Roman Kniahynyckyj — June 13, 2017 As your one of your greatest marketing assets, your blog can showcase your deep scope of industry knowledge and give readers a glimpse of your brand’s unique personality – all while driving tons of traffic to your website. All this applies, of course, only if your blog is done right, which means it’s totally free of the top 10 blog mistakes we consistently see.
Just because some of these mistakes may seem tiny doesn’t mean they don’t have a grand impact when it comes to nosediving the effectiveness of your blog.
Misspellings and grammatical errors. It’s tough for folks to believe you’re an industry leader who really knows his or her stuff if your blog posts are filled with all kinds of misspellings and grammatical mistakes. Like using “they’re” when you meant “their” or “there.” Or going for “than” instead of “then,” “it’s” instead of “its,” “to” instead of “too.” Have several people proof the post before it’s published.
Content makes little sense. Although blogs can be somewhat laid back and casual in tone, that doesn’t mean they should contain random stream-of-conscious writing that really has no point. Treat your blog posts like mini-articles, basing them on a solid outline and ensuring they provide something of value to your reader. Focus on your company and your industry.
Crummy title. Even if it’s grammatically correct and contains no misspelled words, your title can still stink if it doesn’t make people want to read it. Draw in readers with enticing titles they simply can’t resist, making sure the title is short, to the point and relevant to the content. You can’t get them to read your content without that initial click.
No internal links. Each blog post gives you multiple opportunities to get readers interested in different areas of your website through internal links. For goodness sake, use them! Link to other blog posts you’ve written that touch on something you’re discussing. Send them over to products relevant to a solution you’re discussing.
Too many external links. One of the main aims of a blog is to drive traffic to your site. If you add a gazillion links to outside sources, you’re pretty much doing the exact opposite. One or two credible external links is OK, but tons of them attached to non-credible or even creepy sources are not doing you any good.
Way too long. You’re writing a mini-article – not a thesis. People typically visit blogs for fairly short bursts of useful, compelling information. Not a 10,000-word tome. Keeping your blog entries around 600 words is a good rule to follow, although some may be a shade longer or shorter, depending on the topic.
Hard on the eyes. Remember the short bursts of info people are seeking? They are best found with short paragraphs, headers, bullet points and other formatting elements that make the content easy to scan and digest. Give readers a single 500-word block of text and you’re giving them a very good reason to flee.
No image. This fix is easy. Simply include a single image that’s relevant to your content. The more creative and eye-catching, the better. Also, include an image alt text related to one of your keywords and credit to the original source if needed.
No CTA. If readers enjoy reading your blog, then they are likely to want to read or learn more about your company. Make it easy for them to do so with a call-to-action that outlines a next step.
No social media sharing icons. You also want to make it as easy as possible for readers to share the amazing blog they just read with the rest of the world. Most content management systems have a way to easily add social media sharing icons to your blog, automatically including them with every single post.
One more tip is to blog regularly and consistently. The rule of thumb here is at least twice per week. And if you ensure those posts avoid all 10 of these top mistakes, you may reap all the great benefits a successful blog are designed to bring.
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