Key Takeaways
Targeted and Relevant Content: Focus on creating content for specific audiences using long-tail keywords, ensuring it’s relevant and comprehensive. Avoid overly broad or lengthy topics; instead, merge shorter posts for depth and trim excess from longer ones.
Consistency and Patience in Publishing: Maintain a steady flow of high-quality content. Understand that results, especially for new content, take time (4-8 months). Use a structured approach for consistent quality and ensure your content is indexed by search engines.
Understanding and Catering to Search Intent: Develop content that aligns with various search intents: Problem Awareness, Solution Seeking, Product Comparison, and Purchase Readiness. Regularly audit your content to balance these categories for effective engagement and monetization.
SEO and Monetization Strategies: Combine SEO best practices with a focus on transactional search intent for better user engagement and revenue generation. Emphasize on natural writing, essential SEO elements, clear calls to action, and regular performance testing for continuous improvement.
Your Content Isn’t Relevant Enough
Relevant content solves specific problems for targeted audiences.
When you target broad keywords for a wide audience, the relevance suffers.
Too broad and the content becomes irrelevant to everyone.
Your content may be good, but competitors may outshine you by being more relevant to searchers.
For example, an article titled “best headphones for PC” loses to “best noise cancelling headphones under $100” in relevance.
The latter is more relevant to its niche audience, while a broader topic loses relevance, which is a poor trade-off.
Fix: Create More Targeted Content
Focus on creating the most useful content on long-tail keywords. This targets smaller audiences and provides comprehensive information.
Success lies in converting visitors into customers, and long-tail content excels in conversions.
For tips on creating relevant content, see my article on the subject.
Your Content Isn’t Comprehensive Enough
Comprehensive content covers topics from all angles, giving everything the audience needs to know.
However, Google’s algorithm has a notion of the “appropriate content length” for a subject.
This means articles can be too long or too short.
To gauge your content’s length, compare it with what’s performing well on the first page of search results.
Fix for New Articles
Create content that’s relevant, concise, and considers search intent. Avoid unnecessary length and focus on adding value.
Fix for Old Content That’s Not Comprehensive Enough: Combine Multiple Related Articles
If your blog has many short posts, combine them into comprehensive pieces. Use 301 redirects to transfer link equity to these new posts.
Fix for Content That’s Too Long: Remove Fluff
Be objective in removing unnecessary parts. Enhance your content by:
- Linking to relevant posts instead of overly detailed descriptions.
- Using videos and images to convey points efficiently.
You’re Impatient
Creating content consistently as a new marketer can be challenging, especially when results can take 4-8 months to materialize.
This duration is typical for content from new and unproven domains to achieve peak placement on Google.
The same timeline applies to YouTube channels.
Search engines require time to evaluate and appropriately rank new content.
Fix: Embrace a blind trust in the process and choose topics you find engaging, making the effort feel more enjoyable than burdensome.
If your content is relatively new, don’t be discouraged. Continue creating more.
Ensure that Google is not only crawling but also indexing your content.
If Google crawls but doesn’t index your content, it might be due to perceived low quality.
Use Google Search Console to inspect your article URLs for indexing status.
Remember, Google may take several days or weeks to index new content, so don’t panic if it isn’t immediate.
You’re Not Publishing High-Quality Content Consistently
Simply publishing content is no longer sufficient; search engines value consistent, high-quality publishing.
Domains that consistently publish top-notch content will outperform their inconsistent competitors.
Consistency in publishing doesn’t equate to publishing as often as possible.
What does it mean to publish high-quality content consistently?
It means ensuring every piece of content is excellent, whether published daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
While not every attempt will be a masterpiece, striving for excellence is crucial.
Note: Publishing high-quality content frequently is also beneficial.
Studies show that bloggers who publish daily often report better results than those who publish less frequently.
Fix: Develop a content marketing strategy for more structured workflow.
If you struggle with consistent, high-quality content, a more systematic approach can help.
Improve various aspects like keyword and search intent research, content structuring, writing, filming, and editing to achieve more consistent, quality results.
You’re Not Creating Content with Search Intent in Mind
I’m not just talking about optimizing content around traditional search intent; you should be doing that too.
I’m focusing on the advanced “searcher-problem-solution” dynamic.
Let’s break it down.
In advanced search intent classification, there are 4 categories of searches:
Problem Aware Searches – searchers know they have a problem; your job is to inform them of a solution.
Solution Aware Searches – searchers know the solution; your role is to show how your solution fits their needs.
Product Aware Searches – searchers know your solution; your task is to convince them why it’s the best for them.
Ready-to-Purchase Searches – searchers are set on your solution and ready to buy; you need to provide the necessary purchasing details.
For those selling or recommending products/services, it’s crucial to create content for each category.
Not doing so means potential revenue loss.
Fix: Conduct a content audit and categorize results as discussed.
Imagine a chart where each dot represents content in its respective category. If there’s a shortage in the “solution aware” category, it indicates a need for more content there.
Your Monetization is Off
We all want to monetize our content, aiming to indulge more in what we enjoy.
Content marketing success isn’t just about driving traffic; it’s about turning that traffic into revenue.
If you’re drawing in thousands of visitors but only earning minimal amounts from AdSense, there’s a missed opportunity.
Luckily, attracting traffic is the harder part, so you’re halfway there.
Important: I won’t delve into monetization strategies like affiliate marketing or selling digital goods.
I’m focusing on optimizing content for sales and leads.
Fix: Concentrate on transactional search intent.
Transactional search intent is the final stage of the buyer’s journey, where users are ready to purchase.
Your goal is to craft content that:
- Is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
- Features clear, transparent calls to action (CTAs).
- Incorporates compelling, targeted copy.
- Effectively utilizes visuals.
For transactional content, frequent A/B testing and iterations are key to finding the most effective versions that drive conversions.
For a deeper dive into optimizing for transactional search intent, check out my detailed article.
Your Content Has SEO Issues
Content marketing significantly depends on search engines and organic traffic.
Indeed, this reliance explains why successful content marketing is often more cost-effective than paid traffic in the long term.
To ensure search engines favor your content, adherence to their rules is crucial.
Fortunately, the necessity to tailor specifically for search engines is diminishing as their algorithms become more advanced.
For instance, Google’s algorithm now almost mimics human interpretation of content.
This development means that keyword stuffing and unnaturally dense keyword use are not just less effective, but they could also lead to penalties.
Prioritizing natural writing and high-quality content is far more crucial than the frequency of specific keywords in your article.
However, it’s important to note that SEO is still vital and should not be overlooked.
Fix: The 80:20 Rule
I advocate for the 80:20 SEO approach.
This means achieving 80% of the results with just 20% of the effort.
Key SEO basics to focus on include:
- Incorporating the main keyword in the title and meta description
- Using proper header tags to structure content
- Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly
- Creating a user-friendly, uncluttered experience
- Interlinking your content
- Building backlinks
- Linking to high-authority content
- Including relevant images and videos in your content