Most businesses understand the value of a blog. Blogging is a simple way to populate your website with fresh content, which feeds the algorithms. You can also link back to your posts from social media, which serves to boost website traffic. Sounds great, right?
Writing blog posts weekly or even daily is a good idea. In practice, it is very easy to make mistakes that hurt your brand and impede your website’s SEO. Why is that? Read on to find out.
It’s amazing how many people think they can write. Because writing is a basic skill, taught in schools, most people assume that if they can string a few words together, they can write engaging content. Yet writing content for websites and blogs is not as easy as one might think. There is a skill-set needed, which is why good content writers charge premium rates.
Here are the main mistakes inexperienced content writers make.
Choosing the Wrong Topics
Just because a topic floats your boat, it doesn’t mean it’s a great one for your company’s blog. Writing blogs that are too technical are a big no-no. Unless your target audience is comfortable reading highly technical content, steer clear of topics that need a PhD to make sense of them. Try and write about subjects that appeal to the widest possible audience. That way, if someone visits your site searching for information on a topic they don’t know much about, they are more likely to stick around.
Not Doing Keyword Research
Keywords are very important. Search engines look for keywords in content to confirm the content is what someone is looking for. A person is more likely to have a good search experience if a blog post contains relevant information. For search engines like Google, this is paramount.
Always use a keyword planner before writing content. Look for keywords relevant to your niche and plan content around them. There are lots of keyword research tools, many of them free. Try a few out to see which one suits you best. Some of the most popular include:
- Moz Keyword Search Tool
- Ahrefs Keyword Generator
- Google’s Keyword Planner
- SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
Don’t try and stuff your content with as many keywords as possible. This is a very bad idea. Instead, add a few keywords and long-tail key phrases naturally, so they don’t look contrived.
Writing Big Blocks of Text
Reading text on a screen is a very different experience to reading text in a book. Overly long paragraphs are hard to read. Most people will click away when confronted with a wall of text.
Break up your content with sub-headings. Keep paragraphs small, ideally 3-5 sentences long. Keep your sentences short. Long run-on sentences are confusing and hard to read.
Poor Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation
Unless your readers are grammar fiends, they won’t care if they spot the occasional typo. We all make mistakes and it’s easy to miss an error when you write blog posts and don’t have an editor to proof them before publication. However, publishing blog posts full of grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors is not a good look for any brand.
Content that’s full of errors looks unprofessional. Readers will assume you didn’t put a lot of effort in when writing the piece. And if you can’t be bothered to proofread a blog post, the rest of your work product probably isn’t up to scratch either!
Luckily, you don’t need an in-house editor to check the content. There are plenty of tools online that can check for mistakes. Try the Grammarly plug-in for Word, or paste your writing into the Hemingway App.
Content checkers like this look for spelling mistakes, grammar, and punctuation issues. Some also check for excessive use of passive voice, unnecessary adverbs, and hard-to-read sentences. The fewer errors your content has, the easier it will be to read.
These are the three main mistakes to avoid when producing blog posts in-house. If you’re not comfortable writing for your company blog, or you don’t have time, why not outsource the work?
Ink Elves is here for all your content needs. Drop us an email or use the Contact Us form. Our experienced content writers are here to help you!