We all make mistakes. It’s inevitable. Good marketers and business professionals know this. They also know that mistakes – and learning from them – are a vital part of the process of building success. As a copywriting professional and owner of a successful custom writing company, I can tell you that my writers and I have put out a lot of fires for clients over the past few years, many of which have had to do with reworking and refocusing clients’ blogs to make them more effective.
There are a few universal truths about people that cannot be ignored in your copy. There are a number of turnoffs that are common in the average blog that are definitely motivating a large contingency of your readers to click past your content without giving it a second thought. Today, I want to share with you a few common mistakes that I see in website blogs that, if you fix them, will help you generate more leads and, ultimately, more conversions no matter what business you’re in.
Mistake #1: Your Message Is Too Complex
There’s a time and a place for long-form content. In fact, I think that a good blog has a fair balance of long-form and shorter pieces. That said, making a long-form blog post is much trickier than it is using the same or similar content in a sales letter, landing page, or section of your website.
If you have a lot of knowledge and experience in a certain area, perhaps the blog isn’t the best place to showcase it. Think long and hard before your seed your blog with a lot of wordy, heavy content. The odds of people reading every word are already slim. Don’t seal the deal for them to walk away by making your blog look like a drudgery to read. Keep your headlines concise and your message simple; it’s the best way to capture and hold your readers’ attention.
Mistake #2: You Make Everything About You
Let me be blunt: Nobody cares about you or your product. They don’t want to hear you talk about how great you are. Come across as self-indulgent, and you’ll trigger a powerful and immediate response of indifference from your readers. As I’ve said many times before, great content is focused on the audience, not the author.
Content that stimulates thought or strokes the ego is very effective. Content that attempts to convince people how wonderful you and your products/services are? Not so much. You communicate that by showing that you’re not only an expert in your field but that everything you do is for the benefit of the customer. You have to make people forget that this is about you making money and give the market what it wants. Do that, and the money will come.
Mistake #3: You Over-Seed with Content
I’ve said many times that it is important to maintain a steady flow of content that is always fresh and new, but that translates into different things on different blogs. Some blogs need daily updates, particularly those based on things like current events and swiftly changing trends. If, however, yours is a more static product, there’s just so much you can say about it in a small expanse of time. Avoid becoming repetitive in your copy. If need be, gear it down to 2-3 updates per week instead of deluging your audience with the same message every day. As long as it’s consistent, the actual interval isn’t that important.
Mistake #4: You’re Too Fixated on SEO
Try to remember that while SEO is a necessary part of the equation when developing content, it is a back end benefit. In order to achieve immediate results, you need content that flows logically. You cannot create content that is nothing more than a backdrop for keywords and expect it to be well-received. Consciously or unconsciously, people pick up on it, and then they bounce. A high bounce rate is counteractive to SEO, so, yes, make sure your entire site is optimized, but don’t fixate on writing content around keywords.
Mistake #5: You’re Always Trying to Hit a Word Count
We’ve actually had clients who wanted specific character counts, let alone word limits, because somebody told them that Google looks at these things and ranks based on how well the rules are followed. Well, that’s true and yet it’s not. Word and character length are only a very small part of the SEO equation.
In the copywriting world, we often bill by the word, but we also emphasize that article lengths are approximate. Where the myth came from that 500 is the magic number for SEO is beyond me. Articles as short as 300 words can have huge SEO benefits – it’s just a matter of how substantive the article is (along with other factors). Conversely, articles that short often lack the right degree of depth to really get the point across. Consider going more freeform with your copy and don’t be a stickler for a word count whether you write it yourself or hire a copywriter to do it for you.
Mistake #6: Your Copy Lacks a Logical Flow
There are three key parts to most successful blog posts: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. There are a number of ways to fit these parts together, and it’s a good idea to mix things up a bit.
Bear in mind, though, that when I say “mix it up,” I mean that you should maintain the basic framework but also provide variety. Many blogs, for example, conclude with a call to action. Some simply summarize the key points or “takeaways” in the article. You want a mix of both. Too many CTAs, and your blog starts sounding pushy or salesy; not enough, and it simply becomes a form of entertainment, not a marketing tool.
On a final note, remember that the best blogs are those that entertain, inform, educate, and sell in that order. Keep that in mind when you’re developing your content, and you’ll start developing a more dedicated readership over time.