Blogging Tips that are super useful and actionable is one of my favorite topics. There are so many blogging tips that pretty much every 2nd blogger has some tips to offer.
You may have even seen blogging tips in an infographic so it is easy to consume and saves you a bunch of time from crawling multiple web sites.
There is definitely a lot of information on what to do but a lack of content on what not to do. What about blogging mistakes to avoid or even SEO mistakes that can cost you rankings and traffic?
In my humble opinion, these are the best lessons for a relatively new blogger to learn. Master what not to do first and stay clear of them. You can always ramp up your knowledge and learn advanced tips and tricks along the way but lessons on what to avoid are time critical.
Here is an infographic with 25 blogging mistakes to avoid; some are no-brainers and some are gems for new bloggers.
Some of the Common or Worst Blogging Mistakes:
Copying Content From Others
Often I see people copy content from another site or blogger word to word. This is called plagiarism. No matter how much you spend on buying YouTube subscribers, the original content will always win. The original owner may or may not sue you but you are claiming somebody’s work as your own. Did you know Google penalizes duplicate content? At the least use your own words and style to describe the original story and provide a link to the source. This is applicable to Infographics as well. Always add value, provide your view and maybe explore a different angle to the original story.
Focussing Only on Content Quantity
Some new bloggers get this elusive thought that the more content the better. While it is true to a certain extent, quantity alone is not going to get you to your destination. Quality of content matters.
There is no point hashing out low quality content just for the sake of publishing every day. If you are not producing good quality content then you will lose traffic and trust. No one will link to your content just because you are producing a bucket load of it; people only link to quality content (or at least that’s what good bloggers do).
Underestimating Content Marketing
New bloggers think content marketing is just sharing their content on social sites; this is just the beginning especially if you don’t have a great number of followers.
There is blogger outreach where you reach out to targeted bloggers to amplify your content. You can guest post to build your brand. You can use communities like Triberr to get a better reach for your content. Content Marketing is a topic on its own so do check out this Content Promotion Checklist Infographic.
Not Using Engaging Images
Engaging images in this era is a must. Websites like TapedReality know this all too well. Ryan Biddulph calls it “eye-candy”. People don’t stop and take note unless something catches their eye. The best way to grab that attention is by using a colorful image that is relevant. Try using an image above the fold.
Give people and their eyes a break by using an image or two to break the wall of text. A good image can convey the message faster than plain text. The human brain processes images faster. Content with images do a lot better in social media than those without. There is no excuse for not using good quality images.
Website is Not Focused on User Experience
The first goal of a website or blog is to get traffic to your site. The longer these users stay on your site the better the chances of you achieving your end goal – increase in sales or leads. Most new sites highlight what they want and what they have to offer. You have to build your site navigation, layout and web pages taking the user into account.
What will a typical user be looking for and how can they find it?
Having a search feature in your website is a simple step towards making sure the user finds what they want. Make sure your navigation is not bulky or clunky.
1st impressions count so use a simple and clear theme that highlights your website objective. If your website is a blog then you want to highlight the content at all times, after all the content is the hero.
Avoiding too many ads and distractions can also improve the user experience. You have to make sure your site loads fast if not you will leave users hanging! Check out this infographic for more tips on improving website load times.
Not Including a Click Worthy Title
A click worthy heading can be the difference between your post going viral or dormant. People spend time with their content and SEO but often just put the 1st title they can think of. Regardless of how good your content is, if the title is not engaging then users will not care. People will go past your content in search results and social media like overtaking a learner driver on the street. Use tools like Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator or CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to improve your title.
Wrapping it up
You may be committing one or two mistakes from the list and you may still be fine but if you make too many then sooner or later your blogging kingdom will crumble down. Take care of your blog by eliminating blogging and SEO mistakes. Good luck with your blogging journey.