Posted: June 19, 2015
Do you have Redundant, Outdated and Trivial content on your site? Get rid of the R.O.T. with Jumpem!
We’ve said it before, and we know others have as well, but content is king. Well, sort of. Redundant, trivial and outdated content is better left to rot unpublished rather than risk allowing the content to bring your web page down in the rankings. So just what is this R.O.T., and how do you avoid it?
Although search engines like Bing and Google are pushing the importance of context in on-site content, it is still extremely important that your website is updated regularly with high-quality information. We know it can be difficult to knock out a blog page every day, or even once a week, and sometimes that leads to taking the easy way out.
Many businesses outsource their blog and website content to unqualified freelance writers or content mills that turn out drivel at an amazing speed. The problem with that is that these posts are often vague, general and provide no real specifics about your business, industry or even the topic of the blog post! That’s a sure sign that your content is full of R.O.T. before you even have the chance to be crawled by Google’s bots.
Have you ever read an entire web page and noticed that the content circles back around to the same topic, using the same keywords and repeating certain phrases? Redundant content is the first big no-no of website content copywriting. While you want to provide content that is easily understood by your audience, you don’t want to dumb it down. And although keywords are important so that users can find your web page during a search, too many repeated keywords can come across as spam or low-quality writing. Both of these can result in penalties handed out by the search engines.
The easiest way to get redundant content on your site is to push deadlines that demand frequent posting, no matter the topic or quality. If you are setting a flat word-count limit on each post, you might be doing more harm than good.
Not every web page needs 1,000 words or more, and if you outsource your writing, you’re risking allowing a non-expert to expound ad nauseum.
Businesses that offer relevant content can often find their blog posts and web pages are outdated. This is inevitable any time you want to cover topics that deal with evolving issues, such as trends, politics, policies, laws and even Internet marketing changes.
So how can you keep your content updated?
Even if you’ve covered the topic before, you can always update your stance or opinion. By adding a few words to the end or beginning of an outdated post, you can inform your readers that facts or best practices have changed, then link to a new page or post that expands on the issue.
Sites that cover daily news do something similar almost every day. News stories can be updated more than 10 times a day if it’s a pressing or important story. By labeling the updates clearly, and being upfront about the changes, you can easily manage outdated content on your site, no matter how old it might be.
The easiest way to avoid trivial content is discussed below: make a content plan. Before you start writing, have a clear idea of the goal of your post or web page. Are you providing details about your services? Are you sharing an opinion about an industry change? What do you want your audience to take away from the text?
Of course we understand that not every page on your site will be ground-breaking. But if you’re writing content just for the sake of posting something, then you need a better content strategy.
Our tips for avoiding trivial content:
If you aren’t sure whether you content is redundant, trivial or outdated, then you need a content management strategy. A clearly defined strategy will portray the topics you want covered and may even involve a content outline.
This might seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it to know that your website’s pages aren’t being penalized.
A content marketing strategy can also help you improve the quality of content on your site. With a purpose in mind, and an SEO strategy, your content can instantly improve. We offer a variety of ways to better market your content so that you can improve your rankings, but no R.O.T. allowed!
If you need high-quality content, and don’t have the resources to provide it yourself, let Jumpem help you jump the competition and improve your rankings on SERPs. Contact us today and eliminate the R.O.T.!