Avoid These Blogging Mistakes

If you’re passionate about blogging and are contemplating starting a blog, congratulations! But, beware! Do not make the mistake that countless other bloggers in the past have made.

Here’s a comprehensive list of the most common blogging mistakes you can avoid as a blogger:

Not Taking SEO Seriously

SEO is at the heart of generating and driving organic traffic. If you’re not using the best and the latest SEO practice, you’re missing out on a ton of traffic opportunities. After all, 93% of all searches online begin with a search engine.

 

Unless you make your content recognizable to search engines and make it appear against relevant searches, you risk losing a ton of potential traffic.

 

Here are some of the best SEO practices:

  • Perform keyword research to write on the best keywords

  • Understanding what the user wants in a particular search query

  • Optimizing your URLs

  • Link building 

  • Writing a quality meta description

  • Creating compelling headlines

  • Using external/internal links across your content

Using a Free Hosting Service

It’s tempting to use free hosting like Blogger.com, Wix, or Squarespace. But, there are many reasons you should avoid that. Here’s why:

  • Free hosting can disappear without any notice. Technically, you do not own the site when you host it for free.

  • Most free hosting platforms will place 3rd party ads that you make no money free from and they look unprofessional also.

  • It can harm your business’s reputation when users see that you’re using free hosting.

  • There’s not much room for the adaptability of the design with growing business needs.

  • It’s less reliable as you only have access to fewer resources.

Here’s why paid hosting for bloggers makes sense:

 

  • Paid hosting is REALLY cheap and affordable.

  • It’s easy to back up your website using plugins like BackUpBuddy.

  • There’s no restriction on the kind of plugins you can use

  • You can customize your domain which is not possible with a free hosting domain name.

Picking a Difficult to Read Domain Name

 

Make sure that the domain is easy to remember and cheap. It’s important that people can easily recall the URL name when they visit the navigation bar. Even if they can’t remember the name, it should be something they can look for in a search engine. 

You should also pick a domain that’s easy to write down. The best domains are easy to spell, pronounce, and write. So, avoid complicated names. Although you can pick funny puns for a website, many people may have trouble finding/remembering them in the future.

 

Another thing is to avoid picking domain names that sound too similar to other brands. Other than avoiding facing possible lawsuits, you would also want to stand out from others. That’s why a unique domain name is a must. And, while you’re at it, make sure that you use a name relevant to the domain and niche.

Picking the Wrong Niche to Blog About

It pays to write about a well-defined niche if you want to build a definitive following. This is not to say that a lifestyle blogger cannot write about personal finance or fashion. 

 

But, if you pick a niche that you’re not excited or passionate about or you don’t know enough about, then you may have difficulty attracting a clear group of followers and readers. Being razor-sharp and focused is also good if you want to do blogging for monetary purposes. 

 

What’s more, staying niche-focused also helps you develop expertise in that particular field. You can soon establish yourself as a thought leader. It’s also easy to go off-topic when you start, so avoid that! Make sure to stay alert and focused.

 

Setting an Unrealistic Publishing Schedule

When you’re new to blogging, it’s natural to have hundreds of ideas. But, don’t think that you can publish every day. No matter what you think, you’ll get tired. And, if you maintain an unrealistic publishing schedule, you will get frustrated and it will get harder for you. 

 

That’s why not having a blogging schedule is another mistake. Some bloggers tend to go for days without publishing or they publish too frequently. Both of these practices might frustrate your audience. This kind of predictability can turn-off your audience.  

 

Solution? You have to understand the rhythm and pace of your writing. Be honest with how much content you can churn out weekly and accordingly create a schedule. Also, be sure to stick with a schedule that’s realistic and easy for you. It should make sense for your real-life and should align with other obligations. It’s good to space out different posts so you have a stock of content to keep publishing.

Failing to Work on Improving Your Grammar

The mark of a professional blogger is a well-written, error-free blog. If your readers frequently come across small errors and multiple mistakes, they would think you’re lazy, unprofessional, and someone who is not serious about his work. 

 

Grammar mistakes are the easiest way to kill your credibility. If you have a hard time with the proper sentence structuring and grammar, then you will find tools like Grammarly vs ProWritingAid vs Writer really helpful. They are great for improving your writing style.

Not Using Analytics

In the end, you’re writing for the readers. So, you need to know which posts best grab their attention, what topics they find most interesting, and what kind of posts have the highest engagement. You also need to know how your audiences are finding you. You get all this information only with analytics.

Without analytical data, you are essentially throwing darts in the dark. A tool like Google Analytics is a quick way to get access to a ton of helpful insights, such as –

 

  • The most popular posts

  • How your readers are finding you (via Google, social media, or something else)

  • The average time readers spend on your website

  • Bounce rate

  • Posts with the highest engagement rates

 

And, so much more!

There are a ton of SEO tools like Moz you can use for simplifying your search engine optimization efforts.

Final Thoughts

If you’re new to blogging, it’s easy to commit to these common mistakes. Hopefully, after reading this post you will avoid those mistakes so your work can shine through!

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