Why You Just Can’t Have Fluff in Your Content Strategy

These days, it feels harder than ever to find useful information online. You search for something but end up wading through endless blogs and articles filled with vague, repetitive statements that don’t tell you anything new. This “fluff”—content that’s light on substance and heavy on keywords—is all too common. It’s super annoying, too, right? Besides, let’s be honest here, it’s frustrating.

Now, sure, every business wants to set itself apart, but in all honesty, this just isn’t the way to go at it. Seriosuly, it’s not. Thankfully, search engines like Google are getting better at filtering it out, making it essential for businesses to leave fluff behind and focus on real value. But that’s not the only reason to avoid fluff; let’s go a deep dive into why you should just flat-out avoid it in your content!

But What Exactly Is Fluff in Content?

Fluff in content is when an article, blog post, or any written material doesn’t really offer anything meaningful. It’s usually packed with generic information, vague statements, or unnecessary filler words that don’t add value to the reader. Now, this kind of content is often written just to meet a word count, optimize for SEO, or flood a page with keywords. But here’s the problem—people can tell when they’re reading fluff, and they won’t stick around for it. There’s just nothing entertaining there.

How AI Content Has Contributed to the Fluff Problem

In the past year, AI-generated content has become a big part of the fluff issue. While AI can churn out articles quickly, it often lacks the depth or technical expertise needed to truly provide value. Sure, it’s true that AI can regurgitate common information, but it rarely offers the unique insights or research that human expertise brings to the table. It’s just super repetitive, and if you’ve read one generic AI-filled article, you’ve basically read them all.

Now, you need to understand that readers want content that digs deeper, not content that skirts around the point with fluff.

There’s a Nasty Impact of Keyword Stuffing

So, it was mentioned twice, but this one seriously needs to be mentioned again. So, another big problem in the world of fluff is keyword stuffing. Now, this happens when businesses overload their content with as many SEO-friendly terms as possible, hoping it will help them rank higher on search engines.

Yes, at one point in time (years ago), this could have worked, but this idea is just super outdated now. Today, search engines like Google focus more on how helpful content is rather than how many times certain words are repeated.

Keyword-stuffed content not only makes for a poor reading experience but also a red flag for search engines. In fact, Google has become excellent at penalizing content that’s trying to game the system with keywords rather than offering valuable information. You’re really not doing yourself any favours here.

Algorithms are Finally Fighting Back Against Fluff

It was mentioned in the second-to-last sentence above, but this definitely deserves some more attention. Since AI-generated blogs and keyword stuffing have gotten a lot worse, many search engines figured enough was enough (thankfully). Besides, these algorithms are getting a lot smarter, too, which also helps. They’re learning how to recognise fluff and push it down the rankings.

Actually, the perfect example of this would be the introduction of Google’s Search Generative Experience. The concept is still a bit new because it was only released not too long ago, but it focuses on high-quality content (that is usually technical and human-written). 

So, regardless of your business or industry, this is definitely an option you should look into. Ideally, you should optimize for Google SGE right now, especially if you’ve been embracing AI-generated content a little too much.

Why Valuable Content Wins Every Time

Overall, the key to a successful content strategy is delivering value. When content provides in-depth information, technical insights, and practical advice, it engages the reader and builds trust. This type of content not only ranks better in search results, but it also keeps readers coming back for more. 

But what makes valuable content stand out? Well, in a way, it’s obvious if you have a specific question, it should be answered with a detailed response, right? It can’t be vague or generic, which is usually what fluff contains.

So, ideally, you’re going to have to go into a lot of depth in your content. If readers come to your page with a specific question, make sure you’re offering a thorough solution. But of course, you’re going to need to have expertise (remember EATS by Google as that’s still relevant) because you need to be credible, and yes, the info needs to be up to date as well.