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5 Reasons Why Great Content is Not Enough for Seo

written by Guest Blogger on March 11, 2011

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No one can argue against the fact that all the written content of websites including home pages, blogs, testimonials and catalogues can be highly effective at boosting search engine optimisation. Strategically and creatively spiking web content with keywords and phrases is one of the most successful and widely used seo techniques today, with blogs emerging as one of the key tools for businesses looking to up their rank in search engine listings and generate a greater amount of traffic to their websites. But are unique blog topics and original approaches to writing posts going to get you the seo results you need? Not necessarily.

Well-written text and an individual blog style will take you a long way, but, in terms of attracting much more ongoing attention to your website, there are several other factors that will also require your attention and may actually be the difference between a successful seo strategy and one that takes up a lot of time and energy with no solid returns for your company.

To help you make your blog as successful as possible in your future seo endeavours, here are 5 reasons why it may not be functioning to its optimum capacity currently, despite containing top notch content.

1 – You’re choosing the wrong topics

Before you begin composing your next blog post, do some research across other web forums in your industry to see what the current hot topics are and compose posts that take a new perspective on the topics that are interesting readers right now. To effectively boost seo, your topic must be something that will interest as many people as possible. It sounds like common sense, but writing about topics with limited appeal is also a common mistake that many bloggers make.

2 – You don’t know your readers

To make sure that your blog is a useful aspect of your seo strategy, you must ensure that your content speaks to your readers in a way that makes sense to them. While your writing style might be technically perfect and ideal for an academic journal or industry publication, it’s possible that it won’t appeal broadly in the blogosphere. Remember, blogs should be written in a casual tone, as if you are explaining something to a friend over coffee.

3 – Your post has no goal

Having an impeccably written blog post won’t do anything to boost seo if people don’t read it. To make sure your blogs are appealing to the maximum number of readers, try to pick topics for your posts that have a clear purpose or goal. ‘How to’, ‘Why’ and ‘Top Five’ style articles (like this one) are some of the best options for seo targeting blog posts.

4 – Your blog doesn’t encourage feedback

No matter how good your content is and how creatively your keywords have been included, if your blog doesn’t receive enough attention, it will do nothing to increase seo. One way to inspire more activity around your blog posts is to pose questions and ask for commentary from your readers. In this way, you will develop a kind of friendship with your readers and find out what kind of content they most enjoy reading.

5 – You’re not learning from your readers

Now you’ve got your readers’ attention with your well written and topical blog posts which have encouraged rampant commentary and feedback, don’t forget to use their suggestions to improve your blog. Combining your already high quality content with what you can learn from your readers will be the final stage in running a blog that is active, informative and highly successful in capitalising seo.

This Guest post was blogged by John K Taylor of Web Design company in Melbourne.

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{ 73 comments }

Pumama March 11, 2011 at 2:19 am

You are right! We should write for readers first then optimize for SE

semmy @ Make Money Online March 11, 2011 at 9:01 am

Yes that’s right. Write for your reader not for google.

Trung Nguyen @| Make Money Blogging March 11, 2011 at 6:02 pm

This is what I have been told in the ebook of John

d3so March 11, 2011 at 11:34 pm

It’s better to write both for your reader and google.

Penny Bid Auction Sites March 11, 2011 at 6:17 pm

Reason #6 your seo sucks: You don’t have any links.

Marco Lee March 12, 2011 at 3:49 am

Definitely! Links are also vital with growth. Get more links with sites that have high pagerank and get a step closer to ranking better at google.

semmy @ Make Money Online March 13, 2011 at 11:09 pm

I agree with you. You can’t get your ranking higher with out backlinks

d3so March 11, 2011 at 11:33 pm

I actually do my best to follow those steps. I end up like the guy in the demotivational pic ;)

online advertising March 11, 2011 at 2:25 am

Things are getting more and more tougher day by day with changes to google algorithm your blog help us lot to keep us updated thanks.

Abhik March 11, 2011 at 4:39 am

Indeed John Chow is doing great to teach us how to make it..
BTW, this is a guest by John K Taylor if haven’t noticed.

design flyer March 11, 2011 at 2:50 am

Well we have to look at what topics people like these days but we must bring in something different which will make our blog unique.

Lakhyajyoti March 11, 2011 at 8:14 pm

Good point.we must try to make our blog unique.

Christian Inspiration March 11, 2011 at 4:33 am

I gotta agree the most with the first one — “Choosing the Wrong Topics”. Successful blogging has to be planned out and orderly if a person ever wants to be a success. -Daniel

Penny Bid Auction Sites March 11, 2011 at 6:19 pm

I’m not sure blogging has to be that planned out. Lots of times I used to write posts on the spur of the moment just because I had an idea pop into my head.

design flyer March 12, 2011 at 1:59 am

Yeah.. thats the point and sometimes it works much better.

Lakhyajyoti March 11, 2011 at 4:39 am

Learn lot from your article.BWN I am always write for my readers.

semmy @ Make Money Online March 11, 2011 at 5:11 am

Another great post by John. thanks for your article John!

design flyer March 11, 2011 at 5:17 am

Actually its by a guest blogger…

semmy @ Make Money Online March 11, 2011 at 8:59 am

Yes John the guest blogger.

