(815) 503-0286 matt@matthewlbrennan.com

Let’s say for a second that you’re trying to lose weight. If you exercise for an hour a day, four days a week, burning on average 300 calories each time, you’ll have a solid foundation to meet your goals.

Unless….

You keep eating. If you’re scarfing down burgers and guzzling beer you will quickly negate all the hard work and any positive results would be neutralized.

The same is true for your marketing. 

Right now, content marketing and blogging are all the rage. Google is experimenting with ways to improve its content algorithms because searchers want content.

But, if you dress up a five-year old website that looks out of date and hasn’t been optimized for mobile, you still have a struggling website.

Committing to a steady schedule of content marketing is one thing, but if you’re not eating your fruits and vegetables (taking care of your website) it won’t matter.

Make sure your design isn’t dated.

Readers are getting better at landing on a specific site and being able to tell that the design is completely dated. Styles change. Remember that your website isn’t meant to last forever. It’s also the online representation for your business. You wouldn’t open a store with dilapidated shelves and a mess all over the floor. Don’t commit the same mistake online. 

Make sure you’re optimized for mobile. 

Tablets and cell phones have ensured that mobile surfing isn’t going away anytime soon. This goes for all kinds of businesses, not just the obvious restaurant, entertainment or retail industries. Even as a marketing writer, a strong percentage of my traffic still comes from cell phones and tablets. You’d think that searches would happen for my business on a desktop, but that’s not always the case anymore.

Make sure your SEO is in order. 

If you have other glaring SEO issues on your website, it may not matter how much content you publish, or how helpful it is. Make sure your shopping cart system is in order. Make sure your meta tags are properly filled out, and you’re not unconsciously trying to SPAM the search engines into submission. Remember, working with Google is always a better plan than trying to outsmart them.

Is your blog on site?

When your blog is part of your regular website it will do so much more in your content efforts. All those indexed pages of content can then help strengthen your website’s position within the search engines. If you’re using Blogger, or TypePad or WordPress.com, you’re doing all the work and not receiving any of the glory.

Conclusion

Once you’ve gone through the steps to make sure your entire online presence is in strong working order, you’ll be in a better position to succeed on all fronts. Content marketing, like exercise, is an extremely healthy activity. But it’s part of a system that needs to be in place to see the full benefit.

Matt Brennan is a Chicago-based marketing writer and copy editor