8 Unintentional Blogging Mistakes You're Probably Making As a Beginner.

Deleting old blog posts.

Not building topical relevance in blog.

Horrible titles.

Poorly written articles.

Not driving traffic to their blog.

Bad SEO strategies. 

Inconsistent publishing schedule. 

Choosing wrong blog topics.

Starting a blog nowadays is so simple and anyone can do it.

One big misconception people have about blogging, is that they just have to publish some content and they'll start getting tons of traffic to their blog immediately.

The steps you take in the early phase of your blogging career can either make or break your blog, So you need to be well informed before starting that dream blog of yours.

Writing blogs to drive organic traffic takes strategy, time, determination and dedication. In other words, it won’t happen overnight and it definitely won't happen without a plan either. 

As you start creating high-quality content, make sure to avoid these common blogging mistakes that begginers make when starting their blog.

Below, I’ll cover some of the common blogging mistakes beginner bloggers make.

8 Common Blogging Mistakes Beginners Make.

Every blogger out there can attest to the fact that in the early days of their blogging career there were definitely blogging mistakes they made.

Those blogging mistakes were good though there's no doubt about that, as it helped alot of bloggers gain new experiences and taught them most of the things they know.

Now, let’s dive into my guide of the biggest blogging mistakes you need to avoid.

1. Deleting old blog posts.

Its been a while since you've launched your blog, everything's going fine but there's just one problem. You're haunted by those blog posts you wrote back in the day.

They arent well optimized and you cringe anytime you read them, So you're considering taking them down in order to rid your self of those past mistakes. 

You take them down and now you're feeling relieved.

Deleting blog posts are one of the most common blogging mistakes beginners make when starting out.

The first thing you must consider is to keep your old blog posts. You don’t want all the hard work that was put into creating those blog posts to go to waste.

Most old blog content simply needs to be updated, not deleted. That means updating outdated information and observing new practices in making your content look and read better.

One good thing to note is that updating old posts is almost similar to creating a new one from scratch, especially if most of the information no longer holds today. However, since they were published before, they have already been crawled and indexed by Google.

That is why it’s best to update old content because they are already positioned to rank faster than a brand new post that is yet to be crawled and indexed for SEO.

2. Not building topical relevance in your blog.

Alot of people start their blog only to realize that its not doing well they're confused and frustrated because to them they think they've done everything.

Building topical relevance in the early days of your blog has a lot of benefits as it helps search engines recognize your blog and it's content a lot better.

By focusing on low competition keywords in your niche, you'll be able to build Domain Authority in that niche a lot easier. If your website or blog is a dump filled with posts and articles on different conflicting topics, it will be hard to build your Domain Authority.

Utilizing keyword clusters is a great way of creating blog posts that are related topically. Don't stray from the main idea of your blog as it's essential for SEO purposes.

If your blog is about food then you should consider making your first few posts about grilled food. The more specific your blog posts are the higher your chances of ranking.

3. Horrible titles.

The title of your blog post, is what will determine whether or not people will click on it. So, it's essential that you choose a blog title that'll grab peoples attention.

Creating headlines that grab peoples' attention and spark their curiosity will encourage them to stick around longer and come back for more.

Plus, titles play important roles in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), too.

When I started writing blog posts I use to think that I must only use my target keyword for my blog posts but with time I realised that short bland titles was one of the main reasons people were not clicking on my blog post.

You need to paraphrase your blog posts title while still using your Seed keywords. 

For example; The seed keyword for this article is “blogging mistakes” instead of just using something dull and generic I used, 8 unintentional blogging mistakes you're probably making as a beginner.

The word unintentional in the title will grab peoples attention and encourage them to click on my blog post.

4. Poorly written articles.

This is one of the major blogging mistakes alot of people make, bloggers complain about not getting traffic to their website without actually analysing the contents of their websites.

Most of the articles aren't informative, they're very short and poorly optimized.

Inorder to maximise user retention and SERP rankings you'll need to publish quality blog posts. 

Provide real value to the readers by giving in-depth answers to their questions. 

Make research before publishing your blog posts as it helps build a sense of authenticity in your blog posts. 

You need to make sure that you not only answer peoples question but also provide answers to similar questions as well in order to leave them satisfied after reading your blog post.

Poorly formatted blog posts is also one of the major contributors to poorly written contents on blogs.

