How do potential customers find your business? Chances are, they search online. The internet is the top way consumers research brands, services and products before buying. That’s why blogging for SEO (search engine optimization) is so important to include as part of your company’s marketing strategy.

Studies show that including a blog as part of your website increase your chances of being ranked highly on search engines.! In addition, companies that use blogs as part of their content marketing strategy receive 67 percent more leads than those that don’t.

Simply having a blog on your site isn’t enough, however; it’s important you’re strategic about the way you use it. Keep reading for common blunders you’ll want to avoid when blogging for SEO.

17 Mistakes to Avoid When Blogging for SEO

1. Beginning Without A Plan

Before you start blogging for SEO, you need to create a strategy. Ask yourself questions like:

Do you have an established plan in place before blogging for SEO?

The answers to these questions will help you develop a plan to move forward in a calculated, focused way when blogging for SEO.

2. Publishing Inconsistently

While it may not seem like a big deal to skip blogging once in a while, the truth is that inconsistent publishing can greatly affect your SEO results in a couple of ways:

3. Focusing On Quantity Rather Than Quality

While this may seem to counter my point above, there is something very significant here: Well-written, quality content is much more important than publishing just anything to stay on schedule. Search engines want to get the best possible information to users, so they look for quality content. Make sure everything you take live on your blog will help – not hinder – your content marketing efforts.

4. Writing With An Inconsistent Brand Voice

Is your company’s blogging voice consistent with its brand?

What is your company’s voice? Before you write anything for your company, you need to establish key branding elements, including the type of language you will use. Then, make sure anyone blogging for SEO is familiar with this voice and uses it.

What if your blog has multiple authors? If they each have their own byline, it’s perfectly fine for them to include a bit of their own personality in their posts. If all your company’s articles are published under the brand, however, they need to use the same voice, even if there are multiple people writing the posts.

5. Forgetting Your Target Audience

What’s the point of blogging for SEO? Reaching your target audience. Therefore, it’s vital you keep them front of mind. For every article you write, think about what they’ll be interested in. How will your post relate to them?

Spend some time researching your target audience so you have a clear picture of who they are and how you can best connect with them. By understanding them better, you’ll be able to keep them top of mind when writing your business’s blog articles.

6. Selecting Boring Or Irrelevant Topics

This relates directly to the point above. Blogging for SEO is not only about producing content. If you choose topics your target audience will find boring or irrelevant, you’re wasting your time and resources. As you select your blog topics, think about ways to provide value.

7. Making Poor Keyword Choices

Remember to research keywords before you begin blogging for SEO!

Keywords are incredibly important when blogging for SEO. These words and phrases directly relate to how consumers will find your articles online. As I explain in this post about creating a content marketing schedule:

What terms will your target users search for when they look for a business like yours? Start by coming up with a list of your company’s most relevant topics, then brainstorm each topic with potential words or phrases users may search for. You can come up with even more ideas by going to Google and typing in the words and phrases you already have. Then, scroll down to the bottom and look at the suggestions of related topics and write down any that are a good fit for your business.

One useful tool to use for keyword research is Wordstream. When you search for a term on Google, it tells you the search volume per month, cost per click and competition. It also suggests a list of similar keywords that might be helpful to consider.

Once you’ve identified your keywords, use them strategically. Include them in your headline, sub-headlines, approximately every 100 words or so throughout your content and in all image captions.

8. Ignoring SEO Best Practices

SEO needs to be a focus when blogging. Otherwise, you’re just blogging for the sake of blogging, which isn’t strategic and wastes your time and resources.

What exactly are SEO best practices? As this post about blogging for SEO results explains:

9. Using The First Title You Write

The blog headline has an important role: It captures readers’ attention initially and convinces them to click the article or keep scrolling. After you finish writing your blog post, go back to your title and play around with it. Can you think of a more compelling way to capture your target audience’s attention?

How can you write a strong blog title? First of all, aim for 6-13 words; studies show this length attracts the highest and most consistent amount of traffic. This blog post about writing the best headline in the world shares helpful advice too:

10. Including Chunky Paragraphs

Remember to break up chunky paragraphs when you’re blogging for SEO.

If you’re writing 1,500+ words for your articles, you’re sharing a lot of helpful information! 43 percent of consumers report they skim blog posts, however, which I believe may be even higher.

Knowing so many potential readers skim posts, it’s important you make your articles skimmable! Break up chunky paragraphs however you can:

11. Forgetting The Visual

Speaking of visual elements, it’s important you include images and/or videos in your posts! As this blogging mistakes infographic explains:

How can you add visual elements when blogging for SEO? Add images or videos to your post to break up the text! Just make sure you only use visuals you have the right to use.

12. Skipping Editing

Writing a lengthy blog post can take time, but when you’re done writing, you’re not ready to publish yet. Walk away for at least 30 minutes (although overnight is better) and come back with fresh eyes to read over what you wrote. Do all your points make sense? Does the article flow in natural way? Are you missing any words or typos? Check out helpful editing tips from this blog post about marketing advice from comic conventions:

13. Forgetting to Promote It

The point of blogging for SEO is to increase your online visibility, but waiting for search engines to find your article isn’t the only way to do this! Share your blog post on all your social media channels and in your email newsletter. If you really want to increase the number of eyes on your post, consider running a social media ad or Google ad promoting the article. The more you promote your post, the more people read it and the better it is for your website’s SEO.

14. Never Republishing Older Posts

Do you have a blog article you wrote a while ago you wish more people had seen? Republish it! Carefully review it to make sure all the statistics are still current, refresh any details that may be outdated and reshare it on your blog as a new post.

In addition to saving you time and resources, republishing posts can also help your blog!

15. Forgetting To Check Analytics

Do you check your website’s analytics regularly? If you don’t, how will you know if your strategy is working? Install Google Analytics on your website and then look at it every four to six weeks. Ask yourself, which blog posts are performing well? Are there trends you’re noticing? Use the answers to these questions to help you develop new topics that are likely to perform well.

16. Rushing The Process

How long does it take you to write a blog post? Studies show that nearly half of those investing six or more hours per blog post report strong results. When blogging for SEO, you need to take the time to make sure your blog articles are well written and provide value for your target audience.

In addition to writing the post, you also need to factor in editing time, finding the perfect visuals to use within the post, uploading it to your website and promoting it. Instead of rushing the process, give yourself time to do a good job.

17. Expecting Results Too Quickly

Checking your analytics is an important part of blogging for SEO!

Blogging for SEO, like other content marketing tactics, is a long-term strategy. Don’t expect to see a huge return on your investment right away. Anticipate it will take at least 12 to 18 months to start to see positive results from your blog.

18. Neglecting Backend SEO

Always be sure to complete all SEO information on the backend of your website for each blog post. This includes a meta description, excerpt, alt tags, using keywords in the file names of each image and creating a canonical URL with keywords.

Erika Taylor Montgomery is the CEO/Chief Publicist and Founder of Three Girls Media Inc., a public relations and social media marketing agency specializing in working with small and mid-sized companies. With a passion for helping those who need it most but can least afford it, she’s always willing to share advice… View full profile ›

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