Online Marketing

What Does Quality Over Quantity Mean for SEO?

what does quality over quantity mean

Updated on May 25, 2021

The phrase quality over quantity is becoming more prevalent in many different aspects of life including food, exercise, and managing finances. It’s the idea that less can be more, if done right. And this idea is not only applicable, but very important in relation to search engine optimization. So, what does quality over quantity mean for SEO? We’ll go over three SEO tactics where it plays a big role.

Blog Articles

The quality of the content is more important than the quantity of published articles.

Creating consistent content is one of the most important pieces of SEO. You need to provide content for the search engine to rank in order to receive traffic. But, the trick is to create high value content.

The quality of the content is far more important than the sheer number of articles you publish. If you create a blog article every single day, but they aren’t useful to anyone, they won’t help you rank in search engines.

Not only does this apply to the number of articles you produce, but this can also be applied to the length of each post. A longer post does not mean it’s better. Again, the quality of the content will outweigh the quantity of text.

External Links

The quality of the link’s domain is more important than the quantity of links received.

Not all external links are equal. One link from a high authority and trustworthy website can provide far more value than one-hundred low quality links.

In fact, getting links from sites that are considered spam can actually harm your rankings.

Generally speaking, you don’t have to worry too much about your external links. Gaining them naturally over time is the best route. If you have a strategy in place to try and earn links, remember to focus on high quality websites.

You want links from websites that have visitors you want to attract. When earning a link, look at the quality of the website. Is this a website you would feel proud to have a link on? If a link provided absolutely no SEO value, would you still want this link because it would be a benefit to the visitors of this website? If so, then that would be a good external link to earn.

If the website, on the other hand, feels like a site you would be nervous to visit, then you should think twice about trying to earn a link there. Even if it helps you out in the short term, it could hurt your brand. And as search algorithms continue to improve the temporary gain will likely cause you issues in the long run.

Social Followers

The quality of your social followers is more important than the quantity of followers.

Engagement is far more important on every social network than follower count. The number of followers is nothing more than a vanity metric. It looks nice, and it’s exciting to watch it grow, but it doesn’t provide you any value if those people don’t engage. There are more important social metrics to track.

The point of social networks is to connect with others; to be social. You need to build relationships and establish trust. People buy from people they trust.

Having engaged, high-quality followers improves the chances that your website will benefit from your social efforts. Additionally, most social media platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) reward you for engagement. If people engage with your posts, those people are more likely to see your posts in their feed.

Social networks don’t want to overwhelm people. Their algorithms work hard to display content that matters to that person. When people like, comment, or share your post they are showing the algorithm that your content matters to them.

In Summary

The big takeaway here is to be successful, you need to do what’s best for your community and for the people you want to join your community. You need to think of people first and try to provide the best experience possible. Search engines want to provide the best results possible, so always make sure you aim to make your article the best response for the targeted query.

This is why focusing on quality with every SEO tactic will provide more benefit than quantity. And that is how you will have long-term SEO success.

In what aspect do you feel quality over quantity plays a role in SEO? Please share with us in the comments.


Do you want to listen to this article? Here’s the podcast episode:

About the Author

Jennifer Rogina is the Co-Founder & Lead Marketer of ClearPath Online, a DIY SEO tool for entrepreneurs to grow their own website traffic. Jennifer has been a digital marketing specialist since 2008. In that time she has focused on search engine optimization, digital analytics, and conversion optimization.

FREE ONLINE COURSE

HOW TO DO SEO YOURSELF

Learn how to grow your own website traffic.

Learn More

ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN! Register for the free How To Do SEO Yourself online course.