A lot of authors make common mistakes before and after they publish a blog post on their site or submit an article as a guest post on another individual’s site. These mistakes can often lead to lower-quality posts, which can hurt their credibility and their website’s search engine optimization (SEO), and poor content promotion, which can hurt engagement and visibility. Here are the three most common mistakes authors make in these areas, and how to avoid them.
1. Confusing the reason to promote the articles with the reason to write them.
Crafting quality articles is integral to your content marketing efforts. When done right, it can provide a trifecta of success – branding, lead generation, and promotion of what you have to offer. However, all these perks will not happen if the article fails to captivate its audience. Even perfect SEO placement or an impeccable Call to Action (CTA) script won’t help one bit without compelling content that prompts people to read in the first place! The key? Put reader engagement front and center when crafting each blog post and article – only then will you be able to unlock those invaluable benefits.
2. Failing to maximize promotional opportunities.
Once an article is posted on your or another’s site, how do potential readers find it? The most common ways are:
- Search engine traffic
- Social sharing
Search engines, and the potential readers using them, find your posts when you have optimized the content for the keywords they are using. This means that you have the right number of mentions of your keyword (not too many times, not too few times), and those mentions are strategically placed in headers, bold font, and general content.
Distributing your content on social media platforms also helps. And, if you do it right, other people will share your content with their networks, as well. However, to maximize this opportunity, you may have to use slightly different strategies on each platform, and for some platforms, you may take a pass on.
Start out with a plan and see to it that your article will serve the function that you intend it to have.
3. Publishing an article that does not help your readers.
Remember always that the article must serve its primary audience: The reader. If you don’t care about the reader, it will show. Don’t get caught up only in getting links back to your site.
Be aware that not all fellow bloggers and online magazines are going to accept your content automatically. Oftentimes, they have guidelines and specifications for the articles they accept. This most likely includes the criteria of a well-written, informative article.
Write the articles that publishers want in their publications if you want your guest posting to work most effectively for you.
Remember to obey the standard guidelines, spell-check your copy, research your topic, and, if necessary hire a writer to produce the content for you.
In the end, it is all really a matter of choice on your part. You can start getting a little exposure from increased links back but on a very basic level. Or enjoy massive exposure from a little extra time making quality content.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on CarmaSpence.com in February 2008. It was updated in February 2020, and again in January 2023.