Boosting the Content Quality on Your Blog or Website

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Samantha Peters, an avid blogger who writes about social media, digital marketing, and online communications.

When we talk about blogs and websites these days we often use phrases like “SEO,” “page rank,” and “web statistics.” We pay close attention to our click-throughs, our inbound links, and the way we incorporate advertisers. In short, we approach our sites from a marketing angle and take every opportunity we can to increase and maximize our exposure.

Amidst all this positioning, many bloggers and site managers overlook the most important element of their job: putting out quality content. No measure of marketing or SEO will bring traffic to your site without a degree of content that interests new visitors and makes old one desirous of coming back. A good site will almost always put out good content. An improving site, along these lines, is one that can increase its content quality even while pursuing SEO and other marketing means.

So how can one boost the content quality on his site? Certainly, you can diversify your focus and create more content – but, of course, more isn’t necessarily better. Or you could go in the other direction and narrow down your content, target a more niche audience, and hope that your blog is more unique as a result. But we’re going to assume here that you already have something unique to say. You don’t want to change your focus; rather, you simply want to boost the quality of your output.

Here are a few ways to go about making this happen:

Bring In Contributors

Many bloggers and website managers hesitate to bring in outside contributors, worrying that such contributors would be mediocre writers with uninspiring ideas. While this is certainly a concern, with the proper screening and discretion you can likely find quality contributors that offer a diversity of ideas and opinions – a diversity that can translate into your blog’s content. More writers means more opinions, and more opinions yield a greater variety of content. Quality can only be boosted as a result.

Be Provocative

A topic that you write about is probably not unique on its own. What makes your content interesting and worthwhile, then, is the opinion and argument that you put behind it. This does not mean that you should write angry and offensive posts in hopes of boosting content. Instead, try to be more engaging and persuasive by adding a strong, unique flavor to your content. This will force your readers to think and increase your content quality in the process.

Research More

Many writers and content creators come up with a topic they’d like to discuss, conduct a minimal amount of research, and then quickly turn that research into content. For some people this works just fine, but for others it means that the content they produce is lacking in depth and sophistication. This can be corrected through research. Specifically, you can take a few more minutes to gauge what people think about your topic, consider the topic as a part of larger trends, or to communicate with someone who is an expert in your topic’s field. Your readers will undoubtedly appreciate the added quality this can bring to your content.

While the best way to jump-start the quality of your site is to be creative yourself, these ideas can help fuel those ideas and give you something to fall back on when the juices aren’t flowing. It’s key to know not to push the “publish” button if the content doesn’t stand out. Doing so is almost worse than not publishing anything at all.

What about your ideas? How would you recommend approaching the need to improve the quality content on your blog or website? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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Samantha Peters is an avid blogger who enjoys writing about that latest developments within social media, digital marketing, and the online communication space. Sam lives in sunny San Diego, California where she lives with her dog Leona and frequently writes for The Tech Update.