So much of the discussion about content marketing focuses on getting things right. But, what do you do when something is desperately wrong? You may know you have problems, but you need a system that identifies precisely where your website is failing. Before you can make big changes, however, you first have to know what you are doing. Education is the key to finding effective ways to stopping the content failures and improving your search rankings.
Bad Technical SEO! No Treats
The only thing worse than no website is a bad one. Your customers are more willing to forgive the lack of a website than one that is outdated, with faulty links and a bunch of content that does not reach them in the right way.
Chances are, there are a host of technical problems lying underneath the surface of your website, a sleepless malice that confuses your customers and hurts your conversions. This is where content marketing tools come in. You use a system to look at the technical aspects of your website, looking for problems like:
- lousy mobile access
- duplicate pages
- content too similar to other sites
- broken sitemaps
Most websites have some errors in the way their pages are loaded and indexed on search engines. The first time you see the list of all the problems, you may be tempted to run and hide. Fear not, for help is on the way.
I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get My Rankings Up
You just have to know how to interpret that help. So, you have a list of problems and… absolutely no knowledge about solve them. Some issues, such as a temporary redirect that became permanent, can be fairly easily solved by the person who built or maintains your website. Even if you do not have the technical skill to resolve these SEO problems, good content marketing tools will help give you the understanding so that you know why you have to fix them. In time, you will know not just what is wrong, but how and why and what you have to do now.
Picking Up the Content Pieces
Your SEO education makes the difference between creating a keyword strategy that helps you to sell your HVAC maintenance services in Duluth, and trying to sell HVAC Duluth maintenance. Which long-tail keyword would you prefer to read? Content marketing tools do more than just analyze the technical function of your website.
The best tools take a hard look at your content–how it looks to prospective clients, and who is actually reading it. You do not have to choose between keyword-rich content and pages and blog posts that people actually want to read. You can have both.
The right approach to SEO starts with the obvious problems, whether they are technical or content-based. Solving those issues allows your customers to reach your site with the energy to look, read and buy.