Content Vs. Good-Quality Content: The Key to SEO Success

Content is the foundation of digital marketing; without it, any strategy will crumble. For businesses, implementing good content is essential as it builds brand awareness, increases audience engagement, and has significant potential for lead generation. With over 4.4 billion blog posts published daily, is all content created equal?

The Difference Between Content and Good-Quality Content

Let’s start by defining both. Content refers to any material—be it a blog post, video, or social media update—that is published online. Good-quality content, however, is well-researched, informative, engaging, and optimised for BOTH humans and search engines. It’s crucial to balance creating content for both audiences; too much industry jargon can alienate readers, while overly SEO-focused content can feel mechanical and unengaging. A common offender here is AI-generated content—if you’re interested, check out our blog on ChatGPT and content for more on this topic.

Supporting Evidence

According to GoSchedule, high-quality content is three times more likely to generate leads and organic traffic compared to low-quality content. Additionally, Google’s strict EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines, drawn from its Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, reward content that meets these criteria with higher search engine rankings.

SEO and Its Dependence on Quality Content

The phrase ‘content is king’ is a cliché among marketers, but its significance extends beyond being just a catchy saying. As mentioned earlier, content is fundamental to every aspect of marketing, especially in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), where it serves as the ‘raw material’ that powers everything.

Content is where marketers can directly influence how search engines perceive their sites. By optimising on-page elements and metadata, marketers help search engine algorithms understand the context and relevance of the content, ensuring it appears in the right searches. These optimised elements guide search engine bots (which is explained here), helping them accurately index and rank the content.

Characteristics of Good-Quality Content

So, what makes content ‘good-quality’? While the list of criteria is ever-growing, here are DNRG’s most important qualities, specifically targeting the main algorithms businesses should focus on:

• Originality: Content should be unique and offer value not found elsewhere.
• Actionability: Content should provide clear next steps for the audience.
• Answerability: Content should address specific questions or needs.
• Sourcing: Content should be properly sourced and referenced where applicable.
• Conciseness: Good content is concise.
• Grammar and Formatting: Good content is grammatically correct and well-formatted.

For example, when we conducted a website refresh for our client, our goal was to craft a clean, multi-page site that communicated their services clearly and concisely while maintaining a visually engaging design. By simplifying the homepage and incorporating dynamic elements like hero images and internal linking, we ensured users could easily navigate the site and stay engaged, all while improving search engine rankings.

“DNRG gave us confidence from the very start of our journey with them. They fully embraced and immersed themselves in everything Work Here, Work There—our values, branding, goals, and expected user experience—before moving forward with any designs. The design and implementation stages brought the same level of service, allowing us to amend even the tiniest details, along with some bespoke requests. We’re very happy with the final outcome, and the site is now definitely in line with our brand.” – James Moir | WHWT Director

The Consequences of Low-Quality Content

Poorly written, inaccurate, or misleading content can make a business appear unprofessional and unreliable, damaging its reputation. Misleading content can erode customer trust, leading to decreased loyalty. On the other hand, unengaging content can result in lower user engagement, such as fewer shares, likes, and comments. As we’ve discussed, poor content also leads to lower search engine rankings. In fact, an Eye Tracking Survey revealed that 70% of participants focus on the top organic search results—a reality we all experience when searching online.

The Verdict

In conclusion, good-quality content is crucial for SEO success. Unlike basic content, it’s well-researched, engaging, and optimised for both users and search engines, which helps improve rankings and build trust. In contrast, poor content can harm your reputation and lower your search visibility.

Our actionable tips for creating great content include investing time in thorough research to ensure accuracy and informativeness, using tools to optimise content for the right keywords without overstuffing, and incorporating visuals, infographics, videos, and interactive elements to enhance content quality.

If you think it’s time to invest in outsourcing content creation, our Senior SEO Executive, Josh McGrillen, has achieved impressive results for our clients, including a 103% increase in conversions. Check out some of his and our SEO team’s work here.