From not doing keyword research and writing thin content to building toxic links and promoting my content to the wrong audience, there are probably no blogging mistakes beginners make that I haven’t.
Looking back, I would not have become the successful blogger I am today if I hadn’t made and learned from these mistakes.
Starting a successful blog without experience can be tough. So it makes sense why you may be making blogging mistakes that you shouldn’t be making in the first place.
My goal with this guide isn’t to bash you for doing something wrong in your blogging journey.
I want to help you learn from those mistakes instead, so you can convert your blog from another random website on the web to a moneymaking platform.
I have divided this guide into five sections:
- Mistakes when getting started
- Mistakes on setting up your website
- Mistakes on creating content
- Mistakes on promoting your website and
- Mistakes on growing your blog
I’m sure you’re not making all these mistakes, so it might help to jump to the section where you’re failing the most.
But if you’re not sure which mistake you’re making, I suggest you read the whole thing and take notes if you want to.
Mistakes When Getting Started
If you’re making all or any of these three mistakes when getting started with blogging, I have some suggestions that will help you fix the mistake.
1. Choosing the Wrong Niche
The mistake I see many newbie bloggers make is either choosing the wrong niche or not choosing a niche at all.
Those who don’t pick a niche write anything they like, when they like.
The sites you see covering different topics on the same domain clearly indicate the lack of interest or investment in niche research.
So if you have published an article on “best ergonomic chair” today and tomorrow you plan to schedule another article on “best wallets for men”, you’re doing it wrong.
Why?
Because in the age where topical relevance is important in blogging and ranking, writing anything that comes to your mind isn’t the right approach to building a blogging business.
Then there are those who know what niches are but they end up picking the wrong ones. When their sites fail to grow to their expectations, start to claim that blogging doesn’t work.
Slow down.
Blogging isn’t a scam.
The problem is you’re not investing your time and resources in building the right niche.
What you need to do is learn how to choose a niche. Then, you can look at our list of the most profitable niches to consider.
2. Buying the Wrong Domain
Choosing a domain name isn’t an issue for many newbie bloggers, but there are still a few who still get this wrong.
Some bloggers argue that it doesn’t matter what name you choose provided it makes sense.
There’s some truth in that.
But just because a name makes sense doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for a domain.
To be clear, to need to avoid:
- Long domain names
- Domain names not related to your niche
- Exact match domains (domain with your keywords in it)
Instead, check my guide on how to choose a blog name. Read it to understand the necessary steps to register a brandable domain for your blog.
3. Buying the Wrong Hosting Platform
I can’t count how many times I have had to deal with bad, unreliable web hosting service providers.
This one almost made me quit blogging because my site’s uptime guarantee was no guarantee at all.
After analyzing my blog, I realized that the problem wasn’t my set up but my hosting company. The only option was to upgrade to a better hosting service that kept their words.
So if you’ve made the mistake of choosing a hosting company simply because it’s a cheaper option, you should consider upgrading to a more reliable service such as Kinsta.
Mistakes on Setting up Website
Setting up a website can be a nightmare for beginners, so it’s possible to make the following website setup mistakes.
But don’t worry; I’ll give you a quick fix for each.
4. Picking the Wrong Blogging Platform
This isn’t a common blogging mistake, but some new bloggers make it nonetheless.
Look.
I understand that there are many Content Management Systems out there. And probably you want to use something different from everyone else.
While that total makes sense, some CMS simply won’t do.
I won’t dwell too much on this one.
What I can say for sure is that WordPress is hands down the best CMS in the world.
I’ve been using WordPress for over a decade now. And while there are other options out there, I don’t think there will ever be a better alternative to WordPress.
I recommend you switch to WordPress if you’re using a different platform, especially if your option is giving you a difficult time.
5. Picking the Wrong Theme
Have you ever landed on a site and felt like you’re in the wrong place?
Or maybe you have clicked on a link from Google to a site only to have to wait and wait and wait and wait for the page to load?
It’s a frustrating experience, which I experience all the time.
And the problem is?
Well, it’s WordPress theme.
Beginners pick WordPress themes that look to the eyes. And while user experience is something I personally appreciate, I’m not so patient to wait for a good-looking site to load.
Your audience won’t care how great your site looks. If they click on an item and the theme takes ages to load, they’ll click away from the site and look for information elsewhere.
You don’t want that to happen.
So if you have heavy theme on your website, delete it.
