Content may be king in SEO, but without at least a few loyal subjects, the title is hollow. Many companies pursue content creation, but find low returns on the capital and time they invest. They either get too little traffic or a high bounce rate and conclude the problem is with the concept of content marketing, not with implementation. If you aren’t getting enough from your content, take a close look at these mistakes and see if they look familiar.
Poor Search Engine Optimization
Great content with spotty search engine optimization does you little good. It’s like having a sale and forgetting to put your company’s name on the ads – customers can’t buy what they can’t find. SEO, or search engine optimization, brings you more traffic. SEO gives you a higher profile, and like having a storefront in a prime location, just being at the top can get you more business. If your current content doesn’t use keywords sparingly and naturally, get regular updates or use only fresh, original text customized for you, then you aren’t doing enough with your SEO strategy.
Outdated SEO
Sites misuse SEO in two ways, either by featuring too little of it or too much of the wrong kind. Outdated optimization techniques can even do active harm to your site’s ranking if search engines perceive your pages as low-quality or spam-filled. Keyword counts of greater than 2 to 3 percent don’t look natural to human readers, and they don’t pass muster with the increasingly sophisticated algorithms search engines use to deliver relevant responses to search strings. If your traffic has declined precipitously, it could be because a recent search engine update devalued your site.
Advertisements Instead of Content
Ads serve many important purposes for marketers. They increase awareness, drive interest and create desire, all of which are vital to customer acquisition. That doesn’t mean ads should be the thrust of your site; on the contrary, ad-heavy content drives readers away. Would you want to spend time on a site that spent all its efforts on selling you, or would you prefer to find useful product information, industry news or smart editorial pieces at a company’s site? Your customers feel the same way. Give them information-rich content that holds their attention naturally instead of trying to grab their attention with flash. Think of your site in terms of what you want your customer to see, not what you want to show them; when they like what they find on the surface, they’ll look deeper.
Bland Copy
If your site doesn’t distinguish itself from your competitors’ websites, you need to work on your copy. Good business content has a unique, readily identifiable voice that matches its company’s culture. By injecting some personality into your content, a great writing team can set you apart and make your site a destination. No matter what you make or sell, a good writer can make it engaging and enhance your reputation as an authority. Abandon the stuffy, buzzword-heavy business speech and find the writer who can connect with your customers by giving you a memorable voice.
Mistake-Filled Content
Authority has tremendous value. It’s one of the fundamentals of sound SEO strategies, an important factor in customer retention and a big consideration for prospects who might be on the fence. Content that’s filled with factual errors, poor grammar and misspellings undermines that authority. Factually and syntactically correct content shows your readers you care enough about what you’re saying to say it well – and that helps them care too.
Contact our SEO experts today at 855.867.3224 to start producing quality content that is search engine friendly.
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