Why Your Investment in SEO Blog Writing Isn’t Paying Off

So, you invested in SEO blog writing services and a stunning website, and you routinely post to social media, but you haven’t seen any substantial results. What gives?

If content marketing were as easy as writing a few blog posts for SEO and sharing a couple of memes on Facebook, everyone would excel at it. And, if everyone excelled at it, no one would benefit from it. Though writing blog content for SEO requires a well-thought-out strategy and help from the experts, there are a few things you can do — or stop doing — to bolster your efforts. Instead of making you guess what you’re doing wrong, we’ll share with you here the top five SEO blog writing mistakes most website owners make that sabotage their efforts.

How To Make the Most Out of Your SEO Blog Writing

We get it — it’s frustrating writing blog content for SEO only to see little to no return on your investment. However, before you blame the writing or call bogus on the saying, “Content is king,” look to what you or your marketing department might be doing wrong.

Below are a few common pitfalls even the most veteran marketers make when trying to roll out too many campaigns across multiple channels at one time.

Mistake #1: Failing To Create Cohesive Messaging

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When you’re working with SEO blog writing services along with a social media guru, an SEO expert and your in-house marketing department, it’s so easy for your message to fall out of sync between receipt and publication.

Why Your Brand Needs To Be Consistent

While it may not seem like a big deal that your SEO blog writing is not consistent with yesterday’s tweets, the lack of consistency can actually confuse your audience and even turn them off of your brand. How? Consider this fake yet realistic example:

– Jane, a recent victim of a car crash, sees a social media post that links to a page that promises to tell her how to pursue compensation following an accident.

– She is intrigued, and so Jane clicks.

– Jane is redirected to the attorney’s “About Us” page, where she does not find any helpful advice.

– Annoyed, Jane clicks away and consciously decides that if she does decide to pursue a civil lawsuit, she will not be using the offending attorney.

Maybe the lawyer did write a helpful how-to guide for pursuing compensation after a car crash. However, the person in charge of social media may not have had a link to the SEO blog writing content. Perhaps the article hadn’t been published yet, leading the social media manager to link to a static page. Though this may have seemed like the best thing to do at the time, it could have cost the attorney a client.

The moral of the story is to make sure your messaging is consistent across all channels. Before publishing new content, have someone review the text (and its links) for consistency in terms of messaging, calls to action, keywords and hashtags.

If anything seems noticeably out of sync, take the time to make the appropriate revisions, as doing so can prevent a Jane-like situation from occurring.

Mistake #2: Failing To Include Social Share Buttons

It hurts every copywriter’s heart … It frustrates interested readers … It sabotages many content marketing campaigns … It’s the lack of social share buttons.

If you publish a piece, we’re going to assume you did so because you believed in its merit. Moreover, you trusted that the article would do everything that a quality article should do: Engage, inform, impress and convert. If you didn’t believe your SEO blog writing would do all that and more, then why publish it?

So, if you are impressed with the copy you receive, it’s safe to assume that your audience will be, too. Most people who come across a good read want to share it with others, but often your readers aren’t willing to work to do so. When writing blog posts for SEO, make things easy on your readers by including social share buttons.

The Real Importance of Share Buttons

Be loud and proud about your invitation to share. While discreet share buttons may feel more formal, they’re hardly helpful, as they’re just that — discreet. Using large but unobtrusive social share buttons along the sidebar that travel with the reader (like in the example below) make it easy for readers to share whenever the urge strikes.

Share buttons at the bottom of a page are handy for that small percentage of readers who drink in every last word on the page, while share buttons at the top are perfect for individuals who believe that an entire article can be summed up in a headline.

While you should make it easy for readers to share the entire article, you should also consider installing a plugin that allows visitors to share impactful snippets of your SEO blog writing. A strong snippet can be just as effective as a catchy headline for attracting new audiences.

Additional Share Button Tips

We’re in the business of creating shareable content, so we won’t delve too much into the best practices for creating clickable share buttons. (We’ll let WordStream do that.) However, we do have a few suggestions to help you make the most of your buttons:

• Include the post title in the generated social post.
• Include the author and/or brand’s account handle in the messaging.
• Don’t be so loud with your buttons that they interfere with the content.