Are you taking note of your headings?, Are you taking note of your keyword density? etc

Yes, these questions might be related to SEO strategies, but its in the writing phase that they'll be implemented so it's a good idea to have them in mind when writing your blog posts.

Headers should act as signposts that let readers know what the next group of paragraphs is about. Make sure to include them.

Use lots of whitespace and don’t have big blocks of text. (You may have noticed in this article there are very few lengthy paragraphs. Most are one to two sentences long and very few over three. Doing so makes the article easier to read.)

• Use an outline for your blog posts.

An outline, is like the foundation of your blog posts. it keeps your writing on track and It gives you a clear direction on how, where and when to add certain elements and texts in your blog posts. Its responsible for the structural composition of your blog posts.

5. Not driving traffic to their blog.

Most people make the mistake of not driving traffic to their blogs. They publish posts after posts and just expect to see a major spike in traffic without actually doing anything.

After publishing a blog post your journey dosen't end there, There are still things you need to do even after publishing your blog posts and one of them is promotion.

If you don't drive traffic to your blog, especially during the beginning stages. Your blog posts won't get that much exposure making it harder for you to rank.

You'll need to use social media. Post your articles on Facebook, twitter, pinterest etc. taking that extra step in order to promote your articles will definitely payoff in the long run.

6. Bad SEO practices. 

SEO, is the key to ranking on SERPs. Alot of beginners make the mistake of not properly optimizing their blog posts and it affects their blogs overall performance.

 

Let’s say someone finds your content through organic search. They read through the blog post, and feel that it answered their question in full, but now they have other questions related to the topic.

Thats why I said earlier that you should provide answers similar to the question you're covering. One great way of doing this is by adding FAQs in your blog posts.

When I'm writing a blog post thats straightforward and requires minimal word count I beef up the article by adding FAQs that way I'll be able to answer similar questions my readers might have while also adding relevant keywords which will help in SEO.

Another blogging mistake is not taking keyword density into account keyword density means how much your focus keyword was used in your article. 

Now, you shouldn't just spam your focus keywords aimlessly, you need to make sure that you use it in a sensible manner and in a way that won't be irritating 

The focus keyword for this article is “blogging mistakes” I was able to add that keyword in my title and in other headings without making it overwhelming.

Off-page SEO is important as well but I think the quality of your content is actually what matters most. I've seen sites without SSL certificates rank #1, I've seen sites that take 8-10 secs to load, thats way more than the average time taken for a web page to load yet it's still among the top 3, I've also seen sites with very little backlinks outrank high DA sites.

This just goes to show that the quality of your content is actually what will determine whether or not your site will rank 

If you have great content that people love Google will have no choice but to keep that site in the top 10 search results even though it takes longer to load or has little backlinks.

7. Inconsistent publishing schedule.

Most beginner bloggers fail to put out blog posts regularly and this affects their blog negatively. Some people write as little as once a month for their blog, and others write several times a week (some even daily).

If you publish a blog post once a month then your blog would not grow as fast as you want it to.

Regularly publishing blog articles means that the search engine will crawl your site more, making it possible for your blog to get recognized topically. We've written a blog post with tips on how to write blog posts faster.

To help establish consistency, you’ll need a more concrete planning strategy.

Use an editorial calendar to get into the habit of planning your blog post topics ahead of time, publishing consistently, and even scheduling posts in advance.

How often you write is often a matter of how much time you can carve out of your schedule.

You have to make time to create new content for your blog. Blogging can be hard at first but when you finally succeed it'll be worth it.

8. Choosing wrong blog topics.

Creating content is a delicate process of matching what you want to write about with the needs of your readers—hence why choosing the wrong topics is one of the more common blogging mistakes you can make especially as a beginner.

A blog is a place for you to express yourself and a place to share information and connect with other people. That’s why it’s very important to understand how the content of your blog is contributing to the lives of other people.

When people start blogging, they generally want to write on really big topics like:

“How to start affiliate marketing” 

“Best hosting providers”

Choosing topics that are broad when starting your blogging career, is not the smartest thing to do. 

This is because there's so much competition for those broad keywords. making them really hard to rank for and big blogs are already competing for those topics not to mention the companies that are also spending alot of money in order to rank on the first page of the SERP.

Plus, more specific topics tend to attract smaller, more targeted audiences, which are more likely to convert into leads and customers.

Going for specific, long-tail keywords/topics is a great way of maximising your chances of getting your first few posts ranked.