The Thrive Theme Builder is the most lightweight upgrade you should consider. If you’re a minimalist, you can go with Foodie Pro by Studio Press.
If you’re on a budget, GeneratePress is the lightest option to consider.
6. Ignoring User Experience
We’re living in a time where human’s attention span is only two seconds. That means you have very little time to make an impression with your content, or you risk losing your visitor completely.
So if you haven’t invested your time in improving user experience, you’re making a very big mistake.
Fortunately, improving user experience isn’t rocket science.
Start by speeding up your site. Then, work on your Core Web Vitals now that it’s a ranking factor. Finally, check this guide to learn more about improving the user experience of your website.
7. Installing Unnecessary Plugins
WordPress developers build WordPress plugins with a good intention. These software tools help to extend the functionality of your website.
But newbie bloggers tend to install and activate plugins that they don’t even need. And that’s a mistake that costs you your site’s speed.
It’s important to login to your WordPress site and clean up your plugins list. Unless a plugin is doing something useful, you probably shouldn’t be having it in the first place.
Mistakes on Creating Content
Are you making these three content mistakes? You should take a step back and address them if you want your blog to grow into a content hub that people actually visit and read.
8. Not Doing Keyword Research
I appreciate that you have many personal things that you may want to share with the rest of the world.
But you probably are good if you reserve that for YouTube videos instead of a blog.
Why?
Because when people search online, they’re not interested in what you had for breakfast, your relationship status, or your plan for the weekend.
They need answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. It means that if you’re not investing your time in keyword research, your blog will fall flat.
Keyword research is important because it lets you get into the mind of your audience. It makes it easy for you to know what kind of information they’re looking for and why.
If you do keyword research right, you will get ton of content ideas that you would not have otherwise thought about if you chose to write randomly.
This guide to keyword research should point you in the right direction.
9. Not Optimizing Content for Related Keywords
Are you optimizing each of your blog post only around one keyword? If so, you’re doing it all wrong. Every primary keyword has additional secondary keywords that you can include in your article.
The best way to get LSI keywords is to dive deep into keyword research. This will enable you to come up with tons of related keywords that you can add to an article.
Try to find as many related keyword for each article on your blog. Then, optimize each people by sprinkling the keywords, but making sure the content reads naturally.
10. Not Creating Enough Content
Many people in the blogging community say that publishing a lot of content isn’t a good way to grow a blog. And you may have fallen for this trap because you believed it’s true.
But here’s the thing:
If you’re not growing your site’s size, your blog will not grow.
Why?
It’s because search engines care about topical relevance, which you can only build with topic clusters.
Topic clusters lets you build the authority of your site and improve your search visibility on Google. You will also improve your rankings without the need to build hundreds of backlinks.
Mistakes on Promoting Website
Writing blogs posts, sales pages, and product reviews for people to read isn’t enough. You also have to promote your content so people can see it.
However, these website promotion mistakes can as easily cripple your site’s growth.
11. Not Building Links
As far as Google powers a larger part of the web search, links will always count as ranking votes and one of the most important ranking factors.
It means that if you’re not actively building links, your site won’t grow fast.
Don’t panic if you don’t have any idea what link building is. This beginner’s guide to link building will help you get started.
12. Building the Wrong Kind of Links
The worst mistake beginners to blogging make is to build random links. This can really hurt your website and, worse, attract a manual penalty.
The make sure the links you build are relevant to your niche and come from trusted sites.
Say you’re in the “baby safety niche”. It’s safe to get a link from a parenting site. On the other hand, it’s completely wrong to send a link from a gambling site to a parenting site, even if that casino blog has massive authority.
13. Building Links in Bulk
No matter how SEO folks want to coin it, building links in bulk is suicide mission against the blog you’re trying to grow.
The secret to building links is to do so at scale. This means creating a safe link building campaign that lets you build high quality backlinks long-term.
Mistakes on Growing the Blog
Here are two mistakes that blogging beginners make when it comes to growing their blog:
14. Not Building an Email List
It’s important to start building an email list the day your blog starts to get traffic. This will be another traffic channel that you can leverage to communicate with your audience.
15. Giving Up Too Soon
Many people give up on blogging too soon. That’s because they’re not patient enough to build a long-term business online.
Keep in mind that to succeed as a blogger, you need to have the right mindset from the very beginning. You have to be willing to put in the hard work upfront to get a payday later.
Patience pays and consistency is the key to successful blogging.