Automation aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in content marketing: consistently creating high-quality, original content. Content automation is the process of using software to generate or populate content automatically. Examples can include marketing pieces like blog posts, product descriptions, social media posts, and even site pages found on a traditional web design checklist.
While content automation can be a significant time-saver for businesses, many website design companies warn it also has the potential to affect SEO negatively. The negative impact is that automated content often lacks the quality and originality that search engines seek. In addition, automated content can sometimes receive a flag as a duplicate, which can result in penalties from search engines. As a result, businesses need to be careful when using content automation and ensure that they are taking steps in lockstep with creative agencies to avoid any negative impacts on their SEO.
Businesses can do a few things with branding agencies and web design services to avoid negative impacts on their SEO when using content automation. These include:
Ensuring All Automated Content Is High Quality and Error-Free
After your content’s automatic generation, take the time to review it and ensure that it meets your standards for quality. Quality checking includes reviewing for errors, ensuring that the information is accurate and that the tone and style are appropriate for your brand. Common errors in automated content include typos, grammar mistakes, and incorrect facts or figures.
Making Sure Automated Content Is Original and Unique
As we mentioned, one of the biggest dangers of content automation is that your content could receive a flag as a duplicate. Ensure all your automated content is 100% original and unique to avoid this. Original content means that it should not be copied from other sources or be like other pieces of content that already exist on the web. In addition, you should avoid repeatedly using the same keywords and phrases in your automated content, as this could also result in a flag on your content as duplicate.
Including a Human Touch
One way to ensure that your automated content doesn’t negatively affect your SEO is to include a human touch. SEO agencies recommend adding a personal voice or opinion to your web development languages, which can help to show search engines that your content is not just a bunch of filler. In addition, including images, videos, or other multimedia forms can also help add a human touch to your content and make it more engaging for readers.
Avoiding Keyword Stuffing
Another common mistake businesses make when using content automation is keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is when you include too many keywords in your content. The intention is to improve your search engine ranking. However, it can have the opposite effect and result in your content being penalized by search engines. To avoid keyword stuffing, digital marketing companies recommend using keywords sparingly and only including them when they are relevant to the topic of your content.
Making Sure Your Content Is Still Relevant and Timely
One of the benefits of content automation is that it can help you to generate large amounts of content quickly. However, ensuring that your content is still relevant and timely is essential. Keeping your content up to date with the latest trends and developments in your industry is vital to staying relevant. In addition, you should also make sure to regularly revise and update your automated content to remain accurate and valuable for your readers.
Double Check Headers and Links
Another way to help ensure that your content automation doesn’t negatively impact your SEO is to double-check all the headers and links in your content. Proofread to ensure that your headlines are accurate and your links are working correctly. In addition, you should also test all your links to make sure they are pointing to the correct pages on your website.
Use Caution with Spun Content
One type of content automation that can be particularly harmful to your SEO is “spun content.” Existing content rewritten to make it appear new and original is considered “spun content.” However, this is another action that can result in a flag on your content, negatively impacting your search engine ranking. To avoid this, take a more hands-on approach when your automated content is drafted by modifying it yourself or by having someone on your team do it to ensure that it is original and unique.
Have a Content Strategy
The most important thing you can do to avoid negative impacts on your SEO is to have a content strategy. Content strategy means planning what kinds of content you want to generate and how often you wish to publish it. A content strategy will help you focus your content automation efforts and ensure that you’re creating valuable and helpful content for your readers. Allowing any automation platform to dictate your content strategy will likely end up with subpar content that doesn’t provide any value to your readers.
Utilizing Other Marketing Channels
In addition to content automation, there are many other marketing channels that you can use to promote your business. These include social media, email marketing, and even traditional advertising. Utilizing these other channels can help ensure that your content reaches a broad audience and promotes your business in the most effective way possible.
Content automation can be a great way to quickly generate large amounts of content. However, it’s essential to ensure that you’re taking steps to avoid any negative impacts on your SEO. No one should simply be generating content and not be paying attention to the quality and uniqueness of that content. With some planning and effort, you can ensure that your content automation doesn’t negatively impact your SEO strategy and could dramatically hurt your business.
Learn How SPINX Digital Can Help
If you want to enhance the content level on your website or blog but are unsure if content automation or website designs are the right solutions, connect with the experts at SPINX Digital. We can help you create a content strategy that will work best for your business and avoid any potential negative impacts on your SEO. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take your content to the next level and give a comprehensive web design tutorial.
Stephen Moyers