A Blog That Delivers
There are two schools of thought when it comes to blogging. While pretty much everyone agrees blogs should be educational and not entirely sales-oriented, the approach recommended can vary.
The two main schools of thought that I am familiar with are to either:
- Write for quantity
- Write for (search) Quality
Before I go too far, lets be clear on one point – all blogs need to be quality. It’s not random words thrown together or anything like that. No, there needs to be research, thought, and care added to the mix. Sometimes you can even add stories which include humor or intrigue to tempt the reader. Overall, you want clear and concise thoughts.
That said, there will be some folks who say you should only write blogs that answer common search demands. Or those which have a significant chance of ranking in search engines. Of course, the counter point would be to write about anything related to your business. Me personally, I tend to agree to the second approach.
Knowing Your Objective(s)
Seems so simple, yet… have you ever sat down to write about a specific topic only to meander off halfway through? Having experienced this myself, let me tell you it’s no fun. So, this brings me around to the above headline. Before beginning, know your objective(s). It’s this kind of thinking that will make for a clear and succinct read. Plus, it will save you a lot of time.
Once you have your objective or objectives all lined up, then you can begin to write, right? But wait a minute you say…what if the words aren’t forthcoming? (Like my meandering mind from above). Well then you go back to your research. Dig in and see if something new comes up.
Don’t Get Hung Up on Analysis Paralysis
A great writer once told me, “Begin with the end in mind.” If you know where you want to take your audience, you have just saved yourself hours of time. Yes, you still may have to do your due-diligence and research. That’s perfectly fine. Even better if you can bring in a quote or two to add validity to what you are discussing.
When I use this technique, the quality factor increases. I’ve researched and then I’ve moved on to beginning with the end in mind. Next, I use authority quotes to increase validity. Have I missed anything?
Well, that will depend on your topic and how well your audience understands the subject matter. For instance, if you are blogging about nuclear physics, you can be darn sure the clientele reading what you have to say will be pretty savvy on this topic (Maybe they are trying to see if you know your stuff or if they can trip you up).
The point here is, can you answer your customers and potential customers questions? If you do this with ease, then you are on your way to a quality blog.
Quality content will bring in the readers to your blog, and if done correctly, will entice sales. The mitigating factor will be: does the reading lead them to see how you can serve their needs?
However, if you get hung up on a topic to write about, there is always search engine focus topics. No, there’s nothing wrong with going this route. In fact, you could call it a win, especially if it helps direct you to using keywords you want highlighted.
When writing this way, simply look to tools like, SEMRush, or Google’s intuitive search.
This will lead to finding great articles. Then all you need to do is write to satisfy those keywords or top questions.
What About Writing for Quantity?
So far, I have only really showed you how quality blogging is awesome, and it is! But I would be remiss if I didn’t go into the flip side of quantity blogging. Yes, there are valid reasons that sometimes quantity can be used effectively, as you will soon see.
Jason Parsons wrote The Ultimate Guide to Blogging Quality vs Quantity (2021). In this blog he talks about the difference between a “A single high-quality blog post, or a bunch of shorter, lower-quality posts.”
Factors to be considered here would be, does the high-quality post take a lot of time to research and write? If this post becomes “huge evergreen resource linked to thousands of domains…then, definitely the quality is preferable.”
Parsons goes on to say… “Producing a handful of smaller, shorter blogs has a potential to be more consistently useful to your website. They take less time to produce, and they can do well without having to become juggernauts of powerful information. Every single post you publish is an opportunity to go viral, to get good links, and to rank for different keywords as well.”
Did you hear what he just said? He is making a claim that Quantity blogging does have merit, go figure.
Parsons goes on to discuss the number of blogs you should post, when working from the quantity aspect. Once a month is not often enough but the opposite is true too. Too many posts could irritate your readers. Play around with this aspect and you will find what works for you.
So, let’s look at the following example to see if quantity blogging has value. Let’s say you are looking to write an article that is kind-of-sort-of-almost-in-the-way-if-you-spin-it-around-and-look-at-it-sideways-or-twist-it-around to be related to your industry. (Are your eyes all glassed over from reading what I just concocted? Good, hang with me).
Take our good friends at MVMT Performance and Rehab. They really have no way to write a blog about how much Trevor loves playing Madden on the PS5. This just doesn’t fit their business in any stretch. However, if that blog is written to talk about what options could occur whenever Trevor plays Madden, then it’s game on. For example, let’s say each time Trevor throws and incomplete pass he must do 5 push-ups plus, he then adds a link to show proper pushup technique. Or Trevor gives up a touchdown and must complete 10 squats. Once again, he adds a link showing proper squat technique. Now writing a blog with this info, syncs into MVMT’s business perfectly.
The Last Word on Quantity/Quality Content (Really)
One final thought on quantity blogging comes from an article entitled, “Quantity vs. Quality in Content Marketing: The Final Verdict.” This is a piece by Contentwriters.com. The authors did this research back in 2019.
With this said, I have changed up the topic slightly from Quality vs. Quantity Blogging to Quality vs. Quantity Content Blogging. My reasoning is simple. We blog for a reason and all blogs are about content. Especially when it comes to content marketing.
To sum it up, when you go for high volume content to generate online traffic you must remember a couple of things:
- Online readers get distracted easily and are looking for a quick fix. If they don’t get what they are looking for within 10 to 15 seconds, they are on to the next article.
- A lot of content is necessary to stay top-of-mind and generate traffic. Posting large volumes of content has its benefit but one must remember the adage…too much can lead to turn off.
Moving on to Quality Content. The two main reasons quality content is necessary:
- Online readers want relevant and interesting information with which to engage. Plus, if the blogger has the storytelling gene, they could engage an audience for an extended period.
- Robots can’t produce enough high-quality content that’s optimized for search engines. Slight problem here is content robots can’t incorporate the specific grammatic idioms to make our online content readers satisfied.
The verdict according to contentwriters.com? This is from their mouth so if you aren’t happy with the results, don’t shoot the messenger. They say:
“At the end of the day, content marketers must work to understand what genuinely engages their target audiences the most. And they must build strategic content marketing strategies what will encompass the right balance of content frequency and quality that the target audience demands.”
Hope you got the answers you were seeking, if not, comeback soon and I’ll give you a new blog on the importance of content marketing and you.
