20 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid For Better Results

Whether you’re new to blogging or have been writing blog posts for a while, getting to know your blog and avoiding common blogging mistakes can be difficult.

Blogging is a simple way to achieve online success, but it is not easy. In reality, it’s far from it.

If you feel that your blog posts aren’t generating the results you were hoping for, or if you want to avoid common pitfalls as you start your blogging journey, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll show you some of the most common blogging mistakes that you can avoid to achieve better results.

Let’s get started!

20 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Anyone can create a blog! With a little effort, practice, and knowledge, you can use blog posts to increase your online presence and deliver results for your online business.

So, what are the most common blogging blunders to avoid?

Mistake #1: Not Understanding Your Target Audience

After you’ve learned how to start a blog, the following step is to figure out who your target audience is. It’s pointless to waste time and brainpower writing blog posts if the audience isn’t interested in reading them.

All too frequently, people publish blog posts about things that their readers do not want to read about.

It’s not only posted topics to think about. To guarantee that your blog properly targets your audience, you must first understand how they act online.

How much time do they devote to reading blogs? Do they prefer long-form content or shorter articles? Is there a particular blog post type they prefer, such as listicles or Q&As?

Conducting audience research will help you to get under your readers’ skin and ensure your content meets their needs accordingly.

Mistake #2: Not Doing Any Keyword Research

Have you ever wondered why your blog isn’t getting more search traffic even after posting content regularly?

It might be mostly because you create content without doing keyword research.

Keyword research is the process of finding “words” or “keywords” that drive more traffic, leads, and sales to your blog from search engines such as Google.

Here are a few useful tools for keyword research:

• Semrush: This is the same tool we’re using to find potential keywords for our blog.
• LowFruits: It is a keyword research tool that helps you find low-competition keywords for your website. It works by analyzing SERPs (search engine results pages) for low-competition signals.
• Ahrefs: Another incredible tool that gives you accurate keyword data.
• SE Ranking: Another low-cost keyword tool that can help you find the right keywords for your website.

When performing keyword research, keep one thing in mind: long tail keywords.

Long tail keywords are often made up of four or more words.

For example, “best free SEO tools for bloggers” is a six-word long tail keyword that can be easy to rank compared to short tail keywords like “free SEO tools”.

Mistake #3: Forget To Optimize Content for SEO

Blog posts are an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for a good reason.

They offer an excellent opportunity to add your targeted keywords and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

A common mistake bloggers make when writing blog posts is forgetting to optimize their content for search engines such as Google. Not doing so can cost you a significant amount of prospective traffic.

The better your posts are optimized for search engines, the more likely they will show high in search results for your target keywords.

Here are some SEO best practices to optimize your blog posts for SEO:

• Conducting proper keyword research before writing
• Writing a compelling meta title and description
• Optimize your images for SEO
• Using internal and external links throughout your content
• Create user-friendly URLs

For more details, check out our ultimate on-page SEO checklist.

Mistake #4: Writing About Too Many Topics

One of the most common blogging mistakes made by bloggers is covering too many topics.

It might be exciting to write about anything and everything on your blog, but the thought of limiting yourself to just one topic can be daunting.

The truth is, finding a blog niche is actually quite important, just like it is when starting an online business.

Without a specific niche, readers will have no idea what to expect from your site. If your blog posts are on food blogging one week and personal finance the next, your readers will be confused.

Writing on too many topics can also be bad for your online reputation. It’s difficult to think that someone can be an expert on multiple topics, but focusing on just one will help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field.

To avoid this blogging pitfalls, take time to carve out your niche so you know what to blog about.

Read out: Low Competition Niches for Blogs

Mistake #5: Not Publishing Frequently Enough

If you’re going to blog, you should keep it up.

One of the most common blogging mistakes is writing and publishing a blog post only to wait a month before publishing another.

If you write blogs often or go through bursts of content creation only to be followed by an extended time of nothing, your blog will not reach the results you want.

