You can spend hours trying to use secret SEO techniques to boost your SEO fast, but you’re probably better off focusing on creating helpful content for humans, instead trying to “outsmart” Google! 

 

SEO is an ever-evolving facet of marketing, and with so many updates and changes, it can be a challenge to determine how you should actually go about writing and optimizing content for your website. So in this blog post, we will be covering 3 SEO content writing mistakes that you NEED to avoid in 2023.

 

 

Keyword Stuffing

The first mistake we will be covering is keyword stuffing!

 

Keyword stuffing refers to when one uses an excessive amount of keywords in their copy. While this practice is detrimental today, it is a common misconception that many people fall for because keywords were a more significant SEO metric in the past.

 

In the past, Google was simply less sophisticated of a search engine, and due to limits in technology, Google needed to place an extremely high value on keyword-filled content. Because of this, “keyword density” was actually a positive metric to shoot for previously. However, a lot has changed since then. Today, Google can more intelligently evaluate several factors of your website’s text to determine its relevance. So, in addition to keywords alone, Google can also evaluate the text on your website for its originality, user-friendly structure, and its relevance to the user’s search intent. 

 

In other words, Google will reward content that:

 

• Is uniquely written, not a duplicate of other websites.
• Is organized and easy to read, not blocks of text without headers.
• Is in actual alignment with what the user is looking for, not text loaded with keywords.

 

In the past, keyword stuffing was an effective SEO writing tactic that took advantage of Google’s early SEO rating systems, but SEO has come a long way since then. While keywords remain at the core of SEO, Google can now clearly tell when content is written in an attempt to circumvent Google’s ranking system, as opposed to being genuinely useful content that will benefit the user. 

 

 

 

 

Duplicating Content

The next SEO mistake to watch out for is duplicating content, which we already briefly touched on.

 

Duplicating content refers to when one has the same or extremely similar content on multiple pages within their own website, or, if their website content is the same or extremely similar to competing websites. So, not only do you need to keep the content on your own website unique, but you also need to ensure that your content is unique from your competition.

 

For example, let’s say that you run a gym that offers personal training. If you’re writing blog posts on injury prevention, you need to ensure that each blog you write tackles a different issue, and that the information you provide is distinct from your competitors. So, whether it’s an attempt to quickly boost your Google ranking, or it was an honest mistake, duplicating website content can lead to a drop in SEO performance. Similar to how Google recognizes keyword-stuffed content, Google can also recognize when your website features duplicated content, instead of content that is original and useful to the user.

 

In addition to this, you can also cause “keyword cannibalization” by duplicating your own website’s content. Keyword cannibalization refers to when multiple pages within your own website compete for the same keywords, instead of collectively working together to boost your overall Google ranking. When this occurs, each page can see a drop in its Google ranking and organic traffic. So, not only will your duplicated content not perform well, but by making this SEO mistake, your top-ranking pages can also see a drop in performance.

 

 

Writing Thin Content

The last mistake we will be covering is writing “thin content”.

 

While Google doesn’t like when content writers overload their work by spamming it with keywords, Google doesn’t like when website content has a low word count either… Especially if it isn’t useful or relevant. This is because Google takes into account both the length and depth of a website when determining its Google ranking. So, even if the word count of your latest blog post beats your competition, you can’t forget about the quality of your content…

 

Even a 3000-word blog post can be deemed “thin” if the quality isn’t there!

 

Just as Google can recognize when content isn’t comprehensive but rather over-written and stuffed with keywords, Google can also recognize when content isn’t concise but rather “thin” and unhelpful. As a search engine, Google’s goal is to provide the best website for the related search terms. Therefore, as Google continues to evolve, the better it will be at punishing content that is written to gamify SEO, and rewarding content written to help users. 

 

 

 

 

In conclusion, while it may be tempting to use SEO “hacks” to exploit loopholes in Google’s SEO evaluation system, in reality, you should be focusing on the user and not the search engine. 

 

By avoiding these content writing mistakes, not only will you be able to dodge penalties from Google, your user-focused content will be much appreciated by potential leads who visit your website!

 

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