234// 5 Blogging Mistakes That Are Killing Your SEO and How to Fix Them

Summary

Podcast Summary: Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation

Episode: 234 – 5 Blogging Mistakes That Are Killing Your SEO and How to Fix Them
Release Date: July 24, 2025
Host: Faith Hanan, Marketing Strategist, Copywriter, Christian Business Coach, Barrel Racer

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Introduction

In Episode 234 of Simple SEO and Marketing, Faith Hanan delves into the common pitfalls that bloggers and business owners encounter, which hinder their SEO efforts and overall online success. Aimed at entrepreneurs seeking sustainable traffic growth, Faith offers actionable insights to transform blogging strategies into powerful tools for generating high-converting leads.

Notable Quote:

“Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of Search Engine Optimization—and want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business?”
— Faith Hanan [00:00:43]

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The Importance of Blogging in SEO Strategy

Faith emphasizes that blogging is a long-term strategy akin to a "crock pot approach" rather than a quick microwave fix. While social media offers immediate results, blogging builds a sustainable foundation for content marketing, leading to significant traffic increases over time.

Key Insights:

• Long-Term Benefits: Blogging requires initial effort but yields more substantial and lasting results compared to the transient nature of social media.
• Traffic Growth Potential: Clients and students have reported traffic increases ranging from 40% to an astonishing 12,000% within a year by implementing Faith’s strategies.

Notable Quote:

“Blogging is your long-term, long game success plan for your content marketing. It is not a microwave approach; it's more of the crock pot approach to your marketing.”
— Faith Hanan [02:08]

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Five Common Blogging Mistakes and How to Fix Them

1. Blogging Without a Keyword Strategy

Writing without a focused keyword strategy means your content isn’t aligned with what your audience is searching for, rendering your efforts ineffective. Faith underscores the necessity of integrating relevant keywords to ensure your content is discoverable.

Solution:

• Develop a comprehensive keyword strategy.
• Utilize tools like Ubersuggest to identify and implement effective keywords.

Notable Quote:

“If that piece of content is not based around a keyword strategy, then you're literally writing for no one.”
— Faith Hanan [02:08]

2. Choosing Topics Covered by AI Overviews

With advancements in AI, simple query-based topics are often answered directly by AI-generated content, leaving little room for blogs to rank. Faith advises shifting focus to more in-depth, mid to bottom-of-funnel content that adds unique value beyond basic definitions.

Solution:

• Avoid creating content that merely answers straightforward "what is" questions.
• Craft comprehensive, expert-driven articles that address more complex aspects of your niche.

Notable Quote:

“You need to make a mindset shift in your content strategy from moving away from beginner level content into like mid to bottom of funnel content with your blogs.”
— Faith Hanan [04:27]

3. Prioritizing Quantity Over Quality

In the age of AI, producing high volumes of low-quality content can be detrimental. Google now favors quality over quantity, rewarding well-researched and valuable content that genuinely serves the reader’s intent.

Solution:

• Focus on creating fewer, high-quality blog posts rather than numerous mediocre ones.
• Ensure each post thoroughly addresses the searcher's intent and provides actionable insights.

Notable Quote:

“Now, quality over quantity when it comes to your blogs… every piece of high-quality content is like you're throwing a line like you're fishing.”
— Faith Hanan [05:55]

4. Ignoring On-Page SEO Formatting

Proper on-page SEO is crucial for helping search engines understand and rank your content. Neglecting elements like headings, keyword placement, and internal linking can severely impact your SEO performance.

Solution:

• Implement structured headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) with relevant keywords.
• Incorporate Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords, images, graphics, and both internal and external links.

Notable Quote:

“I need your keyword in about 60% of your H2 headings. I need LSI keywords sprinkled throughout the blog… you have to intentionally categorize your text to tell Google what this is about.”
— Faith Hanan [07:15]

5. Failing to Update Existing Posts

Outdated content can miss out on valuable traffic opportunities. Regularly updating existing posts ensures that your content remains relevant and continues to attract and engage your audience.

