If you’re into blogging, you’ve probably heard the phrase that content is king. You have to be careful as to how you interpret this, it’s not about the number of posts you produce it’s more about the quality of those posts, the quality of the content.
If you keep reading, I’ll give you a good example of what I mean about “quality content is king”, but first let’s talk a little about what quality content really is.
Quality Content Is King
In the past a blogger would throw up a new post ever other day just to ensure their blog had a lot of content. The quality of those posts would often suffer in the haste to get a new topic up and published on a regular basis. While that may not necessarily be a bad thing, it is if you want your post to rank in the search engines.
Quality content isn’t about stuffing your post with the keyword you are targeting over and over, just to get you over some magical keyword density threshold. You post should be written with the reader in mind, write for the reader and not the search engine, that’s what quality content is all about. Quality content is king!
Take your time when writing a post for you new blog. If you’ve done your research, you should have a list of topics you want to write about. Before you set off writing that new post, start to put together an outline of what you want to cover in that post. You’ll find that it’s much easier putting quality content together if you have a structure of what you want to cover.
Quality Content Example
I have a personal blog on WordPress.com, something I set up a few years ago for my own personal amusement where I write about my motorcycle hobby, amongst other things. When I create a post on this blog, I’m not even thinking about how that post will rank in Google (frankly I don’t care).
I have two posts that are currently ranking #1 for a specific keyword in Google. While I’m pretty impressed with myself for doing that, especially on a free WordPress.com blog, it wasn’t something I set out to do. The following were the keywords I used for my blog entry, and a little about each post:
Buell Blast Service Manual
I used to own a Buell Blast motorcycle and had an electronic copy of the service manual for this bike that was given to me by the previous owner. When doing my research on the bike before purchasing it, I noticed there were quite a few sites that were selling this service manual. I thought why not upload the manual to my WordPress.com account, and create some links to the various chapters that anyone could view or download.
This is by far the most active post on my site. It ranks above eBay stores that are selling the manual, various biker forums, and even Wiki Answers. All I did when creating the post was to put a short description of why I was posting links to this manual, and laid out links to each and every chapter that I uploaded. Pretty simple example that quality content is king.
Triumph Bonneville vs Thruxton
When it came time to purchasing a new bike, I settled on a Triumph, but was a little unsure about whether I wanted to buy a Bonneville or a Thruxton model. After a lot of research I went with the Thruxton, but I had to make this decision without some key data that I was having a hard time finding. After riding the bike for a short time, I wrote a post about the key differences and targeted it at individuals that may be struggling deciding between these two models.
This is the second most active post on my site, and again I wasn’t focused on the search engines when I wrote it. I simply sat down and typed up my own review of the bike, comparing it against a test ride I had taken on a Bonneville and other research I had come across. This post ranks above major motorcycle magazines that have done reviews on these bikes, biker forums, and other motorcycle blogs. Again, quality content is king!
Next time you sit down to write a post for you blog, don’t worry about the search engines. Write with your heart, and focus on the quality of your piece. I think you’ll be surprised as to how well your post will do when it comes to ranking with the major search engines. Keep one thing in mind when writing – quality content is king.
Would love to hear your feedback or any specific examples you would be willing to share about writing quality content.
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