Do you often feel that your blog is well written, but it is rarely viewed, and it is not ranked?
Columnist Kristopher Jones shares some common SEO mistakes bloggers and content marketers make.
The digital marketing landscape has changed significantly over the past two decades. And between Google's changing algorithms and the drain of misinformation in the digital marketing world, it's easy to overlook the basic practices we ourselves should apply in our SEO and content marketing strategies.
With every new update and shift in search technology, we become obsessed with how the field of SEO enters a new paradigm, and to do so we shift our focus. However, the core tenets of changing the medium remain the same - it's time to get back to basics.
We all know the secrets and best practices of SEO, so why can't these tactics be leveraged on a regular basis? Let's explore five common blogging mistakes you may be making.
Unoptimized Keyword Structure
Despite the rise of semantic search and machine learning techniques, keyword research still takes precedence when modeling internal marketing campaigns. All on-site content should be connected to overall business goals by topic and keyword themes.
If our content simply covers topics rather than keywords, how do we know what users really want? Without keyword research, how can you know who your users are? Who are you writing for?
Keywords are the bridge between user intent and informational/transactional content. Keyword-optimized content can help position individual pages for higher rankings or bring exposure to targeted searches. This makes blog content a potential customer.
For web bloggers, the focus should be on informative long-tail keyword phrases. Common examples include question phrases that begin with how, what, when, where, and why.
Other keyword ideas might include frequently searched actionable phrases such as "tips" and "tips" at the top to improve certain actions.
Bloggers often fail to optimize titles, meta tags, and content with targeted keyword phrases. Considering the fact that specific keyword phrases are often bolded in the meta descriptions of SERP listings, this may improve CTR.
And inability to optimize title structure (e.g., title, meta telemarketing list description) is more in-depth than lack of keyword research. Many bloggers are unable to take advantage of semantic SEO or similar keyword phrases of the same meaning. Semantic SEO allows bloggers to create more thorough and readable content that can drive the display of multiple keyword phrases, answer more user questions, and limit content to featured snippets -
consider the rise of voice search.
On the other hand, over-optimized content also crosses the danger line. Keyword stuffing or having a high keyword density will make your content spam. Keyword stuffing can also hinder content readability, resulting in poor user signals.
According to SEO best practices, optimizing all relevant website elements (such as URLs and meta tags) with target keywords is still an important basis for categorizing and ranking individual pages. In addition to signaling to search engines, keywords are the main focus of your web content and also provide an important function for site architecture.
Inconsistent
Internal Linking Internal linking is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO optimization, and problems with internal linking often happen on SEO agency sites!
Proper SEO internal linking has many functions:
Provides a path for users to navigate the website.
Open and retrieve deep link web pages to improve the retrieval rate.
Define site architecture and most important web pages as search engines.
Distribute "link juice" or authority on the site.
Link to web pages via keywords used in hyperlink anchor text.
While backlinks are still the gold standard for search engine ranking factors, their allure can be amplified through strategic internal linking.
Ideally, every blog post needs at least three to five internal links, with dropdowns or navigation menus on the home page providing deep links to inaccessible pages. Just because a piece of content is posted to your blog, it doesn't mean Google or Bing can automatically access it.
Conduct a thorough internal link audit and document which pages are the most authoritative. Simply plug the internal links on these pages into other high-value internal pages to distribute authority evenly across the domain.
Many sites display featured posts on drop-down menus or on the home page, distributing authority to blog posts. A blogger's homepage is the most authoritative. Limit the number of links between each blog post and the home page to evenly distribute links across the domain.
Also don't overlook the importance of a sitemap. This will ensure that all sites are properly crawled and indexed - assuming the URL structure is clean and keywords are optimized.
Finally, the presentation of the classified and driven link pages is futuristic, and all anchor texts are op