The 6 Worst Online Content Mistakes Made by Marketers

Today’s post is by David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous. He’s contributed here on the blog before – CLICK HERE to read his prior work.  Learn more about him at the end of the post. Here’s David…

It is pretty well understood by now that all online marketers dedicate part of their time and budget to paid search advertising and another part of their time to developing the power of their sites by writing great content, featuring higher on organic Google listings and attracting inbound links.

The problem is that many online marketers still don’t really know how to write effective content. Poor online content generated by marketers on a day to day basis can cripple a business and destroy its reputation, despite other online marketing work that might be done in paid search areas.

To avoid falling into this trap and becoming one of these online marketers who unwittingly cripples his or her own business, read up and learn from the mistakes of others. The following includes the 6 worst online content mistakes made by marketers when creating content to generate links every single day. Read and learn!

1. Weak Title

If the title to your content is weak, few people will want to link to you. The title is what generates interest in the Internet user from the very beginning. It is what makes them want to learn more about what you have to say, but it is also helpful to you in terms of generating effective “back links” too.

If your title includes an important keyword, then you can repeat this keyword in the first paragraph of your content and use it as an anchor link to drive traffic elsewhere around your site. Spend time working on the generation of your titles. They are worth the effort in the long run and therefore deserving of your creativity.

2. Terrible Design

When Internet users land on sites with poor designs (this means that they cannot read everything well thanks to huge clusters of information or advertisements leaping out at them from every corner, for example) or when webmasters are looking for content to link to and they land on your site, the immediate reaction is to look elsewhere.

It doesn’t matter if your content is king, if it is difficult to read your content you will find it difficult to get back links and get users visiting your site regularly to take advantage of the information you provide. Brand image can be really damaged by poor website design, so think really carefully about ignoring the appearance of your site. You are playing with fire if you do.

3. Nothing to Say

The worst kind of online content is the kind of content that has nothing to say. It is the kind of content generated for the sake of having some kind of copy on the website, but it really has no purpose and doesn’t provide the Internet user with anything that he or she can take away with them.

If you have nothing to say, best not to say anything and stop creating content altogether so that you can place a higher emphasis on paid search advertising techniques.

4. Sheep, Sheep!

Let’s imagine that you have written a fantastic article about how to maintain a rose tree in perfect condition. The problem is that everyone else has written the same article, more or less. You are like a sheep, following the crowd. You need to find a niche. You need to find something to say that nobody else is saying so that your content, above all else, is THE content that all webmasters want to link to. This is the real key to writing great content and getting people interested in what you might write in the future.

5. Epic Novel Syndrome

One of the worst mistakes that people make when generating their online content is that they go on and on and on and on. Remember that the online readership is busy, lazy and getting busier and lazier by the day.

We live in an age of small text messages and even smaller tweets. Online content is not the same as a printed novel or biography. You must keep things short if you want people to read your content, use it, share it and link to it. Speed is the key to great online content.

6. Anti-Social

The final, and perhaps most common, online content mistake made by marketers every single day relates to social networking and the use of social platforms as a way of pushing online content once it has been uploaded.

It’s no good creating awesome online content that you want people to read, share and link to if you don’t then tell anyone about it. The best and cheapest way of getting your content out there and read by the millions is to promote it via the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. If you’re not talking about it or linking to your online content, nobody else will.

– David Chapman is Director of Marketing at Webrageous. He is an expert in lawyer online marketing, specializing in Google AdWords Advertising.