The more content you publish on your blog, the better your chances of keeping readers engaged and interested.

Regularly publishing new content is also an excellent strategy to help search engines find and rank your blog posts, resulting in more traffic to your site.

To avoid making these blog mistakes, create an editorial content calendar in which you plan out your blog posts months in advance. This helps you to see what content still has to be created and keeps all of your post ideas in one location. We suggest publishing at least one blog post every week.

Mistake #6: Poorly Formatted Posts

Your blog post could be the best-written and most valuable piece of online content, but if it’s poorly formatted, you won’t be able to succeed in blogging.

Nobody wants to read blog posts that aren’t shown in a user-friendly way on the screen.

It’s all too easy to focus on the content of your blog post and forget to format the post in a way that’s easy to read.

To fix this blogging mistake, use subheadings to break up long text sections and add images to make your blog posts look more visually appealing. Bullet points and highlight text are also excellent ways of making sections of your text stand out.

Mistake #7: Not Proofreading Your Content

With so many blogs online, you need to find ways for yours to stand out from the crowd. One of those ways is to ensure that your writing is of the best possible quality.

Bloggers usually think they’re done after they’ve completed writing their blog article. They are, however, wrong.

It is important that you check your blog posts before hitting the publish button to catch any errors.

A blog post stuffed with spelling and grammatical errors signals to the reader that the site is unprofessional, which might harm your online reputation.

To avoid it, always proofread your blog post before you upload it. You can use grammar checker tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid for this. They can help you to identify and correct grammar, spelling, and other errors in your writing.

Read out: Grammarly Review: Is It Worth It?

Mistake #8: Using Other People’s Content

If you found some of your competitor blogs during your topic research, you can use them to get post ideas for your own blog.

What you cannot do is just copy and paste their content.

It is OK to use existing content as inspiration. In reality, it’s a tried-and-true blogging strategy, but a common mistake is not mixing it up enough or not putting your own spin on the content before uploading it.

Plagiarism is a serious offense, and you may be sued if you are caught duplicating someone else’s work.

To fix this, you can use a plagiarism checker to check our content with other existing content to ensure it’s safe to upload.

Mistake #9: Stop Using Images From Google

This is one of the most common blog mistakes a blogger can make. It is really easy to use images from Google Image Search. But, you should be aware that using copyrighted images on your blog may result in a lawsuit.

Many bloggers believe that they can use images from others and give them credit by linking back to them. But even that is the wrong approach. If you wish to use someone else’s images, make sure you have their permission first.

The best way to avoid this beginner blogging mistake is to use “copyright-free” or “royalty-free” images for your blog. You can download free images from Unsplash or Pexels. Or, you can use image editing tools to create unique and appealing images for your blog.

Mistake #10: Not Promoting Your Blog

Writing great blog posts is great, but how can you expect people to read them if you don’t promote them?

Often, bloggers will spend a lot of time and effort creating the best blog posts possible, only to forget to promote them once they’ve been published.

Promoting your blog posts on social media platforms and through email marketing is a terrific way to drive traffic to your website and boost brand recognition.

If you don’t promote your blog posts to your target audience, all of the work and effort you’ve spent building your blog will be worthless.

To prevent making this blogging mistake, build a promotion calendar in addition to your editorial calendar. When you publish a blog, set a reminder to promote it across all of your social media accounts.

Mistake #11: Creating a Free Blog

Another one of the most common amateur blogging mistakes most bloggers make is not investing in a self-hosted blog from the start.

We all know that free things are always great, right? Well, not if you are serious about making money blogging your full-time job.

If you’re someone who’s looking to make passive income from blogs, you should avoid free blogs.

There are several limitations to free blog platforms. These include:

• Free blog platforms often restrict the degree of customization you can apply to your blog’s design.
• Some free blogging platforms display their own ads on your blog.
• Free blogs have limited space, limited bandwidth, and don’t offer many features.
• With a free blog platform, you have limited control over the technical aspects of your blog.
• Most importantly, most free blogs do not allow you to monetize your site.

