Bad SEO content, good Google rankings: What now?

Greetings! Glad you’re here, as today marks the start of a new video series, SEO Content Writing Tips. The inspiration for this new series comes from you, our blog readers, and the questions you ask Heather.

So thank you and keep ‘em coming!

Today, Heather discusses a question that she gets all the time, which is: should I rewrite “bad” pages that have good Google rankings?

This is an excellent question, because a lot of folks have pages on their sites that position well, but the content itself doesn’t really thrill them.

So what’s an SEO copywriter to do? Listen in as Heather shares some strategies…

Are You Afraid To Fix Your SEO Content?

You may have SEO content that is doing well in terms of search rankings, but yet you’re not altogether happy with the copy. And this can be for a variety of reasons:

– The SEO copy may be “borderline spammy.”

– Your content may not have the right tone and feel.

– Conversions may be low and bounce rates may be high.

So while your content hasn’t been hit by a Google algorithm update, it may seem a little too keyphrase heavy.

Or, it might be that your copy isn’t really clicking with your target audience, which in turn may eventually affect conversions: you might find that conversions on certain pages are low, and bounce rates are high.

Now I understand that when you have a page that’s positioning well, it’s really scary to change it. But at the end of the day, if the content isn’t performing the way you want it to perform, it’s time to take the plunge and rewrite it.

So here’s some to strategies to use:

It’s Time To Take The Plunge

– Too keyphrase stuffed? Rewrite it. You may be able to use the same # of keyphrases.

If you’re feeling like the content is too keyphrase stuffed, it could be because of how it was written. Maybe you add more content to the page, and that way you still have the keyphrases there but they make more sense with a longer word count.

You can play with that, and you may find that you’re able to use the same number of keyphrases in the rewritten content. Or, in other cases, you may need to dial them back a little bit and see if that makes the content read better.

– Determine how to best rewrite the content (changing format, tone and feel, call to action.)

You’ll also want to determine the best way to approach the content from your reader’s perspective: do you need to change the tone and feel? Do you need to make the call to action more obvious? These are just examples of the tweaks you can make so your content is perfect for your readers.

– Upload the content and monitor rankings/conversions.

And then it’s definitely taking the plunge when you upload your content and see how it performs!

You’ll want to monitor both the page rankings and conversions to see if people are taking those action steps that you want them to take. Chances are, with a content rewrite, you’re going to see some success!

Certainly you can A/B test your content to see if you can further tweak elements to make it even more successful.

And if you notice a huge drop in rankings for whatever reason, then you might want to add a few more keyphrases, and maybe change up the content a little bit more – but you’ll know how to play with it, and you’ll be more happy with this new content because it will be doing its job!

Thanks for tuning in! Again, as this series draws its inspiration from you, please let me know if you have any SEO copywriting questions. You can find me on Twitter @heatherlloyd, or you can email me at heather@seocopywriting.com.

photo thanks to brian liu (RolutionAsia)