Solution:

• Revisit and revise older posts to include updated information and keywords.
• Resubmit updated content to Google Search Console to enhance indexing and ranking.

Notable Quote:

“Failing to update existing posts is really missing out on opportunities for traffic. You've already got that piece of content up there. It's already indexed… why not update it?”
— Faith Hanan [10:30]

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Implementing the Solutions

Faith encourages listeners not to feel discouraged if they’ve been making these common mistakes. She highlights the availability of support through her Simple SEO Framework and Group Coaching, where personalized assistance can help rectify these issues and significantly boost blog performance.

Key Takeaways:

• Actionable Steps: Implementing a keyword strategy, focusing on high-quality content, optimizing on-page SEO, and updating existing posts are essential for improving SEO.
• Support Systems: Joining Faith’s coaching programs can provide the necessary guidance and resources to enhance your blogging efforts effectively.

Notable Quote:

“Just know if you're making these mistakes, one, you're not alone, and two, help is available.”
— Faith Hanan [13:00]

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Conclusion

Faith Hanan’s Episode 234 serves as a comprehensive guide for bloggers and business owners aiming to enhance their SEO strategies. By addressing the five critical mistakes and providing clear solutions, Faith equips her audience with the tools needed to transform their blogging efforts into powerful engines for sustainable traffic and high-converting leads.

Final Thoughts:

“Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website.”
— Faith Hanan [14:07]

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Connect with Faith Hanan:

• Website: FaithHanan.com
• Email: [e-mail]
• Facebook Community: Linked in the show notes

Support the Podcast: Share this episode with fellow entrepreneurs and leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help more Jesus-loving business owners scale their impact.

Transcript

[A]

Have you been blogging for a minute, but you're just not seeing the results that you know you could be seeing, right? You're not getting the traffic, you're not getting the sales that you hear all of these blogging gurus talking about? Well, today I'm going to walk you through five mistakes that are killing your SEO when it comes to your blogs specifically. So listen in, take notes. These are all pretty dang easy to fix, so make sure that you pay attention or re listen to this a couple times if you need to, and that you implement the tips that I'm going to give you in this episode as well. All right, let's jump in.

[B]

Hey there fellow entrepreneur. Welcome to simple SEO and marketing. Do you want to grow your business with sustainable traffic sources? Have you heard about the power of search engine optimization? And you want to take advantage of it to get more traffic, more eyeballs on your business. But when it comes down to it, does SEO feel complicated and hard to implement? Are you tired of wondering what in the heck to do with your website to get more traffic and more leads knocking on your door? What if I could tell you that there was a simple, proven system for using SEO, blogging and copywriting to get leads from your website and not just any leads, high converting leads. Hey, I'm Faith Hannon, wife, mama, copywriter.

[A]

SEO strategist and barrel racer.

[B]

And for the last eight years I've been figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the world of online marketing to get organic traffic. And now I'm here to share all the things I'm learning in the trenches of SEO, copywriting and content marketing. How does 300%, 500% or even 12,000% more traffic in a year sound? What could your business do with that kind of traffic increase? How many more people could you help? So listen in and prepare to take notes. I'm about to drop simple, actionable SEO, marketing and copywriting tips all with a heavy dose of Jesus loving encouragement. Let's get you more traffic and more leads so you can help more people with your God given gifts.

[A]

