High-quality content is the fuel that keeps your website going. 

You’ll can’t just fill the tank one time. You have to keep refilling it along the way.

And you can’t settle for that regular stuff—a quality content marketing strategy demands premium, high-octane fuel.

The second your content quality dips, so will the success of your marketing.

And without regular input of quality fuel, everything’s going to shudder to a halt.

As the fuel for all your marketing materials and promotions, your content needs to attract attention, evoke emotion and convince leads to convert to paying customers. When it meets those needs, the content can be considered high quality.

Unfortunately, many content marketers fail to create content that hits the mark. Instead, they slap some words on a web page and hope for the best.

But when just about every company has a website, the content you put on yours needs to make you stand out. As the first thing a potential customer sees when they research your company and brand, your website needs to be an accurate representation of who you are, what you do and who you serve.

Putting low-quality content on your website can seriously hinder your success. If your customers aren’t connecting with your page, they have their pick of competitors waiting at the end of a Google search. With this kind of ease and access, you can’t afford to make mistakes with your web content.

But as a content marketer, what kinds of mistakes should you be on the lookout for? Let’s take a look at five of the most common slip-ups people make when drafting content for their website.

5 Low Energy Mistakes That Get in the Way of Quality Content

1. Writing for Yourself, Not the Customer

One of the biggest mistakes companies make on their website is drafting copy for themselves, not for the customer. They fill page after page with “we” and “our,” without ever addressing the benefits the customer will get if they choose to purchase their products or services.

Whether they mean to be or not, our customers are selfish. They don’t care who you are or what you do—as long as you can present an easy and efficient solution to their problems. While it may seem counterintuitive to create a web page for your company that doesn’t focus on your accomplishments and qualifications, it’s important to consider what your audience is actually looking for when they visit your site.

Take a moment and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What problems are they facing when they come to your company? What areas are they looking for help in? What fears, struggles or challenges are they facing, and what can you do to help?

What words would you want to hear if you were them?

Viewing your company from the perspective of your client can help you create content that pulls on the emotions of your visitor, increasing your chances of gaining a new lead. Focus your content on providing a solution to your customer’s problems, convincing them of your qualifications and capabilities without making them feel like they’re reading a job interview transcript.

Pro Tip: Check out “The Definitive Guide to Copywriting” by Neil Patel and Joseph Putnam for more tips on creating customer-centric copy.

If you’re serious about getting feedback on your copywriting, check out the Test My Marketing tool.

2. Explaining What You Do Poorly

Have you ever read a company’s home page and thought, “Well, what do they do?” 

After finishing the page, you probably clicked right out of that website without giving it another thought.

Unfortunately, this problem may be bigger than you think. When creating content for your website, one of the most difficult parts can be accurately explaining what it is your company actually does. If you’re too close to the day-to-day operations, it can be a real challenge to pinpoint your message. But if you can’t accurately explain what your company does, you can’t expect a customer to trust you to do whatever that is.

The best way to explain what your company does is to keep it simple. Come up with three to five words that accurately describes what you do each day or what benefits you bring your customers. Use words you frequently hear from your clients, but try to stay away from arbitrary buzzwords like “revolutionary” or “disruptive.”

And again, focus on solving problems and offering solutions of value to your potential customers.

Pro Tip: Use the Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing Message Architecture Tool to really nail down your business message.

3. Writing Without a Purpose

Each piece of content on your website needs to have a unique and clearly-defined purpose. If you’re simply creating content for the sake of uploading something new, visitors and readers will have no idea what you expect out of them, so they won’t do anything at all. 

If you want your website visitors to act, you need to tell them what you want them to do.

Before you begin the content creation process, think about what purpose the content should have. Are you hoping to get new subscribers to your newsletter, or would you like them to follow you on social media? Are you looking to increase purchases of a particular product, or would you be happy if they just leave a comment on your blog?

Include a call-to-action (or CTA) on each and every page you create, including both static pages and blog posts. Your CTA should be clear, enticing and easy enough that your visitor won’t feel overwhelmed.

Pro Tip: Check out Neil Patel’s step-by-step guide to creating a perfect call-to-action each and every time, or use the Call-to-Action Button Generator to create attention-grabbing buttons to feature on your website.

4. Using Boring Headlines and Titles

Quality content begins with the headlines. They should call your readers to attention and give them a real reason to keep reading.

As the first thing your visitor will read when they get to your site, a boring headline could push your leads right into the arms of a competitor.

If the headlines and titles of your pages aren’t exciting or enticing, you’ll struggle to bring even one high-quality lead to your website.

But creating great headlines isn’t always easy.

Your headlines need to be a mix of strong words that evokes emotion and pushes the reader to continue on, but also short enough that they’re not overwhelming. They need to be clear and to the point while also being descriptive enough to entice the reader to click on the page. Use numbers, lists, “how-tos” and power words to give your headline a boost.

Pro Tip: Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Tool to test out different headlines before you post your content.

5. Not Including Attention-grabbing Visuals

High-quality content is more than just great copy.

To really keep your audience’s attention on your page, you need to use attention-grabbing visuals that help guide the potential customer through the copy to connect or convert.

Interesting visuals can come in many forms. From traditional videos and images to humorous gifs and memes, there are many different ways you can include visuals in your content.

Think about what kinds of visuals will enhance the content of the page. Certain blog posts may need an infographic to really drive the point home, while static web pages would benefit from high-quality images or videos that really address the purpose of your company. Try to include a new visual about every 300-500 words, depending on the type of content you’re creating.

Pro Tip: Use the Giphy GIF Maker Tool to create unique gifs for your website or blog posts.

 

As a content marketer, you want to be a high-quality content-creating machine.

To ensure each and every piece of content you create aligns with your audience’s needs, solves a larger problem or pushes them to connect and convert, keep these five mistakes in mind.

When you’re aware of the problems you may be facing, you can consciously avoid them to create better content that your audience loves.