Blogging is an investment for your business, and we’re here to make sure you’re getting the most out of that investment. Keep reading as we dive into what blogging mistakes to avoid, so you can get the best ROI possible.
Mistakes happen. We get it. But if you’re investing your time into maintaining a blog for your business, you want to get the most out of it. That’s why we put together this list of the top 5 blogging mistakes to avoid.
1. Posting Infrequently
We’re not saying you have to post a new, thought-provoking blog every week. Who has time for that, anyways? Certainly not us. We have websites to build, after all! That being said, one of the main ingredients to a successful blog is to create a blogging calendar and stick to it.
Your blog should establish your business or organization as an expert in your industry. If someone visits your blog only to see that you haven’t posted in three months, you won’t look like an expert or build trust. More likely, your business will look like it can’t follow through with what it starts, and no one wants that.
Blogging on a regular, consistent basis has other benefits too. It shows search engines like Google that your business has a lot to talk about. That means they’ll send bots to crawl your site more often, which can significantly impact your SEO ranking.
2. Choosing Irrelevant Topics
The main point of a blog should be to answer your customer’s questions before they even have to ask. But many businesses make this big blogging mistake by choosing topics that are interesting to them, thinking they’ll automatically be relevant to their customers too. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
If you’re not sure what questions your customers are asking, get with your team to find out. Ask your sales or customer service teams to learn what your customers need to know when they visit your website. Then, use your industry knowledge and insights to turn those questions into blogs. It really is that simple!
3. Selling Yourself Too Much
There’s a time and place for everything. While mentioning services and products in your blogs is fine, it should only be when it’s relevant to your overall blog topic. The blog’s topic should never be a sales pitch for your business. Remember, a blog should answer your customers’ questions. Odds are, your sales pitch already lives somewhere else on your website. There’s no need to reiterate it on your blog.
If your blog establishes your business as an industry expert, potential customers will already be on your site to get that information. When you build trust and credibility with that audience, they’ll know where to find you when they’re ready to make a purchase.
4. Ignoring SEO Best Practices
Your blog should always be written with your customers in mind. But that doesn’t mean you can just ignore what search engines are looking for on your blog. After all, how will your customers find your website to read all these great blogs if it’s not showing up in the search results?
Luckily, you can do a few simple things to avoid this critical blogging mistake. Start off with a relevant keyword. You’ll want to do your research and incorporate it into your blog as much as possible, but beware of “keyword stuffing.” You’ll also want to make sure that your URL and blog titles are all optimized, making it easier for Google to understand the purpose of your blog.
5. Not Repurposing Content
Even the most experienced marketers are guilty of this blogging mistake. When you produce vast amounts of content regularly, it’s easy to forget what’s floating around out there. But you’re just wasting time and money if you’re not repurposing content for your blog. Did the sales team put together a presentation for a client? See what you can salvage and spin into a new blog. Not only are you saving yourself from scrambling to come up with a new topic, but you’ll also have a ready-made blog topic that you know is relevant to your audience.
Repurposing content goes both ways too. Don’t let a blog sit on your website and die. Promote it on social media or share it in your newsletter. Get as much use out of all that hard work you did. You can even repurpose blog content for your blog. Revisit blogs that have historically performed well to make sure the information is still relevant and up-to-date. If a blog is beyond saving, rewrite it with current information and insights before reposting it to your blog.
No More Blogging Mistakes
Blogging is a great way to tell your audience and search engines that your brand is trustworthy, but only if you’re doing it the right way. By avoiding these common blogging mistakes, you’re well on your way to having a successful blog that speaks volumes about your brand’s credibility and expertise. Your readers will see you as a reliable source of valuable insights, and search engines should reward you with higher visibility. Win-win, right?
Still not confident in your ability to write compelling blog articles? Let’s grab a cup of coffee and talk about it.
