You must have heard a million little times by now that quality should always be valued more than quantity. But what you might not have heard yet is that quantity has a quality all of its own. Granted, this pearl of wisdom has been mainly used in and attributed to military and geopolitical matters (suggesting there’s strength in numbers), but it can be applied to many other areas, including content marketing.
The quality vs. quantity in content marketing dilemma has inspired many fruitful and, quite frankly, entertaining conversations. Unsurprisingly, some digital marketers lean towards quality, while others favor quantity. To make things more interesting, both groups have excellent arguments. That’s exactly why our position is right in the middle.
To understand what we mean by that, we first need to explain why both quality and quantity are both important pieces of the content-marketing puzzle.
Your content needs to be authentic and offer value to your readers if you want to see the desired results (increased organic traffic, new leads, and higher conversion rates). In other words, you need to create content with a specific purpose or end-goal in mind. That can be providing your target audience with up-to-date and relevant info on certain topics, educating them on emerging trends in your industry, offering tried-and-true tips and tricks on how to achieve something, or simply entertaining them (let’s face it, nobody is immune to a funny GIF or a witty meme).
Here are some of the key reasons why you shouldn’t trade quality for quantity:
Always do your best to create unique and engaging content, content that people will enjoy so much that they won’t be able to help but share it with their friends and family on social media and through other channels.
The Google algorithm, of course, will pick up on this important detail and rank your content high (place your content high on the SERPs—search engine results pages). According to the First Page Sage 2021 update on Google’s search algorithm, the consistent publication of engaging content is the number-one ranking factor, accounting for 26% of your site’s SEO success.
Throw in the Google EAT guidelines, and quality is more important than ever.
High-quality content will give you an edge over your competitors. Providing your visitors with effective solutions to their problems and/or unique perspectives on given topics, ones your competition doesn’t offer, will help you stand out from the rest and establish yourself as a leader in your niche. If you publish quality content on a regular basis, you can become the go-to authority for answers in your industry.
Mindlessly pumping out low quality content, on the other hand, will only further saturate the market and reduce your chances of edging out your competitors. This approach is also likely to turn off potential customers.
Creating and distributing well-researched and well-written content lets your target audience know you’re not just a click-bait site and you’re not just trying to shove a product or ad in their face. It shows them that you’re devoted to helping them one way or the other.
This realization can significantly boost customer loyalty and reduce customer churn. Poor-quality, random content rarely offers any value and often leaves readers (more) confused and frustrated because they’ve just spent 5/10/15 minutes of their time going through a piece of content without getting the answer they needed or learning anything useful.
This is one of the strongest arguments for the quality of content. A single piece of top-grade content can be used to create additional content. For example, if you have a blog post that’s generating a lot of engagement, you could select its key points and stats and turn them into an infographic. Another great option is to create a few concise and visually appealing social media posts based on it. This can be done with practically any rich and insightful piece on your website.
Now you know why some digital marketers can’t stop talking about the power of quality in content marketing. Are they right to choose quality over quantity, though? It’s actually a false dichotomy, as the situation isn’t “either… or.” Rather, it’s a case of “both… and.”
You see, quantity plays a huge role in achieving content marketing goals. Here, the size of your content and the regularity of publishing are immensely important. Let us explain why.
The length of an article or a blog post is a key detail you need to define before starting content production. Extremely short pieces of content cannot dive deep into a certain problem, trend, or topic, which means they’ll most likely leave your target audience with unanswered questions. This is an unfavorable scenario because it often ends with your visitors leaving your website/social media account to look for answers elsewhere.
Aside from covering a particular topic with a high level of detail, long-form pieces of content usually have more social shares, more organic traffic, and a higher SERPs ranking as well.
What about the volume of content posted on a given platform? It, too, matters a lot. According to HubSpot’s study on blog post frequency, businesses with 51 to 100 web pages per website generate 48% more traffic than those with 1 to 50 web pages per website. The report also shows that companies that blog 15 or more times on a monthly basis get 5 times more traffic than their blogless competitors.
But high-volume content results in so much more than just traffic. Regularly producing and distributing blog posts multiple times a month will increase your inbound leads, which will eventually lead to more paying customers. This, of course, is one of the main objectives of any content marketing strategy.
As you can see, choosing quantity over quality and vice versa can result in a weaker content marketing strategy. Don’t fall into this trap! Always remember that there’s a third option: getting the best of both worlds.
Despite what many digital marketers believe, quality and quantity don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The reality is that striking a balance between quality and quantity is completely doable. You need to show Google that you’re here both to:
In other words, you need to produce helpful and innovative content on a regular basis for the best results. A single piece of content cannot cover all the information you want to share with your target audience. Opting for the other extreme isn’t smart either. Creating and posting a huge amount of mediocre posts that only mirror what’s already been said can annoy and put off your (existing and potential) customers.
To find that sweet spot between quality and quantity, you need to conduct extensive research on your industry and study your competition’s highest-rated and best content. The data you’ll gather will show you what types of content have the best SERPs rankings and how long they are (their word count). You should develop your content in light of these findings.
The quality vs. quantity dilemma has ignited some thought-provoking debates in the content marketing world. However, there’s a growing consensus that finding the right balance of quality and quantity for your company or brand is the best approach. Quantity can generate the desired outcomes only when coupled with quality and vice versa.
As you can see, it’s not a matter of quality or quantity, it’s a matter of quality and quantity in the right balance. Nailing the answer of a single search query won’t establish you as a reliable authority in your niche, but neither will pushing out countless mediocre articles and blog posts. If you’re not sure where to begin, we recommend learning more about content writing and how to build a team so you can stay on top of your content production and keep the best of both worlds.
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