6 Common SEO Mistakes & How to Fix Them

SEO is a crucial part of content marketing. In fact, content has a huge part to play in how successful an SEO journey can be. However, if you’re not sure about how SEO works, or if you aren;t sure about which techniques to use, it could end with you making more mistakes than successful attempts. In this article, we’ll be telling you what the common SEO mistakes are when it comes to content, together with how to fix them accordingly. 

1. Using a convoluted title

When it comes to carrying out SEO, more so in content creation, the first thing you want to avoid is complicated or convoluted titles. When it comes to generating headlines and article titles, you have to think about what an internet user would type into Google in order for them to come across the content piece you have written. 

If your aim is to get as much traffic to your article as possible, then then using convoluted, long-winded titles for any of the content you produce is a mistake that should be avoided when it comes to SEO. Instead, as already mentioned, use a title that is short, direct and concise. 

Then ask yourself “is this something that an internet user would type into Google?”. You can’t go wrong when generating a title for your content when looking at it from that perspective. Something that can be effective is listicles, such as this article, for example. This is because they’re easy to find and quick to read. 

2. Neglecting to remove ‘stop’ words in URLs

Stop words in URLs are any of the following things: a, at, to, the and in. They’re not a necessary part of any URL, so they should be removed. It’s not just that they’re unnecessary, but they make the page slugs longer than they really need to be. To remove these stop words, what you have to do is save the draft you’ve created on your content management system, scroll right down to the bottom of the page and that’s where you’ll find the meta description box and the page slug option, although this is for WordPress only. The more punchy and direct the slug, the better in terms of SEO.

3. Forgetting to focus on the outcome or the aim of your content 

It can be easy to waffle when it comes to writing long-form content. This is where some people can get carried away and forget about what the whole point of the content is in the first place. While you’re both planning and writing your content, you need to keep referring back to why you’re creating the piece. 

What is the focus? What is the goal? Keep reminding yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing and always bring your copy back to the topic and back to the point of the blog post. This is another SEO mistake that can be made, but now you know how to prevent that in your content marketing venture. 

4. Not paying attention to the quality of your content

A lot of SEO comes into play when you look at the content available online. Content has a lot to answer for when it comes to successful SEO methods, and making sure your content is excellent quality is one of the ways in which you can get your SEO off the ground. This is because Google’s algorithm will only look positively on well-written, long-form content that is free from spelling and grammar mistakes. 

If you’re not sure about how to elevate the quality of your content, then you should look to enlist the help of a professional copywriter, such as our content creation team here at Kumo. If, however, you want to give it a go yourself, here are some brief tips about how to create quality copy:

• Make it clear and concise
• Ensure it’s engaging and informative
• Check that it’s relevant and valuable
• Keep it original and authentic, don’t duplicate or plagiarise
• Plan your content well in advance
• Run your ideas past others to get a second opinion
• Set aside enough time to carry out stellar research – this can take some time
• Look back at your content and check its analytics and performance – this can help you to create new content in the future that you know your audience will love

5. Signing off an article without a ‘call to action’ (CTA)

A ‘call to action’, or a CTA as it’s referred to in the industry, is a small paragraph at the bottom of an article or blog post that is written and used as a way to encourage the readers to follow through on clicking on other links that might bring them to a ‘get in touch’ page or a goods and/or services page. 

Essentially, it’s a way to persuade your readers to go further than just reading an article you’ve put live on your site. You want them to convert from a lead to a sale, which is the whole reason why you’ve created the content in the first place. Don’t forget to leave a link to a ‘get in touch’ page, a phone number or an email address.

6. Clicking ‘publish’ without checking anything

Whether it be proofreading the copy you’ve written or double-checking that you’ve published the article on the right day or time, you need to check absolutely everything before you hit ‘publish’ on a blog post or an article. It needs to be as pristine and high-quality as possible, and that doesn’t just go for how grammatically-correct your copy is. You should also be double-checking other things like:

• Image quality
• Image size
• Facts and statistics
• The URL
• Reusing words
• Phone numbers and other contact information 
• Spelling
• Grammar 

Kumo is a digital marketing agency with over two decades of experience in the industry. We have a range of marketing services available including SEO, PPC, content creation, website design and more. If you would like further information about the marketing services we have to offer that will propel your business into the spotlight, then get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team today – we’re able to serve clients throughout the UK.