There are two groups of marketers.
The first one says we should focus on publishing as much content as possible (quantity).
The second group says quality trumps quantity anytime.
In this article, we’re going to put a full stop to the “quality versus quantity” debate in content marketing.
In the old days, quantity got you a lot of traction on search engines.
You could publish very short blog posts and articles (maybe a few hundred words or so), and you’ll find yourself at the top of Google.
However, this strategy doesn’t work anymore.
If you check the first page of Google search results (for any keyword), you’ll find that the articles on the top 3 spots average at least 2,000 words.
And that’s just the average.
Nowadays, ‘skyscraper’ content is gaining in popularity.
Brands and businesses are competing for the top spot by publishing long-form articles.
What does this mean for you?
Well, it means that if you want search engines to give you some ranking love, then you need to publish long-form articles!
Note, however, that not all long-form articles fall into the high-quality camp.
After all, it’s so easy to string together a bunch of sentences and paragraphs to come up with 2,000 words.
Good thing search engines have become so much smarter nowadays.
It’s harder to game the system, and blackhat SEO tricks in the old days don’t work anymore (and could potentially backfire on you big time).
If you want to rank up high on search results pages, then you need to more than just publish a 2,000-word (or more) article.
It can’t be all fluff and no meat.
Search engines can detect the amount of time people stay on your site.
If people bounce far too quickly, then it’s telling Google that your content is no good.
Therefore, when creating content make sure you don’t just do it for the sake of search engines.
Rather, you should always put your human audience first.
Make sure they love your content, and you’ll be rewarded by Google and other search engines!
To conclude, it’s best to focus on quantity while also making sure you publish consistently and regularly.
Here’s our best-of-both-worlds suggestion: publish a good quantity of high-quality content, and your chances of dominating the search engines will be so much higher!
If you’d like to learn more about content marketing, we have a 30 Day Content Marketing Kit, included in our Platinum Membership or available to buy stand-alone, which takes you from Zero Marketing to Content Hero in just 30 days!