Many Amateur Bloggers complain that even after writing content for many months they're not able to drive organic traffic from search engines like Google.
Not getting any traffic even after months of blogging is a clear red flag that there is something wrong with your blog.
You must identify the issues that are responsible for poor performance of your blog.
As a new blogger, chances are that you will make some mistakes in the excitement of launching a new blog and tend to overlook things that can cost you dearly in the long run.
The issue may be related to technical SEO, On-page or Off-page SEO, poor design and even your web host.
As a beginner, it's okay to make mistakes. It happens to pretty much every new blogger. Luckily, it's pretty easy to avoid or rectify these mistakes.
In this article, I will tell you about common blogging mistakes made by amateur bloggers and how to avoid them.
When you have just started blogging it is easy to make these blogging mistakes because you are unaware of things that are fundamentals for successful blogging.
To become a successful blogger we must consider these mistakes seriously right from day one of your blogging career and take necessary steps to avoid them.
The main reason for writing this post is to make you aware of these blogging mistakes often made by a amateur blogger.
If you are not sure what these mistakes are, continue reading this post to know about blogging mistakes to avoid.
Let's get started.
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Must Read: A2 Hosting India Review
Blogging Mistakes By Amateur Bloggers
Blogging Mistakes Made By Amateur Blogger
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1. Using Free or Cheap Web Host
Many newbie bloggers ask me how to create a blog for free. They want to earn money from their blog but don't want to invest in it. This is one of their biggest mistake.
Just like a regular job, blogging can also be a successful career. So, treat a blog like a business that needs investment. People create blogs and invest in it to have a consistent source of income on a regular basis for longer period of time.
So, it is recommended to completely avoid free or cheap web hosting.
A web host is the physical location of your website on the Internet. If you use any cheap host or free web host like WordPress.com or Blogger.com then you are committing a big mistake.
Free web hosting provider doesn't have features as provided by premium web hosts.
Free web hosting also doesn't allow you to monetize your blog which means you will not be able to use Google Adsense or any other advertising network in your blog.
On free web hosting platform, your blog content belongs to the hosting provider. If you violate any terms and conditions of their, they would simply block your account.
Hosting your blog in a free or cheap web host also doesn't allow you to customize it as per your requirements.
You will not be able to use premium themes or plugins. Your blog will not be as fast as you would get in a premium web host.
Another problem with these hosts is Support. You will not get dedicated support from these hosts. So, if your blog ever runs into a problem you won't get any support from them.
If you are on a free web host or a cheap one, I would advise you to migrate your site to a premium web host like DreamHost.
So, if you are using a free web host for your website then you have already made a big mistake which you must rectify it soon.
Migrating your site to a premium web host like DreamHost today will save your blog from becoming a failure.
2. Using Free Domain
Many new amateur bloggers start their blog from Google’s free Blogger platform Blogger.com to save on domain cost. What they don't know is that by saving a small amount of money they are creating trouble for themselves in the future.
By creating a blog in Blogger.com your website will be like
technicalwall.blogspot.com instead of technicalwall.com
Blogspot domain doesn't perform well in Google Search.
To prove my point, just search for any topic in Google Search and you will see that there is hardly any .blogspot.com website there in the top 10 results.
It is difficult to build backlinks with a Blogspot domain.
If you try to build backlinks by making a guest post on any other blogger's website or forum then there are chances that you will not be approved.
Why?
Because many bloggers do not like to link to a Blogspot blog. So, if you are not able to build backlinks for your website, you will not able to rank your site higher in search engines.
Thus, failure in creating backlinks for your blog will hurt your blog in terms of ranking in Google Search results page.
One more reason for not using a free domain on a platform like Blogger.com or WordPress.com is that all your blog content will be owned by the hosting platform, not you.
I think the above reasons are sufficient for you to avoid these platforms for free domains. I will advise you to go for Top Level Domain (TLD) like .com or .org.
You can purchase these domains for about $5 - $10 per year from a domain registrar like Namecheap or Godaddy . You can also get domain name for free if you buy hosting from DreamHost.
3. Using Free Themes
One of the big mistakes that most new amateur bloggers do is to use free themes in their blogs. These free themes are available on WordPress.org and many other online websites.
One may save some money on the premium themes but free themes also comes with its own disadvantages.
Free themes disadvantages
- You cannot customize it easily as per your requirement. You need to have a knowledge of theme development or you would have to hire a web developer to customize it.
- Free themes are not updated frequently that makes it vulnerable to security threat such as hacking or malware insertion in your blog.
- They also doesn't contain features as provided by premium themes.
- You won't get priority support from the theme developer.
Premium themes advantages
- These themes can be customized as per requirement.
- Premium themes are regularly updated by its developer to fix bugs and to add new features. They are also less prone to hacking or other security threats.
- Premium themes are SEO-friendly and are optimized for speed. They are responsive and display equally well on devices like desktop computers, tablets and mobiles.
- Premium themes buyers are well supported by its developer. They have well written documentation and also provide dedicared customer support.
So, ,now you know how essential a premium theme is for your blog.
There are many popular premium themes available online.
Below I am recommending two of my favorite themes which I have used on my blogs. On this blog, I am using GeneratePress Premium theme.
- GeneratePress - It is a very popular theme. It is very lightweight, mobile responsive, SEO optimized and very customizable. You can use it on an unlimited number of website with a single license.
