Don’t believe everything you read when it comes to content marketing. While many self-proclaimed marketing experts will be quick to try and convince you that content’s reign as king is over, there is evidence to suggest that content is alive and well. If anyone tells you that content is dead, there’s a good chance they are simply not doing it right. Before you give up on your content endeavours, try avoiding these 6 common mistakes that are all too common in the world of content marketing.

Generic Article Titles

Titles may not sound like the most important part of a piece of content, but underestimate them at your peril. Unique article titles are crucial in terms of both SEO and click-through rate, and a generic title may mean your articles aren’t even seen or clicked on. 

To avoid coming up with generic titles, reconsider how you think of your titles. Draw inspiration from the latest news, use Google Trends to understand what users are searching for, and you can even use AI platforms to enhance titles. 

Overreliance on AI

On the topic of AI, while it can help you craft more unique article titles, don’t rely on platforms like ChatGPT to write your whole articles. As AI relies on information that already exists, your articles will likely lack originality if written by AI.

There’s also a belief that Google will penalise AI-generated content as the sector evolves, so while it may be tempting due to the speed at which AI can produce blogs, it may not be fruitful for your content marketing efforts in the long run.

Lack of Strategy

With so many businesses producing content, it’s important that there is a strategy behind your content. You could produce the best piece of content that the world has ever seen, but if it doesn’t help to generate conversions, then it may be a complete waste of time.

Make sure your target keywords receive a good amount of searches, but also make sure you are targeting keywords that are being searched by your target audience. That way, you know that your content will not only be generating traffic, but relevant traffic.

Thin Content

Google’s Panda update in 2011 was designed to penalise poor-quality content, which includes web articles that lack depth. If you are finding that your content isn’t yielding results, it may be because you are creating content for the sake of it, rather than offering knowledge, insight and value to your readers.

The days of being able to fill content with keywords and see results have gone, now Google gives preference to content that is original, unique and goes beyond the surface.

Optimise for AI Summaries 

A more modern tactic is to optimise content for AI snippets and summaries on Google. AI summaries have emerged in recent times and sit at the top of Google’s results pages for most searches.

Given that this is considered a prime position on Google, it can be worth trying to ensure your website is mentioned or referenced in this section.

Repurpose in Other Forms

Content marketing no longer refers to blogs, articles and guest posts. Now, it incorporates short and long-form video that can form the basis of social media posts. If you do have a collection of blogs and articles, try repurposing them in video format to expand your content strategy across different platforms.

Final Thoughts 

Content marketing can still offer an enormous amount of value to businesses, but it has become harder in recent years thanks to increased competition and changes to the algorithm. If you have tried some of the tips mentioned above and still aren’t seeing results, it may be worth reaching out to a content marketing agency that can offer specialist advice and create a bespoke approach to content marketing for your business.