Content is the single most important element on a website, blog, social media account or virtually any other online medium. It drives traffic, search rankings, authority and brand visibility. Unfortunately, though, many business owners are guilty of making one or more of the following mistakes with their content marketing strategy.
Publishing Similar Content on Multiple Pages
Google has said that small amounts of duplicate content in the form of boilerplate content, legal jargon, etc. won’t hurt a website’s search ranking. Nonetheless, it’s still a good idea to avoid publishing the same or similar content on multiple pages. If you have two pages with similar content, consolidate them into a single page, using a 301 redirect to funnel visitors from the deleted page to the consolidated page.
Not Analyzing Metrics
One of the great things about content marketing is that it provides webmasters and digital marketers with access to a plethora of metrics, including number of unique visits, number of returning visits, bounce rate, average time spent on site and more. Failure to monitor these metrics is just asking for trouble, as you won’t know what works and what doesn’t. So, use Google Analytics or a similar analytics service/software to keep tabs on your content. Using the information acquired through analytics, you can optimize your content for stronger visitor engagement and ultimately more sales or conversions.
Overlooking Evergreen Topics
Another all-too-common content marketing mistake is overlooking the use of evergreen topics. So, what are evergreen topics and why are they important? An evergreen topic is any topic that remains relevant regardless of the date or time. This is in stark contrast to news stories and current events, which typically become irrelevant after a certain length of time. Search engines love evergreen topics because users are always searching for them. And by including evergreen topics in your content marketing strategy, you’ll reap the benefits of more traffic and greater search engine visibility.
Focusing Strictly on Text Content
Don’t get me wrong, text-based content is great for websites; search engines can easily scan text, indexing it in their respective listings. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should focus strictly on text for your business’s content marketing strategy. Diversifying your efforts with a combination of text, images, video, interviews, infographics, slideshows, etc. will allow you to reach a larger audience.
Not Including Images
I guess you could say this goes hand-in-hand with “focusing strictly on text content.” In any case, you should include at least one image with each article you publish. According to this infographic, adding images to web articles can increase total page views by as much as 94%. That alone should be reason enough to include them in your content marketing strategy.