- Astra Pro - It is one of the fastest-growing themes. In terms of features, it is also very similar to GeneratePress. You can also use this theme on an unlimited number of website with a single license.
You can use any of the above two themes for your blog. Both these themes are very simple to use and customize. Also, if you are looking to start an affiliate blog then you would happy to know that these themes are the number one choice among bloggers running affiliate websites.
4. Writing Without Any Clear Content Strategy
While writing for your blog you must have a clear content strategy for your targeted audience.
You must always write keeping in mind your blog niche and your targeted audience.
Also, you must ask yourself a question, where do I see my blog to grow after six months or 2 years or even 10 years.
When you prepare a clear content strategy with defined goals for short-term as well as long-term, then it becomes easier for you to prepare an action plan.
When your action plan is ready it becomes very easy to manage a blog. Post such content that provides value to your readers.
Your content must identify the problems of your audience and provide solutions to their problems.
By providing a solution to the problem, you build your reader's trust.
5. Not Publishing Enough Content
Keep your blog updated with fresh content.
If returning visitors doesn't see any new content on your site then is a possibility that they won't come back to your site again.
With fresh content, it's become easier to convert your first-time visitors into returning visitors.
Always try to post two to three posts per week. If it's not possible, try to post at least one post per week. In this way, you keep providing your users with new and valuable content.
6. Only Using Text In Blog Contents
Many new amateur bloggers failed to recognize the importance of adding images, infographics, or videos to their blogs either due to ignorance or maybe they think that it is time-consuming.
But they don't realize how important these are for your blog and its readers.
A blog can become hugely popular if it can produce engaging content consistently for your visitors.
A text-only blog post failed to build readers' engagement. A visitor to your blog post will not read your full post if it does not contain any engaging visuals or videos. They will find your article boring and leave without reading the full article. This will lead to an increase in your blog's bounce rate.
A blog with a very high bounce rate is penalized by Google by lowering its ranking in Google Search result page.
So, always try to add some images or infographics or even videos if possible, to your blog content.
There are some free online websites from where you can get free pictures for your blog. Some of these are-
- Pixabay - It contains over 1 million+ high quality free stock images and videos.
- Pexels - It provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Pexels license.
You can easily add infographics also in your blog. It is a visual representation of information or data which keeps your readers engaged. If you are wondering about how to create an infographic, don't worry. You can easily create one at Canva.com or Visme.com.
Thus, if you have not added any images or infographics or videos, try adding them in your existing post as well as in your future post.
You will see a remarkable improvement in your readers' engagement which in turn will help you in reducing your bounce rate and also your ranking in Google Search result page.
You can see that in the article also I have included an infographic highlighting important the blogging mistakes.
It helps a reader to quickly analyze what topics this article is going to talk about.
7. Making Grammar and Spelling Mistakes in Blog Contents
Many new bloggers from the non-English speaking country start their blog in the English language.
By doing so these amateur bloggers tend to make many grammatical, punctuation or spelling mistakes in their blog contents.
Having too many such mistakes causes poor user experience to your blog readers which reduces blog engagement.
Let me warn you here that poor user experience may result in drop in ranking of your site in search results.
So it is very important to remove such mistakes from the blog content by using online tools like grammar checker, punctuation checker and others.
But how to do it?
There are many online tools available that can help you to remove grammatical, punctuation, or spelling mistakes.
One such tool is Grammarly. You can download chrome extension of Grammarly and start using it to improve your blog content in English.
Grammarly allows you to do the following-
- Correct your spelling mistakes,
- Correct grammatical mistakes,
- Make your long sentence concise and
- Help you in improving the choice of words
So, start using Grammarly to improve your blog content.
Now let's see another biggest mistake that almost every amateur blogger makes when they have just started their blogging career.
8. Not Using Social Share Buttons
Social sharing buttons are a great way to allow your visitors to share your post among their friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WhatsApp, or Snapchat.
As an amateur blogger you may feel that writing a long 2000 words content is enough to rank your article higher on Google. But one thing you should keep in mind is that Google loves social signals. So, if visitors of your blog start sharing your content on social media platform then it will help in ranking your content higher on Google.
Also, when your blog content is shared on different social media websites you get additional traffic to your blog from these sites.
If you're are not using social sharing buttons in your blog you are not allowing your readers who liked your blog content to share it among their friends. It is a great injustice to your time and effort in writing a great blog post.
It's very easy to add social sharing buttons in all your blog posts within a few minutes.
Just download Social Snap plugin from their official website and activate it in your WordPress Dashboard. That's it, now your blog post is ready to be shared.
What's more, this plugin also allows you to get more followers for your site on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
One more thing. Google likes social signals. A website that has more social signals tends to ranks higher in the search results than their competitors.
If your blog posts are getting shared by your readers in a good number on different social media platforms your blog is most likely to move ahead in ranking against your competitors in Google Search.
Also, read our review on Social Snap.
Wrapping Up
In this article, I have tried to explain some common and biggest blogging mistakes made by amateur blogger and how to avoid them.
I hope that this post will help you in identifying any mistakes you are making in your blog.
Avoid these mistakes and you are good to scale your blog to a new height and make it a grand success.
If you are going to start a blog then this guide will help you in avoiding these mistakes.
It may happen that some mistakes have been missed by me. If you know any mistakes that need attention please comment below. I will try to add it to this post.
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