Crafting high-quality content is no easy feat in this era of digital saturation. With so much content vying for attention, it can be tricky to stand out and create "good" content that grabs interest and encourages engagement. Thankfully, specific characteristics define good content, and by understanding these factors, creators can ensure their hard work generates the desired reactions. We will examine what makes good content in this blog post.

Content is everywhere

Content is information that can be a blog post, picture, video, or any media that people can digest online. The word "content" has become popular in recent years due to the influx of the content creator industry, where people from all walks of life can create content and use it for recognition and earning income. Traditionally, content also includes information found in printed works like books, but recent times have made "content" more associated with those found online, and for a good reason. People now spend more time online than in the past, and what better way to spread information than to post it online so more people can see them.

The online world is the realm of content creators. So many people are vying for recognition and attention for their works. This is pretty understandable, as content creation nowadays can be a good source of income if you make it big. Anybody can create content with all the tools and technology we have today, but not everybody is capable of creating good content. To become the next big hit and be the darling of various companies wanting you to advertise their product, one must know how to create quality content. When you do, it will become easier to rack up the views and engagement from people, and the following tips can help you do just that.

1. Catch the people's interest within the first part of your content

People can be busy and have short attention spans, so your content must catch their attention immediately within the introductory parts of your content so that they can get hooked and consume the entire content for engagement. For example, for a blog post, the title of the article must be catchy enough, and the introductory paragraph should be interesting, such as starting with a personal story or experience to introduce the article or summarizing what the blog post is all about and telling the people what they can get out of it. For video content, your video's thumbnail and title should catch people's attention. The first few minutes of the video must be informative or entertaining enough to get the people to watch the rest of the video. For pictures, try to post something amusing or can pique viewers' interest. Adding captions or a few lines of text to describe the image or hook them with something can also work.

No matter how good your content is, it won't be effective in its purpose if you can't get people to continue engaging in it, and the introductory parts of your content are the frontline soldiers tasked with catching people's attention, so do your best to make it as engaging and interesting as possible.

2. Make it easy for people to digest your content

So you managed to hook people into your content because of your fantastic introduction. Your next task would be to maintain their attention throughout your content so they engage with it. This means that succeeding information and the main body of your content should be just as attractive, if not more, as your introduction. The presentation should be so that people can easily visualize and understand the format and how information is structured.

• For written works, separate different subject matter content into paragraphs, and use subheadings, bullets, and lists to make it easier for people to find the information they seek. Use fonts that make it easier for people to read on screens, and use colors appropriately, such as black text on a lighter-colored background like white.
• For videos, it would be nice if there is an option to add timestamps to your video, such as those on YouTube, so people can skip to necessary parts of the video if they like. Also, it is essential to maintain good quality for the video, in terms of resolutions like 720p or 1080p, so people can feel more compelled to watch due to the good visual clarity. Audio should also be clear so people can understand what is being said.
• It is always nice to add pictures and attach videos in articles to make them more engaging and not just make people read through a wall of text, as not all people can read only words for a certain amount of time. Images should be placed near the related texts, and posting high-quality photos can be a plus. Try not to post too many images, such as those with the same background, and the person in the pictures is the only one changing poses. Add some variety and include pictures that can make people curious, such as an image of something many may not have seen before.

3. Include a call of action in the last parts of your content

Most kinds of content nowadays have a particular purpose behind their creation. The content creator must have intended their creation to advertise, educate, entertain, inform, or inspire people. Usually, one can notice the mission statement or purpose of content in the conclusion or last parts of the content. For blog posts, there will be statements telling people to do something, such as following links to other websites or content within the same website or telling them to do some action in their lives. The last part of a video will have the creator saying something about their sponsors or asking their followers for comments or suggestions. Various posts with images may contain links to other people's accounts relevant to the post's subject matter, or they may have a statement asking questions for discussion. Whatever the call of action is, it is essential to include them for engagement.

4. Good content can be searched by people

For good content to be found by people, it must appear in the results pages generated by search engines, such as Google. The higher the rank of the content in the results by appearing on the first pages, the better. For this to happen, content must contain relevant keywords that fully use search engine optimization (SEO). Some tools help content creators find out which keywords rank high when people search for particular terms. This allows creators to make their content more relevant by creating content centered around these keywords or trending topics. For written works, creators can put specific keywords in their texts. In contrast, for videos, creators can target a particular niche and create videos centered around it to have better chances of views and engagement. By incorporating relevance and trending subjects and keywords, one's content will have a greater chance of appearing in the top search results of websites and various social media platforms, making it easier for people to find and access your content.

5. Provide something unique or original

Originality and uniqueness are two factors that can make content stand out. With so much content out there that focuses on the same subject or type of content, it can be challenging to stand out and make a name for yourself. This is where creating original content or sharing a different or unique perspective on something that has already been done many times can help. While it can't be helped that we borrow ideas from others to generate our content, do not plagiarize but instead put your spin on the ideas, such as using your unique delivery style and words to produce an output different from others. Utilizing SEO is one part of the game, but search engines also want to look for relevant and unique content that can satisfy people's queries about something. So try to create unique content as much as possible when creating content.

6. Your content fulfills a need or interest in something or answers a question by people

We mentioned before that there is a purpose behind creating different types of content, such as informing or entertaining people. As long as content satisfies a particular need, it will have a chance to engage with people. This is why many content creators will try to ride the wave of whatever is currently trending. Creating content about a current trend will have a high chance of relevance and engagement with people since it is something that many people will most likely search for on websites and social media. Even if it is not about something trendy, content can still be helpful if it provides valuable information to a target audience. For example, how-to videos show people how to do a particular thing, and there will be a demand from less knowledgeable people about what the video shows. Although the numbers may not be as high as trending items, content that answers a question fills a need for particular groups of people. As long as you think there will be a recipient for your content, you can create it and have them engage with it.

Polish your content and rank high in search engines.

It is always possible to create great content by following several tips like the ones we listed. By optimizing content to cater to people's interests and search engines' demands, content can rank higher and fulfill people's needs while helping content creators achieve their goals. Do keyword research and find out what's trending to keep up with current times. It also helps if our content is optimized to look good regardless of where it is viewed, such as on mobile devices. There are many ideas to use as the basis for our content, and it's a matter of finding that niche where you can be the expert and share something with others while also giving what your audience is looking for. Working as a content creator can be a viable career path, especially if you are looking for something where you can throw your creativity and imagination to create things that can also become a source of living for you.