10 Ways You’re Jeopardizing Your Blog (And How to Fix Them) from We Blog Better

10 Ways You’re Jeopardizing Your Blog (And How to Fix Them)

Posted: 23 Dec 2013 09:00 PM PST

You've made it! You have that blog you've been enthusiastically promising for weeks. You're posting, ranting and raving about your favorite music, your marathon training or the latest in fashion.

But if you aren't seeing the results you want from your blog – whether they be user engagement, shares on social sites or simply more page views, you're likely jeopardizing your blog in some way.

Here are 10 ways you might be impeding the success of your blog and how to fix them:

1. You're Not Tagging and Categorizing Posts

Depending on where your blog is hosted and what you're writing about, one of the most important (and, as it were, simplest) things you can do is tag and categorize your posts accordingly. Writing that horror movie review? Tag it with all the relevant information, like the name of the movie, the actors and the director—really any proper nouns that you reference. Beyond this, make sure you have a category infrastructure set up so that you can file it away under its appropriate topic. You'd be surprised at how many WordPress users scour like-minded blogs to follow, favorite and comment on.

2. You're Not Tagging Pictures Relevantly

Unless you're writing a journal circa 1995, your online soapbox almost definitely contains its fair share of pictures. And if you're just slapping a JPEG into your body copy without any further thought, then you're missing a huge opportunity to show up in Google searches. Name your files something related to your blog, and add some alt text to the same effect. Google scrapes data from photos for its image search results and this acts as another source for traffic.

3. You Forget to Share the Love

Similarly to what we mentioned before about developing a community with fellow bloggers, commenting on other writers' posts is a great way to get your name out there. Not only can you link to your blog posts right on other blogs, but you might even develop a relationship with that blogger so that they post about your writing down the road. Share the wealth.

4. You Aren't Using Facebook to Its Greatest Potential

This one is a bit more on the obvious side, but it bears stating nonetheless. Make sure you throw a Facebook status up every now and again linking to your blog or recent posts. It's a simple way to drive more traffic—bonus points for creating an actual fan page for your blog.

5. You're Ignoring Twitter Hashtags

We put Twitter on this list separately from Facebook because it's really a different animal entirely. Twitter is meant for much faster, by-the-moment posts so it's a great place to plug your quicker blog articles. But take it a step further and monitor hashtags. See something trending that's interesting to you? Link to a related blog using a hashtag-enforced tweet. Ahhh, the power of social media!

6. You Don't Post Regularly

One of the worst things you can do, especially as a new blogger, is neglect your posting schedule. As with anything in this day and age, quick, repeated content is how you gain success and readership. And there's no kiss of death more final than posting twice and then staying silent for months. Any loyal readers you had will likely stop coming back for more.

7. You Don't Provide Useful Content

In the world of mommy bloggers, it's easy to get stuck in the "I'm going to write a blog every day that simply describes how my day was" thing. This is easy to do and is probably cathartic for you. But step back and think: Is a glorified, multi-paragraph Facebook status really that valuable to readers? In order to bring readers back, make sure you're offering them a solid reason. Offer useful tips, lists or quirks, then you'll find your niche.

8. Your Content is Too Generalized

It's important to create content on your blog that is rich, but also topic specific. It's okay to have categories of differing subjects, but the posts within those categories should be directly related to the tab under which they're included. Nothing turns readers away faster than a Christmas cookie recipe tagged under "Business." You should either create posts specific to your categories, or only focus your blog on one subject.

Niche blogs are really "in" right now, so create one about your hobby or the overarching purpose of your business. For example, D&P malpractice lawyers, use their blog to focus on the sole subject of malpractice lawsuits. If they can make a blog about that, you can make a blog about any topic you want.

9. You Don't Include Videos

If there's one trending form of media right now it's video. YouTube has climbed into the ranks as one of the big three social platforms, and for good reason: people love watching videos online. So a great way to engage on your blog and keep people coming back is to embed rich video content that relates to your posts. And better yet, you could even film your own webcam videos to create live blogs.

10. You Don't Offer Opportunities for Engagement

For many, the single most important thing you can do with your blog is open the door for engagement. After all, the blog is just as much for you as it is for your readers. So don't just conclude it with more musings about yourself. Encourage engagements. Literally direct users to comment on the post and give their take on the subject you wrote about. You'll find that it not only increases readership, but it attracts loyal, return readers.

While it can be easy to fall into any of these jeopardizing habits, actively addressing them can easily help you advance the success of your blog.

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