If you’ve heard that adding fresh content to your site will earn you major brownie points with Mother Google, you’ve heard right. Fresh content plays a huge role in the ranking of your website. But that doesn’t mean that you should fill up your site with garbage, just for the sake of adding content.

Here are five ways to blog… wrong

ONE

Write exclusively about your products and services.

In “What to Blog. How to Make Your Content Robust” I talk about how constantly writing about your products and services makes your blog into a giant advertisement. That’s not gonna cut it. You’ve got to provide interesting and educational information for your readers beyond mere product descriptions. So you’re a DUI attorney. How about a blog article on “Steps to Take When You Get a DUI” or even better, “Strategies to Avoid Drinking and Driving”. Can you see how these might be helpful? Can you see how someone might even Google these particular phrases and happen upon your site?

TWO

Use a lot of your keywords in your articles.

How is this still going on?! It’s okay to mention your products and services, to include them in an article so that Google knows that you should rank for those keywords, but don’t overdo it. Use common sense. If you were talking with someone and used keywords in every other sentence, they would think you were crazy. Well Google is getting smart enough to tell the difference between a blog article that is written just for SEO and one that is written for site visitors.

THREE

Post videos and pictures with no (or very little) text.

If you use a video or pictures, you need to back them up with context as well. Google is smart, but they aren’t smart enough to know that the pictures you just posted are of the latest and greatest widget or that the video you just posted is a visual step by step on how to remove a Jeep top. Even though the pictures or videos might be all that is necessary to tell the story, back them up with content too. Tell those search spiders what they are looking at.

FOUR

Write about subjects that aren’t relevant to your blog.

Personally, I’m a fan of smoking meat. And while posting a recipe for my famous Kansas City brisket might get me a lot of site traffic, it’s not truly relevant to internet marketing or the subjects I cover here on DavidMcBee.com. If you can make a connection that makes sense (something like a hip music mix on a site about cool bicycles) that’s perfectly okay. But don’t make it the focus of your blog. The focus of your blog should be relevant to your products and services… again, not always about your products and services, but relevant.

FIVE

Use lots of thin content.

If you are outsourcing your blog (perfectly okay if you’ve found someone who “gets it” and can capture the “voice” of your brand), don’t outsource it from someone who charges less than $50/post. You’re going to get what you pay for and anything less than $50 is most likely going to be pure fluff that doesn’t really say anything. This might have been okay for SEO in 2012, but Panda has gotten smart enough to tell the difference between thin content and real content. Try to find an author who’s willing to talk with you and get to know your brand and your goals. Short of that, make sure you’re working with a college educated, professional author who speaks your language as well as you do.

If you’re making these mistakes, don’t despair. You’re not alone. Just start creating robust, relevant content that speaks to your readers’ interests. Ask yourself, “Will this content excite my readers while still fulfilling my SEO objectives?” And if the answer is yes, you’ve done what you needed to do.

Thanks for reading, and PLEASE COMMENT and SHARE if you find this article helpful. (PS: Comment and shares are another way Google determines the value of your content!)

David McBee

Internet Marketing Consultation