3 common SEO writing mistakes

SEO has been around for quite a while now, but many businesses continue to make the same old mistakes when it comes to writing content. You should strive for content that is both relevant to your readers and optimized for search.

Here are some obstacles to that objective you may have seen, or even been guilty of yourself.

1. Not using any keywords in the content.

No matter what business you’re in, there are local customers searching for the products you make or the services that you provide. Ignoring that is a missed opportunity. Doing some basic keyword research and using those keywords in content will bring more traffic to your website.

2. Not putting the customer first.

While helping customers find the website is important, you want to make sure that you can persuade them to choose your business what you get there. Some sites sacrifice readability in order to pack in a ton of keywords. That provides a bad user experience, and it’s a missed opportunity for a sale.

3. Trying to optimize one page for too many keywords.

There’s only so much content that you can put on one page. Some pages require a lot of text, such as pages describing a complicated procedure. Other pages, like simple product pages, don’t require a lot of copy. If you have your heart set on getting x keyword mentioned y times, you’re going to wind up creating a lot of meaningless content. Have you ever met somebody who rattles on and on but doesn’t really say anything? Don’t be that person.

There are a million articles already written about good SEO copywriting. Here’s the short version:

• Use AdWords or another tool to find keyword volume
• Choose two or three like keywords per page
• Use the exact term with the highest volume between 1-3 times on the page depending on the amount of content you’ve written.

There are as many formulas, methods and theories about keywords out there as there are grains of sand on the beach.

But if you’re just a business owner trying to make the best of a website on your own, and the nuts and bolts aren’t that important to you, let me phrase good SEO copywriting this way: Be original, be yourself, describe the benefits that choosing you will have for your customer, and the terms that apply to your business will come naturally. If you want to take it up just a notch, use those bullet points above.

Interested in learning more about me? You can find out more about me on my website, or follow me on Twitter at @woeifert.