Come on, admit it… how much attention have you been paying to your SEO efforts lately? With so many ways to monetize content, too many marketers let certain key elements of SEO fall by the wayside.
What if I told you that you’re working harder and getting a lower ROI on your content than you should because you’re not keeping up with SEO trends? What if I also told you that the way to fix this problem is easier than you might think? If the notion of making more money with less effort appeals to you, keep reading. I have a number of things to share today that I think will help you get a better perspective on your content from the standpoint of SEO.
The following points reflect some of the most prominent issues I’ve seen over the years managing and running a successful copywriting company. Learn from your competition’s mistakes and either avoid or fix all of the following before publishing your next article or blog post.
#1 – Putting Off Site Updating and Auditing
Site updates and SEO audits are the easiest ways to keep your website in the good graces of search platforms like Google. Don’t get roped into paying huge fees to hosting companies to do this for you. They are using the same site auditing tools you can, and the vast majority of the process is automated.
As for site updates, your hosting company should be taking care of this automatically. If you have any doubts or questions, contact them and have them confirm that you’re using the latest versions of all relevant software and that your uptime stats are within the parameters of your contract.
#2 – Not Clearly Defining Your Niche
Targeting is a huge part of SEO. If your site, blog, or any part of your brand doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be or who it’s supposed to attract, it will adversely affect your rankings. Far too many marketers take an all-things-to-all-prospects approach to content marketing. Don’t split test content between niches in the same blog.
If you’re still in the testing phase of your marketing efforts, you really should develop separate blogs (and marketing strategies) for this purpose. It might mean spending a bit more in the beginning, but you’ll save a bundle in the long run if you don’t cut corners. Think separate blogs, separate domains, separate social media channels, etc. You can use your social channels to cross-market between blogs and learn more about your audience(s), but you will eventually want to settle into a single niche.
#3 – Not Updating Your Content Regularly
This is one of my regular mantras, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. Suffice it to say that if you let your content stagnate, so will your climb in page rankings. The major search platforms always have and always will favor sites that consistently produce high-quality, unique, and relevant content. If you’re finding this part of the process particularly difficult, I have a solution for you that I will share at the end of this post.
#4 – Not Using Current, Targeted Keywords
This is another one that I think too many marketers still neglect. Keywords rise and fall in relevance and usage, so keywords you paid someone to research in 2019 are probably not getting you anywhere in 2021. So when should you research keywords? The answer is simple: research them for each and every new post or article. Don’t convince yourself that it isn’t necessary or that it’s too time-consuming. Well-researched and well-placed keywords will only help you build better SEO stats.
#5 – Not Keeping Content Quality in Check
Another huge mistake marketers make is assuming that as long as their keyword game is strong, their content quality doesn’t matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. The quality of your content has a direct effect on SEO. If you’re working with professional copywriters, don’t automatically give the contract to the lowest bidder. It’s important that you work with writers who understand your audience, speak your target demographic’s language natively, and have proven expertise with the written word.
#6 – Rewriting, Not Creating
It’s getting harder and harder to get away with duplicating content all the time. Even when tools like Copyscape say that your content is unique, the search engines might disagree. It isn’t all about coming up with relevant synonyms and presenting ideas in a different order.
Modern search engines want to know what you have to say and will scrutinize your content more if the messaging seems a bit too familiar. If you’re just going to add your own spin to existing content, consider learning how to market via content curation. It’s one area of content marketing where duplicate content can boost SEO. Just ask platforms like HuffPost or Buzzfeed. That said, unique content is always the fastest track to high rankings.
#7 – Linking to Low-quality, Low-profile Sites
Choose your links wisely. Some will boost your rankings, while others will drag them down. Properly vet any source you use as a link in your blog or anywhere else on your website. You have a bit more latitude when it comes to links in emails and social media posts, but where you send your readers from your own domain matters. Think trusted, high-ranking sites, not Blog X.
BeezContent: Your SEO Content Partner
If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, let me suggest one big way you can make it easier: work with us. At BeezContent, we work with a team of talented writers who know SEO and can develop content for you that helps boost rankings and get your content seen. Moreover, good SEO can organically grow your audience in ways that paid ads never will. Paid promotion is temporary. Consistently delivering high-quality, optimized content is the key to long-term success. Contact us to learn more and to discuss your next content marketing project today!
