8 Important Things to Consider When You Create Content

Content creation is an integral part of digital marketing. A study showed that, when done in the right way, content marketing can offer a better return on investment (ROI) than paid advertisements in some cases. This is why 90% of marketers will use content to generate leads and drive traffic to websites and blog and news pages. Seeing as content is far more important than we might have otherwise thought, here are eight important things to think about when you create content.

Consider how long your content is going to be

There’s an ongoing debate about how long a piece of content should be. While some marketing specialists believe that you should keep content to around 1,000-2,000 words long, others argue that shorter blog post entries and website page content is best for SEO purposes. 

Although the results vary, it’s important that one simple rule is followed: do not beef out your content with words just to make it longer. This can have a negative impact on how it performs in the search engine results pages (SERPs). 

If you write an article that’s been planned for in advance, regardless of its word count at the end, run with it instead of making it longer or shorter. However, you should look to proofread it and make edits where appropriate, but we’ll get onto that in a moment.

Does it provide value to the reader?

Will your content be useful to your readers? How much value is it going to hold? These are important questions to ask as, not only will relevant, valuable content ensure more people click on your article, it will also hold the readers’ attention, which can be quite challenging in an age where people need things to be done and/or understood in as little time as possible. If you determine that your content doesn’t hold value, then there are some ways that you can inject value back into it:

• Offering a solution to a problem
• Giving advice
• Providing hints and tips
• Explaining complex issues or processes
• Instructing people on how to get things done 

How mobile-friendly is it?

A mobile-friendly piece of content is imperative in such a modern, digital age. Everywhere you go, you’ll find people looking at their smart devices, reading news articles, watching videos and looking at photos and pictures online. With this in mind, nothing is stopping them from coming across your content while on the go. 

If it’s relevant to them and it’s mobile-friendly, then they’ll be far more likely to stop and read it as it’ll load quickly and be in a simple and easy-to-read format. If the article is slow to load and not at all suited to mobile screens, then the reader will quickly exit the page and look for something else that they can easily read on their phones. Make sure your content is mobile-friendly so it can be read by as many people as possible, whether at home or out and about.

What about keywords?

Keywords are essential for SEO purposes. They enable a piece of content to be discovered by a wide range of audiences, whether they’re the right demographic or not. Even voice-controlled devices will rely heavily on the use of keywords in addition to those who search for things on the internet, using Google, for example. 

Keywords and phrases are what will get your content seen, so make sure you’re doing your research and including these whenever you can, being careful not to keyword-stuff, however. Keyword stuffing could cause Google to think your content is spam or that it’s been written by a robot. If this happens, you’re unlikely to appear in the SERPs at all. But if you do, it’ll be extremely far down.

Proofread your content

Proofreading your content is an incredibly important part of the content creation process. This streamlines and irons out your content, making sure it’s readable and grammatically-correct. Typos can also be corrected as can spelling mistakes. 

How you come across on the page is imperative to establishing trust between yourself and your readers. The more proficient and professional your writing style is, the more likely someone is to become engaged in your content. Subsequently, you could then draw in returning online visitors, generating traffic in the process.

Make sure it’s easy to read 

As already touched upon, having content that’s easy to read and is laid out in a simple fashion will be far more likely to grab and retain the reader’s attention. This is especially the case if you’re looking to make your content mobile-friendly. But keeping it in a minimalist format doesn’t mean that you should cut out any jargon, particularly if it’s a specialist article you’re writing. To keep your content easy to read, try doing the following things:

• Splitting content up with headings and subheadings
• Writing short paragraphs with only three or four sentences in it 
• Keeping sentence short and concise
• Ensuring the language is easy to understand
• If there’s jargon involved, explain it to the reader 

Remember to ask the reader to take action

If you’re wanting to get your readers to take action after, or as a result of, reading your article, then you’ll need to make this very clear at the end of your content. This is called a ‘call to action’ (CTA) and it can be very effective if you want your reader to make contact with your company or with your client. 

Know & understand your audience

Before creating content for your readers, make sure you have done your market research. This will enable you to create content for your specific audience, ensuring you’re only touching on topics that they will be interested in. For example, university students aren’t going to be searching for things like ‘how to plaster a wall’. 

Instead, they’ll be searching for things like ‘best places to eat in [city]’ or ‘how to stay motivated when writing a dissertation’. However, parents are more likely to search for things such as ‘when should I give my baby solid food?’ or ‘children’s party venues near me’. Get to know your audience and then write content based around what they’re most likely to be searching for.

Kumo Digital has over two decades of experience in the digital marketing industry. Whether you need a new website, engaging content for your blog or SEO and PPC services, then you’ll always be able to rely on our dedicated, specialist team to help. For more information about how we can catapult your business into the spotlight, setting you apart from your competitors, get in touch with us today – we’re always happy to hear from you.