If you are serious about blogging, don’t use free blogging sites to create a blog. Instead, use self-hosted WordPress. WordPress is a free-to-use CMS software that is used by over 43% of all websites on the internet. The only costs needed for running a WordPress blog are the buying of a domain name and a web hosting plan.

Furthermore, if you are on a tight budget, you can use cheap web hosting to own your own blog. Most importantly, choosing WordPress gives you complete control over the future of your blog. Hence, not using WordPress is the biggest blogging mistake here on this list.

Mistake #12: Not Updating Old Content

When you start writing on a regular basis, it’s easy to put all of your efforts into creating new content.

However, ignoring old content could hurt your click-through rates and SEO since, as time passes, your content gets outdated and less relevant to the reader’s current needs.

For example, if you have a blog post with screenshots from many years ago, your content is no longer as useful and will fall in ranking as a result.

Thus, regularly upgrading your old content is a great way to keep your website high in search engine results. Search engine bots like Google continually look for the most recent and relevant content to rank.

Mistake #13: Taking Too Long to Start List Building

When it comes to building your email list, you can never start too soon. Email marketing is an excellent tool for bloggers, and underestimating its potential is high on our list of common blogging mistakes.

List building is simply the process of gathering a list of email subscribers for your blog. The emails you send to your subscribers can include extra content, free giveaway resources, or just notifications about new stuff on your blog.

Whatever you send to your subscribers, the important is that you have a group of individuals who are interested in your content. They are the ideal audience for you since they have chosen to follow you. Without an email list, you miss out on a great potential to not only grow your audience but also boost your impact on them.

If you’re just getting started with your email list and want to maintain your blog on a budget, here are some of the best free email marketing services you can use.

Mistake #14: No Include a Clear CTA

Not having a call to action (CTA) is another one of the most common blogging mistakes. Failing to incorporate a CTA into your blog posts means missing a valuable opportunity to engage and guide your readers further. Without a CTA, your readers may finish reading your content with no clear direction, leaving them unsure about the next steps to take.

To avoid this common pitfall, create a well-crafted CTA at the end of your blog post, which empowers your readers to take the next step, be it subscribing, sharing, exploring related content, or simply engaging in a discussion.

Mistake #15: Ignoring Comments From Readers

The comments section is one of the most useful parts of your site, yet many bloggers often overlook it.

Taking the time to react to comments on your blog can have a number of advantages, including:

• Building relationships with your audience
• Encourage people to leave comments on other blog posts
• Giving you insight into content that people need and enjoy

Ignoring reader comments or simply forgetting to check might lead to your audience opting not to comment in the future or, worse, select other blogs to read instead.

To avoid this blogging error, schedule a time to respond to your blog post comment.

Mistake #16: Not Investing Money in Growing Your Blog

Most new bloggers do not invest money in starting from web hosting to email marketing to SEO.

They frequently look for freebies such as free email marketing services, free WordPress themes, free WordPress plugins, free SEO tools, etc.

While there is nothing wrong with using the free tools described above, free tools are not great for a number of reasons:

• Free tools often have limited features and functionality compared to paid tools.
• Free tools don’t provide support, constant updates, extensive information, etc.
• Many free tools are ad-supported, which means you’ll encounter advertisements or promotions while using them.

So, if you’re serious about building a lucrative blog, you’ll need to invest money.

So, where should you invest your money to grow your blog? Here are a few places where you may put your money.

Web hosting

Web hosting is the single most critical factor that can make or damage your blogging success.

It affects the speed of your website, and we highly recommend Hostinger for hosting. Hostinger offers several speed-boosting features, such as the LiteSpeed web server and LiteSpeed Cache, which improve load times and add speed to your site.