So one of the things that I hear from business owners is that they've tried blogging and they just didn't see results. They're like, I tried, that didn't work. So I just went back to social media and I have so many, so many things to say to that. But one of the main things that I need you to realize is blogging is your long term, long game success plan for your content marketing. It is not a Microwave approach, it's more of the crock pot approach to your marketing. So it takes a little bit of work up front, right? You, you're not just popping a frozen meal into the microwave. You know, you're putting a little bit of prep in. But in the end, you're gonna have a much better, much healthier, much more sustaining content strategy than if you were to focus solely on your social media. So sometimes people are looking for results like they're using a microwave when really they're using a crock pot. And while we have definitely had clients and students that have seen, you know, 40, 50% increase in the first month of using our strategy and then like 300% increase after three months, that's pretty typical. It's not a viral TikTok, right? It's not going to get you a million views in 24 hours for some random video that doesn't actually have anything to do with your business. So know that first, first, firsthand, first and foremost as we're going in. But there are really five mistakes that a lot of bloggers make, a lot of business owners make that are trying to use blogs that are killing your SEO. Okay, so I'm going to walk you through those five. Mistake number one, and this is probably. You're going to guess what it is. Mistake number one is to blog without a keyword strategy, to write without a keyword strategy. And I know how easy this is to do because I'm a writer. I love to write, I love to communicate, I love to tell stories. But if that piece of content is not based around a keyword strategy, then you're literally writing for no one. Like, maybe it's super helpful. Maybe it's going to help somebody if it can get found. And having the right keyword strategy for each piece of content and your business overall, it's going to help you actually get found because you're aligning your words with the words that people are actually typing into search engines. Okay, so I have a bug, a jillion episodes on keyword research. Go find those. If you're curious about how to do keyword research, how to build out your keyword strategy, then snag my keyword research kickstart. It's a. It's a mini course essentially walking you through how to use ubersuggest the right way so that you don't waste time in there, so you actually know what you what to do, how to build out your keyword strategy, how to do keyword research. The entire course will take you less than an hour to go through, but it's going to get you started on the right foot so that you don't waste your time trying to figure out all the things on your own. Okay, so mistake number two is writing on basic Betty topics that are going to be covered by the AI overview. Now, this has been a change in blogging strategy in the last year because now we're seeing AI overviews, right? Sometimes it's voluntary and sometimes it's not. Not depending on the search engine, depending on developmental, you know, phases of the product. But the fact is, if somebody types in a what is question and it's a really simple definition, the AI overview is going to probably satisfy their query and they're not going to scroll and end up on your blog. I know, I'm sorry, There's probably content that I've written, that content of mine that is no longer relevant. But because of AI overviews, right? Like, it is what it is at this point in the game. But moving forward, you need to know like, that you can't just create basic Betty search query Q and A type content because you're going to get beat out by AI. And if you think about it like, that's going to serve the searcher better anyway because if they're just looking for a quick definition of what something is, they should be able to get that right. It shouldn't take scrolling through 10 blog posts to figure out a very simple working definition of a term. And so what I want you to do is I want you to make a mindset shift in your content strategy from moving away from, you know, beginner level content into like mid to bottom of funnel content with your blogs and mistake Numeral Trace is prioritizing quantity content over quantity quality content. Now with the advent of AI and people's access to tools like chat GPT, so, so, so many people just started churning out content like their hair was on fire. Just pro, you know, publishing blog after blog after day, like multiple blogs a day. Even some business owners were doing that. It's almost like we got in this mindset, they're like, oh my gosh, we have to turn out so much to keep up with them, right? Whereas now, thankfully, the pendulum of the Google search engines has kind of swung the other way. Right? What they're prioritizing is quality over quantity. Praise the Lord. But what that means for small business owners is you do have to mentally shift away from, oh, I have to churn out, you know, two, three, four, five blogs a week. No, I'm happy if you're turning out one really, really high quality piece of content a week. Now, this does mean that it has to be high quality. And when I say high quality, I mean it's going to answer the dang search query that somebody's typing in there thoroughly because you don't want them to be clicking back to the search results because they didn't get what they came for. It needs to align with the searcher intent. Okay? You need to talk about your expertise in a way that serves the reader, not in a way that's like, ooh.

[B]

Look at me, I'm so cool.

