“Content Is King!”
Are you sick of hearing the phrase “Content is King!”? God knows I am. Get used to it though, because it isn’t going away any time soon. If you are wondering how much content quality really matters when creating a money making website, I can tell you that it matters a lot (an awful lot).
The real goal you want to shoot for when you are building a website is to make the website so good and so useful and so likable that when a person discovers your website for the first time, they go tell their friends about it right away. And they tell them how awesome your site is.
I admit, that is a really challenging thing to accomplish, especially if you are trying to do everything yourself. You probably aren’t as talented as a professional graphics designer. So your images and website theme aren’t going to be as cool looking as a professional could make them. You aren’t a professional writer. So your written content isn’t going to capture the imagination of a reader like Stephen King does when he writes.
It is really hard to create website content that will really impress people. I know that. I get it. But, that is still what you want to try to do. Even if you feel like you can’t accomplish that, it is still the goal you want to shoot for.
The days of being able to make money monetizing low quality content are pretty much gone. If you are still accomplishing that, then more power to you. Your business model will probably end up in the gutter before long though. Content quality standards are on the rise across the web.
What To Do If You Feel Inadequate For Producing High Quality Content
Even if you aren’t a talented web developer, graphic artist or a talented writer, you still have one Ace up your sleeve for creating excellent content. You can get to know your audience better than anyone else and then use that to your advantage.
Here is what I mean:
The more you can get inside the head of the person you are trying to get to come to your website, the more you will understand exactly what it is that person really wants. And if you understand that better than other webmasters, then you can create a website that really gives this person what he/she wants.
And if you do that, then that person is going to be willing to overlook the fact that you might not have the most graphically impressive website. They will overlook a lot of the minor flaws of the site. And they will still be really glad they found your website. They would probably still be inclined to recommend your site to their friends.
And if you can build a site that people are honestly recommending to their friends, because they honestly believe your site rocks, then your site is going to succeed at a wicked fast rate.
Your secret weapon is getting to know your audience better than anyone else.
Is It Impossible To Get Traffic For A Lower Quality Site?
Well, it really depends on how you define the phrase “low quality”. And it also depends on whether paid traffic is an option for you or not.
You can always buy traffic for a site. But paying for targeted traffic is very expensive unless you are buying in bulk. And if you are the type of marketer who is buying bulk paid traffic for your web properties, then you aren’t reading this blog post.
If you want free targeted traffic that you can really make money from, then the quality of your website content makes a huge difference. High quality content attracts high quality traffic. High quality free traffic is going to come from search engines and from honest referrals where someone recommends your site to someone else.
Adding More Content Will Help Your Site Though Even If The Content Isn’t Stellar, Right?
No not really.
Don’t add content to your site just for the sake of having more content. Add content to your site only if you think that content is going to attract new visitors to your website or if you think that content is going to improve the experience for existing visitors. Those are the only real reasons to add new content to your site.
Sometimes people want to add new content for other reasons. For example, a lot of people think that in order for a site to become an “authority site”, it has to be a huge website with lots of pages. So they want to bulk up the website just so search engines like it more. That doesn’t work unless the content you are adding to the site is superior quality content.
It needs to be written content that people honestly want to read. Or it needs to be video content that people actually want to watch. Or it needs to be graphical content that people actually want to see. Or it needs to be audio content that people actually want to listen to.
Don’t add content just to bulk a site up. Add content that people want to consume. That is the only approach that will help you succeed over the long run.
You should actually be reducing the amount of lower quality content on your site or at least reducing its visibility. And you should be increasing the amount of high quality content on your site and increasing the visibility of the existing content that you know your visitors like and want more of.
