How pleased are you with your blog right now?
If you’ve been looking after it, you’ve been posting new content regularly and you like the look and feel of it, it’s likely that that question will lead to a favourable response.
Our blogs are a bit like friends; they work with us, help us out promoting our business, and open the door to new connections and conversations with like-minded people online.
So, if I said that there are probably ten reasons right now why your blog isn’t that great, would you believe me?
Read on!
#1 – Your blog is speaking a foreign language
When it comes to SEO, there’s a critical rule of thumb for keywords that gets the search engines noticing your blog.
If you don’t know what keywords your customers are using to find you, and your blog isn’t using them too in your content, you may as well be trying to speak Swahili to a UK Yorkshire customer.
Make sure you match your content to the words your clients are using.
Related Post: Perfect Your SEO Habits
#2 – Your blog is being totally random
Do you have a really clear idea of what keywords you should be using?
If not, all the effort you spend posting up new content could be for nothing. Use Google’s keyword tool to make sure your content is targeted and on track.
#3 – Your blog rambles on like a drunk uncle at a family wedding
If you’re not using those keywords you’ve found often enough, by focussing your writing to pick them up naturally, Google won’t be able to hear you when you shout.
Make sure that your content is geared around these search terms to help get your blog noticed.
#4 – Your blog is repetitive
Having covered off #3, it’s also important to remember that your content needs to be real, informative, original and engaging to keep your customers happy.
It’s no good posting up pages that just repeat the same keyword phrases again and again – make sure that when you write, you’re producing valid, interesting knowledge that will support your clients and keep them coming back for more.
#5 – Your blog collar and cuffs don’t match
A terrible faux pas for any self-respecting blog is posting up headlines and titles that don’t have anything to do with your main keyword and the content of your post.
Make sure that the headings you use reflect the keywords you’re focussing on, as these sections of your post are the ones the search engines value most.
#6 – Your images aren’t being used to their full advantage
When you put a description by your image, it helps search engines read what the image is about.
This is a canny way of getting them to use more of your published content, so use the Alt text option and pop a caption with each graphic you use.
#7 – Your blog is antisocial
If you link to other blogs online, you’ll gain a few benefits.
The main one is that you develop a network of like-minded people to return the favour.
Secondly, search engines like to see you linking to other sites to boost the value of your own.
#8 – Your blog is shallow
When you publish a post, it’s not enough to simply rely on the article itself to get you out there being noticed.
If you forget to populate your blog post meta description, you’re missing out on one of the most valuable SEO tools you have available.
Add keywords to make sure you get the best out of every new article you publish, every time.
#9 – Your blog is shy
If you don’t have URLs that are easy for search engines to categorise and locate, your blog could be accused of hiding away from the limelight.
Use simple, recognisable keywords for the title and URL of each post to make sure you’re helping people to find your latest article easily.
#10 – Your blog is rude
If you have spelling errors, capitals, too many sales pitches, pointless content or any other of the main flaws in your site, your blog will be dismissed by your customers in favour of more polite sites!
Make sure you check all of your posts before you publish, using the ten reminders above, before you push the submit button, to keep your blog being friendly, polite, useful and loved by your clients!
Related Post: What You Should Be Doing Before You Publish Your Next Blog Post
What makes a blog suck, for you?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
Great article, Andrew, I will go back and check my own blog to ensure I’m doing the images, right.
Natalie
Please do and let us know if it makes a difference.
Andrew
Great article with useful tips to consider, Andrew. It is really important to have tips points clear if we want to succeed as a blogger. Not all bloggers check thees point when blogging, that is why many fail in no time.
Juan
I agree…plus they think they will start to earn $thousands within weeks. Unfortunately, they believe the hype. It doesn’t happen and then they give up.
Andrew
One of the things that help me is that focus on one niche alone and be an authority on that niche. I got if from Kim Roach, another thing is, look for the people that is on the same niche as you. It will help you widen your network and will make your blog more famous. Hope that helps to someone 😉
Sanjay,
That is good advice.
Early on in my blogging career, I started blogs that I THOUGHT would make me more income. I just couldn’t keep them going so I gave them up. Now I only concentrate on this one and it has made a huge positive difference to my income.
Andrew
I’m doing more or less everything right and I think that without these permanent Google updates I would have reached my goal for traffic on 2013.
My biggest problem is with the last point as being not a native English speaker WordPress spellcheck sometimes isn’t enough to prevent me from writing like a five years old child. 🙂
Andrea
Perhaps you should get someone to check your work for grammar, etc before publishing? Is that possible?
Andrew
yup this all info are very perfect and publish after really sharp observation.. i agree with your all 10 tips.. thanx for sharing and provide a great knowledge about blogging..
keep it up buddy
My blog sucks me with no search engine rankings and no search traffic. I’ve done a lot to improve my blog rankings, but those are of no use. I’m trying to make Google happy, but I cannot fulfill my desire.
Ajay,
perhaps it is the content or the structure of the contnet. Are you publishing the posts for best SEO?
Andrew
Great List. Maybe you could do another post titled “10 reasons to make your blog great” ?
Great idea, Fredy. I shall add that to the list.
Andrew
Thanks for sharing these reasons and some of the reasons are faced by me in the past but not now.If you don’t follow proper posting frequency then it also a reason for your blog suck.
Hey Andrew,
I too agree with your points if you have blog without reader then no use.Try some different methods bring the attention of other readers will make an good impact about your blog.
Shameem
What different methods do you use that bring the attention of other readers?
What works best for you?
Andrew
Andrew here are my methods which regular i follow
1.Sponsoring for contest
2.Be active to comment first on blogs
3.Join facebook community relevant to my blog
4.Google plus which is trending now make sure to join the valid group and be engage with others.
5.This works a bit more for me simple thing collect some list of blogs it can be newbie blogs too bcoz they always surf a blogging tips etc just check there blogs and give them a friendly advice to promote there blogs they happy to refer you and link back to you
hope you got my point
Shameem
Shameem
Thanks for coming back and sharing your points. Not many do, when I ask…you are unique!
Andrew
Your first point is the very first mistake i made Andrew. I plan to put that in the past now. Probably that is the very reason i don’t have any search engine rankings yet.
Ali
How will you overcome the first mistake i.ee. point one?
Andrew
Target those keywords in my post which readers would generally use to search related topics in Google ???
Ali
And you can use my free (no opt-in) Blog Post SEO guide:
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/pdf/12-Step-Checklist-To-Boost-The-SEO-Of-Your-Blog-Posts.pdf
Andrew
For #10 it might not be true in some cases. There are many blogs that are extremely popular just because the author is rude. People love to return and complain on someone they hate.
Johan,
Not sure you read the actual text under point #10.
Andrew
I have specially checked my blog for all these points! I think I am violating point no 7 to some extent! Thanks for sharing anyways! 🙂
Corinne
Far too many blog owners talk about ‘I’ when in fact it should be much more about ‘you’.
Great point!
Andrew