In digital first industries, content marketers walk a fine line between SEO optimisation and creative flair. Unfortunately, the former frequently overshadows the latter.

While the ‘art’ of writing will never truly die, it is safe to say that it has changed immeasurably over the past decade. Muddied by the ceaseless churn of digital marketers eager to please the Googlebot overlords, the aftermath of an algo-centric content explosion is visible far and wide, with businesses fighting for visibility amid generic listicles and blogs.

Fortunately, the tide seems to be turning. With Google’s guidelines placing emphasis on genuinely helpful content, business owners and aspiring creators are once again looking to up their game and create great content.

If this rings true, you’ve come to the right place. But there’s work to be done.

Web Content & Web Copy Are NOT The Same

At risk of splitting hairs, I want to be clear that this article concerns itself with the importance of high quality web content, not copy. Yes, there is a difference, so bear with me.

As a rule of thumb, web copy exists to engage and convert, encouraging site users to take the next step or make a commitment of some kind. Be this navigation, download, enquiry or purchase, web copy needs to be short, snappy and enticing in order to guide users, facilitate their intentions and sell. If you’re looking for ways to improve these elements, I’d recommend familiarising yourself with the concept of conversion rate optimisation.

Web content, on the other hand, consists of informational and value adding resources. Blogs, articles, guides, videos and images all fall within this category, providing users with the information they seek and, ideally, demonstrating your business’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). 

This brings us to the issue at hand. If you’re finding it difficult to grow your brand, establish an audience or gain users’ trust, it’s likely that your web content is failing to do one, some or all of the above. Fortunately, it’s never too late to turn the tide and, with a new era of search on the horizon, this is the perfect opportunity to outshine your competition. 

So, here’s why your content sucks, and how you can fix it.

You Don’t Know Your Audience

First and foremost, great content should serve a purpose. Specifically, it should serve users’ intent. Not search algorithms, not bots and not shareholders or execs looking to inflate their egos. Real, human, users.

Your web content should be of value to actual people, and this is near impossible if you don’t know who they are. I’ll talk about this in detail a little later, but it’s worth noting that only through a clear understanding of your customer base can insights be drawn and content planned.

If your content is missing the mark, there’s a good chance you don’t know who you’re creating it for. That, or you think you know who you’re writing for, but your once familiar audience has evolved to a point beyond recognition. Either way, it’s time to reassess.

You Don’t Know Your Brand 

Hear me out; this is by no means a suggestion that you are somehow unaware of the intricacies of your own products or services. Nor that business owners are so far removed from day to day operations that they forget what they do. Quite the opposite, in fact. It is usually an increased focus on the practicality of business that sees branded content fall by the wayside.

Well crafted content serves a number of purposes. One of which is to position your brand effectively. Put simply, your content should ensure that your audience is seeing your brand the way you see yourselves. All too often, however, businesses’ content falls short as it lacks a recognisable written style or tone of voice. This translates to a lack of consistency, authoritativeness and trust. It’s worth noting that this style doesn’t need to be edgy, outlandish or earth-quakingly disruptive, it just needs to sound like you. 

A deeper understanding of your brand, values, goals and objectives will help to establish a clear, universally applicable tone of voice. Whether you’re writing blogs, articles, resource guides, email campaigns or social media posts, this ensures consistency across all platforms.

You’re Not Saying Anything

The web is awash with generic SEO-focussed blog content that provides little to no new or useful information to users. If your content is failing to connect with your audience, it’s likely that you’re not actually saying anything. Emphasis on you here. 

What I mean by this is that regurgitating pre-existing, easily-accessible information related to your industry will only get you so far. If you want users (and Google) to deem your content as useful, it needs to be saying something unique.

I’m not saying you have to reinvent the wheel here, nor embark on a journey of trailblazing research that changes the field forever (although that would be cool). You just need to focus on planning and creating unique, original content. As I’ll discuss below, this will usually come off the back of genuine audience insights.

Upping Your Game: Insights, Strategy & Understanding 

As you may have noticed, a unifying theme runs through each of the above points: a lack of direction. Most likely, you’re falling short not because you’re ‘bad’ at creating content, but because you simply do not know what to create. Here lies the importance of insight, strategy and execution.

Insights

Ask any copywriter, designer or strategist and they’ll tell you the same thing; knowing who you’re talking to is content creation 101. Moreover, Google’s Helpful Content guidelines prioritise insightful content that demonstrates originality and a clear understanding of user intent. In other words, your content should add value and provide the answers that your audience is searching for. Doing so requires an understanding of said audience. 

If I were writing for an e-commerce business, for example, and wanted to create helpful content, I’d begin by considering what it is that prospective customers are looking for. 

• What questions do your customers frequently ask?
• What issues do your audience face?
• How does your business solve these issues?
• How can your content meet users’ immediate needs in a way that others’ does not? 

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, it’s always helpful to read through customer service emails, interview employees and sales staff and make notes on customer queries and comment sections.

Next, I’d group these questions into 3-5 main topics. Let’s use an online furniture store as an example. These topics might include:

• Design & Style
• DIY
• Prices

These topics would form ‘hubs’, for which hyper-relevant, insightful content would be created. 

The number one aim of these hub pages is to answer customer questions as clearly and succinctly as possible. No keyword cramming or waffling for the sake of it. Focus on meeting your audience’s immediate needs.

Finally, I’d create ‘spokes’; supporting content related to each of the above hubs. This might take the form of blogs and articles, newsletters or case studies.

The aim of this ‘spoke’ content is to answer specific customer questions. These pages would be unique and insightful, incorporating original photographs, staff insights and useful links.

It’s worth noting that there are no hard and fast rules to this hub and spoke method of content creation. The important thing is to create content that is ACTUALLY helpful. As new questions and audience needs arise, new spokes can be created. 

Strategy

Sun Tzu describes strategy without tactics as ‘the slowest route to victory’, and tactics without strategy as ‘the noise before defeat.’ Content is the tactic through which you position your brand, engage your audience and demonstrate your knowledge. Without strategy, however, you’re trying to boil the ocean. 

Clear-cut strategy is fundamental to the creation of great web content; it exists as a direct translation of insights and research. The above mentioned hub and spoke method of content creation is one example of strategy, but it is far from the only option. 

Consider how your content can serve as the vessel for the messages your business wishes to convey and the brand you wish to present. Then, take the time to plan a comprehensive strategy for content creation over the coming months. Consistency is key here; keeping your site updated with both reactive and evergreen content will ensure that your audience can find answers to both their hyper-specific and broader questions. 

Execution

Black hat marketers and cowboys will tell you that quantity, keywords and backlinks are the secret ingredients to success. While this may have offered some quick wins in the past, SEO is changing rapidly and these techniques just won’t cut it anymore.

In addition to the Helpful Content updates I mentioned earlier, the introduction of AI search functions such as Google SGE and Gemini has seen an increased focus on well-written web content. In other words, even the most meticulous of strategy unravels with poor execution; there is no way around badly written content.

The importance of expertly created content cannot be overstated. It allows businesses to position their brand effectively and connect with their audience on a deeper level. This inevitably translates into trust, awareness and conversions.

Giving Customers The Content They Deserve

Acknowledging sub-par content is a tough pill to swallow, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Moreover, rarely do business owners have the time, nor skill set required to consistently produce great content. That’s okay, it’s what copywriters are for.

Here at Superb Digital, we’ve taken our fair share of clients to the top of the search results via the implementation of watertight strategy and expertly written content across numerous channels. Book a discovery call to find out what makes our strategy so effective.