic so that even the common hobby webmaster can understand what I am saying. My information is good for all webmasters but I do not try to talk over the new webmasters who are just starting out.
Another point is to know how much content you need. If your site is a sales page, you want to provide enough information to get your customer interested but not so much that they will get bored and leave your site. If you are an information site, you need to have a lot of content for your readers so they will keep coming back. Again, you need to know your audience and you need to know what they are looking for.
Updating your content and keeping it fresh and new is super important. If you have a blog, make sure to add content as often as you can. This also applies to information sites, people want new and fresh articles to read or they will visit once and never come back. If you own sales sites, make sure you keep the descriptions up to date and the prices. Nothing is more annoying for a customer than to visit a website and trying to buy something only to find out you no longer sell it or the price advertised is lower than the real price.
In the push to fill your blog or website with content, do not take short cuts. Duplicated content is frowned on by both the search engines and your readers. It is OK to repost a great article if you have permission to do so and you give a link back to the original source. Many webmaster take the easy route and just try to rewrite someone else work and pass it off as their own, this is a bad way to run your blog or site. Remember how we started this article, quality is key.
Quality content will not only make you look good for the search engines, it will also build a following of visitors and customers that could make your website the next biggest hit on the Internet.
I hope this article has helped you focus on content for your website and if you have a suggestion or question, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will reply. Please keep checking back for more articles for the common webmaster.
[...] nothing at all if you have no traffic to your website or blog. This is why I stressed the need for Quality Content. PR is fun to watch and can be a thrill, however, you should first and foremost create your website [...]