• Churning out as much keyword-rich content as possible isn't enough to keep your website relevant. In fact, this can have the opposite effect and decrease your rankings.
• Consumers and Google crawlers can recognise spammy content or content that has been regurgitated from other sites.
• Not researching your target demographic, missing out on schema opportunities and prioritising search engines over users are a few mistakes to avoid.
• In this article, we walk you through eight common SEO mistakes in website content creation and how to avoid them. 

Effective search engine optimization (SEO) can be the difference between bringing traffic to your website or a competitor’s. Unfortunately, many websites make SEO mistakes that hinder their success.

What Are the Biggest SEO Mistakes in Digital Content Production?

Here are the top SEO mistakes in digital content production and how to avoid them:

1. Not researching your target demographic 
2. Focusing content on topics for users outside of your conversion funnel 
3. Not creating quality content
4. Copying content from other sites
5. Not creating custom title tags and meta descriptions 
6. Missing out on schema opportunities 
7. Forgetting to include relevant internal links to send users deeper into the funnel
8. Writing for search engines without consideration of the user

1. Not Researching Your Target Demographic

Website content creators understand the benefits of the goods or services a business is selling and are usually experts on the material being presented. Without proper research, however, your company’s expertise will not necessarily translate into the way your consumers are searching for your product. Your website will suffer if you do not understand the historical and real-time queries and questions your consumer base is searching for. Well-researched demographics lead to higher search engine results page (SERP) rankings.

2. Focusing Content on Topics for Users Outside of Your Conversion Funnel

Many mistakes on this list involve the misuse of web content, including creating content on topics that will not convert to sales. High website traffic does not necessarily mean conversion. You may still get clicks if your content does not specifically relate to what you are selling, but consumers and web crawlers will note the disparities and your site will feel spammy instead of useful.

An example of focusing on content outside of your conversion funnel is when a business is local, yet their keywords attempt to target a global audience.

3. Not Creating Quality Content

A common misconception made by many inexperienced digital content creators is that churning out a lot of content full of keywords is enough to keep their website relevant. They mistakenly create a lot of garbage content by simply rewording or even using software to reiterate their existing content in a new way.

Customers will see right through this, and website crawlers are getting savvier every day at picking up on these tricks. Hiring quality writers and content creators might be more expensive, but the increase in conversions and high SERP rankings make it worth it.

4. Copying Content From Other Sites

A customer will also see right through a site that has content copied from another site. Furthermore, Google’s web crawlers will flag when content is being copied, and it will work against the site in the SERP.

For example, a user looking for information on a good pair of sports headphones will likely browse the web for a comparison between the leading brands. A user will move on quickly if a website says the same things about headphones that others have said. However, if a site includes completely unique content, such as how the headphones hold up during workouts or in-depth analysis of sound quality, the user will be more likely to engage with the content.

5. Not Creating Custom Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Many websites make sure their content is quality and keyword-rich and that their site thoroughly explains the benefits of their services and products. However, they may forget a very easy tool to help with SEO: using title tags and meta descriptions.

Title tags help web crawlers to identify the purpose of web content and meta descriptions are a natural way to include keywords and to quickly grab your reader’s attention.

6. Missing Out on Schema Opportunities

Schema markup may be one of the least understood and underused techniques for SEO. Keywords can help web crawlers like Google to index and rank the sites, but schema is HTML that helps “explain” to automated web crawlers what certain content means. For example, take the word “generation.” It could refer to a website about DNA exploration or a new series on a popular streaming network. Schema can “tell” Google which one you are talking about.

7. Forgetting to Include Relevant Internal Links to Send Users Deeper into the Funnel

Integrating internal links within the text of your content, as opposed to the header or sidebars, is a great way to give a user an immediate experience navigating through your website. It also helps automated web crawlers find their way around your site.

8. Writing for Search Engines Without Consideration of the User

In the end, you are writing for the people who will convert clicks into sales – not for robots. If you don’t give your readers a satisfying and knowledgeable experience on your site, it doesn’t really matter where your site falls on the SERP. People are very good at spotting what is simply an ad or regurgitated information as opposed to what is genuine, well-researched and knowledgeable.

Having a good understanding of these SEO mistakes can help you produce better content for your customers and rank higher on SERPs. Remember, creating high-quality, authentic content is a process that takes time and committment. 

Discover more tips on how to write great content that ranks on Google.