Writing and content writing are two very different things. When you are just plain writing, you probably don’t have a care in the world and write as you please without fear of getting it wrong. You can do and say whatever you want on that piece of paper or in your online notes.

Content writing means that you are writing for other people. Not for yourself. You are producing a piece of content that others will read over and take advice from. They will also form an opinion of you, good or bad. Not only will actual people read your article but so will Google. Trust me Google and the other search engines will also form an opinion on your content and treat it accordingly.

Therefore, you should always follow certain rules to ensure that your writing reaches a particular standard that gets you the results you are looking for.

Moreover, you must always avoid certain content writing mistakes. Content writing errors can lead to a lack of engagement, SEO penalties, and worst of all, mean comments. While the last of those may not seem that bad, you will be amazed at what some harsh comments can do to your confidence.

Some mistakes are acceptable, but others need to be addressed right away. If you keep reading, you will see what content writing mistakes must be avoided:

Keyword Stuffing

This is a huge mistake from an SEO perspective. Search engine optimization revolves around Keywords. You should include them in your content, but you absolutely cannot stuff them. Go ahead and talk to any SEO agency in the world, and they will tell you that the leading cause of SEO penalties is keyword stuffing.

For those of you that don’t know what this means, it basically refers to trying to force loads of keywords into your content unnaturally. As a result, the sentence structure fails, nothing makes sense, and you have just got too many keywords. Google hates this, which is why you will get penalised.

It used to work but Google and technology got wiser and better. Today you will turn up on the first page of Google if you deserve it. Google wants to send its customers to something that really helps them, not something that does not make sense and is therefore useless.

No Breaks

Tell me something you notice about the structure of this blog post. It has numerous paragraphs. I have broken up the text by producing shorter chunks of writing, which makes it easier for you to read. From a readability perspective, the worst thing you can possibly do is create a piece of content with no breaks in the text.

Instantly, this makes it harder for people to read and digest. They hate the way it looks, and most people won’t even bother reading your content. Use paragraphs to break things up and give people a chance to breathe. Images are also useful for breaking up any big chunks of text.

You could also call upon bullet points. These are beneficial for:

• Breaking up text even more

• Helping you summarise key points

• Adding more structure to the article

Copying Other Material

As a content writer, there is nothing worse than seeing your content on someone else’s site. Copying other people’s work is never okay. The only time you should do it is if they give you permission to publish their article with credit going to them.

I have seen so many online arguments within the blogging world over this subject that I would never do it even if it was okay.

You are allowed to take inspiration from other articles, but your content should still be different from the original piece. Fail to do this, and you will lose a lot of respect from your audience and from Google. Yes search engines can detect duplicate content and they will punish you too.

You could also end up in big trouble if the original writer finds your article. To avoid creating duplicate content, you could use something like Copyscape to check how original your work is.

I, personally am gifted with an online content writing tool that comes with my hosting subscription to Wealthy Affiliate which makes sure I can’t do it even if I wanted to! It also aids me with grammar, spelling, punctuation and structure.

You shouldn’t want to copy content either. Yes there are some content writing rules you need to obey but content writing is also about putting your own ideas, thoughts or expertise into words to help others. It does need some kind of personality too.

Take a read of my post on helping customers to help you to write for them and not yourself.

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Final Thoughts

All content writers should avoid these three terrible mistakes. In effect, the secret to successful content writing is simple. Write about things that interest your audience, ensure your posts are easy to read, and stay consistent.

If you have found this post useful then please do me a favour and give it a share on your favourite social media platform. Sharing is Caring.

As ever if you have any questions or want to share your own thoughts or experiences, please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

With Grace and Gratitude

Karen

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I hope that you have found this article helpful, and will use this advice to make sure that your business has everything it needs to succeed.