There are 2.8 million new stories published on WordPress every single day. So if you’re going to write content and make content marketing one of your marketing pillars you need to stand out
(Newswire.net — October 25, 2019) — There are 2.8 million new stories published on WordPress every single day. So if you’re going to write content and make content marketing one of your marketing pillars you need to stand out. Now, some people spend a ton of time trying to perfect their writing and get a viral home run but that’s very difficult to do and takes a long time.
Along with content marketing and promotion, you also need to have a strong SEO strategy in place so you could start ranking for long-tail keywords while you wait for your stuff to go viral. The combination of SEO and content promotion can go a long way for anything that you’re trying to do.
In this post, we outline the most common SEO mistakes that people make in content marketing. And if you use these tips you will start seeing a gradual increase in your rankings and your organic traffic.
Let’s dive in.
1. Not using the right keywords
One of the most common mistakes that you can do in SEO is targeting the wrong keywords. Everyone likes to start out targeting short-tail keywords instead of focusing on the long-tail.
For example, if you are a lighting company that’s just starting out you should not try to rank for the keyword “floor lamps” but instead go after things like “brown over the sofa floor lamps”. The longer-tail keywords are less competitive and easier to rank for which is why you should start with those first.
Strategies you can use:
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Go on a site like Ahrefs or Moz and look up your competitors’ keywords
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Track your own keywords and see what you are already ranking for
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Go back and brainstorm possible long-tail keywords for each one of your main pages
2. Keyword Stuffing
Business owners that don’t have knowledge or experience with SEO tend to go keyword-crazy. Gone are the days when you could stuff your page with keywords and see your rankings increase.
Search engines rank pages based on user experience so content has to be written for the user in mind. Your content needs to look natural and make sense to the user as well as the search engine. So don’t crowd the page with your keywords, just sprinkle them gently around the page and your content will do much better.
Strategies you can use:
– Use a keywords density tool to make sure that you’re not keyword stuffing
– Get a group of people to read your content and tell you if it sounds natural
3. Skipping Meta Descriptions
Search engines repeatedly state that meta descriptions no longer influencer rankings so a lot of people overlook how essential they are. Meta descriptions are the little blurbs that show up on search results and they are absolutely necessary for the user to figure out what your page is about and how your content is related to what they are searching for. So if you skip over meta descriptions your search result will show up empty and it will decrease the traffic you get.
Strategies you can use:
– Look up the meta descriptions of your competitors and see what you can use
– Look at the meta descriptions of popular companies in related industries
– Create a template you can re-use for all of your pages
4. Not investing in the mobile user experience
For most sites, mobile traffic consists of 40-50% of their total traffic so ignoring the mobile user’s experience is a great way to decrease conversion on half or your traffic. Optimizing your site for the mobile experience is much easier than you might think. You don’t need to create an app or even a mobile site. If you create a responsive site whose design changes based on the screen size of the device then you will see conversions and time on site increase.
Strategies you can use:
– Test your mobile site using Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool.
– Test out your site on a cross-browser testing tool
5. Not using bloggers and influencers to get backlinks
Bloggers and influencers have traditionally been used for content promotion and the mistake that people make is overlooking their huge potential for high-quality backlinks. Google has repeatedly stated that backlinks are one of the leading ranking factors for any site so using established bloggers that are in your industry is a really great way to build backlinks.
Strategies you can use:
– Use a tool like Ninjaoutreach to get a list of bloggers that you can reach out to
– Use an email tool like Lemlist for your outreach
– Look up a competitor’s backlinks in Ahrefs to see what bloggers they are using
6. BONUS: Not getting an SEO Audit
This is another great tool that people often ignore when they want to do everything themselves. There are a lot of great SEO experts out there that you can use to do a quick audit on your site and give you some quick tips on how to optimize. You can use an SEO company in London or San Francisco, it really doesn’t matter what time zone they are on. Or you can use an SEO audit tool like Neil Patel’s SEO Analyzer.
Recap
SEO needs to be an essential element in your content marketing strategy. Here are the top mistakes to avoid when structuring your search engine optimization strategy:
1. Not using the right keywords
2. Keywords stuffing
3. Skipping meta descriptions
4. Not investing in the mobile user’s experience
5. Not harnessing the power of bloggers and influencers
6. Not getting an SEO audit
If you avoid all of these mistakes you will see a steady increase in your search engine rankings and organic traffic.