Best practices are there for a reason. For the most part, following them puts you in good stead with Google, with your audience, with social algorithms. But they are just that – best practices. Guidance rather than law. And as with anything in life, sometimes you have to weigh up whether it’s worth taking a risk to get better results.
Here are five best practices that I believe are sometimes worth gambling with.
Content consistency
I absolutely support the idea that it’s best to maintain some sort of frequency with your owned content channels. Huge gaps may leave potential customers wondering if you’re still in business.
But the idea that your blogs or email newsletters must be once a week on the same day earns a hard eye roll from me. There was a phase several years ago when it felt like this ‘tip’ got pushed everywhere “because your audience comes to expect content at a certain time.”
I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m pretty certain they don’t. Almost nobody is thinking about that except you. Go through your inbox and see if you know (without checking) when your marketing emails arrive. I’ll bet you don’t.
It doesn’t mean they aren’t interested or won’t read it, but their lives don’t revolve around your content schedule. Sorry.
Strong CTAs
Again, this comes with a bit of a disclaimer. I agree with the need for call to actions, but for me it’s more about navigation. In most cases I think making it as easy as possible to get in contact / make a purchase at the click of a well-placed button, is more important than the words used – and I’m a wordsmith at heart.
The obsession with direct, concise CTAs is, I think, a bit patronising. The idea that ‘Buy now’ or ‘Contact us’ would sway someone who’s on the fence insults your audience’s intelligence.
The copy that comes before it can be influential, but for me, having that button in front of me does far more than the actual words on it.
Positive language only
This blog has become slightly ranty, so it’s probably not a surprise to learn that I have a problem with only allowing positive language.
The idea that if a person sees a positive word they’ll see you in a positive light, and if they see a negative word, they’ll view you in a negative way, is so basic it hurts. I appreciate the general concept, but assuming your audience can’t take the context into account shows very little faith in them.
Acknowledging someone’s frustrations and challenges before offering a solution is a good way to show you understand them. I frequently see advice on how to flip this, but I find it often misses the point without that niche example.
Plus, you know what isn’t positive? Moaning about negative language….
Meta description and title lengths
If any of my clients are reading this, this might seem a little hypocritical. Let me preface this by saying that 95% of the time, I’d advise keeping to the suggested length for both page titles and meta descriptions. It’s all that’s displayed in the SERPs and it shows Google you’re paying attention.
However, if you create the *perfect* title and it runs over by a couple of pixels, it’s likely that Google will only cut off the end couple of letters, and if users can see what word it is, and that word makes a