Search engine optimization (SEO) is great for a lot of things, but it also presents some challenges. For instance, because of SEO, we have a whole generation of marketers and entrepreneurs who think that content marketing is all about putting keywords on their website and blog.

To be fair, you should be thinking about search when posting new content. However, adding articles, white papers, and other materials to your website isn’t just a way to stuff search phrases into your pages. Let’s look at a few quick reasons why:

Google’s algorithms are temperamental and getting pickier by the day. Add in too much search-optimized text and you’ll actually be penalized because your content will be considered hard to read.

Although search traffic is important, it’s even more crucial that you get actual engagement from real-life visitors. In other words, the better your content is to a reader, the more likely they are to convert to a lead or customer.

These two points become circular. Because Google is paying more attention to engagement these days, it’s as important to have visitors hang out and click through to your other articles as it is to use the right search terms in your posts.

You definitely should be thinking about search engine optimization when you post content online. Just make sure it isn’t the first or only thing on your mind or you might run into trouble.