[A]

Okay? Your, your content needs to be very, very high quality. And you need to be willing to invest some time and some money or, you know, one or the other or both into creating really high quality, SEO friendly blog content on the rig. Because just think of it as every piece of high quality content. It's like you're throwing a line like you're fishing, like you're throwing another line into the pond, okay? And if you're crafting your blogs really strategically and using really strategic keywords, then what you're doing is every fish you, every. Every piece of bait you throw out there is going to catch more and more and more fish. And so that's why that, that quant, that quality over quantity approach. I want you to really, really focus on the quality of your blogs. Now, done is better than perfect, okay? It's literally never going to be absolutely 100 perfect, because even if you spend 20 hours writing something, you're going to look up in a week and be like, oh, this could have been better. Right? Done is still better than perfect. But quality over quantity when it comes to your blogs, mistake number four is this ignoring on page SEO formatting like your H1, H2, H3, H4, etc. So many business owners, I audit their stuff, I audit their blogs and I just see the title and then P text for the whole thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do not do that. Okay? I need your keyword in about 60% of your H2 headings. I need LSI keywords sprinkled throughout the blog. I need H2, H3, H4. I need images, I need graphics, I need internal linking, I need external links. Like all of that stuff really, really matters. You cannot just plat, splop, plait, splot, plap. You cannot just plop a an essay like you wrote for your 5th grade teacher up there and hope that it ranks. No, you have to intentionally categorize your text to tell Google what this is about so that Google pays attention to the most important things and the main things are the main things, right? So that Google knows what is poignant and what is poignant when it comes to your content, okay? So you cannot ignore your on page SEO formatting for your blogs as well as your main pages of your website. But today we're talking specifically about blogs, okay? And mistake number five is failing to update existing posts. Now I don't know why, but business owners, this is like one of their least favorite things to do and it kind of stinks for me because when I go to do keyword research on updating old content, like literally nobody is searching that. But it's one of the easiest ways to get more traffic with the least amount of work. And because nobody is searching that, right, that means not very many people are doing it. So you can get a little leg up on the competition just by doing this thing. And that is updating existing posts that are, that are all that are still in line with your business strategy, right? Like I have some stuff that got me that I wrote eight plus years ago that still gets me traffic, but it has nothing to do with my business today. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time updating and judging up those posts, okay? But failing to update existing posts is really missing out on opportunities for traffic. And you've already got that piece of content up there. It's already indexed, it's probably already has some traffic and some backlinks hopefully. So why not update it? Why not make it better? Why not resubmit it to Google search console and hope that you get indexed even better, right? Or rank up the search engines even better. And it's going to, it's going to be updated, it's going to have fresh information, okay? This is especially important if you're in any kind of a tech industry or any kind of field that has evolving, you know, tips and tricks, right? Like sourdough starters probably don't need update, right? Like it's an age old process. But if you're writing about, you know, camera reviews and gear and other tech things like absolutely update old things that are still working that can still be relevant for your business. So if you are making one of these five mistakes, writing without a keyword strategy, writing on topics that are going to be covered by AI overview, prioritizing quantity over quality, ignoring on page SEO formatting and failing to update existing posts, if you are making one of those mistakes, don't feel bad. Everybody makes a little mistake every now and then, and FYI, just the other day, a student inside simple SEO framework, group coaching, she had a blog. She's like, I'm not getting very much traffic for this. And we were able to look over that blog. I was able to give her a list of LSI keywords to put into that blog, a way to judge it up. And it's already doing better. So just know if you're making these mistakes, one, you're not alone at two, help is available. So if you are not inside of simple SEO framework and group coaching and you want to grow your blog and you want to get more traffic, more eyeballs, more leads from your website, then what are you waiting for? Get your little tushy inside simple SEO framework and group coaching, super affordable for what you get in there. And y' all are going to learn along with all the other students how to get more eyeballs. 300, 500, even 12,000% more eyeballs, more leads, hot leads to your website looking for what you sell. And I can teach you how to do it in four to eight hours for the initial setup and two hours a week after that. So thanks for hanging out with me today and we'll be back with you next week. Bye.

[B]

Thank you so much for listening in today. Hopefully this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website. If it did, can I ask you a quick favor? Would you please share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses so that they can help more people with their gifts and make an even bigger impact for the Kingdom of God.

[A]

And guess what?

[B]

We now have a Facebook community where we can learn, hang out and laugh. Go join the Facebook group now. It's linked in the show notes and all the other things, courses, coaching and copywriting can be found at my website, faithhannon.com until next time. God bless and I'll talk to you soon.