Hello Blogger! 

You should know by now just how important blogs are to business and brand success. 

With 77% of internet users reading blogs and 70% of consumers with a preference for discovering brands through articles rather than traditional advertising, blogging can be a valuable tool for generating, nurturing, and converting leads.  

While it may seem like you grasp everything, it is possible to make some mistakes that can harm your brand and hinder you from getting the results you hope for in your blogging journey.

Can a blogger avoid making these mistakes that may impede growth?

Oh yes, but it begins with knowing the mistakes to begin with. This article will explore 5 common mistakes to avoid to stay on top of your blogging game.

1. Writing about anything— and everything

Unless your brand simultaneously offers a wide range of services like digital marketing, cleaning, and IT while selling diverse products like dog food, deck materials, and surfboards, there is no reason why your blog should be about anything and everything. 

You may be tempted to cast a wide net to catch as many leads as possible. However, this can be a counterproductive strategy that can harm your brand’s reputation. 

Your best bet?

Carve out your niche and dominate in it. 

You can never go wrong with having a defined focus for your blog page. Sticking to a niche for your blog is not boring. In fact, it is essential for a number of reasons:

• It sets you apart as an authority in that niche.
• It attracts a more defined target audience.
• It gives your audience clarity.
• It sets your brand apart from the bunch.
• It boosts your SEO rankings.

2. Adopting an ‘Anything Goes’ approach

Unlike all the other pages on your website, a blog page allows you to update your website content regularly. Chances are, you may become so used to creating content that you go from creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience to producing half-baked content to keep up with the consistency.

One of the worst blogging mistakes you can make is to adopt an ‘Anything Goes’ approach and compromise on the quality of blog articles you publish. If you do this long enough, your blog may start losing traction on the grounds of mediocrity.

Here are some tips for avoiding this mistake:

• Properly research your target audience—learn their pain points, needs, interests, and goals.
• Write content with your audience in mind.
• Don’t choose vague topics.
• Always answer the question, ‘What is the derivable value from this piece of content?’
• Strive to grab your reader’s attention and hold it.
• Write the way you speak.
• Edit and proofread thoroughly. 

3. Writing like a robot 

Look around, and you’ll see lots and lots of them—brands with blogs that sound like they were written by robots with no personality to other robots, without real problems and needs. If you are guilty of this, you are making a mistake that can cost you.

One of the ideas behind creating a blog and consistently putting out articles is to humanize your brand and showcase more personality, and you’ll not achieve this if you write like a robot.

Your audience comprises humans with real problems, desiring to gain insight and find lasting solutions. The last thing they want to do is read just another blog article by another brand that doesn’t care enough to empathize with their circumstances.

Do you infuse empathy into your writing? 

Do you research your target audience to understand their pain points?

Do you write like you’d talk to your audience if they were with you in person?

If your answer to these three questions is no, you should take a step back and review your blog writing approach because it is likely flawed.

4. SEO mistakes

Blogging is a vital part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and for good reason. A blog page provides an excellent opportunity to use keywords and present your brand as an authority, attracting search engines to showcase your valuable content to the right audience. 

It is not uncommon for brands to not optimize their content for search engines like Google. Not doing so can cost you a significant amount of prospective traffic. 

Some common SEO mistakes to avoid include:

• Keyword stuffing.
• Failing to link—internally and externally— to relevant content.
• Linking to questionable websites.
• Compromising content quality.
• Not conducting keyword research.

Now you know some of the mistakes, here are some tips to help you write SEO-inclined content and improve your search engine rankings:  

• Conduct thorough keyword research.
• Study your target audience and write content they would find valuable.
• Optimize the right keywords in your content.
• Incorporate internal and external links into your blog content.
• Use subheadings, descriptions, and tags that include your target keywords. 

The better your SEO, the greater your chances of climbing the search engine ranks.

5. Not developing and sticking to a brand voice.

Whether you know it or not, every brand needs a voice. A brand voice is what sets you apart. Otherwise, you’ll sound like nobody and everybody. Without one, your brand will struggle to build a loyal base of paying customers while recording low customer acquisition, retention, and business growth.

The last thing you want is to build your blog page without first developing a brand voice your audience can recognize. You also don’t want to develop a brand voice and not stick to it. Instead, you want to create a detailed style guide that reflects your brand voice, personality, and image. This guide will serve as a reference for copywriters who produce content for your blog page.

Blogging without mistakes 

Blogging, when done right, has massive potential for your business and brand growth. If you make any of these mistakes, now is a perfect time to return to your drawing board and make the necessary adjustments. Plus, if you need help creating a blogging strategy and writing carefully researched blog articles, we at The Fourth Writers are available to help. We combine our years of copywriting experience to help brands like yours reach their leads and target audiences through blog articles that resonate and convert.

To get in touch, book a free consultation with us here.