Are You Destroying Your Own Blog?
The answer might surprise you…
As much as I love WordPress, there are a number of issues with this platform. The biggest challenge I have noticed is that with every update WordPress gets less and less user friendly. Look at the “Block Editor” or the updated algorithm that has messed up the stats of so many content creators.
That’s why it’s easy to make mistakes you may not even know you are making. You may not even be aware that there is something wrong with your blog until you check or someone kindly points it out to you in your comments section.
I wrote a post about blogging mistakes a while back and it was wildly popular. It currently has like 600 likes which is insane. But it does tell me that this is a topic that my readers find helpful or useful and so I thought I would do a more updated version of this post. Especially since the algorithm has changed since that post came out.
Most of these mistakes are not major and are easily fixable so don’t be worried. You just need to double check everything and probably make some small adjustments if you are making any of these blogging mistakes. Here are some ways in which you may be destroying your own blog that you need to be on the lookout for and how you can easily fix these issues:
Check Your Settings!
I can not emphasise this one enough (hence the exclamation mark) because WordPress makes changes every few months and those may effect your settings. For example, I have noticed a number of the people that comment on my posts have profiles that don’t lead to their blog. Some of them lead to an error message, others lead to random pages and some to their older pages/domains.
If you have even a minute, go to your account setting (you will find them on your “Profile” page) and make sure the details under your “Account Information” are correct. In particular, make sure that the “Web Address” section has your actual address/domain on it and not something random.
If you are not sure whether your profile leads to your site or not, go to any comment you have left and click your name. If it leads to your site that’s perfect and if not you need to check your settings. If you are new and haven’t left any comments yet, feel free to comment something below to see if you are directed to the correct site.
It’s important that your site leads back to your page because that’s how other bloggers tend to go over to your page. If you leave a comment on someones site they need to be able to leave a comment on yours. If people can’t find your page because it redirects somewhere else, you will lose a lot of traffic.
Another example is Jetpack for self-hosted sites. If your site is self-hosted and you would like to continue to be a part of the WordPress community please make sure your Jetpack is connected because without it people will not be able to like your posts or comment the same way one can on non-self-hosted sites. This could again make you lose a lot of likes and comments.
These are just two examples, but there are a lot more little settings that could mess you up. Take some time to go through all your settings once every two or three months just to make sure everything is as it should be. It’s important to do this regularly because let’s be honest- WP malfunctions a lot and some of the changes they make are wack.
Misusing Features
One thing that can make or break your blog is how you use your features. WordPress provides content creators with a number of features. Depending on what plan you have chosen, you may have more or less features. Plugins, for example, are only available on some paid plans and not the free one.
However, features like media, tags, categories and publicise are available to everyone regardless of what plan you have chosen to use. These few categories may not seem too important especially if you are a newer blogger but the truth is that they are absolutely vital for your blog.
Let’s take tags and categories, for example. Tags and categories are how your content reaches readers. If you don’t use tags or categories, the WordPress algorithm has no idea who your target audience is and consequently will not push your posts. On the other hand, if you do use tags and categories well, the WordPress algorithm will know exactly who to push your content to and you will get a good amount of traffic from these tags/categories.
Related Post: How To Use Tags Correctly
Being A Bad Commenter
Say what you want about WordPress but this platform has one of the best communities on the internet. The majority of people on here are supportive, friendly, open and kind. I have had so many incredible conversations with lovely people here and I have even been able to make a number of wonderful blogging friends which is something I am always grateful for.
Rubbing people the wrong way or just being generally awful is not going to work well with WordPress the way it does with social media. For the most part, we try to be respectful here and even if we disagree we try to do it in a friendly or at least respectful way.
If you are leaving comments that could be offensive, you are going to isolate yourself from this community which will lead to your blog not growing much. If you are leaving spam-like comments with links or telling people to view your blog or like your posts or something, people are most definitely going to delete your comments or even block you. You’re just going to end up isolating yourself and your blog instead of getting more traffic.
Be mindful of the comments you leave. Try to remember to be respectful and friendly. This is a place for content creators so your comment should be about their content not about your blog.
Related Post: How To Get More Comments On Your Blog
SEO & Algorithm
“SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.”- moz.com
I have written about how vital SEO and the WordPress algorithm are for bloggers looking to grow their site so many times so I won’t bore you by going into all that again. But, did you know that just as your blog posts can be SEO/algorithm friendly they can also be SEO and algorithm unfriendly?
That’s right my friends. The annoyances that are SEO and the WordPress algorithm just got even more annoying. Having posts that are SEO unfriendly or/and algorithm unfriendly can not only decrease your traffic and growth but it can actually damage it. These posts will not only be suppressed from new audiences, it may also cause WordPress to suppress your posts from your loyal followers/readers. It may not show up on their “Reader”, they may not see it on the “Tags” section and more. That’s why it is important to try to make your posts as friendly to the algorithm as possible.
Search Engines may also suppress your content if it is not SEO friendly. This means, that it will not show your content on the results of certain search phrases/words or it may not even show your content at all if it is really SEO unfriendly.
I know SEO and the algorithm can be both confusing and time consuming. Especially going back to old posts and trying to fix them. However, if you are trying to grow your site, it is necessary. It can lead to much better traffic, a larger following and even increases in your Domain Authority. If you feel as though you don’t have the time to make all these changes yourself or do so much research, look into hiring a blog manager. I offer blog management services myself and if you are interested feel free to check out my services page by clicking here.
Related Post: SEO For Dummies
Related Post: How To Use The Algorithm To Grow Your Blog
Being Sporadic And Inactive
This is a huge no-no. When it comes to publishing content, you want to try to have at least somewhat of a schedule. I understand that not everyone has time to post everyday or even every week. Even if you post once a month try to post on the same day/date and time.
There are literally thousands of content creators on WordPress and most people follow multiple blogs. If you want them to see your posts you need to make sure they know when you post so that they can stop by your blog and interact with it. If you post randomly, they’re probably going to miss your posts or even stop checking your site altogether.
Schedules are tough for creatives, trust me I understand that. However, they are great for technology because the algorithm loves it when you post at optimum times. It allows it to better understand your content and your audience and push it to the right people.
So even if you don’t have a really specific schedule, try to have some sort of schedule your readers and the algorithm can rely on.
Related Post: How To Schedule Your Posts
Conclusion
I really hope this post was helpful especially for newer bloggers. I think some of the things I mentioned may be obvious to older bloggers but newer ones may still not know since they are not used to this platform. If you have any thoughts or question please let me know in the comments below.
Was this helpful? What blogging mistakes have you made? What are some blogging mistakes you avoid? Let me know in the comments below because I would love to hear from you!
For more blogging advice please click here.
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