on-page seo mistakes

What’s holding you back from incredible visibility in Google search? Is it your strategy? …Or is it your execution? The best content plan in the world won’t get you anywhere if you’re making these simple yet deadly SEO content mistakes. 5 SEO Content Mistakes Plaguing Your Marketing (& Fixes) These SEO content mistakes are super common but totally rectifiable. If you’re committing any of them, don’t worry – I have some practical solutions to bring your content back to life. [bctt tweet=”What’s holding you back from incredible visibility in Google? Is it your strategy? …Or your execution? The best content plan in the world won’t get you anywhere if you’re making these simple yet deadly SEO content mistakes. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] 1. Targeting the Same (or Similar) Keywords in Multiple Content Pieces Want to know a great way to shoot yourself in the foot with SEO? Lose track of the content pieces you’ve published, including which keywords you’ve already targeted. Then accidentally target a keyword you’ve already tried to rank for in a new blog. If the search intent for that keyword hasn’t changed over time, the blogs will end up being incredibly similar – too similar. Now you have two pages on your site competing for the same search intent, traffic, and clicks. As a result, neither will do very well in search engines, because you’re essentially splitting the spoils. (There’s a technical, dramatic term for this problem: keyword cannibalization.) What to Do Instead First, keep track of your content pieces in all stages of the creation process, from the initial idea to the final published blog, article, what-have-you. This means a content calendar is your best friend (Airtable, Trello, and Notion are nice options). Include information on the keywords you targeted for each piece. Second, be careful with search intent. Some keywords may be worded very differently from those you’ve already used, but have an identical search intent (i.e., the reason why a user types those keywords into Google). For example: “Which iPhone should I buy” and “best iPhone to buy right now” only share a few words, but the search intent behind them is identical. Instead of creating two content pieces targeting each keyword, you should choose one to focus on while including the other inside the piece as a related keyword. 2. Writing Overwrought, Irrelevant Meta Descriptions What a worse SEO content mistake than skipping out on writing unique meta descriptions for each page of your site? Writing bad ones. The difference between a good meta description and a bad one: Whether it entices your reader to click your link in the results… Or turns them off entirely. Whether it’s relevant enough to appear in Google results… Or so irrelevant that Google skips it in favor of auto-filling text from your body content. Relevance, in particular, is huge. [bctt tweet=”A GOOD meta description for #seocontent: ✅ Entices your reader to click your link in Google (vs. turning them off entirely). ✅ Relevant enough to appear in the results (versus Google auto-filling).” username=”ExpWriters”] Look at this meta description from an Eater article ranking for “best burgers in the U.S.”: As you can see, Google auto-filled the description with snippets of the body content from the article. They often do this when no meta description is specified. Yet, Eater did specify a meta description, as you can see from their source code: It reads, “Introducing the burger lover’s ultimate bucket list, from classic iterations to the best bistro burgers.” What’s the problem, here? Why didn’t Google use it? Irrelevance. The keyword is missing from this description. The description mentions a “bucket list” – but is that what the article is really about, or what people are seeking when they search for this keyword? No. A “bucket list” doesn’t necessarily signify “best.” The above description looks pretty awful next to this one from a higher-ranking piece on the list: What to Do Instead If there’s even the slightest chance that Google will skip over the meta description you painstakingly wrote in favor of auto-grabbed text, what’s the point of writing one? This: With a strong meta description, there’s a huge chance to grab your reader and convince them to click in just a sentence or two. Written well, a good meta description can enhance your click-through rate in the search results. You just have to make sure it’s relevant enough for Google to grab, and helpful enough (and persuasive enough) to catch your reader’s eye. A few tips: Meta descriptions can’t be too long – under 160 characters is the standard. To ensure you write within that restriction, use a tool. Yoast SEO is great. So is the Meta Tags tool. Talk to your reader. Tell them what the content is about and what’s in it for them if they read it. Use your keyword. Once is enough. Get creative with wording. Use strong verbs. Avoid useless adverbs, which pad out the character count unnecessarily. 3. Using Unhelpful, Poorly Structured Headings (Or Not Enough Headings) I hope you’re already implementing headings in your SEO content writing. This is a basic must-do for a few reasons: Headings help Google understand what your content is about. They help users find the information they’re looking for. They break up long blocks of text for better readability. Headings help organize and structure your content (especially important for people who may not be “reading” your page at all, but using screen readers or some other assistive technology). Think of headings as helpers. They provide additional meaning and help your reader make sense of your piece as a whole. That’s why, if your headings are lackluster, generic, or formatted incorrectly, they’ll hinder instead of help. Take a look at this example of a content piece with unhelpful, incorrectly structured headings: Note the vague wording (“ones” in place of using the actual keyword, “backlinks”) the incorrect use of heading levels (H2s used when H3s were needed), and the use of headings solely for formatting purposes (a … Read more