Author: Ronald Dod / Source: MarketingProfs Search engines help you get new readers, viewers, and listeners for your content, but all t
Search engines help you get new readers, viewers, and listeners for your content, but all too often you yourself are the reason search engines hold your content back from prominent positions in their search results pages.
Search engines want to show the world your content, but not if you’ve made mistakes that undermine the user experience and search engines’ guidelines.
So give the search engines what they want by avoiding the following common mistakes that content creators make.
1. Short Content
Google likes long-form content because it gives searchers enough information to satisfy their needs. Generally, the more in-depth the content is, the more likely it solves the searcher’s intent or question, and that is what Google wants.
A SerpIQ study found that content shown in Google search results in positions 1-3 had around 2,400 words, on average. In short, long-form content ranked better in Google.
A good approach for each piece of content you plan to produce is to determine the main keyword phrase. Then google that phrase to see how long the content is in the top 3 search results. Make sure your own content is longer, more in-depth, more concise, and more well-thought-out. If you do, readers as well as Google will think more highly of your content.
2. No Imagery or Design Elements
No one likes stale websites that look like they were put up in 1999; new, modern-looking websites simply perform better. Content is the same: If you have pages of text with no imagery or design elements, then readers—and therefore Google—will not favor your content over your competitors’.
Design elements that break up text keeps readers on the page longer. The longer they are on the page, the more likely Google will boost the content’s rank due to dwell time.
Basically, the assumption is that the longer they are on the page, the more likely it’s meeting their needs, which means a better chance to be shared on social media, linked to, or be visited again.
3. Misspellings/Content Errors
Misspellings and other content errors are not, technically, SEO factors, but they hurt your credibility and your chance to be linked to….
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