Design Flyer March 12, 2011 at 10:23 pm

okay.. confused between two johns

Email List Building March 13, 2011 at 12:03 pm

@semmy
Why not just mention the guest blogger’s name? It’s John K Taylor. He made a great effort to write the post so give him some credit by at least mentioning his name.

Plus you said: “Another great post by John”. Perhaps you are too busy sucking up to John Chow to really notice anything else.

Justin March 11, 2011 at 5:32 am

blogs should be written in a casual tone, as if you are explaining something to a friend over coffee. I really like this metaphor.

Brandon Hansen March 11, 2011 at 6:17 am

Great post and very well timed. I have been contemplating the purpose of my blog posts and this helps a lot.

Brandon

TrafficColeman March 11, 2011 at 6:52 am

It comes down to really knowing what seo is about..it your not season on the steps to get tot the top..then you will never get their..its more then content my friend..

“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”

Kirk Taylor March 11, 2011 at 7:19 am

Where is your question that is supposed to inspire comments?

Nick Stamoulis March 11, 2011 at 7:38 am

It’s critical that your blog talk TO consumers, not talk AT them. People not only have to be engaged by the content, they have to believe they are having a conversation with your company. Blog owners should actually respond to some of the comments they receive, so people don’t feel like they are talking to a brick wall.

Jon March 11, 2011 at 8:29 am

I actually believe great content IS enough for SEO because the 5 points you mention all have to do with great content. It’s not great content unless you are writing about the right topics, engaging your readers, and writing with a purpose or a goal. I guess it’s just a matter of what your definition of great content is. It’s not just good grammar and excellent spelling. And it’s not great content unless your readers think it’s great content. Great topic though. Thanks for stirring up the pot.

Health Blog March 11, 2011 at 8:50 am

100% agreed on the subject. But great content is one of the major factor in SEO. Imagine you have done everything for SEO but content is poor. Your readers will remain less than 5 seconds in your site.

semmy @ Make Money Online March 13, 2011 at 11:18 pm

LOL yes that’s right. they will closed your website when reading the blog post.. I agree with you

Self Publishing Blog March 11, 2011 at 8:53 am

I have shifted the attention of my blog marketing lately, as mingling with your competitors doesn’t help much. You have to cater for customers. Those are the ones that will read and eventually buy.

Allen Walker March 11, 2011 at 9:48 am

I agree with you. Just having great content itself isn’t enough…
If no one knows that your content is there, it doesn’t do anything for you… :)
I think marketing also plays an important role in spreading the word about your content, so learning some marketing to promote your content is also a valid additional point.

Tilen March 11, 2011 at 10:00 am

Really nice post. I agree with all these points. Especialy with making goals. Why writing something for others if you don’t know what are you trying to say in the first place.

Jerry F March 11, 2011 at 10:46 am

I like the PASSION image you have up there.. so true for so many

fas March 11, 2011 at 10:55 am

First SEO then Readers then SEO and so on and so forth.

make money blogging March 11, 2011 at 3:56 pm

Don’t you think it’s better to think about readers first? If your readers like your content they will link it, and links are the SEO base…

I’d rather say, first readers, then readers, then readers :)

semmy @ Make Money Online March 13, 2011 at 11:20 pm

Yeah it’s happen with a friend of mine blog. He didn’t know anything about SEO, but he really good on writing content, And he just post on blog carnival and some of the forums. He got a lot of backlinks from his readers.

Peter Get My Ex Back Asap March 14, 2011 at 1:00 pm

It is great to hear someone got some benefit from blog carnival – I heard they are hard to impress over there.

Peter

Crystal Healing Pendant March 11, 2011 at 11:36 am

I am new at blogging and all this SEO stuff and have lots to learn. This post made so much sense to me I have booked marked it to remind me what to do when I start writing my blog Thanks john

Togrul March 11, 2011 at 12:31 pm

Valuable points,

thanks for sharing

Togrul

make money blogging March 11, 2011 at 3:55 pm

Now I really laugh loud with that image…

PPC Ian March 11, 2011 at 11:09 pm

I know! That image is awesome! :-) I was laughing out load too!

Penny Bid Auction Sites March 12, 2011 at 11:09 am

Not good to work your butt off and not make in any money.

make money blogging March 13, 2011 at 6:08 pm

Yup, but instead of crying about that, let’s just laugh, isn’t it? lol

Make Money Online March 11, 2011 at 4:17 pm

Great guest post once again. Write for human visistors not just for search engines. A big amount of backlinks will do you goood for search engines instead of unique content. But when you write often for a blog, your indexed pages on google will increase so thats also a big bonus.

Crystal Healing Pendant March 11, 2011 at 10:20 pm

I could not agree more with this statement, sometimes I think we are all getting lost in technology and there is not enough humanism input.

