How filler content can hurt your content marketing efforts, and how to avoid it.
When it comes to content, quality matters.
No matter what type of content you’re creating — blog posts, podcasts, videos, or any other type — quality matters.
And when I say quality, I don’t just mean writing in a clear and concise manner. Quality also refers to the content itself.
Ask yourself: Is this content interesting? Is it engaging? Does it offer value?
If the answer is no, then your content is not up to par and could be costing you customers.
Introduction to content marketing and its importance
Content marketing is the practice of creating and sharing valuable content to attract and engage audiences.
It’s important because it helps build relationships with potential customers and generate more sales. Content marketing isn’t just publishing blog posts, but it can be anything from podcasts to videos, infographics to e-books, and so much more.
Content marketing is used to create leads and drive conversions. It doesn’t just build brand awareness, but also helps grow a loyal customer base that loves your products or services.
Content marketing can be used for a variety of purposes such as providing educational information, entertaining readers, building trust in your brand, and more.
It’s important to create content that resonates with your target audience. Tailor your content to fit their needs and provide solutions to their problems. This will help you attract more customers who are interested in what you have to offer.
Content marketing should also be part of an overall strategy that includes other marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email campaigns, social media, etc. All these strategies work together to help you achieve success with content marketing.
This is why the importance of content marketing cannot be overstated. It’s an essential part of any digital marketing strategy today.
Definition of filler content and why it can be harmful
Filler content is superfluous material that doesn’t add any value to a website or piece of content.
It’s basically “fluff” or “padding” that takes up space but doesn’t provide any real information.
In some cases, filler content can be unintentional — like an overly long sentence that could easily be split into two shorter sentences. But often times filler content is intentional — like adding humorous anecdotes in an article that don’t really contribute to the topic at hand.
Filler content can also take the form of irrelevant images, overly long introductions, or unnecessary words and phrases that don’t do anything to strengthen the message or help with SEO optimization.
Examples of filler content in content marketing
- Using irrelevant statistics or data to support a point
- Repeating information that has already been stated
- Filling the content with fluff words or unnecessary adjectives
- Including irrelevant or outdated information
- Copying content from other sources without proper attribution or adding any unique value
Why filler content is bad for your business
Filler content has a negative effect on your business for several reasons:
1. It dilutes your message
If you have too much filler content in your website or blog post, it will dilute your message and undermine the core point you are trying to make.
Your readers will struggle to find the nugget of information they came for and may get frustrated and leave before they find what they are looking for.
This means they won’t convert into customers, resulting in lost revenue for your business.
2. It hurts SEO rankings
Filler content can also hurt your SEO rankings because search engines want to see quality and relevant information on websites they index and rank highly in their search results.
If search engine algorithms detect too much fluff on your website, they might lower its ranking as a result. You want people to be able to easily find your website when searching for information related to your topic — so don’t let filler content get in the way of this goal!
3. It wastes time & resources
Creating quality content takes time and resources — from researching topics and developing ideas all the way through writing, editing, designing visuals, uploading files, etc..
If you fill up this valuable time with unnecessary words and phrases that don’t add anything meaningful to your website or blog post — then you are wasting both time and resources (not to mention money).
Tips for avoiding filler content in your content marketing strategy
Create a content plan and stick to it
If you want to write better, you need to have a content plan.
→ A content plan gives you direction.
→ A content plan keeps you focused.
→ A content plan prevents you from writing fluff.
Focus on providing value and solving problems for your audience
When you’re writing, it’s important to focus on providing value and solving problems for your audience.
→ If you focus on providing value, your writing will be helpful and informative.
→ If you focus on solving problems, your writing will be actionable and useful.
Use keyword research to ensure your content is relevant and targeted
If you want to ensure that your content is relevant and targeted, you need to do keyword research.
→ Keyword research helps you to understand what people are searching for.
→ Keyword research helps you to understand what people are struggling with.
→ Keyword research helps you to understand what people are interested in.
Edit and proofread your content to eliminate unnecessary or irrelevant information
One of the most important editing tips is to cut out unnecessary or irrelevant information.
→ If it’s not essential, cut it out.
→ If it’s not interesting, cut it out.
→ If it’s not relevant, cut it out.
The goal is to make your content as concise and as focused as possible.
Incorporate visuals and multimedia to enhance your content and keep it engaging
When it comes to content, words are important. But visuals are just as important.
→ Visuals help to break up the text and make your content more engaging.
→ Visuals help to illustrate your points and make your content more understandable.
→ Visuals help to make your content more shareable.
If you want your content to be successful, you need to incorporate visuals and multimedia.
How to identify & remove filler content
The first step in identifying and removing filler content is being mindful when creating new website copy or pieces of written material — like blog posts or articles — by asking yourself questions like:
• Is this sentence/paragraph/section necessary?
• Does it add value?
• Is there a better way I can phrase this so it packs more impact?
Once you have written something (or had someone else write something), take another pass over it during the editing process with fresh eyes and ask yourself these same questions again.
In addition to self-editing (or having someone else edit) written material for clarity & flow; using tools like Hemingway Editor can also help identify sentences & phrases where words have been used unnecessarily (as well as identifying complex sentences & phrases that may need reworking).
Finally; for websites specifically; use tools like Site Auditor by Moz which will analyze pages on a website & identify any potential issues with SEO optimization or keyword density (which could be caused by too much fluff).
In conclusion,
filler content can be harmful to a content marketing strategy and can negatively impact a business. It can decrease the engagement and trust of the audience, as well as the search engine rankings and organic traffic of a website.
To avoid filler content, businesses can create a content plan, focus on providing value and solving problems for their audience, use keyword research, edit and proofread their content, and incorporate visuals and multimedia.
By avoiding filler content, businesses can improve the effectiveness of their content marketing efforts and better connect with their target audience.