… and what to do about it!
So, you are passionate about a subject and you want to share your skills on the Internet. Fantastic!
You have set your blog on WordPress and you pour your heart into it. You share your posts on social media, you send your blog’s link in PMs, you refer your blog to almost every new person you meet—and you are positive that all these efforts will get your work noticed.
After much anticipation, the only thing you expect is some decent traffic to your site. Is it too much to ask for? But what if you are going in the wrong direction?
Blogging is fun, as it allows you to express your thoughts and perspective on just about anything. On the other hand, it can get pretty frustrating if the analytics show you little to no traffic to your blog.
It hurts a lot!
But the need here is to tweak your own practices. You need to place your blog under a microscope to diagnose the flaws so that you can come up with effective ways to make it better.
Here we have mentioned 5 most common mistakes that bloggers make along with the guaranteed fixes that will help them fetch traffic to their blog.
Your Headlines Are Boring
No matter how brilliant and well-crafted your content is and how much effort you have put in to create quality content for your readers, if your headline is not tempting enough, all your efforts will go in vain.
You cannot slap random phrases together to make a headline and call it a day. Do some research and come up with an enthralling title which creates a sense of urgency. It should be irresistible to your readers, something so essential or educational or unusual that they cannot afford to not click and read what is mentioned inside.
Studies have shown that you can increase your traffic and conversion rate up to 73% by using compelling headlines for your article. On average, 8 out of 10 people read headline copy; however, only 2 out of 10 will go and read the whole content.
No wonder headlines are considered as a make or break feature of your article. Depending on how you are optimizing the title and what hook words you are using, your headline can attract even the non-readers to click and read through the content.
First impression matters! Your headline is like a first impression of your blog. Make sure your headline invites readers to come and have an info feast.
These are a few tips that will help you write catchy and clickable headlines.
- Always ensure your headline is targeting your intended audience. Use words and phrases they use in their daily conversation.
- Create a headline that gives readers a hope that the article will solve their problem.
- Use numbers. People are more likely to click a headline with numbers in it as it gives them an idea of the length of the blog.
- Utilize unique rationales, give your readers a reason to click and read. A few common rationales you can use are; tips, tricks, strategy, facts, secrets, principles etc.
Here are the examples:
- The Secret to Attract More Visitors to Your Website
- How to Build a Startup from The Scratch with Minimum Investment?
- 10 Logo Design Trends that You Need to Follow in 2019
- A Complete list of Websites to Get Best Royalty-Free Pictures for Your Web Design
Your Writing Style is Not Engaging
Your potential followers are roaming around the web, scanning a few headlines here and skimming a few intros there. Your task as a blogger is to attract and hold the attention of such seekers so that they could stop searching and start reading your content.
But how?
Trust me, if you sound like a teacher and treat every article as a lesson for your visitors, they wouldn’t stay with you for long. Why? Because teachers usually have a dominating tone and people on the internet don’t want to be controlled.
A blog post has to be engaging, not forceful or academic. In your blog posts, you should strive to provide your readers with useful information but in a colloquial style. Even if you write on the most complicated and difficult-to-digest topics, you need to learn to sugarcoat the pill.
Remember, the online world is different from the real world classrooms. Here, people don’t only want to be educated but to be comforted by someone who understands their concerns. If you want them to be with you as your loyal followers, you have to entertain them.
Here are a few points on writing style, you need to consider.
- Address your reader directly by using the word “you” as if you know them personally and having a conversation with them.
- Use the story approach. Insert anecdotes to develop a sense of connection between you and the reader.
- Practice makes perfect! If you have started a blog but have nothing to do with writing, then start deliberate practicing, just like you would practice any other skill.
- Structure your write-up with an enthralling opening, engaging main body and motivational closing.
- Be focused, avoid fluff, write clearly and concisely and create a logical flow so that you can take your readers from one sentence to the next without any interruption.
To be a good blogger, you don’t have to mimic the work of Jane Austen or Earnest Hemmingway. Instead, you need to connect with the audience by providing the content they crave after a long tiring day or during a work break.
You Are Writing Too Much or Too Less
Before starting your blog, you need to decide on a few crucial points- undoubtedly, blog post frequency is the most important among all. If you are a dedicated blogger and your blog is more than just a dear diary for you, you would want to set a frequency for your posts.
Determine a fixed-time and days when you will be posting the new piece. This practice not only helps you come across as a dedicated blogger, but it also lets Google know that this is something serious to consider; eventually, Google will start ranking you on the SERPs.