Click Here and Get Started With Hostinger Today!

Email Marketing

Email marketing helps you to monetize your email list. So, there’s nothing wrong with investing in the right software to manage your email list.

For email marketing, we recommended the following tools:

• HubSpot
• GetResponse
• MailerLite

SEO Tools

Investing in the right SEO tools might pay off highly in the long run. We’ve been using Semrush for over three years, and it’s helped us grow traffic and sales for our own blog, Pickup WP.

You can use semrush for free forever by registering a free semrush account. However, a free Semrush account limits you to 10 daily searches. Semrush also offers a free 7-day trial, which you can avail yourself of using the link below.

Get a 7-day free Semrush Pro account (worth $129.95)

Content Creation

This is the most essential investment you can make on your blog. A blog’s success is built on quality content. You can invest in content creation by hiring a freelance writer or editor or by using AI writing tools to create blog posts for your blog.

Mistake #17: Not Having a Monetization Plan

What is the single most significant aspect determining your blog’s long-term success?

If you said having the right monetization strategy, you’re absolutely right. Unfortunately, most beginner bloggers do not create a sales funnel or a monetization plan.

All they do is write random blog posts and wait for traffic to increase so they may monetize their traffic sources. That is the wrong approach.

If you want to build a profitable blog, you must have a monetization strategy in place before you launch your blog. You must identify and analyze factors that will help you in making money in the first year.

Yes, it is quite challenging to earn more money in the first year, but you need to set small targets that are truly achievable. Don’t compare your starting to someone else’s end chapter since comparison does not help you grow!

Here are a few tried-and-true methods for creating a successful monetization plan for your blogs.

• Start selling affiliate products
• Offers your own services
• Sell your own products
• Display ads on your blog
• Writing sponsored posts

Mistake #18: Ignoring Analytics

One of the common mistakes bloggers frequently make is overlooking the importance of analytics.

Ignoring analytics means missing out on valuable insights into your audience’s behavior and the performance of your blog.

Analytics provide insights into your audience’s behavior, revealing which posts are resonating, where traffic is coming from, and even how long visitors stay on your site. Failing to harness this information means you’re essentially blogging in the dark, unaware of what’s working and what isn’t.

To avoid this mistake, make analytics a central part of your blogging routine. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your performance, identify trends, and refine your content strategy.

By embracing analytics, you can make data-driven decisions that lead to a more successful and impactful blog.

Mistake #19: Writing for Yourself

Unless you’re already a well-known person, blogs aren’t the diaries they used to be. Instead, it is a place for those looking for information, news, entertainment, or education.

If you want to make money blogging fast, your blog should focus on what your readers want to read about instead of what you want to write. Of course, you should continue to share your thoughts and experiences, but each blog post should also solve a problem.

Mistake #20: Giving Up

We all want faster results.

However, it takes years to create a profitable blog.

Pickup WP launched in 2016, and we’ve consistently made hundreds of dollars each month for the last year.

It all comes with time and practice. So, blogging is more of a marathon than a sprint.

When most beginners’ blogs do not get the desired results, they QUIT!

If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you’ll ultimately succeed in earning money from your blog. But if you expect to make $10,000 per month within six months of starting your blog, you’ll fail!

Final Thought: Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Using a blog to bring traffic to your website and increase the success of your online business can be very useful.

While it is a popular growth method, bloggers still commit common blogging mistakes that might negatively affect their blog results.

However, if you can avoid these mistakes by following the tips in this article, you can use a blog to generate traffic to your website, create relationships with your target audience, and improve brand recognition.

And, as previously said, every blog post should contain a call to action, and ours are no different, so be sure to read out our other blogging-related articles.

• How to Write a Good Blog Post [Expert Tips]
• 15 Actionable Blogging Tips for New Bloggers
• 53 Best Blogging Tools to Skyrocket Your Blog Growth

Lastly, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on the latest WordPress and blogging-related articles.