Frustrating isn’t it? You pour your heart and soul into a blog, only to hear the sound of crickets chirping. You keep wondering why. Is it the content? The audience? Too much competition? Or is it you?
You’re not alone. Many big names in the blogging industry have shared exactly the same disappointment. Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics struggled during his early days. His challenges included traffic and visibility. Establishing credibility was tough in a crowded field.
Did he quit? No.
Instead, he dived deeper into producing high quality, actionable content which addressed the frustrations his audience experienced. Using effective SEO strategies, backed with case studies, he garnered trust from users.
Today, Neil Patel is one of the most sought after figures in the digital marketing industry. His blogs attract millions of visitors each month.
What made this possible? He didn’t give up, and neither should you. Instead, look at what errors you might be making.
Let’s have a look at seven common blogging bloopers and how they can be fixed.
The target audience is the lifeblood of your business, so not knowing who they are and forgetting what they want will always cause problems. Never take them for granted. It’s easy to assume their expectations based on trends, but the market is constantly changing and evolving.
Going in blind prevents resonance with the audience. If the reader’s troubles, frustrations and goals aren’t being addressed, why should they bother reading your work?
Solution: Speak on topics that chime with your audience
What we have here is a communication problem. Your users want apples, but you’re giving them oranges. Fill this gap by connecting on a personal level. Approach your audience as if you were a well intentioned friend who wants to help.
How does a good friend help? They listen.
How the audience feels and what they want, must matter to you. Understanding them helps create a buyer’s persona which highlights the user’s job, goals and troubles. These three things will guide you on:
- Which topics to speak on
- Which style, tone and format to use
- How simple or complex your content should be
Being a frequent blogger can lead to a trap. You’re reading and writing about so many topics that unintentionally, you mistake yourself for the reader.
Don’t guilt trip over this, it’s understandable. Ideas are racing through your mind on a daily basis. The erratic, unplanned nature of this can lead you to write about something that interests you, but not the audience.
You’re supposed to be a teacher, who encourages students to learn on their own. Not tell them what to do.
Solution: Match each blog with a goal
Every blog that you write has an underlying goal; growing your brand. The higher the reach, the bigger your brand. With each post, a customer is satisfied and you make profit.
Making this work involves striking the right balance between what you want to speak on, and helping the customer. The blogs should talk about your line of work, while solving problems.
So learn about your field and business goals. See how they tie in with what your customers are looking for.
Readers today are smarter and well-informed. They believe articles that back their points with well researched data carry credibility.
As a blogger, if you ignore data, it will take double the effort to convince your readers. They will not take seriously whimsical statements lacking substance to support them.
Solution: Always support statements with evidence
Look at these two statements, and decide which is more convincing.
“Social media appears to be bad for mental health.” Or
“According to a study from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018, reducing time spent on social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter leads to a decrease in depression and loneliness among participants.”
Clearly it’s the latter – and that’s because it has a reliable source that is backing the statement with evidence. If you want to be taken seriously, provide data.
Data gives the impression to a reader that you’re a reliable source and strengthens your credibility.
When seeking information, you’ll look for answers on platforms like Google, Bing and Firefox. These search engines are the pathway for users in finding your blog.
Unfortunately, bloggers don’t utilise this enough. If you want readers to find your content, you’ll need SEO strategies which bring your work to the forefront of search results. Without it, nobody knows who you are and what you write about.
Solution: Search and implement keywords, backlinks and optimise.
Keywords are first priority. Whether it’s headings, sub-headings, main body text or image text, you need to place words that users type into the search bar frequently.
Phrasing your blog as “Ten advantages of using AI” will get more traffic than another named “How AI is beneficial for the future.”
You can use keyword tools like Moz, SEMRush and Ahrefs for help. If the keyword has high ratings in searches, that’s the one to use. Combining them in sentences and paragraphs can further boost your position in search results.
Next step – backlinks. These are links that connect your website to another. When other websites link to your content, they are showcasing confidence in your work. This boosts credibility and helps search engines like Google in determining your relevance.
SEO strategies benefit your blogs by:
- Increasing search rankings
- Increasing website traffic
- Establishing confidence
You open a page, and there is nothing but words. How long will it be before you’re tired and want to look away?
Text is the main core of your blog, but bloggers sometimes lose themselves in writing words. The visual layout of a blog plays an integral role in its readability. If a user only sees text, it becomes overwhelming or boring.
Solution: Add images, audio and videos
When planning your content, always include images, audios or videos that will help boost the blog’s visual appeal.
Don’t randomly choose any picture – it has to serve a purpose. If a text has data, placing a visual pie chart will add further value.
Using audios are effective because they add believability to your content. If you’re mentioning an expert’s quote on any matter, having his/her voice present will add to its credibility.
Videos also assist in increasing engagement with readers. By placing a tutorial video about the topic you’re writing on, the experience becomes interactive and readers retain the information better.
The combination of these three enhances the customer’s experience because your blog is both informative and entertaining.
Writing content is just the start. You have to get it out there. Bloggers write their post on only one medium, while ignoring social media platforms.
There is no point in creating earth shattering content if nobody is reading it. Yes, you will have to look into a promotion strategy, but given how tight the competition is on search engines, you don’t want to get left behind.
Social media apps can help fill in that gap.
Solution: Promote your blogs on different social media platforms
Facebook currently has about 2.9 billion users, Instagram sports over 2 billion monthly active users and X (formerly Twitter) has 450 million active users.
What better place to promote your work? If a few don’t like it, there will be many others to compensate.
You’ll have to choose a social media platform that suits your blog’s persona. If the subjects you write on are about the corporate world, LinkedIn is an ideal choice. If you’re aiming for a young, vibrant, Gen Z based market, then TikTok is the way to go.
Struggling with promoting content on social media? Reach out to us here and we’ll make it easier.
A mistake bloggers make is after writing a series of blogs, they become inconsistent. In order to maintain traffic on a website, there has to be consistency with uploading content.
If you’re writing blogs and gain attention, then stop posting for a month, you’ll lose all that you achieved.
Competition will snatch your readers because they are uploading regularly while you take your time.
Solution: Schedule your blog posts and maintain consistency
By committing a fixed time and volume of uploads, your content will start to generate leads and traffic.
To maintain consistency, make a content calendar. It’ll help you determine which topics you want to write about and when to upload them. Over time you will be reaping the benefits of increased website traffic.
Still unsure on how to proceed? We’re here to help you.
Visit our website and we’ll take it from there.
