20 blogging mistakes to avoid
If you’re currently blogging or thinking about blogging for your business, that’s fantastic! Blogging is truly one of the best ways to attract customers/clients for your business. BUT, there are plenty of blogging mistakes you can make that have a negative affect on your results. In order to avoid them, you need to know what they are. This is why this blog covers 20 of the most common blogging mistakes to avoid. Keep reading!
1. Making your intros too long
While a great blog intro can pull your reader in and make them excited about what they're going to read next, the reality is that a long intro that drags on endlessly can turn people off. After all, if they used Google search to find your article, they're probably on a mission to find specific information on a topic and want you to get to the point, and fast. So, to prevent readers from leaving your page to another resource, don’t make your blog intros too long!
2. Not doing keyword research
One of the main benefits of blogging is that it helps you attract visitors who are looking for information that you're an expert in. And keyword research can help you figure out what your audience is searching for. It can guide your content strategy and help your posts rank on search engines.
While this doesn’t necessarily mean that every single blog post of yours has to target a specific keyword, avoiding keyword research entirely is a big mistake. Because if you don't know what your audience is looking for, you miss out on valuable traffic. So, spend some time researching relevant keywords before you start writing to make your content more targeted and attract the right readers.
3. Keyword stuffing
Maybe you have a fantastic keyword strategy. But are you cramming too many keywords into your content? This can make your blogs hard to read and feel very unnatural. And search engines like Google are smart. They can tell when you’re stuffing keywords and might penalize you for it, which hurts your rankings. So, instead of stuffing keywords, focus on writing naturally and incorporating keywords where they fit seamlessly. And if you need more help with this, check out this blog post on keyword placement for SEO.
4. Not writing long form content
Long form blogs are one of the best ways to rank for the keywords you are targeting. According to HubSpot data, this is going to be around 2,100-2,400 words for each blog post. We know what you’re thinking — that’s a lot of words! The good news is that there are plenty of tools to help you write faster these days, like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and various voice typing tools. Try those out and you’ll see that long form content doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds!
5. Including fluff to fill a word count goal
Listen, readers can spot unnecessary filler very easily. And it turns them off! So, if you have a word count goal that you’re not able to make with high quality content, you’re better off with a shorter, good blog, than a longer one of worse quality. Or better yet, take some time to research subtopics you can include in your blog to increase the word count and cover the main topic fully. While, of course, this can be very time consuming, the reality is that quality is going to beat subpar quantity every single time.
6. Ignoring E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is one of the ways Google determines the quality and credibility of your content and can be a large factor in the success of your blog. After all, Google wants to push the highest quality, trustworthy content to its users. Not showing your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness throughout your website and blog content is a huge mistake. To learn more about how to demonstrate E-E-A-T, check out this blog from Search Engine Journal.
7. Not breaking up text
Large chunks of text can be overwhelming and hard to read for your website visitors. So, make sure you break up your text properly. Use shorter paragraphs, bullet points, and headers to make your content more digestible (and skimmable). This helps keep your readers engaged and find the information they’re looking for. Since many people online skim content, making it easy for them to do that can make your readers stick around longer and even check out more of your content if they like your style.
8. Not adding internal links
Interlinking the content on your site helps search engines understand your site structure, determine page importance, and improve your rankings in Google. They also help you connect with your readers and show them other pages on your site. So, make it a habit to link to related posts and pages throughout your blogs, as this is a simple but SEO strategy.
9. Not adding external links
Remember when we talked about the importance of demonstrating E-E-A-T? Well, linking to reputable sources throughout your content can help you do this. Doing this improves your content’s trustworthiness and is simply a best practice of SEO. It also shows your readers that you’ve done your research and can back up your claims with reliable information. Without external links, your content might seem less informed and less credible. So, include links to authoritative sources to support your points!
10. Spelling/grammar mistakes
While writing in a conversational way is often more important than having 100% perfect grammar (at least in blogging, not if you’re writing a research paper), the reality is that having a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes throughout your content can be a huge turnoff to your readers. It makes your blog look unprofessional, disrupts the flow of your content, and makes it harder to read. Plus, mistakes can hurt your credibility—why should readers trust your information if it’s full of errors? Take the time to proofread your posts or use tools like Grammarly to catch mistakes.
