Bad SEO Content Tactics

LOGOforMAIL
F5 Studio
  • Date Published
  • Categories Blog
  • Reading Time 8-Minute Read

Business owners invest a lot of money before they can actually see any results. That is why it is necessary to know about tactics to avoid it.

Selecting the right content tactic is an important process. You have to invest a lot of money before you can actually see any results. Using the wrong tactics a waste of time and money. From our SEO copywriters’ experience, we have come up with a few pieces of advice for you.

Your Website & Blog Content Is Too Short

Some people look up to Apple websites or other successful companies’ websites that use short content. Some people think that visitors “don’t read a part of the content.”

These assumptions make sense in some cases, however, for the majority of websites, it is better to use “just enough” content. In other words, you need to describe the subject of a page in the right amount of detail that your visitor needs, and add a little bit more content for search engines. This is because they need to understand what a page’s content is about in order to make a prediction. This content will be useful enough for a query.

This does not mean that you must use long-form content; there’s no correlation between long-form content and ranking.

Ignoring Your Actual Business Goals

Why do you write content? It is time to pause a moment and answer some important questions “Who is going to read this?” and “How to reach the target audience?” You should forget advice saying that you need to write “tangential content,” which means content creation that’s loosely related to your business.

We all know that people like “buzz topics.” But do you really need social shares? What if your company’s goal is attracting new customers or find more qualified leads? Do you need to shorten the time that it takes for those leads take to convert? Is the content appropriate for different stages in the customer journey?

It is a difficult task, because clicks, shares, and engages will reduce. Don’t worry, because if you make things right, sales will increase.

Copy Competitors’ Tactics

You can see many suggestions that recommend that you copy your competitors’ tactics. It may seem a natural way to success, but it is actually a bad idea.

The content tactic is just a part of marketing and success of your competitor. Also, you need to keep in mind the quote: “Past performance does not guarantee future results.”  So the competitor’s tactics won’t always work for you.

You should find and target your competitors’ weaknesses instead of copying their strengths. In this way, you satisfy your niche as well as your clients.

Prioritizing Content Quantity Over Quality

Hand in hand with content consistency, content quality matters too. Many people make mistakes here. Content consistency forces you to create a specific amount of content.

However the quality of your content makes the biggest difference for your customers and search engines.

You need to revise your content marketing processes. Sometimes it is enough to just reduce your quantity of publications, however other times you need to hire new authors.

Do What the Data Says

Certainly, the data is a great source from which to make decisions. Although the usage of data can sometimes help us, the data really just confirms that we did some things right. This is why if you use the right data, it won’t guarantee a positive result. Data is based on past activities which could include mistakes or were good for a certain time. Any business decision includes a significant amount of risk.

You need to interpret the data to see the true trends, and your progress will be achieved with breakthrough decisions.

Pick One Format

It is so tempting to optimize content marketing costs by picking just one format of content. Just because one format of content is more effective, it doesn’t mean that other formats are ineffective. Each of us differently perceives information, and your audience consists of people who prefer a variety of types of text, video, and audio.

You should spend some time and resources on different formats of content. This way helps you to keep your content fresh and on multiple platforms where different audiences can find you.

Don’t Use Keywords

While Googlers says that their search engine based on advanced algorithms the reality is that keywords matter. Our experiments and observations show it. Even now, search algorithms are still so far from an intelligent system.

To rank higher on a search engine’s page of results you need to use relevant phrases that correlate with search queries, but keywords research is a difficult task.

Keywords planners from Google Ads do a little, because this tool is focused on paid search. Third-party tools use keywords and search phrases from their database, not from search engine databases. So, if you use these tools you will get outdated and inaccurate information. You need to understand how people search for information about a topic.

Use LSI Keywords

LSI (latent semantic indexing) is an indexing and retrieval method that uses a mathematical technique called singular value decomposition (SVD) to identify patterns in the relationships between the terms and concepts contained in an unstructured collection of texts.

In short, modern search engines (such as Google or Bing) can’t use this method because this method is based on a necessity to check all documents that were indexed. For this reason, it is a slow method for modern search process that lasts less than one second.

Don’t waste your time and resources on things that are not related to reality. You should focus on more important and real things.

Be Like a Reporter

Many content specialists think that journalism is the best way because it seems objective, however this isn’t true. The main goal of marketing is to create change. You can use facts about your product or service as selling points but marketing is still subjective.

You should use a reporter style approach for some posts where it will flow naturally, but for the majority of your posts, you should use a marketing approach.

Content Equals Blog Posts

It may seem weird but many marketers are too focused on blog posts.

Go beyond a blog post and use how-to-do guides, FAQ pages, GIFs, social media, short videos, checklists, case studies, podcasts, etc. Think about what would appeal to your target customer and then create that content.

Lots of Action, but No Master Plan

The master plan means that you have clear goals and documented activities in place which will help you to achieve these goals.

It doesn’t mean that you will achieve all your goals, but having a plan is better than having no plan. To avoid chaos, you need to find out what your who, where, why, and how are.

To reduce the risks and have more transparency through your content marketing, you should not rely on luck.

Ignore Content Distribution

Many marketers think that good content does not need distribution within additional activities. They think that quality and unique content will attract people, but this is not true.

Unless you put your content out there in front of your target audience through different social media, email, forums, and other channels, your content is unlikely to make a big impact. At best, your content would attract visitors in 10-12 months. Content distribution will reduce this time to days.

Use Content Marketing for SEO

Certainly, SEO is a big deal. You need positions and traffic, but, everyday people add over 2 million blog posts, so, it is difficult to compete with others.

You need to create your own audience or, rather, group of your content fans. Create something different. Something that makes your brand stand out. It can be unique topics and studies, original pictures, or special styles, forcing people to look for every one of your posts.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes your good article just didn’t work out, that’s all. In some cases, content marketing doesn’t work and you should use another way to attract customers. However, in most cases, marketers use bad content tactics which don’t work for the business.

The banal main reason for using bad tactics is a lack of resources (time and money.) We all search for things that will give us a fast result, but this leads to bad tactics and poor results. So it is better to use an approach that corresponds to your business goals. In this case, you will avoid bad tactics and achieve the results that you expect.