I started this blog in the spring of 2023, and fumbled my way through. I didn’t know anything about SEO or social media marketing, I just knew that I loved to write! For the first few months, I proceeded to make some of the biggest blogging mistakes that I am just now correcting.
At the time of writing this post, I’m doing a blog audit of Graphite Grind and how it can be improved. Here are some of the biggest blogging mistakes I’m seeing in my old posts…that I couldn’t be caught dead doing now!
Table of Contents
Focusing Too Much On the Theme
*Sigh* We’ve all been there.
This might be the most basic blogging no-no, but somehow I still fell into this trap. My WordPress theme was designed by the lovely people over at 17th Avenue Designs. The themes came with very clear step-by-step guides for how to set up everything, and in my excitement, I hyperfixated on this wayyy too much.
Don’t get me wrong: I love Graphite Grind, and think I’ve created a fantastic experience for my readers. Branding is an important part of any company and should not be skipped. Nevertheless, I am embarrassed to say I spent the first two months or so only on the aesthetics.
At the end of the day, a blog is a place where readers go to get information, and I definitely did not have enough readers to be caring about the theme back then.
Don’t be like me. Focus on writing at least 10 solid and helpful articles in your niche before going all in on the aesthetics.
Not Having a Clear Niche
When people go to your website, they want to see content that’s relevant to them. To be relevant, you have to define your target audience, and therefore a niche. (Is it pronounced ‘nitch’ or ‘neesh’?)
Your niche is the same thing as having a specialty. It’s the intersection between what you’re good at or have experience in, and what your readers want to know.
When I first started, I chose the tagline “Helping you put pen to paper” because I wanted to help people to improve their writing. Kind of silly, since all of my audience are typing on their computers, but it is what it is now.
The biggest problem with this was that I had no real experience writing at the time! I’d never written a book, or helped a client (yet), so how could I give advice on it?
I have since gained experience and pivoted in freelance copywriting, so now the blog covers the writing, marketing, and mindset topics. I help bloggers, coaches, and business owners communicate what they do and create marketing funnels that won’t burn them out energetically.
Picking this slightly broader (though still specific!) niche has allowed me to write more informed and high-quality content, as well as position myself as being slightly different from all the other bloggers online.
Please don’t skip this step! If you do, you’ll end up writing a bunch of irrelevant stuff that not only won’t rank.
Ignoring The Reader
Most people think that a blog is the same thing as a diary or any other social media account where you talk about your life. Although there is plenty of space for personality and brand on a blog, you still need to keep this in check.
Google uses blog content as a way to answer questions for browsers. So ask yourself, is my content solving a problem for my readers? Am I adding value or serving them in some way?
You do not need to sanitize your blog to exclude all aspects of your personality or why you’re passionate about what you do. But you do need to master when to shift the focus from yourself to your readers.
Still confused about how to strike a balance? For me, I think a healthy 80-20 rule can work. So, 80% of a blog post speaks to a reader’s pain points and solves their problem, while 20% may share my personal experience and story about the topic.
Another way of looking at this: for every 5 articles you write, make 4 of them that add direct value to your readers, and 1 of them can be an indulgent fun write or promotion.
Undervaluing SEO Practices
Here’s the big one. When I first started this blog, I did a bunch of research into SEO…or so I thought.
Turns out, I just bought the Yoast Premium plugin and thought that it would magically do the SEO work for me. Wrong! You see, most people don’t understand how Google works. They just ask a question, get the answer, and then move on to the next shiny website or platform.
Once you jump headfirst into the world of websites, copy and content writing, you’re not most people.
Ignoring good SEO practices is by far, one of the biggest blogging mistakes beginners make. And the list of how you can screw this up is quite long…
1. No Meta or Alt Description
The meta description of a blog post is a (roughly) two sentence description of what your post is about. Users will see the meta description underneath your blog post title when they search for your targeted keyword in Google.
Alt descriptions on describe what is happening in the pictures you use for thumbnails, fun graphics, etc. These descriptions are often added to images to make them more accessible for those that are vision impaired, and therefore rely on screen readers and voice assistants to browse the internet.
However, computer bots also use alt descriptions to better understand what is happening in a picture. Your meta and alt descriptions are just another opportunity to use your keyword and improve your SEO score.
