Table of contents:
The right SEO strategy can attract new leads and help them pre-qualify before you even meet. Are you using SEO to its fullest lead gen potential — or are you falling for one of these 5 common mistakes?
The landscape of SEO is always changing, it can be difficult to get right… What works today might not work 6 months down the road. Many organisations may rely on outdated or sloppy SEO tactics, which ultimately prove to not only be ineffective, but could also harm your business!
There's so much conflicting advice online when it comes to content marketing lead generation, that it can be hard to know who to trust and what the next step should be for you and your business. Thankfully, we've got you covered with the top 5 common mistakes to avoid losing out on those all-important SEO leads.
1. Keyword stuffing
SEO is all about keywords, right? So cramming as many keywords into your content will see your website soaring up the rankings, right? WRONG! If only taking over that coveted top-spot was as simple as fitting as many buzz words as possible into a 1200 word article.
Among the most common SEO mistakes is keyword stuffing. As the name suggests, this happens when keywords are simply crammed onto a page without any real, valuable context. It’s commonly recognised as one of many old ‘black-hat’ tricks used to cheat the system, and put simply, it doesn’t work. In light of the advancement of search engines algorithms, it is crucial that businesses realise that keyword stuffing is no longer a viable way to rank on search engines.
Not only is it a redundant form of SEO, but it could even have negative implications for your business. If the algorithm picks up on keyword stuffing, you’ll get flagged as spam and can kiss your hopes and dreams of ranking on Google goodbye.
This doesn’t mean keywords are redundant. Instead of stuffing, you should conduct studies and use the right keywords at the right time. Not only will the search engines be able to better analyse your content, your readers will too.
2. Ignoring analytics
How can you know whether or not your content marketing efforts are working if you aren’t paying attention to the results? Surprisingly, analytics continue to be overlooked by a surprising amount of marketers!
If you’re looking into SEO, you probably know the basics of analytics. You’ll know where to find how many visitors you get, how they found your site, how they behave, and which areas of your site are delivering the intended results. But are you tracking them periodically?
Knowing how your target audience works will enable you to better understand them. More importantly, by understanding what is currently working for your target audience (and what isn’t) you can adjust your strategy moving forward. SEO is ever changing, and will never be a once-and-done exercise.
Adapting to the algorithm's ever-changing nature is an ongoing process. By monitoring your analytics, you’ll be in a much better place to react to the changes as they come.
3. Poor link building
Although link building is still considered one of the most important ranking components, many companies continue to get it wrong.
Put simply, a backlink is formed when another website refers to yours. If a company thinks one of your blog entries to be valuable to their audience, for example, they may link to it. This endorsement proves the quality of your content to search engines, who in turn, should give it a boost further up the rankings. This is why backlinks are so important.
Historically, unethical SEO marketers would mass-build links - otherwise known as spam. A spammy link-building campaign will only lead to your website being penalised, and if that happens, it’s difficult to repair the damage. Again, you’ll kiss goodbye to being able to rank on google (for a period of time, at least).
As a result of a penalty, your page rank will drop, which will make finding your content more difficult. In extreme cases, you may be removed from the search index entirely. All no-go’s for any business.
4. Not knowing your target market
An essential part of SEO is connecting users' search queries with relevant and accurate information. Google gives preference to websites that fulfil the user's objective.
Sure, you have a pretty decent understanding of what your customers want. But do you truly what drives them to your site, or what they’re looking for when they land? Only by having a complete picture of your target customer, can you truly build content that can fulfil their needs.
Consider creating a fictionalised version of your target customer (or five of them) - known as a buyer persona - to really narrow your focus when creating content. Writing for Janet, a 35 year old nurse from Newcastle who loves Gerard Butler, is significantly easier than writing for just your target customer.
5. Focusing on quantity, not quality
Like we discovered with keyword stuffing, quantity is not all it’s cracked up to be in the world of SEO…
When it comes to ranking and traffic, the truth is that only quality content reigns supreme. Developing amazing content that people want to share and read depends largely on conducting thorough research on blog topics that visitors are actively looking for.
Google also favours sites that update their content on a regular basis. The indexer will know which sites update their content regularly and which ones don't. But you shouldn't just publish blog after blog about meaningless topics just to keep up with your publication schedule...
There is a persistent trend in which content writers and publishers post content they have produced elsewhere or even worse, copy content from other sources. This is a no-no.
Google does not like duplicate content, and it will penalise you for it. It usually identifies the original author by looking at which websites published the content first. Avoiding this approach will prevent your website from becoming devalued and slipping to the bottom of search results.
Rather than copying content from other sources or using software that spins existing content, you should invest in building unique content that is relevant to your target market.
Start by researching topics that people are actively seeking in your particular niche. Look to create material that people actually want, instead of delivering what you believe people want. It's a straightforward case of supply and demand… Build it, and they will come!
A final note on SEO lead generation…
Here at Scribly, we understand writing good quality, SEO-friendly content can be a bit of a minefield, so we've curated a team of talented writers who can help you turn your ideas into dazzling content!
Our specialists will help you create a content marketing strategy that will boost traffic, generate leads, and grow your business. When you leave SEO to the experts, you won't have to worry about all the research, algorithms, or scheduling.
You get to concentrate on what you enjoy doing - and can spend time managing all those new customers!
Get in touch today to find out how our bespoke content marketing packages could help you supercharge your digital strategy.