But this is not as easy as it sounds.
Again you need to set a schedule—thrice a week or twice a week posting is enough rather than spamming your followers’ feed with more than 1 post a day. Focus on creating quality content which cannot be created just like that.
Keep in mind, the web is already bursting with the content coming from left right and center. Therefore, you need to come up with something unique and extraordinary, so that your work can stand out in a sea of the same.
Here is what you need to do to manage the frequency of your blogs.
· Prepare a content calendar on a Word document or Excel Sheet.
· Write down the topics you want to write along with the compelling headline.
· Decide the days of the week you will be publishing your blog on.
· Assign the date to each topic you think you would be able to post on.
This sheet will help you provide a clear path and you will know exactly when you need to start writing the post, till when it will be completed and when you need to post it. This not only keeps you organized but also helps you create quality content and make it live just when it should be.
You are Not Taking Enough Time to Promote Your Content
You have been writing striking headlines, you have maintained a schedule for postings—still, you are getting pitiful traffic to your website. What could be the reason? What’s wrong with it?
Maybe you are not taking enough time to promote your content on the right medium.
So the rule of thumb here is; until you get 10 to 15k subscribers, you should spend more time promoting your content rather than writing it. If you’re spending 8 hours on creating the content, you should spend 16 hours on outreach, social sharing and email marketing.
These are the points you need to pay attention to.
- Create mind-blowing content and make sure it’s too lit to not click and then find better ways to disperse it across various platforms.
- Approach micro-influencers to promote your content on their social media, in favor they might want you to write for them, which is obviously not a biggie if you really have a firm grip on the niche.
- Other than that, you can also go for paid promotions on Facebook or Instagram, but the key here again is quality content.
- You can also market your content by using a credible Email-marketing tool.
If your content is great, you will reap the maximum benefits of paid promotions. Similarly, influencers wouldn’t mind sharing something that they think would provide value to their followers.
4. You Think SEO is Unnecessary
So you have moved heaven and earth to fetch the traffic to your website but to no avail. Is that because of the fault in your stars? No, it’s because of the fault in your blog’s search engine optimization which you have never taken into account.
Content is king, so your paramount goal should be creating quality content. But how would you let Google know that you produce substantial content and it also meets the search engine’s ranking criteria?
Search engine optimization helps you rank your keywords and make your way to the first page of the search engine. If you have little to no knowledge of SEO, start watching tutorials and trusted SEO blogs that will help you understand the basics of search engine optimization. Or if you have enough budget to hire an SEO professional, just go for it.
Here is what you need to do for your blog’s SEO.
· Work on the on-site optimization of your blog.
· Conduct keyword research with the help of Google keyword planner or Ahrefs, you may also find other free tools online that will help in double-checking of your keywords.
· Write guest posts for high authority websites.
· Join forums and discussion sites and let people know what your blog has to offer.
Search engine optimization is a vast subject, and what’s mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. However, once you start researching the basics, you will be able to dig deeper into the topic.
To Sum It Up
Keep in mind, everything seems to be complicated in the beginning, but when you get used to it, you become able to pull it off with minimum efforts. Don’t get disheartened if you don’t see enough traffic on your website at the moment. Instead, try looking for measures that can be taken to make things better for your blog.
From now on, try to implement the points discussed above to your blog. In just a few months, you will start noticing an improvement in the number of visitors coming to your website. Once you start taking care of the quality and all other ranking factors, visitors will keep coming back to you. Not only this but they will promote your work to their own network. And this is how your work will be noticed and acknowledged across the digital sphere.
All in all, produce quality content, write enticing headlines, promote wherever you can, simultaneously make sure that your website’s SEO is on-point. Trust me if you are putting all 4 things into operation correctly, visitors will be rolling into your website.
Again, keep in mind, it’s easier said than done.
You need to be consistent and perseverant with your efforts and should be clear about the fact that it’s not going to happen overnight.
Make traffic generation your ultimate goal and go after it like crazy. Dedicate at least 40 hours a week to your passion. Learn and practice the skills that help you get your blog noticed.
To put it succinctly, if you want to achieve your end goal, you will have to be committed to the course of action. And you will reap the benefits for the rest of your life.
About the Author:
Kulsoom Nouman is a Digital Marketing Expert at Invictus Studio, a custom logo design company in Southlake, Texas. She has been in the digital marketing for the past three years and has a good command of content writing, SEO and digital marketing. She knows the art of converting complex details into simple information that anyone can read and understand.
