Whether you are just learning how to start a blog or you have been working on growing your audience, you need to learn about a conundrum that inbound marketers and business owners struggle with. That would be the quality over quantity conundrum. Sounds simple right? It’s always quality over quantity with everything you do in life. That’s not quite the case when it comes to posting content, however. Let’s look at the arguments for both and see where we end up.
The Quality Side of the Content Conundrum for Inbound Marketing
It may seem that publishing quality content is a no-brainer, after all, you want to grab your audience’s attention so they read your information and take something useful away from it. You’re absolutely right, but there are several reasons you may not have considered:
- There’s no fooling search engines. Algorithms are crafted so they monitor how people respond to your content. If your content is low-quality, visit times will be short, no other links will be visited and there will be no interaction or mention of your content elsewhere on the Web.
- Content of high quality lives well. Evergreen pieces bring more new visitors because they are indexed on the search engines and come up when your keywords are searched. With good, solid information, these pieces remain active and strengthen your brand’s reputation with search engines and your target audience.
- One piece of great content can be turned into a wide array of pieces. Our article on “How to Start a Blog in Six Easy Steps” for example, inspired this piece. Great pieces also translate well into multiple social media posts.
- When your buyer persona’s pain points are addressed through content that is valuable, you make more sales. The reason here is two-fold: your audience feels that your business has the answers they need and by providing valuable information, they’re not likely to shop your competitors because you’ve inspired trust.
The arguments are strong, so you definitely have to put emphasis on creating quality content for your blog.
Addressing the Quantity Side of Content
The quantity side of the quality vs. quantity conundrum ties in frequency as well. Not only do you have to content to post, you need to post continually so your site is regularly updated with fresh material. With that in mind, there are several reasons why quantity is important:
- The more content you have that uses your keywords in a natural way, the higher your SEO value will be for your blog. Search engines place sites higher in results when they appear relevant to their topics.
- Less is more and more often is better. If you publish one piece of excellent content that is 5,000 words, most of it will not be read. Your audience wants answers quickly and won’t scan through that many words to get them. By publishing 10 pieces at 500 words, you’re showing your audience that you have vast knowledge of their pain points because you’re prolific and if they see you posting often, they stay engaged with your brand to see what’s coming next.
- Publishing more often gives you a better idea of what works best for your audience. You can direct your focus towards the types of posts that get the most engagement.
- Our HubSpot partners did an intense study and found that a greater frequency of posts produces higher traffic for your site.
Now you can see why the quality vs. quantity conundrum for content is an issue at all. Both sides have very strong points that support their importance.
In short, it’s safe to say that you shouldn’t publish any content that isn’t high quality. Your brand’s reputation and search engine placement count on the delivery of valuable information. Determining the quantity of content depends on your business goals. You have to test your results and see what provides you with the maximum ROI for your efforts. Alternatively, you can consult an inbound marketing specialist to help you determine the best frequency for your business.