11. Not using CTAs
Call to actions (CTAs) guide your readers on what to do next after reading your blog, whether it’s subscribing to your newsletter, purchasing a product, or checking out another, related blog. Without them, you risk more of your readers leaving your site without taking any action, missing out on deeper engagement.
Including a CTA can be really simple. It’s often just one or two sentences in a blog! So, never let your readers leave without knowing the next step, and make sure you are including CTAs in every one of your posts.
12. Not knowing who you’re writing for
If you don’t understand your audience, you can’t write content that will engage, inform, and help them. It’s as simple as that. Your intended audience has specific interests, needs, and problems they want solutions for. So, make sure you’re taking the time to research and understand them.
What are their pain points? What do they want? Always ask yourself these questions before you write your posts so you can create relevant, valuable posts that keep readers coming back for more.
13. Not including your own experiences/case studies
Personal stories and case studies make your content more credible. They show your readers you’ve walked the walk, not just talked the talk.
They also make your content more unique, and in a blogging world where whatever topic you want to write has probably been done before in at least some capacity, this is important.
So, if you have stories or case studies that are relevant to a particular topic, use them in your content!
14. Not updating your content
Over time, information can become outdated, making your posts less accurate and valuable. So, making sure that you’re going back to update any outdated points (or links) is an important part of creating good, trustworthy content.
Updating your older blogs that may have not done so well trafficwise with different keywords can also give new life to these posts and even drive more traffic to your blog. It’s also a lot easier to update older content than create brand new content.
So, are you updating your content? If not, you need to start.
15. Not promoting your blog on other platforms
Organic traffic is very powerful, but if you only rely on organic traffic, you may be missing out on a bigger audience. Share your posts on social media, your email list, Pinterest, or anywhere else you have or are building an audience. Doing this can also help you connect with people who are not actively searching for the topics your blog covers, but can benefit from them. So, don’t let your hard work go unnoticed and start promoting your blog wherever you can.
16. Not including any images
Images can make your content more engaging as they break up text, illustrate your points in a different way, and can make your message clearer. Adding images can also improve your SEO and give you opportunities to gain more traffic through image search. So, make sure you are including relevant images when you can!
17. Ignoring your meta title/meta description
We often focus on what’s on our actual blog page when creating blogs. Something we forget sometimes is what your blog looks like when it shows up in search engine results. This is where the meta title and meta description comes in. These two elements can influence whether someone who sees your blog in search results actually clicks on your link.
Do your meta title and meta description describe the contents of your blog well? Are they enticing? You don’t have to spend forever on these elements, but spending some time making them as inviting as possible can do a lot for the amount of clicks you get to your blog.
18. Using 1-click AI writers
For a brief moment, there were some people who thought 1-click AI writers were going to be the future of blogging. That moment quickly fizzled when people realized that content created by 1-click AI writers just doesn't rank.
Why?
Because, more than anything Google wants to rank GOOD content. Google prioritizes unique, trustworthy, and valuable content—something 1-click AI writers can’t deliver.
While using AI isn't bad in itself, these tools often produce content that lacks depth and a human touch. They’re also not always accurate, which can hurt your credibility. However, AI can still be valuable for speeding up your writing process. Use it to generate ideas or outlines, but always fact-check, edit, and ensure your content sounds human.
19. Not covering the topic in full
Readers go to blogs looking for answers to their questions. If your content is incomplete, and doesn’t fully answer their questions, they’ll leave feeling unsatisfied and might never return. So, take the time to fully cover the question your blog is trying to answer. Avoid “thin content”, or content that has little value to your reader, as that can hurt your rankings and user experience.
20. Not promoting your email list on your blog
An email list is a powerful way to build an audience that doesn’t rely on algorithms or platforms that come and go. Email marketing also has one of highest ROIs of all marketing efforts, with an average of $36 earned for every dollar spent. So, if you don’t actively encourage sign-ups on your blogs, you’re missing out!
Final thoughts on these blogging mistakes to avoid
Blogging is one of the most powerful ways to build an audience for your business. But, obviously, there are a lot of mistakes that can be made which affect your ability to reach as many, aligned people as possible. Hopefully, this blog post will help you avoid many of the most common ones. If it has, sign up for my email list where I talk about blogging, SEO, website copywriting, and more! And if you need someone to help you with your blogging efforts, check out my blog writing services!
