Bad Content is a Website Bummer

There are more than 600 million blogs on the web in 2020. There are mountains of digital content vying for the attention of today’s internet users. However, not all content is created equal. A website with good content can rank higher on Google, while bad content could make it so that it never even appears on the search results page.

The whole purpose of digital content marketing is to build trust. Content gets a stamp of approval from search engines when it can provide value and answer questions for readers on the Internet. On the flip side, bad website content has a variety of negative implications that will ultimately nullify the time spent on digital content marketing.

Bad Content is Not SEO Friendly

When writing, it’s important to know what components that search engines look for when pulling results for a reader. If a website’s content is not created with SEO best practices in mind, then it will not be easily searched for or found by viewers. The main components of SEO include:

• Keywords or phrases that will be relevant to the audience
• URL structure that is easy to read and search for
• Stand-alone content (absence of duplicate content)
• Facilitating an easy user experience that prompts click-through with a low bounce rate

Creating website content that is not SEO-friendly will simply make it harder for Internet users to find the site. This bad content when found, usually won’t make users want to click through and stay on the website.

Bad Content Has Confusing Structure

Every component of a website from the top-down should have an easy-to-follow structure. This means that everything from the site map to each blog post should have a clear and concise configuration. The main components of the website structure include:

• Crawlability (or the seamless nature) of a website
• Helpful (internal) links and absence of dead-ends
• Load speed
• Cross-platform structure (desktop, mobile, etc.)
• Easy to follow copy and media structure

Websites and content with the complicated structure are also signs of “bad content.” Even if a webpage has helpful information for viewers, a lack of organization won’t allow users to seamlessly navigate a site or webpage.

Bad Content Has No Audience

It does not matter if a business has a great product — if there’s no consumer demand then the business will fail. In the same way, a web blog without an audience may as well not be written at all. Any website must take a look at the components which define the audience:

• Profiles of past, present, and future customers
• Competitors and competitors’ customers

There are many ways to define an organization’s audience (all involve research). Since exposure is the goal of content marketing, website content that does not speak to a specific audience will not have the desired “marketing” effect.

Bad Content Does Not Build a Relationship

Content is created to build a relationship of trust with a current or possible customer. It’s sort of like saying: “Hey we’re going to give you this helpful information for free, maybe in exchange, we can do business together…”

Doing too much selling or self-promotion is one sure-fire way to get the “bad content” label. Readers don’t have to be sold to; they can simply leave one site for another that provides free, helpful information. Good content marketing will provide viewers with value. What’s more, a job done well will position the person or business as a thought-leader in their industry. Conversely, disregarding the signs of “bad content” will simply waste time and money — putting the website in question no closer to the top of your customer’s next Google.