6 common blogging mistakes and how to fix them

We all know how useful regular blog posts are for your website.  Your clients love them. Google loves them and as you continue to write, a growing audience will love them too.  They really are worth the effort. But you may be making some very simple mistakes that could lose you readers and prevent your writing from reaching more potential and existing customers.

Copying and pasting

This is the most common mistake of all and it is the one that has the most disastrous effects on your Google ranking. It also has the potential to make you look like a twit, if your readers have seen the original text.  If you copy and paste a blog post, Google will pick up the plagiarism and will rank the original author over and above your site.  You will, in fact, be promoting someone else’s blog. 

Solution: Don’t do it!  You can take inspiration and information from other posts, but make the text your own with over 60% original and unique content.

Click bait and empty promises

Never make promises for your blog that you don’t follow through with.  If you are promising to point out the 6 common mistakes made when blogging, then deliver on that promise!  Do not suggest you’ve got the latest news on Colleen Rooney, if you are really just directing people to your new business services.  It is easy to start with a great idea and then head off down some weird thought train and never deliver on the blog title as advertised.  It could potentially annoy people. After all, if click-bait on other sites irritates you, then it will bother your readers too. 

Solution: Give them exactly what it says on the tin!

Product placement

Passing on vital and interesting news about your industry is always a great blog topic. There are times when giving valid information on new, innovative and exciting products is a perfectly good reason for blogging products. However, when you lazily place a few words around some hyperlinks to items you are trying to sell, you are underestimating the intelligence and the tolerance level of your readership and your potential clients.  Product placement should happen because of a blog, and not the other way round.

Solution: Passing on vital and interesting news about your industry is always a great blog topic. Consider a title like ‘Is this best way to keep your hands warm this winter?’ to product-place gloves or ‘Are you tired of paying too much for a silver cleaner that doesn’t work?” to product place a range of silver cleaners Etc. etc.

Too long

Google ranking loves your long blogs.  The longer it is, the more chance it has of ‘ranking well’ in search options.  This might seem like a good reason to waffle on for longer than you should. Bear in mind that your blog should, for ranking purposes, be more than 600 words, but those words should be interesting and on point. Don’t be afraid of being personal and letting your personality come through (a personal voice usually takes longer to relate and is often easier to read). 

Solution:  Ask a suitable person to read your blog and suggest some edits, explaining to them that you are trying to hit the balance between length and interest. Break up the text and have a nice layout with eye-catching images.

Too short

I know, I know.  Too long can be a mistake, but too short can also bring its own issues. Google ranks the longer blogs well even if the quality of the  ‘content’ is not their priority.  If your blog is too short it won’t hit those ranking targets

Solution:  Make bullet points of all the aspects of your blog topic before you start and write a paragraph on each of the points.  Top and tail that information with a witty introduction and round up paragraph.

Too technical, Acronyms and Insider terms.

Never presume that the reader understands your ‘insider terms’, your acronyms and short-cuts. Too many times a blog will overcomplicate a simple guide to whatever, with a liberal amount of industry specific terms and SSA’s (stupid silly acronyms). 

Solution: If you must use shortcuts and terms that are not in normal use, just pop an explanation in brackets.  An edit from someone not involved in your industry will flag up any use of exclusive and unfamiliar language.

Blogging is easy, blogging is fun and although you may fall foul of the above common errors, there are easy solutions to hone your writing and ensure a wider audience and a further reach for your blogs. Need some help writing your blog see our previous blog – New to Blog Writing? Here is what you need to know.