Eliminate Bad Content: Tips for Quality Content Creation

Twenty page views and seven shares on a blog post that took you hours to write? It’s tough when your content flops. You may feel like you failed or lost your touch when you produce bad content. But try not to be too hard on yourself. These tips for quality content creation can help you turn things around.

Understanding Reader Attention

Before we discuss what makes bad content, let’s consider the most important aspect of content creation: your readers. 

Your writing skills might not be the reason your content makes readers flee. The issue could be that you don’t fully understand your digital marketing audience and what they need.

Assume this about your audience: 

• Their attention spans are short
• They want to read something they can relate to

Understanding these simple truths will make a difference in your engagement. They don’t mean your audience is uneducated or uninterested. They mean your audience wants the quickest, most straightforward solution to their problem. When they come to your company for answers, take it as a compliment and provide them with easy-to-understand and navigational content. 

The average person has an attention span less than that of a goldfish. It’s eight seconds or less. You can’t change people’s attention spans. You have to quickly capture their attention and keep it. 

When you fail to capture attention at the beginning of your post with a catchy intro, readers often won’t make it to the end. They also won’t make it far into your content if it’s difficult to understand. So, you must keep your language simple, casual, and relatable. And, you must present information in a format that’s easy for your audience to read and relate to.

Your techniques to capture attention have to be better than other pieces of content online. People will do business with a brand that catches their eye and engages them continuously. You have the opportunity to add your flair and brand personality to every piece of content you create. 

Bad Content: 11 Reasons Your Readers Flee

So, once you learn everything you can about your audience and what they need, including the little tidbits we gave you above, you’ll probably want to make some changes to your content.

We’re not talking about reinventing the wheel here. Minor tweaks can change everything! Understanding keywords and other basic writing principles will make your content stand out. 

Do the necessary but difficult work to understand why your content makes readers flee. Then, take steps to repair the issues.

1. Lackluster Titles

The title is the most critical initial attention grabber readers see. If it doesn’t catch the reader’s eye, they won’t even click on the post. 

The 80/20 rule of blog titles says that about 80% of people will read your post’s title, but only 20% will click to read the post. You don’t want your messages to be for naught. That’s why a perfect blog post title is critical.

A perfect blog post title:

• Attracts attention
• Summarizes the post simply
• Depicts the post’s tone
• Encourages the viewer to click and read the post

Want to know more about writing titles that people want to click? Check out our post on How to Write the Perfect Blog Post Title (with Examples).

2. Boring Intros 

Your heading is not the end of your fight to grab the reader’s attention. If you jump straight into statistics or filler information without keeping their attention, your readers will ghost you immediately. Catchy intros show your brand’s personality and tell stories. The reader can relate to them immediately.

Not sure how to write a catchy intro? Don’t worry. We have 11 Tips for Writing Catchy Intros to help you out.

3. No Storytelling

No narrative, personality, or relatable setup will make readers leave. Everyone loves a good story, which is why storytelling is key in marketing. You have to make your content intriguing enough to increase those page views, shares, and sign-up rates. No one wants to force themselves to read. They want to be drawn through your content with an enticing narrative structure.

4. A Giant Wall of Text

We don’t read the internet. We scan it — usually on our phones. Breaking up your content makes it scannable. Use bullets, subheads, and graphics to make text easier to scan. Don’t forget to write in a relatable format, so readers know what to expect when they visit your site.

5. Forgetting SEO

Google needs the most accurate keywords about your content to direct people there. Be sure to include those keywords throughout your post, including in the title, H2s, and in the overall text. Following Search Engine Optimization best practices helps make sure the people most interested in your content find it.

6. Trying to Sound Smart

Not everyone is a scholar, nor do they want to be. It’s not effective to write like you are either. The average reading level is eighth grade. Keep your words, sentences, and paragraphs simple and easy to understand.

7. Not Being Helpful or Relatable

Readers click on your content for a solution to their problem. To make your content helpful, you need to understand their problem and explain why your product or service is the best solution.

8. Absence of Visuals

Photos and videos create a visual way to convey information. They’re eye-catching and attractive as well. Often, people look at the visuals on your post before they read a word. Be sure to include them.

9. No Shareability 

If you want more exposure, your content needs to be shareable. It also gets your business into the feeds of people who may not have otherwise researched your service/product on their own. Making your content shareable can be as simple as including social media buttons on your posts.

10. Bad or No Internal Linking

If you don’t provide links to other relevant posts or pages on your site, visitors may leave after reading one post without exploring further. You want readers to spend time exploring your site and learning from your content. Be sure to include internal links to related posts, offering readers a clear path to other interesting content.

11. Poor Calls to Action

Readers need a final invitation to support you. A Call-to-Action is your chance to drive home precisely why your business is the “fix” they need and what they should do next. Use best CTA practices to make them super effective.

Preventing Bad Content

Whether your content isn’t performing well or you just think it can be better, understanding why readers flee your site, then changing those bad content habits will help. Once you make changes, your audience will notice, and they’ll want to read and share. They’ll also be more likely to engage with your content and your business. You may not see positive results immediately, but a little patience will pay off.

If you need help producing the kind of content your audience wants and that keeps them around consistently, contact Content Journey. We can help you provide your audience with the content they need and grow your business in the process.