Digital Content Creation Mistakes and how to avoid them

Digital content creation mistakes are easy to do, almost unavoidable in fact. This article will explain some of the most common issues and how to avoid them.

You will likely spend a lot of time and effort (and money) creating content for your online audience. Your goal is to maximize your return on this investment by steering clear of the common mistakes made by content creators.

Okay, let’s dive into the mistakes and how to avoid them.

Table of Contents

Mistake 1: Creating what you want, not what people need

Writing about topics that interest you may be easy, but the key to being effective with content creation is understanding and addressing the interests of your target audience.

To maximize the success of your content creation strategy, it’s essential to focus on your target audience’s pain points, issues, and concerns.

The more you tailor your content to resonate with your audience, the more successful your content creation strategy will be.

Avoid writing about yourself or your company too much, focus on your readers needs

Mistake 2: Not optimizing your content for SEO

Ignoring search intent when creating content is a critical mistake. Failing to conduct sufficient keyword research will lead to minimal or zero traffic to your website.

It’s crucial to learn how to optimize your content for SEO and understand the factors that impact click-through rates from Google.

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to invest in an SEO and keyword research tool. Premium SEO tools can be quite expensive, costing over $100+ per month. However, for new website owners and bloggers, I recommend a more affordable option like SE Ranking.

You can generate a keyword research report using SE Ranking using the widget below. Simply type in a keyword, such as “keto diet.”

Mistake 3: Not understanding your audience

It’s essential to know and research your target audience. Find a niche you can create content for. Once you have a niche you can research your target audience.

For your target audience research:

• your audience’s interests
• their needs
• pain points
• desires
• biggest issues

Understand the demographics of your audience, e.g.:

• their income range
• where they live
• their interests
• hobbies
• their age

The more you know about your target audience the better you can address their concerns and desires.

Mistake 4: Being too vague

Be specific and clear in your content. Keeping your content too generic, abstract or vague can make it difficult for a reader to understand how it relates to them or their situation.

Avoid using jargon or technical terms that your readers may not understand

Mistake 5: Not using visual aids

Add plenty of images to your content. This makes your content more visually appealing and breaks up blocks of text.

In addition to images you can also include:

• videos
• infographics
• other visual elements (like the tips sections in this article)

Anything that breaks up the text is good. Ensure you use plenty of white space around your content.

Mistake 6: Not proofreading your content

Poor grammar and spelling mistakes can make your content look unprofessional and damage your credibility.

Take a moment to review your content and ensure that spelling and grammar are correct before publishing. AI tools, like ChatGPT, can assist you in this process. Read about using ChatGPT for copywriting tasks.

Always proofread your content before publishing it

Mistake 7: Focusing Only on Paid Ads

Paid advertising is an effective way to generate traffic and leads. However, focusing solely on paid ads can be a mistake. Acquiring organic search traffic, on the other hand, doesn’t cost anything other than the initial investment of time and effort to create the content.

Organic search traffic can have a high return on investment (ROI) because once you have written the content, it can continue generating organic search traffic to your website for years to come.

It’s important to have a balanced approach that includes other digital marketing strategies such as:

• content marketing
• social media marketing
• email marketing

Mistake 8: Not Using Social Media to Its Potential

Many bloggers and website owners don’t use social media to its full potential. Social media can be effectively utilized to share original or repurposed content from your website. Don’t forget to link back to the original content on your website from your social media post.

The best part about social media posts is their easy shareability, which can lead to a growing number of followers and potentially attract more visitors and readers to your website.

A strong social media strategy includes:

• regular posting
• engaging with followers
• consider paid social media advertising

Mistake 9: Overlooking Mobile Users

There is a good chance your content will be consumed on a mobile device. It’s essential to optimize your website and digital content creation efforts for mobile users.

Google uses mobile-first indexing, that means your mobile version of the website will be used for indexing and crawling.

For SEO and indexing purposes it’s important to find and fix any mobile usability issues you find on your website.

Common mobile usability issues found on websites are:

• Fonts too small
• Images too wide to display on mobile devices which can lead to horizontal scrollbars appearing
• Links or buttons too close to each other
• Popups obscuring the content
• Slow loading website

Make sure your website is mobile friendly and loads quickly on mobile devices

Mistake 10: Failing to Leverage Videos

Videos are easy to consume and are very popular, especially with the younger demographics.

There are a number of video sites you can use to upload your content and then embed the video into your website blog. Upload your content to one of these platforms and then embed the video into your article by adding the HTML code provided by the video platform.

By including videos you enhance the engagement and appeal of your content.

Video platforms you can use:

• YouTube
• Rumble
• Vimeo
• Wistia

Videos are easier to create than ever before. If you own a mobile phone with a camera you can make a video. You don’t need to show your face if you don’t want to.

You can use AI (such as ChatGPT) to help create scripts for your videos.

Incorporate videos into your digital content creation to increase engagement and drive conversions.

Mistake 11: Not Investing in Email Marketing

Email marketing is highly cost-effective and remains one of the most powerful ways to reach your audience and drive conversions. Neglecting email marketing is a missed opportunity to expand your audience and significantly boost conversions.

Make sure to have a strong email marketing strategy that includes:

• regular newsletters
• promotional emails
• personalized content

Relying solely on organic search traffic makes your business vulnerable to the impact of any Google algorithm changes, which can result in a significant loss of traffic, sales, or conversions. By owning your own newsletter, you gain the ability to directly contact and communicate with your audience, eliminating the dependence on third-party platforms or sites.

Having a newsletter empowers you to maintain a direct connection with your audience, ensuring uninterrupted communication and the opportunity to nurture relationships, share valuable updates, and drive conversions, regardless of any external factors.

Mistake 12: Overlooking Comments and Feedback

Don’t overlook the importance of comments and feedback from your readers, whether they come through your contact form or in the form of comments on your content. Engaging with readers’ questions provides valuable insights into areas that need better coverage and can spark ideas for new content.

Responding to comments on your site can help you build a community with your readers and build trust and credibility with them.

Mistake 13: Ignoring the Competition

While it’s essential not to copy the content of other companies and websites in your niche, there’s no harm in gathering inspiration from their content ideas, keywords, strategies, and other valuable insights that can aid your own efforts.

Perform a thorough analysis of their websites using a competition research tool. To get an idea of what a report looks like, you can use the widget below from the SE Ranking research tool. Type in a domain or URL of a competitor to see what keywords they rank for:

By examining your competitors’ sites, you gain valuable information that can inform your own content strategy, identify keyword opportunities, and uncover effective strategies to stay competitive in your niche.

Mistake 14: Make your content readable

If your content is boring or presented in a difficult-to-read style, it will likely get skipped. People are impatient and unwilling to spend time reading long, convoluted paragraphs or walls of text.

To keep your readers engaged, it’s important to keep your paragraphs short and snappy.

Add visual elements to your content such as:

• bullet points
• bolded statements for extra emphasis
• subheadings and even sub-subheadings
• add a table of contents near the top of the page
• add external links to authoritative sources
• add internal links to other related content on your site
• use large enough fonts readers from all age groups can easily read your content
• use high contrast colors to make the text stand out clearly from the background color

Anything you can do to make your content as easily readable and understandable as possible helps.

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this article informative and useful.

A quick recap of the common digital content creation mistakes:

• not focusing on your target audience
• not ensuring your content is readable and visually appealing
• not proofreading your content
• not ensuring your website is mobile friendly
• not using social media
• ignoring the competition
• only using paid ads

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