By doing this, you to boost the chances of readers seeing your content…which is what we want!
2. No Outbound (or Internal) Links
Remember: that ‘www’ at the start of your URL stands for the World Wide Web. You can’t get anyone on your site if you aren’t willing to be an active participant within that web.
Your site is like a little town in the midst of a huge sprawling forest. No one can get to it if you don’t create paths for them to walk down! In order to do this, you need to be creating links to your site…like everywhere. Some easy places to start are:
- Link to and from your social media profiles (Pinterest, Facebook bio, LinkedIn, X, etc.)
- Join Facebook groups with others in your niche where you can share your content
- Create outbound links to other reputable and relevant websites
You get the gist. A lack of outbound or internal links is kind of a symptom of the first problem mentioned (ignoring the reader). Although this is your site and your content, you still need to connect it to other relevant websites and informational content.
By doing this, you will create more well-rounded articles and boost the overall quality of your work.
3. Poor Formatting
You can’t just make the paragraph heading H5 because it’s a prettier font on your website (I’m sorry). For the Google bots to better crawl your website, you have to stick to conventions here. That means that the main title is H1, topics within the post are H2, and subtopics are H3.
Another example of bad formatting is writing large blocks of chunky text. No one wants to read through a huge wall of text, no one!
It doesn’t make your blog “look more official” or help it look longer. If you don’t believe me, check out any major news publication like CNN or The New York Times. Notice how the paragraphs are no more than 2-3 sentence, max?
When writing online content, if you want to keep your reader’s attention and optimize for mobile phones, a paragraph should never be longer than 3 or so sentences.
4. Choosing Difficult (Or Irrelevant) Keywords
Using your keyword throughout the blog post is critical to helping others find your content. Still, it has to be a keyword that people are actually searching for!
One of the biggest blogging mistakes I made when starting this website is choosing super hard words to compete for. Unless your content strategy is to never be found, don’t do this.
If you need a little more support with the whole SEO keyword research, download my free Google Sheets Template. It has everything you need to improve your SEO strategy, with less of the confusion and more action.
You can also read my post on the best keyword planner for more guidance on this topic.
5. Not Using Google Search Console!
You’ve probably heard of Google Analytics, but have you heard of Google Search Console? Yeah, me neither.
It’s a completely separate app designed to help you measure your ranking in Google’s index and overall site performance. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why this is crucial. (Why, oh why, didn’t I start using this a year ago?!)
Google Search Console is completely free. All you have to do is submit your domain or url name. After a few minutes, you should be directed to a dashboard where you can track your average rank in Google results, how often people view your site, and click through rates.
I’m still learning about the platform, but once I get more data back, I will definitely be writing a guide for beginners!
Lacking Consistency
Alright, so we’ve covered all the ways I missed the mark on SEO. What else could be left? I’ve saved the best for last.
Not staying consistent with my blogging has got to be the biggest blogging mistake I ever made. I spent good money on a domain name, premium web hosting, even this theme! They say that tying your money to something will make you more accountable, but I guess I’m just built different.
After all the research, attempts, and lack of results, I suffered a bad case of burnout and blog overwhelm last year. I left this website to rot, completely forgetting why I started in the first place.
Consistency is key. Staying persistent through this blogging journey is almost more important than the actual blogging itself.
By not staying consistent, I prolonged the timeline it would take me to grow my website traffic. I lost belief in myself and my own abilities. And I also lost a pretty penny.
One of the ways I fixed this situation was by creating a content strategy that made sense for my niche. If you haven’t already, check out my free Keyword Planner template. I don’t recommend things I don’t use, and this template definitely took me from confused to organized in a matter of an hour.
In Summary
Starting a blog is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure!
It takes a lot of dedication and growth mindset. If you have no previous history in web development or content writing, the vertical learning curve is going to be steep (like almost 90 degrees steep).
That doesn’t mean that you can’t do it, though! I still think that starting a blog is one of the best things I ever did for my career and overall fulfillment. So far, this is the most fun I’ve had on the internet since I was a child with nowhere to be or bills to pay.
Did any of these classic beginner blogging mistakes resonate with you? Drop a comment down below and let me know which you struggled with your first year of blogging!
As always, follow me on Pinterest, subscribe to the newsletter, and stay tuned!
Happy Writing.
