10 Frequent Blog Mistakes That’s Driving Your Readers Away
Husam Jandal
World-Renowned Digital Marketing Consultant and Business Strategist - Helping Businesses Drive Growth Through Innovative Digital Marketing and Business Transformation Strategies
Strong blogs can increase traffic to your site, generate more leads, and convert more often. This will dramatically improve your return-on-marketing investment (ROMI). Even small blog errors can have a big impact on the results.
I will walk you through ten common blogging mistakes. Why is each one a problem? And what you can do to fix or improve your blog strategy.
1. Inadequacy of Relevance to the Reader's Interests or Needs
Imagine the blog you published last and imagine a reader actually looking at it. These are your questions.
What were your detailed answers? Can you give a description of the person, their occupation, the device they used, and any other important details? If you don't, your content isn't relevant. You didn't know the person you were speaking to. Consider this: How did your content address their needs? If any of these questions are answered, then you are making the first blog error.
Talk to your audience.
This is the first step to making it happen. Make sure that your topic and content are relevant to one of your customers. You should have personas prepared. Keep at least one handy when you start writing.
Figure out what’s trending.
Keep an eye on the industry's latest developments and find out what your readers are looking for. Next, create content that focuses on these topics.
Take a look at where they are on their journey.
Every buyer will have different needs at different stages of their journey. They should also have content that addresses their needs.
2. Lack of Clear and Compelling Titles
According to Wired, a great title can increase clicks on your blog posts by as much as 500 percent.
Use a tested formula.
Some titles get more clicks than others, so it is a good idea to stick with a proven formula. Below are some examples of effective strategies.
Use power words.
"Power words" are phrases or words that can influence clicks and create an emotional or psychological reaction. Here’s an example:
Test out a few.
Each blog should have several titles. If your software allows, you can run A/B testing to determine which title works best. You can also use tools like the CoSchedule Title Analyzer to help you create better titles, especially for those just starting out.
3. Poorly Written or Poorly Edited Content
A reader can lose faith in the accuracy of what they are reading by simply changing a simple typo. Simple typos, like using "effect" instead of "effect," can turn off even the most discerning readers. Long or complex sentences can also lead to confusion for many readers. Your message will be distorted if you use more complicated words or longer sentences than necessary.
Hiring a professional writer.
A member of your team may be able to write, but that doesn't mean they are a writer. Being a writer does not necessarily mean someone can write well or have the time to create quality content. Hire a professional writer to create your blog posts.
You can use tools to assess the quality of your writing.
Do not trust Microsoft Word's spellchecker to find all of your grammar mistakes. Use a special program like Grammarly instead. It will detect all the things that grammar and spellcheck tools fail to catch. To create clearer and simpler content, many businesses use tools such as the Hemingway Application.
Have an editing procedure.
People are notoriously poor at catching themselves in their own mistakes. In Wired, psychologist Tom Stafford explains that what we see on the screen can be confused with what is in our heads. Stafford, who is a scientist in the science of typos, says that proofreading can be a difficult task because we know what we are trying to convey. Our brainpower is better spent on the difficult task of explaining concepts than it is on catching mistakes.
It is important that the content be reviewed and edited by someone other than the author before it is published. Many businesses also have a subject matter expert look over the content. This will help you spot errors in the writing and other issues.
4. Poor Layout or Formatting
Web content is not read like a book, pamphlet, or magazine. According to NN Group, usability study, 79 percent of your visitors will scan the page instead of reading it word-by-word. This will make them stay longer on your page if they can do it easily.
Use subheadings effectively.
Blog posts should be broken down using H2 subheadings. This makes it easier to read and understand the content. To cover more complex concepts, additional H3 or H4 subheadings may be added to the H2 subheadings.
This page, for example, uses H2 subheadings in order to make it easy to find the list. Each corresponds to one of the ten blogging errors the title promises will show you. Visitors can see the page before they commit to reading it. These subheadings indicate how to fix the error. This page can be accessed by anyone who wants to learn the ten errors and their contributing factors in less than a minute.
Keep paragraphs short and concise.
A paragraph is a minimum of five sentences. This includes the topic, three supporting lines, and a conclusion. This is not the case with web writing. It's easy to skip lengthy paragraphs. Therefore, it is better to keep each one focused on a single topic and to explain it as concisely as you can.
Use bullet point lists if necessary.
Bullet point lists make it easy to scan pages and break down blocks of content.
Formatting text should be done with care.
Because the eye naturally gravitates to novelty, formatting techniques such as bold, italics, and highlighting can make the text easier to scan. Formatting is often used too much. Bold words in a paragraph can confuse the reader. The reader won't be able to see what the most important things are if they're used too often. Instead of the reader realizing that these are all important topics, many will skip the content because it is too overwhelming.
5. Lack of Visual Media
According to Search Engine Journal research, visual media such as videos and images get 94 percent more visitors than text. People can recall pages more easily using visuals.
Include photos of real people.
According to NN Group, visitors spend ten times more time looking at photos of people than they do focusing their attention on the corresponding content. Even though the written text occupies 36 percent more space than the images, this is true.
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Try infographics.
According to Search Engine Journal research, infographics can increase traffic by 12 percent.
Include videos as appropriate.
