Blogs are an essential part of any business’s marketing program. They are powerful tools that can drive people to your website and help convert them into followers and customers.
Are you a beginner blogger trying to find your way? Are your blog posts not getting the traffic you want, and you’re wondering why?
We put together this list of 10 common blogging mistakes that amateurs should avoid so they can write better blog posts and drive more traffic to their websites.
Related: 6 Tips to Write a Blog Introduction That Keeps People Reading
Common Blogging Mistakes Beginners Should Avoid
There’s a lot more to blogging than just writing articles. Here are some common mistakes that beginner bloggers should avoid.
1. You Don’t Use an Editorial Calendar
It’s critical to publish blog posts consistently when you start blogging. Using an editorial calendar is a great way to build the habit of planning your blog post topics and setting deadlines for publishing them.
Setting deadlines on your editorial calendar helps you carve out the time for research, outlining, writing, editing, and publishing your blog posts.
Your editorial calendar doesn’t have to be complicated. Any calendar app will work just fine; be sure to give yourself a realistic schedule that you can meet.
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2. You Write Articles That Don’t Match Your Company’s Growth Goals
Your blog posts should align with your company’s growth goals with topics that generate traffic, create leads, and convert sales.
When selecting the topics of your blog posts, think about topics your readers might have questions about today. Or issues that they see in their industry.
Pick topics that address their specific issues or pain points and how your company can help them.
3. Your Blog Post Topics Are Too General
It’s tempting when you start as a blogger to try and tackle big topics, but as a rule, the more specific the blog post topic, the better.
Remember, when creating blog post topics, try to see things from your customer’s perspective. What are the specific challenges in their company or their industry?
You’ll find that the more the specific topic, the easier it is to research, outline, and write. It’s easier to stay focused on particular issues and not stray from the subject.
4. Your Blog Posts Lack Structure
After you have your specific topic, the next step is to write an outline so you can visually see the flow of the article.
Writing a Blog Post Outline is Easy:
- Find your key points, use the H2 heading for them, and add information underneath.
- If you need to go into more detail, put them under an H3 header and add the sub details.
- As you keep getting more granular, the number of the header increases to H4 and sometimes H5.
Once you’ve covered everything for that critical point, start the next one under H2 and repeat the process.
Use keywords whenever you can in headers, and always try to focus the content directly under the header to reflect the heading.
Using headers makes reading your blog post easier and is also excellent for SEO.
Related: A Blog Writer’s Guide for Writing Long-Form Content
5. You’re a Perfectionist
Paralysis by analysis is the bane of many writers. If you’ve written a high-quality, factual, grammatically correct article, and it’s not perfect in your eyes, that’s OK. There will be times when you don’t like what you’ve written for one reason or another.
There’s always going to be something you could have done to improve the blog post. It’s like coming up with a witty one-liner after you’ve left the party.
The good news is if you do make a mistake if something slips by, you can always go back and update it later after you’ve published it.
6. You Focus Too Much on Short-Term Analytics
It’s tempting for both beginner and advanced bloggers to judge the success of a blog post by concentrating on the analysis of immediate traffic.
It can be frustrating when your new blog posts aren’t generating the anticipated or wanted traffic.
Try to write “evergreen” blog posts or highly quality posts with relevant information that doesn’t have to be updated regularly.
Blogging is more of a marathon than a sprint. In the long run, traffic from search engine results and organic search will overtake any initial, short-term spikes.
This approach will help you get a better understanding of the true ROI of your post.
7. You Don’t Use Social Media To Share Your Blog Posts
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit are great places for sharing your content to help you generate more traffic to your blog post.
A 2021 Statista article said that 90% of respondents said they used social media to drive traffic to their blog posts.
Add social media buttons so readers can easily share your blog posts on their favorite social media sites. It is a great way to expand your audience quickly.
8. Your Calls To Action (CTAs) Aren’t Specific Enough
When you’re working on your blog post, take your time and consider what specific actions you want readers to take when reading it.
Do you want them to register for a newsletter or your contact us form? Drive them to a specific feature or function? Connect on social media?
The key here is being specific with the language of your CTA and ensuring that you’re taking them directly to where you said you were taking them.
Keywords in your CTAs are also great for SEO.
9. You Don’t Spend Enough Time Editing Your Blog Posts
Many writers don’t take the time to edit their writing when they’ve completed an article. Getting a second set of eyes to review your work never hurts.
If you don’t have an editor to submit your work to or a co-worker, there are several great tools to help you. Grammarly, ProWritingAid, WordTune, and Ginger are just a few options to help you edit your article.
Even if you self-edit your blogs, step away from the article for a while. Then come back and proofread it. You’ll be amazed at the number of typos, agreement errors, and other little errors that will pop out with a second glance with fresh eyes.
10. You Only Publish New Content and Don’t Refresh Old Content
It’s easy as content creators to forget about a blog post once you’ve published it and focus on producing new content.
However, when you neglect your old content, you can also hurt the SEO and click-through rates. This is because outdated content can be less relevant to current readers.
You can quickly refresh old content by adding new sections, verifying and updating links to more recent sources, and rechecking it for grammar and spelling errors. Updating or expanding on older articles is a great way to let Google know that your content is still fresh, valuable, and relevant.
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You’re Going to Make Mistakes Blogging as a Beginner
There’s a lot more to blogging than most people think. While it seems simple to find a topic you like, write about, and publish, that’s not even half of the job.
You must understand your company’s business goals and customers’ challenges.
You’ll have to be able to organize your thoughts and format them properly when writing your blog posts. And you’ll have to write compelling articles that compel your customers to take action by filling out a form or signing up for a newsletter.
The best way to get better at blogging is to keep blogging. Keep working on your craft and learning from your mistakes and fellow bloggers who have been where you are now.
In the end, persistence pays off, and being a successful blogger can help you and your company.
Related: How to Start a Blog That Gets Massive Traffic
Last Updated on September 20, 2022 by Hilda Wong
Not creating and using unique images is also one of the mistakes people make.
And I completely agree with your 10th point. Refreshing and updating old content is actually the easiest way to achieve higher ranks on SERPs.
Thanks for the support! AI has definitely helped make unique images easier. Yes thats one of our go to techniques in blogging – expanding / updating old blog content to keep it fresh and relevant.