Some common mistakes to avoid when writing content for your website
With hundreds of websites going live on Google every minute, Google has to have an algorithm to determine which content is the most relevant to the search typed in by your potential customer. Google wants the customer to have a good experience as they are showing your site to that person in the top search results. If that experience is not a good one, your site will not get shown.
So why do some expensive websites not rank high in Google when others which may be an off the shelf design yourself deal do? Well, its all about the content these days. What this means for you is that you should be able to affect a positive change yourself without the need for expensive SEO experts. The common mistakes I see (and probably make myself) are as follows...
Not writing the meta descriptions for the user.
This is the description that comes up under your web address in the search results. Too many people spend time trying to squeeze all their keywords in these few lines when really they should be selling their site by making it a compelling description of their business. One that stands out from the rest.
Too many keywords
You used to be able to trick Google by adding your keywords over and over again but today you could be penalised for this because it does not make for easy reading. It is always a good idea to know what your keywords are. And what your potential customers are writing in the search to try and find your products or services (keyword research). Instead though, you need to write your content with the reader in mind.
Difficult to read.
Too much technical jargon and long difficult to understand words. I always suggest to people that they write their content for an 11-year-old. Short sentences and simple terminology. There will be occasions when it will be impossible to omit technical talk but wherever possible try to avoid it. Another mistake people commonly make is writing in capitals. Have you ever tried to read an A4 sheet of paragraphs in capitals? It is so much harder and you will be much slower. The odd short heading is ok, but not sentences. Contrast will not affect your SEO but it may affect how long your customers stay on your website. Ensure there is enough of a contrast to make the text stand out. White text on a dark background, or black text on a light background. I saw one recently which was red text on a navy background and I could not read it easily so I didn't read it!
Too Many Pages
More pages do not mean more traffic to your website. If you just add content to try and rank in Google for certain keywords, you might find those pages do not get indexed. If you have numerous pages with similar content, you may find that Google fails to omit one of the pages. Google gets confused with duplicate content. It is a case of quality over quantity as far as your website goes.
A non-mobile website
It does seem ridiculous that in the age of the mobile phone, when over 70% of people searching on the net are doing so on their phones, that some businesses still have not optimised their websites for mobile devices. I meet many business owners that think their websites are mobile friendly because they can read them on a mobile. If you are in doubt put your URL into Googles Mobile-Friendly Test.
Ignoring Image optimisation
I recently wrote an article on how to optimise your images. Images are now a large part of any website. Search engines can not read an image, therefore, they will never present it in a search. If however, you optimise your images by giving them an alt text your site will be more visible.
At SPC Marine marketing we offer a FREE consultation whereby we take a look at your website and social channels and give you our thoughts. The list is not exhaustive but there will be enough for you to take away some tips and start to make changes for the better. Get in touch with heidi if this offer interests you.
