Content is King in Context

If you’ve been in the digital space for the last little while, you’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king”.

While that reigns true, you need some context before you understand what that truly means in the world of online marketing.

Over 2 million blogs are published to the web daily. That’s a lot of content, but that doesn’t mean all of that content is royalty.

Content is king in context.

Not every blog post is going to be a hit. It happens. The internet is loaded with lots of useful and unuseful information, and many people are recreating the same content over and over again with little to no variation.

You can put your head down and create a massive amount of content to publish on your blog, and that is great, but if you really want to make the most of it, you need to get specific about it.

So let’s talk about what kind of content is really king.

Useful, engaging, unique, relevant content is the kind of content you want.

Here is a paragraph from an example blog from a dog rescue center that is just going to add to that pile of unuseful information:

“Dogs are really cute!

Canines make great indoor pets. They are almost everyone’s favorite animal. I can’t think of a good reason why you shouldn’t have a dog as a pet.

Buying a dog is not expensive. They require food, water, attention, and a place to sleep.”

Um, yeah. This post may be a nice opinion piece, but if a teenager is trying to convince his parents he needs a dog, he’s not going to care what your opinion is. He’s looking for facts.

Here is an example paragraph that is a part of a useful blog post from a dog rescue center.

“They say dogs are man’s best friend.

We couldn’t agree more! Research even backs up this claim: in the United States alone, 70-80 million dogs are owned!

We think the reason why these animals are so popular are due to these three things:

1. They Are Easy to Train
Canines are, for the most part, easy to train because they have been domesticated for over 15,000 years (as far as researchers know).”

You can see that in this paragraph there are facts and credible sources to back them up. Timmy will use this information to convince his parents for a furry friend. Timmy and Rover thank you.

But even so, if this awesome content was produced by a taco stand, it wouldn’t do well for them. No matter how well-thought out it was.

That’s where context comes in.

Posting four blogs a week might help drive traffic to your site, but when you think about it, what are those posts doing to help you build your brand or help your users? You want to make sure you are posting high-quality content that is relevant to you and your company.

Google likes to know about your company. To do that, it uses your site information and other factors to determine what exactly it is that you do. If you are talking about dogs and everything that comes with it when you have one, Google knows what your niche is. That way, it can serve up relevant results to a searcher.

Search engines will not accept false information. If you are a taco stand, don’t post about dogs.

You cannot trick Google forever. Google knows. Google will find out.

Creating good content doesn’t have to be a chore.

Here are some basic steps to follow

Create an idea for a blog. The topic should be related to what your company does. This can be an old idea that you take and revamp or a brand new idea.
– If you’re going to be revamping old content, add something unique and new! Don’t just redo everything that has already been done.
Start writing.
Edit. This is an important step that is often missed. Don’t let a blog go out littered with mistakes in spelling or grammar or anything else, really. Errors don’t make you look credible.
Review and make sure the blog is SEO friendly. (AKA add links, tags, metas, etc.)
Post it!
SHARE IT! A blog is not going to go out by itself and find friends. It’s important to share the blog post on your social channels. You can also share it on related forums, places that will find your content to be useful.

Tools will be your best friend during the writing process. These can make content creation a little easier.

Hemingway Editor – This will help you keep your writing simple and it will also be an editor for you. (Always have a person look over your work, even if you use a tool.)
Cliche Finder – Remember how I discussed being unique? Avoid cliches like the plague.
Word Counter – According to Buffer, the ideal content length is 1,600 words. Depending on if you are writing short-form or long-form content. Word Counter will help you keep track and remind you of redundancies.
Content Idea Generator – If you have a general content idea, pop it in here and get a title. This can inspire your blog post’s purpose.

Realistically, not everyone is a professional writer, but after all, you’re a professional in your industry. You know it inside out and upside down. If you practice and adhere to practical and ethical SEO standards, you are sure to end up with a few winners.

Now, go forth and write! Don’t be afraid to get creative.

Interested in more content about content? Check out our other posts:
How to Write Successful Content in a Clickbait World
The Three Pies of Content Marketing
A Common Sense Guide on What Your Company Should Blog About