Category: content quality

After you’ve written something for the web, you might wonder, “Is this good quality content?”

No universal definition exists, but experts agree on certain standards. Essentially, quality content meets your audience’s needs and supports your business goals.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “quality” as a standard that measures how good or bad something is. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary overviews the different meanings of the term, its origin, and usage (with examples).

The word “quality” alone, without adjectives or qualifiers like “good” or “low,” implies excellence. That’s not a strict rule, but a style guideline I prefer.

So what does “quality content” mean, and why does it matter?

How Major Marketing Experts Define Quality Content

• Active Campaign: “…the depth of information and insight contained within a piece of content. Content quality goes beyond information to include formatting, readability, and grammatical correctness.”
• SEMRush: “Quality content typically refers to content that is useful, accurate, reliable, and relevant to its intended audience.” The article with the quote explains how content quality affects SEO, with examples​. It’s also a model for quality content.
• Ann Handley (“Everybody Writes”): “Quality content means content that is packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience.”

But even if a piece meets this criteria, does it “sing” to your readers? The subject matter and how you present it affects whether readers connect with it — and whether it helps you reach your goals. Beyond algorithms, the factors below can keep your audience reading and returning.

5 Ways to Answer “Is This Good Quality Content?”

1. Well-written – Quality content lacks spelling, punctuation, grammar, and factual errors.

Beyond that, consider the depth and accuracy of your information. As part of Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, authoritativeness and trustworthiness — through your experience and expertise — play major roles. Adding research from reliable sources also enhances your credibility and search rankings.

And if you seek to rank, tabloid-style content that intends to shock readers and gain clicks has no place here.

2. Cohesive – Quality content suits your brand’s tone, voice, and strategy, reinforcing and projecting your identity. For the most part, brands with consistent messaging, like Apple or Nike, publish content that aligns well with their images.

• Apple’s content reflects innovation and sophistication
• Nike’s inspires empowerment and athleticism

This consistency bolsters their brand values and their connections with their audiences.

3. Readability – Quality content communicates your core message clearly throughout the text and the design; it’s legible on desktop and mobile devices and meets accessibility standards for the visually and cognitively impaired.

If your content is harder to follow than an IKEA bedroom set assembly manual, it’s time for a redesign. Present the information in a clean, organized way. Bullet points, subheadings, and short paragraphs enhance scanning.

Readability tools: The Hemingway App provides scores based on Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, or SMOG standards. They also advise on how to improve grammar, sentence structure, and word choice.

Website Copy Example:

Before: “Here at our store, we offer great customer service, helpful product reviews, and all the info you need to make an informed decision about your purchase.”

Issues:

• Dense, hard-to-scan text
• Needless words
• Lack of clear structure, especially for mobile devices

After:

Why Shop With Us?

✅ Customer Service: Ready to help 24/7.
✅ Product Reviews: Honest feedback.
✅ Detailed Advice: The essentials to guide your choice.

Improvements:

• Clear headers and bullet points for scanning
• Fewer words
• More mobile-friendly and accessible

4. Utility – Quality content provides enough information to help your audience achieve their goals. In a broader sense, it’s actionable.

It answers the question, “Is it worth reading”? In marketing terms, “Does it add value?” Would you send it to a friend? It doesn’t have to be entirely original or innovative, but should offer fresh takes.

And must a blog be 3,500 words? Google’s helpful content guidelines suggest length doesn’t matter. Your content should mainly satisfy search intent and be useful. Think “informative guide,” not “never-ending lecture.”

Content audits: They help you see if your information connects with your audience. For instance, high bounce rates on your service pages might mean visitors don’t find what they expect.

Measure engagement through:

• Heat maps (they show where people look)
• Bounce rates and dwell time
• Subscribe/unsubscribe rates
• Click-throughs (as applied to emails, given the potential influence of bots and automation, open rates aren’t always reliable)
• “Likes” or shares
• Impressions

Tools like Google Analytics and social media metrics help you track and assess your content’s effectiveness.

Audit tip: Look at your last blog post or newsletter. Did people click through? Did they stay long enough to read your key points? To audit your content quickly to see if it reaches the right clients, get my free checklist.

5. Serve Readers – If applicable, beyond search ranking methods, seek to serve your audience.

Google’s quality raters use E-E-A-T guidelines to assess web content. Among their content guidelines, Google suggests you answer certain questions to determine content quality and minimize a “search engine first” focus.

Relevance (and empathy) also influences quality content through answering readers’ questions or addressing their problems. In SEO terms, this is known as “search intent.”

Search engines now serve as a jumping-off point. For faster insights, users are turning to generative AI. ChatGPT claims to consider search rankings, relevance, clarity, and users’ needs to deliver helpful answers. Still in its infancy, AI answers are more like a stop before you reach your destination.

Don’t just chase algorithms. Focus on your readers, who will remember if your content helped them.

In future articles, I’ll explore some of these topics further.

Quality content isn’t one-size-fits-all. To assess if you’re creating quality content, consider whether it serves your audience and your business goals. Every piece should:

• Build trust
• Be useful
• Foster an experience your audience will value and appreciate

Learn how to create content that connects with clients who value and respect you and your business

What do you think makes for quality content? Please share in the comments.

Quotes

“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” ~ Andrew Davis

“Content is anything that adds value to the reader’s life.” ~ Avinash Kaushik