PPC Ian March 11, 2011 at 11:08 pm

Great tips and a great guest post. I am definitely guilty of some of these. I love the image about “passion” that is really funny. It’s actually true, for those that are new to affiliate marketing. Hang in there, the passion does pay off, handsomely!

make money blogging March 13, 2011 at 6:11 pm

That’s why most bloggers fail, not only lack of passion / knowledge but also lack of patience…

Biharprabha March 12, 2011 at 5:14 am

What I say is that Feedback is the most important for SEO

Design Flyer March 12, 2011 at 10:26 pm

what do you mean by it? how its important for SEO?

make money blogging March 13, 2011 at 6:13 pm

backlinks are

design flyer March 13, 2011 at 11:04 pm

and thats right..

Kirk Taylor March 12, 2011 at 6:23 am

As far as I can tell, you’ve missed a great opportunity to build a stronger following. You’ve made no attempt to form relationships with the people that have left comments.

This leaves me with another question, What was your point in writing this post?

I think you have a lot to offer, but it’s disapointing when people don’t take advantage of their own opportunities that they create.

christina March 13, 2011 at 9:10 am

I agree with your point because content is the king which leads to entry of the visitors

make money blogging March 13, 2011 at 6:14 pm

content + marketing is king, it’s useless to have great content if you don’t know how to market it, even great content should be marketed..

christina March 13, 2011 at 10:12 pm

yes i agree but only the content which gives more idea about the content or whatever inside the website

design flyer March 13, 2011 at 11:03 pm

Well content+marketing are important but we will say content is king because everything revolves around it.

semmy @ Make Money Online March 13, 2011 at 11:13 pm

Yes that’s right. Both of them can’t be separated.

Amit Sharma@Make Money Blogging March 13, 2011 at 12:28 pm

Yes, great content is not enough because we also need backlinks!

Marketing and Research Services March 13, 2011 at 1:48 pm

I have several websites and am often torn between writing for search engines and writing for humans. It’s sad that there isn’t always great crossover….especially for topics that might not get much readership anyway.

One of these days, I’m going to write a blog post about how content marketing is ruining the Internet. ;-0

WTF March 13, 2011 at 4:13 pm

Thanks for the post John K Taylor. Very good info there.

Reason #1 is spot on (and for any site really, news/blog/whatever). Google ranks new content high up on the list and gradually moves it down the ladder and with trending search topics, you’re guaranteed hits!

design flyer March 13, 2011 at 11:05 pm

Thats why it is said keep updating regularly..

Beard Trimmer March 13, 2011 at 5:03 pm

i think its best some sort of compromise Text for readers as much seo optimized as possible at least that part of on page seo optimization

Ari Lestariono March 14, 2011 at 7:08 am

This is true infact, if writing content only for SEO, what happen is, the potential readers stop at your blogs, and find nothing but rubbish, they will go away, although Content is the King, but also your blog need visitors, I have tried many things, using BL software, three way links, it’s all wasted time and money, instead I got discount from “G”, what works for me is, update your content, paralel with hot Trends, Hot searches, and Blog Walking, make real connection with real visitor, especially Google latest info , is changing their Algorithm, cutting off blogs that contains “rubbish content” that has no values for readers.

Fazal Mayar March 16, 2011 at 10:03 am

exactly… you have to write for human visitors first. There is more to seo then writing good enough content such as link building.

uchenna March 14, 2011 at 11:04 am

i am kind of new to blogging and i want to state that i sincerely enjoy your posts. you have a way of passing your point down to subcribers. Thanks very much john and please keep it coming.

Peter Get My Ex Back Asap March 14, 2011 at 12:58 pm

I think the last point you make – about listening to what your readers have to say about what they would like to see on your blog is an awesome way of finding ideas for new projects, products your readers might benefit from and of course increased traffic – the more people :like” you the more traffic you are going to get.

Awesome post
Peter

ian@make money online March 15, 2011 at 2:13 am

Mr J K Taylor

I would like to say that you have written a great post here with
5 great tips on writing content, I agree content is king.

Whether or not it will help your SEO? it depends if the serps feel
that you content is relevant to what keyword/phrases are being searched for.

However, a well written and informative post (like this one) will get people talking which does
improve your seo, if you look at social sites and any form of discussion site they rank well.

take Facebook, Twitter for example they rank well, and most of the content is plain old (waffle)
but it gets people coming back and in a nutshell if you write well informative and useful content
and you get returning visitors to your blog and interaction and then you will move up the in the serps.
You can either write the content yourself or get guest to post to your blog like John Chow you will Make Money Online </a

Andrey Mishakov March 16, 2011 at 10:04 am

I have problems with SEO just now.Thanks for help…

ahmadhaikal March 17, 2011 at 1:43 pm

i agree. It was not easy to get seo juice. Need to work hard and know what kind of aim we want. This is not one night job.

anitha March 21, 2011 at 11:03 pm

i use to update content regularly and do some offpage optimization

jasmine March 23, 2011 at 12:32 am

google is considering unique content or content without grammatical errors

entertainment news April 1, 2011 at 10:14 pm

google loves the content if its in google friendly it will earn a traffic lot for us

singer divya April 2, 2011 at 2:57 am

google will approve the content , only it has unique of the article,