I wish bloggers would stop listening to their SEO guy so much about how daily, constant posts, full of keywords is the only way to get to the top of Google.
For the last few weeks I have been really busy and not had the time to write, so you know what I have been doing? Not writing.
Despite what my SEO guy constantly is telling me about how I need to post more often. I haven’t had the time to write decent articles. For me it takes time to get an article to the point I want to let others read it. But I have been reading and some of the stuff I am reading is simply awful.
Maybe Google loves lots of daily new content, splattered with the keywords, but I have news for you guys that repeatedly write your city and company name in articles about how you are the best painting company out there. Google, as much as it is the main train to the party, is not your customer. Let me repeat that. Google is not your customer. And those crappy posts you are writing are signed with your name. Your customer doesn’t care that your online mission is to be first ranked on Google.
I think the only thing worse than no content is bad content. And there seems to be a bunch of bloggers forget that most of their articles and posts are being read by their existing customers and followers.
I promise you this. If you keep posting badly written articles and then keep putting them in front of your customer’s face, your existing customers will turn you off. They will file your emails in the junk folder, turn off your feed on Facebook and ignore your tweets. So much for your social network.
Part of the problem is that too many blogs are started for the sole reason of increasing SEO rankings. That boggles my blogging mind. Writing and blogging takes an enormous time commitment and has a big impact in the branding of your company. If you are going to invest that kind of effort, why would you not make sure you are getting more value than just a Google ranking?
Every article I write for my company blog, I write with the purpose of building our brand, educating my customer or providing information that will in some way help my customer. SEO ranking is ALWAYS a secondary thought for me. My logic is that quality content trumps quantity content. It’s my name and my company’s name on that article and if I am going to represent Warline as a quality first painting company, my blog and writing better reflect that same level of quality.
So I don’t push out badly written, pointless articles that are littered with keywords, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. I am not saying my articles are by any means perfect or that everything I write is earth shattering but you will never read one of my articles that reads keyword after keyword, that does nothing for the benefit of the reader and is obviously written for solely for Google.
Does it matter? As long as your Google ranking is good, why should you care? Because first and foremost you are a painting company that has real people working in it and real customers reading what you write.
What kind of impression are you giving your existing customers and potential customers if your articles are full of typos? Think of each typo as a paint drop on the floor. Get the connection? The same goes for writing keyword articles. Do you pay attention to commercials during your favourite show or is that when you get up and go get a snack? Your customer knows when they are being sold too.
So how to you get away from bad writing?
First, write with purpose that is more than just SEO. Think about how you want to be perceived by your audience. Is it as an expert in your area in restorations? Maybe it is as an equipment and product expert that provides reviews on the latest tools. Find something you can write informatively on and go with that. Not every article needs to be directly related to that topic, but definitely build an inventory of quality articles that establish yourself as an authority on a subject.
Also, take your time writing and editing before you post. Fresh eyes have an amazing ability to see things you missed so don’t ever post your first draft and if you have the chance to have someone else read your pre-published articles, definitely do that too. I find a huge number of mistakes that spell check misses by reading my articles aloud.
And lastly, slow down. You do not need to post daily or weekly. Yes, I just said that. Look, unless you are building a company that you only plan to have around for a year or two, your blog is a long term investment in your business.
Focus more on writing less, but better articles and eventually you will have a collection. Write when you are inspired. Write when you have the time. And write when you have something to say.
That way you can ensure someone always wants to listen.