According to Wistia research, people spend 40 percent more time on pages that have video than those without. It is possible to keep people on a page longer without using video, but Wistia's research has shown that pages with the highest performance are often made up of videos.
6. Insufficient Promotion or Marketing
It's a good idea to optimize your blog posts for search engines. To get your content the exposure it deserves, you will need to promote it.
Follow the 80/20 rule.
Many businesses that have millions of visitors to their blogs owe their success to the 80/20 or similar approach, GoDaddy research reveals. This means that 20 percent of your time is spent blogging, and 80 percent is used to promote the blog. This means that if you have only one hour to blog, 48 minutes should be spent on promotion.
This doesn't mean that you have to spend 18 hours promoting one post you wrote in 4.5 hours. Your evergreen content should also be promoted.
Diversify your channels.
Social media strategies should include being active on the websites your personas use. You should also be focusing your efforts only on those networks. Find multiple ways to frame the content, and spread your posts to increase visibility. Networks will have a different ideal frequency.
Newsletters can be a great way to share your posts, but you don't have to limit yourself to just newsletters. You might also consider sending curated groups of content to your contacts or as part of your onboarding process.
7. Too Much Jargon
It can be difficult to understand the content if it is too technical or full of jargon. Some readers may take a moment to search for a term, or to scan the page to refresh themselves if they were not covered before. However, many will skip terms that aren't clear or leave the page.
Talk the same way as your readers.
It is acceptable to use terms that your readers use. If your audience includes medical professionals, you can use terms like "ambulate" and "upper extremity" on a medical blog. The rest of the world should see "walk" or "arm" instead. Otherwise, they will not be able to take too much time away from your site.
8. Failure to Include Next Steps
Your readers will leave if you don't give them something to do after reading your content.
Include a call-to-action (CTA)
There is no one best CTA. There is no one best CTA. It will depend on the business, the content, who the persona is, and where the buyer is at each stage of their buying journey. A CTA inviting the reader to sign up for your newsletter or offering them more detailed content might work well for an entry-level piece. A consultation offer, free trial, or comparison guide might be the best option if the content is targeted at decision-makers.
9. It is Difficult to Navigate or Access the Blog
It is important to understand that different people will use different technologies to access your website. It may look perfect when you see it, but that doesn't guarantee your reader will have the same amazing experience.
Make it mobile-friendly.
According to Google, more than half of all web traffic is generated by mobile devices. It could even be as high as 70 percent, according to some sources. You want people to be able to easily navigate your content, regardless of what device they use.
Attention to accessibility.
Keep in mind that some people who visit your blog might have special needs or use adaptive technology. If they are unable to distinguish between colors red and blue, or purple and green respectively, then someone with colorblindness may not be able to navigate your website. If you embed text in your images or don't include alt-image tags, visually impaired people may not be able to access key information. If your videos don't include captions or transcripts, someone with hearing impairment won't be able to see the content.
These issues should be considered solely from the perspective of equal access. It's important to note that search engines like Google consider accessibility issues as part of the user experience. Sites that rank higher are more likely to receive organic traffic.
Use a standardized navigation menu.
You can imitate popular websites by creating your own navigation menu. This makes your site easier to use and encourages visitors to explore more of it.
Get help from a professional.
A professional developer can address these concerns and many other factors, such as how fast your site loads or security. These are all things that impact the user experience.
10. Inconsistent Posting Schedule or Frequency
The simple fact is that the higher the quality of content you produce, Google and other search engines will have to crawl it more often, and your site will appear more frequently in searches. Search engines will recognize you as an authority in your field if you are more knowledgeable and engage readers. This will result in you ranking higher and getting more traffic. Ranking factors include the quality of your content and new updates.
It makes readers happier to produce content according to a set schedule. If they like your content, they will learn what to expect and start looking for it more often. They also trust blogs that are regularly updated.
Many businesses lack the systems and processes to enable consistent posting. This means that it is not possible. Some people become discouraged when they don’t see immediate results. According to HubSpot research, businesses that prioritize blogging have a 13-fold higher ROI than those that don't. This is because it takes a year to see tangible results. It's worth it to keep going.
Determine your ideal schedule.
According to HubSpot research, businesses can begin with just one or two blogs per month to increase brand awareness. Depending on the size of your blog, it is a good idea to publish three to five blogs per week if you are looking for organic traffic. If these benchmarks are not within your reach, focus on quality and not quantity.
Leverage a content calendar.
A content calendar lists all of your content marketing efforts over a specified time period, such as three months. This applies to blogs, infographics, and videos, as well as any other content you may produce within the given timeframe. This allows you to collaborate and holds your team accountable for meeting the deadlines.
Use resources.
Blogging can bring you a 13-fold increase in ROI. But, the results are not just going to happen. These results will only be possible if you have the resources, such as people and tools.
You Can Build a Better Blog and Improve Your Overall Digital Marketing
As a digital marketing consultant with a background in business, I understand the importance of getting maximum ROI from your marketing investment. That’s why I follow a proven recipe that involves putting the right people, procedures, and tools in place to make sure my clients are fully equipped for digital marketing success. If your blog isn’t performing as it should, or you want help improving your digital marketing. Contact me for a complimentary consultation.
You can also read this blog on my website, 10 Common Blog Mistakes That Are Driving Your Readers Away.
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