Mistake #3: Writing Blog Content For SEO With No One in Mind

With all the pressure to invest in high-quality content in mass amounts, it can be so easy to lose sight of why you’re publishing in the first place. Yes, you’re publishing to gain ranks, but you’re also publishing to appeal to your target audience, to earn their trust and respect and to establish yourself as an industry authority. Accomplishing these goals will be extremely difficult if you don’t first take the time to establish an audience persona.

Before you even think about investing in SEO blog writing services, sit down with your team and discuss who will consume the content you order, and where will they find it? Below are a few questions to guide the process:

• What are your ideal customers’ pain points?
• What questions do they want answered, or what problems do they have?
• Where do these people spend their time online, and at what time of day or night are they most likely to be browsing the web?
• What are their likes and dislikes, and what elicits in them an emotional response?
• At what stage of the buyer’s journey are they in?

Once you answer these questions, it should be fairly easy for an experienced copywriter to create content that speaks to your target market.

Mistake #4: Using the Same Content Across Various Channels

Social media distribution tools have made it easier than ever for marketers to publish the same links across multiple sites with a single click. While this ease of distribution is undoubtedly cost-effective and time-efficient, it’s lazy. And, in the content marketing world, lazy does not prevail.

Each social media platform delivers content in a way that appeals to its target demographic. For example, LinkedIn posts are all about influence. When posting to LinkedIn, you want to post high-quality and highly targeted content. You also want to use the first person point of view, as LinkedIn is like a virtual round table at which you discuss relevant topics with your closest connections. Before you post, ask yourself, “Am I contributing valuable input to this conversation? Would I talk like this in real life?” If you answered no to either question, that type of SEO blog writing doesn’t belong on the platform.

How To Format Content For Other Platforms

Then there’s Twitter, which is all about short and concise messaging. Because you can use only so many characters, your messaging needs to be as hard-hitting as possible in as few words as possible. Your tweet should also have a compelling image, an applicable hashtag and a conversational tone. (It doesn’t hurt to throw in an emoji or two.)

Facebook is like a mix of Twitter and LinkedIn. Both longer, in-depth posts and short and sweet blurbs go over well on this platform. Users also respond positively to imagery, gifs and videos. That said, though just about any type of post goes on Facebook, you do want to keep it relevant and ensure the messaging is an adequate representation of your brand.

Instagram is all about imagery and videos. Though you can (and should) caption your photo, captions aren’t what will attract likes and clicks.

Needless to say, not even a short and sweet repurposed tweet will go over well on Instagram, and a happy-go-lucky Twitter post won’t garner much attention (or respect) on LinkedIn. If you’re going to invest in influential SEO blog writing, take the time to craft a unique message that utilizes the best practices for each social media channel.

Going the extra mile in this way can help you maximize engagement from your target audience across all channels based on their content consumption preferences.

Mistake #5: Refusing To Outsource SEO Blog Writing

For many businesses, their content marketing efforts fail simply because they refuse to invest in SEO blog writing services. Instead, they try to do everything in-house in the hopes that doing so will save them money. Unfortunately, the DIY approach often fails.

For content marketing to be effective, you need to be able to publish multiple types of content across multiple channels on a consistent basis. Moreover, your articles need to be well-researched, well-written, free of errors and useful.

Many business owners often lack the time it takes to write blog content for SEO that generates and sustains results. If your content marketing efforts have “failed,” it may simply be because you haven’t given content marketing an honest attempt.

We could go on and on about how investing in blog writing services can help your business. Let’s just say that there’s a reason that 70% of businesses outsource their blog writing … and we’ll leave it at that.

Overcome These Common SEO Blog Writing Mistakes Today

Content really is king, and we’re not just saying that because we’re biased. From higher rankings in the search engines to increased leads and sales, a robust content marketing strategy can transform your business from a small-time operation to an online sensation.

However, you won’t get anywhere if you continue to make the same mistakes when writing blog posts for SEO. Though some of the aforementioned mistakes may take you time to remedy (building a buyer persona is not something you can do in a day), there is one thing you can fix today, and that is partnering with a content writing agency. 

Whether you’re dissatisfied with your current services or are ready to test the waters with outsourcing, browse our content shop or monthly subscription page to see how we can help you take your SEO blog writing efforts to the next level.