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8 Common Website Mistakes Revealed Via Content Audits
We loooooove audits here at the Daily Carnage. SEO audits, content audits, social media audits, the only audit we don’t love is the ol’ tax audit. Not a big fan of that one.
But anyway, marketing audits are amazing. They’ll help you identify holes in your marketing strategy, and you know what they say—where there’s holes, there’s fire…that…that’s not right.
What we mean is, if there is a hole in your strategy, you probably have a problem. And you know what they say, admitting you have a problem is half the solution (nailed that one).
When it comes to content audits, there tend to be a handful of common mistakes that we uncover. Read on and learn from others’ mistakes.
- Mistake #1: No clear calls-to-action. This is the most common mistake and one that pops up on every single content audit. Even if you have CTAs, they could likely be better.
- Mistake #2: A lack of content for all stages of the customer journey. Companies tend to do well with awareness content and purchase content, but usually miss out on consideration and retention content.
- Mistake #3: Testimonials aren’t used to their full potential. There’s a reason Yelp and its competitors are popular. People want to hear from their peers. Well placed testimonials on your website can give a huge boost to conversion rates.
- Mistake #4: Not making content locally relevant. Location matters no matter your company. Let’s say you run a car comparison website. Your reach might be national, but people in Denver still probably want to know the best cars for driving in the mountains. See what we’re getting at?
- Mistake #5: Not talking about pricing. It doesn’t matter what your industry is, people just wanna know, “how much is this gonna cost me?”
- Mistake #6: Getting lost in jargon. It’s not that your audience doesn’t understand your jargon and technical terms, it’s just that jargon is boring and people will fall asleep reading it.
Ah, that’s only 6 out of 8! We ran out of room. You’ll just have to take the jump and read this thing yourself.
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Five Tips to Help You Level-Up Headlines and Titles
Are your headlines generating the clickthroughs, engagement, and conversions you anticipated? If not, you could have a case of uninspired headlines or trite titles. Nooooo!
In the ever-changing world of marketing, sometimes it’s hard to know what’s effective and what isn’t anymore. That’s where some good ol’ fashioned research comes in. We’ve got the goods below.
A study conducted by Outbrain and HubSpot outlines the best practices for both organic and paid campaigns, so you’ll know what works, what doesn’t, and what to avoid.
Let’s take a look:
1) Be authentic. Make sure your headlines never mislead readers and always accurately describe your content. You also want to make sure you’re not using words that were once traffic drivers but are now downright cringe-worthy. Here are several categories of terms that perform poorly in titles:
- Positive superlatives – always or best
- Words that imply urgency – now
- Words suggesting a shortcut – trick, hack, or simple
- Spammy words – magic, cure, credit, or free
2) Keep it simple and direct. Treat titles like microcontent: short, scannable phrasing that gives a clear idea of what your content is about.
3) Target your audience, but tread carefully. Titles that reference the reader using the words “you,” “your,” or “you’re” are a turnoff, performing 36% worse than titles that do not include these words, according to the study.
Think you got it nailed down? Put your headline to the test with CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer, which grades headlines from 0-100. Super dope resource, right there!
While you’re at it, take a trip over to 7 Fixes for Common Writing Mistakes to make sure the body of your content is up to par, too.
Dang, we’re just full of hot writing tips today.
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The Don Juan Copy Kong
For all of you job searchers out there, the bar just got set high, real freakin’ high.
A copywriter by the name of Chase Zreet decided that he wanted to work for W+K in NYC, specifically on their Sprite creative team. So he did what any job searcher would do, and applied for the job.
But, he did it in a way that no other job searcher has done.
We don’t really even know what else to say about today’s Watch. Just watch it. And in case you’re wondering, yes, he did get the job.
“To be a social media pro, try being a social media amateur first.”
Lisa Kalner Williams
