What is a high quality blog? The key features to look for

You’ve set up your blog. You have your editorial calendar planned out months in advance. You’re ready to write … but you’re not quite sure if your content is the very best it can be.

Sound familiar?

In the content writing world, you’ll often see the term “high quality content.” I won’t lie, it’s a term that can sound incredibly vague to a newbie or industry outsider. That’s why I’m here to break it down, from the words to the formatting and everything in between. Read on to find out what a high quality blog looks like in Google’s all-important virtual eyes!

High quality blog: a definition

Ah, quality.

It’s something we all appreciate and strive towards, but in certain areas it can be hard to determine. Especially when it comes to the digital realm. It’s not like a garment, where you can feel durable fabric and see solid, even stitching.

I’ll be honest … in some cases, quality is very much subjective. Have you ever watched a movie and thought it was amazing, only to find out it has an embarrassingly low score on Rotten Tomatoes? Blog content — or anything written, for that matter — can feel that way. But there are some key factors that can put a blog in the “high quality” arena, at least from a technical point of view.

So for the sake of content writing and SEO, a high quality blog is one that:

• Is informative and provides value to the reader
• Looks good and is easy to read
• Is well-written

This probably still sounds vague, so I’ll break it down even further.

How to write a high quality blog: provide value & information

The goal of any blog is to provide information, so that’s pretty straightforward. For example, this blog is providing information by explaining what a high quality blog means in terms of content writing and SEO. As long as you have a clear topic and you cover all* (or at least the most important) the bases, you’ll be golden.

Now, value is a bit trickier. It’s a word I’m sure you’ve seen a million times in the marketing world.

Value is subjective, because everyone has a different concept of it. What I find valuable is not necessarily what you might find valuable. I do hope that you’ll find this blog valuable, but your unique concept of value might mean that you don’t. It’s ok, I promise I won’t take it too personally if that’s the case.

Essentially when it comes to value, the goal is to leave the reader with insights, tips, or action steps that they can start using in their life.

So with this blog, I’m hoping you’ll be able to walk away feeling more confident in your blog writing and formatting abilities, knowing that you’re on the right track to producing high quality content.

Let’s say you’re a skincare brand, and your company blog is filled with information, tips, and resources that can help readers overcome common skin issues and product concerns. That’s providing them with value. It’s taking the information within the blog one step further and explaining how they can use their newfound knowledge to make their lives just a little bit better. Again, it’s not guaranteed that every reader will understand or appreciate the value you provide, but all you can do is try.

*Side note: This principle is why long-form blog posts tend to rank higher on search engines than short-form blog posts. The more content you have, the more value you should be able to bring. This isn’t always the case, as I have seen short-form blogs appear on the first page of Google. I don’t agree with forcing long-form blog posts if you don’t have enough to write about (you don’t want your content to be like your high school essays), but aim to provide as much information and value as possible.

How to write a high quality blog: formatting & readability

So you’ve got all your information and value ready. Now you need to make sure that it’s easy to digest. This is where formatting and readability come into play.

Humans are visual creatures, and we like things that are easy on the eyes. That very much includes the written word.

Certain formatting techniques make content (and any form of writing, for that matter) easier to read. This is a bonus in Google’s eyes, because if a page is hard to read, chances are people will close it and find one that isn’t. The good news is that readability and user-friendly formatting are pretty straightforward.

Think about the types of content you find easy to read, and notice if there are any patterns. I’ll give you a minute.

In general, humans like variety. We don’t like monotony, which translates to massive blocks of text when it comes to writing. Ever get overwhelmed when your mom sends you a text that looks like an email? Now compare that to when your friend excitedly sends you 10 short messages in a row. The short messages are easier to read, because they’re broken up.

Pair that with our ever-decreasing attention spans, and you’ll understand why human eyes prefer things in small doses.

So to write a well-formatted blog in terms of readability, you’ll want to apply those same principles:

• Avoid big, monotonous blocks of text. Keep your paragraphs short and sweet at just a few sentences per paragraph when possible. I don’t recommend breaking up cohesive ideas just to stick to this rule, but always aim for conciseness.
• Keep your sentence lengths varied. Readability checkers recommend keeping most of your sentences under 20 words, but if you’ve got to make a point, you’ve got to make a point. In the spirit of variety, it is good to mix up your sentence lengths. Your writing will look and feel off if all of your sentences are the same length — think Bart Simpson’s detention paragraph in the Simpsons intro. Your eyes start to glaze over after the first few sentences.
• Play around with what I like to call statement sentences. These are one-liners that float between paragraphs. They stand out, much like a statement accessory.
• Add in headers where appropriate. Headers are amazing at breaking up blocks of text because they’re just so big. They’re also great for SEO — try and use them to strategically insert your targeted keywords. Use a mix of H1, H2, H3, and H4 headers if/when possible. Depending on your website/formatting platform, H1 and H2 headers can look massive. It’s ok to stick to smaller sizes if you think they look better.
• Use transitional punctuation features like ellipses (…) and em dashes (—) when appropriate. They’re great tools for bringing even more variety to your sentence structures. Plus, they create a little sense of intrigue that keeps readers engaged. When you see one, you start thinking, “What’s going to happen next? Where is this leading to?”
• Write in an active voice when possible. An active voice is a grammatical structure that places emphasis on a verb and its performer. It’s more clear and direct than a passive voice, which makes it easier to read. For example, “she is wearing a blue sweater” is an active voice. “The sweater is being worn by her” is a passive voice.

You may have already noticed all of these features in this blog post. Keep an eye out for them in other blog posts — I’m sure you’ll find them.

If all of that feels like a lot, you can always run your content through a readability checker. Hemingway is free and gives you easy tips on how to edit your content to make it more readable. It also checks spelling and grammar, so the end result will be good to go.

How to write a high quality blog: good writing

And last but certainly not least, writing quality. This is perhaps the toughest one because of subjectivity. Just like value, everyone perceives writing quality in their own way.

The good news is that content writing is not like academic, technical, or even creative writing. It’s a bit more human and casual, so you can have some fun with it. At least I do.

With that said, you’ll want to make sure your content writing aligns with your company’s brand voice so it feels consistent. I’ll touch on brand voice some other time, but essentially the writing in your blog content should fit in with the rest of the copy in your brand’s marketing and communications (website, social media, email marketing, brochures, or any other form of writing). It should have the same feel and use the same type of language and key phrases.

You’ll also want writing that’s engaging and interesting — IMO, these are markers of good quality blog writing. If your writing is captivating enough to keep the reader hooked, you’ve done a good job. On top of being informative, valuable, and formatted in a way that’s easy to read, that is. Oh, and having correct spelling and grammar.

And that’s it, whew! I hope this article has given you a better understanding of what marketers and content writers mean when they talk about high quality blogs.

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There are a lot of things to keep in mind when it comes to writing a high quality blog that ranks. If you’re feeling like none of this is your cup of tea, that’s totally ok, because content writers like me exist!