Optimizing your website can make or break the success of your entire business, but the worst SEO content strategies are unfortunately the most common. Even people who call themselves “experts” on organic search will sometimes recommend the stupidest, most narrow-minded courses of action. Bad optimization techniques can destroy your rankings, decimate your traffic, and kill your credibility with your readers. If you want to have any success online, you need to avoid the following SEO content strategies.
1. Obsessing Over Rankings
Amateur optimization companies might brag about how they can get you the “number one spot” in Google for a certain term, but you’re being duped if you fall for those claims. What does a great ranking mean if it doesn’t actually bring you any traffic? Furthermore, what good is traffic going to do if your content doesn’t convert into leads and sales?
You cannot forget that your website IS your business. Your visitors are potential customers, so you need to focus on getting a large amount of quality traffic – readers who will actually take interest in your content. A great keyword ranking is only a small part of the overall process.
2. Writing for the Search Engines
Everyone understands the need to optimize their content with keywords and related phrases, but enough is enough. Take a look at some poorly-ranked sites, and you’ll see pages filled to the brim with the same one or two phrases in almost every sentence. The internet is full of this kind of garbage, and search engine algorithms are catching up. There isn’t a “magic” keyword density, but Google WILL punish you for keyword-stuffing.
Besides, how do you think your readers view that kind of content? Smart people don’t use the same words in every sentence when they speak, and they certainly don’t do it when they write. Using the same phrases line after line hurts your credibility, and it destroys your chances of converting visitors. Plus, if shoddy writing ends up lowering your rankings, you’ll be left with essentially worthless content – no good to the search engines or your readers.
Do yourself and your potential customers a favor, and always go for quality over quantity. Five-dollar articles from non-native English speakers aren’t going to cut it.
3. Getting Greedy with Your Content
The old adage “no man is an island” applies just as much to online business as it does to face-to-face interaction. In fact, the internet is a powerful medium because of its interconnectedness. Simply put, if you’re hoarding your content and separating yourself from relevant sites – you're probably killing your rankings and traffic.
First of all, Google probably won’t be giving your newer web properties any love until their links appear on relevant authority sites. To get these links, you’re going to have to share. Syndication is one method, and there are plenty of high-PR publications and article directories which will gladly take free content in exchange for readership and referring links. However, you will actually have to create some unique and original material in the form of articles, press releases, guest posts and blog comments if you want the highest-profile sites to link back to yours. Nobody said good SEO was easy.
And for those of you who would take links and give nothing back – this system works both ways. Your link-building efforts may get you some initial traffic, but you’re going to have to continue to show Google that your site is relevant to its subject. To do that, you’ll want to carefully link to related sites within your pages and articles. You might have already noticed that your favorite authority sites have credible outbound links to related site that also have high authority.
As in offline life, you'll be defined by who you associate with online, so make sure that your OBLs point to credible sources that add further value to your users.
We’ll talk more about the worst SEO content strategies in the next installment of this article series. However, if you’re currently dealing with a company that uses any of these methods, you need to switch to a professional with proven results. Call the number above now to speak to one of the industry’s leading SEO service companies.
