Here are 103 Blogging Mistakes To Avoid (To Get Results in 2024)
If there’s one thing I learned throughout my 12-year blogging career, it’s this:
Mistakes and failures are stepping stones to success.
It all depends on how you react, learn, and grow.
Fortunately for you, you don’t need to make the same mistakes in order to learn from them.
In this post, I’ll talk about 103 mistakes that millions of bloggers make.
You can browse them by category. Click any of the links below to jump to each category:
Blog Content Mistakes
Blog Promotion Mistakes
Blog Design Mistakes
Blog SEO Mistakes
Common Blogging Mistakes
Let’s get started.
Blogging Mistakes
Publishing duplicate content
Using a generic writing style
Writing intros that are too long
Not creating headlines with a target keyword in mind
Using fluff to increase word count
Writing hard-to-read content
Referring to outdated stats
Alienating certain readers
Encouraging your audience to take sides
Focusing on products rather than your audience’s problems
Relying only on stock photos
Guessing what your readers like
Publishing thin content
Not using subheadings
Taking readers to unrelated pages
Leaving readers with unanswered questions
Redundancy
Being too lazy to proofread and edit
Publishing incomplete or unfinished posts
Not using CTAs
Not creating evergreen content
Attacking your competitors’ reputation
Creating only text-based content
Rushing blog posts just to meet a schedule
You don’t fact-check
Lacking confidence in your own value propositions
Inconsistency with content quality and post frequency
Not promoting content on social media
Not promoting content at all
Not building an email list
Sending spam
Being over promotional
You don’t care about analytics
Ignoring your audience (not building a community)
Turning down invitations
Using hard-to-read fonts
Sticking with a shared hosting plan
Not backing up
Not backing up before an update
Not fixing broken page elements
Going for looks over performance
Making complicated menus
Editing your website’s parent theme
Building for desktop users only
Using a hard-to-remember domain
Adding clickable elements too close together
Not updating your blogging platform
Keeping demo content
Picking a theme that doesn’t match your niche
Picking themes overloaded with unnecessary features
Implementing total web redesigns without a plan
Sticking with “admin” as your username
Using too many plugins
Downloading WordPress resources from untrusted sites
Enabling your site to be indexed while under construction
Forgetting to enable site indexing after site changes are finished
Not adding internal links
Relying purely on SEO
Not fixing broken links
Not compressing images
Spamming links
Leaving outbound links to open in the same tab
Optimizing different pages for the same keywords
Not attracting natural backlinks
Not planning your keywords
Not having an SSL certificate
Using long page URL slugs
Using auto-generated meta descriptions
Forcing affiliate links into content
Targeting a broad niche
Choosing a niche just because it’s popular
Using unsafe passwords
Writing 24/7
Hiding your face (unless you’re blogging anonymously)
Ignoring your competitors
You go stagnant for months
Pushing a sale too early
Not having content categories
Displaying too many ads
Chasing a “get-rich-quick” strategy
You don’t set clear goals
You’re not learning
Ignoring customers go after their first purchase
Letting leads go after they abandon product pages or their cart
Being a copycat blogger
Multitasking
Making unrealistic promises
Jumping into blogging without a monetization plan
Staying in your comfort zone
Selling irrelevant affiliate products
Mishandling your blog income
Hotlinking images
“Stealing” content assets from other sites
Not protecting your content from being copied
Being vulnerable to distractions
Not getting help when you need it
Giving up (after a few months of no results)
Not caring about your privacy
Not creating a style guide
Buying tools without research
Trying to be perfect (being afraid of mistakes)
Automatically approving all comments
Overpaying for tools
Blog Content Writing Mistakes
1. Publishing duplicate content
Content theft also negatively affects the perpetrator’s SEO once they’re flagged for duplicate content. Be careful, though, since you can also have duplicate content issues by reusing the same text across your blog.
2. Using a generic writing style
A lot of rookie bloggers create bland, generic-looking posts that don’t have a single drop of personality. To make your blogging brand more recognizable, hone your own voice and write like you’re talking to a friend.
3. Writing intros that are too long
If you take 1,000 words to introduce your post, your audience may lose interest before they reach your first point. This is especially true if your intro lacks a hook, like a mind-blowing statistic or an engaging story.
4. Not creating headlines with a target keyword in mind
Headlines without a focus keyword will make it hard for you to earn traffic and clicks. If you want to improve your headlines, try adding keywords near the beginning or end.
5. Using fluff to increase word count
Writing fluff to increase a post’s word count is a recipe for bad content. While long posts help your SEO, pushing for more words by covering unrelated topics will simply bore your readers.
6. Writing hard-to-read content
Put simply: low-quality content will cause any blog to fail.
I’m not just talking about grammar and spelling. Quality is also related to your blog content’s readability, structure, and visuals.
7. Referring to outdated stats
Misinforming your readers with outdated statistics is something they definitely won’t appreciate. You don’t want to be remembered as the blogger who’s too lazy to double-check the validity of their facts.
8. Alienating certain readers
Writing blog posts that insult a certain group of people, unintentional or not, will lose their trust and respect. Even if you’re trying to help them correct mistakes, always use a helpful and constructive tone.
9. Encouraging your audience to take sides
Dividing your audience, particularly when talking about controversial topics, is bad for your community.
People sometimes take two or more sides when talking about specific topics. If you insist on covering those topics, take an impartial stance and highlight the merits of each side.
10. Focusing on products rather than your audience’s problems
When blogging about products, focusing on features rather than your audience will make your content sound biased and promotional. Keep in mind that readers only care about how a product can help solve their problems.
11. Relying only on stock photos
Using only generic, royalty-free images will make your blog look bland and unoriginal. Stock photos aren’t bad per se, but your entire visual content strategy shouldn’t revolve around these images.
12. Guessing what your readers like
Basing your blogging strategy on hunches and “guesstimates” could leave you with heaps of content that nobody likes. Always have a data-driven approach when making big decisions for your blog, like keywords, content types, and product ideas.
13. Publishing thin content
Relying on thin content, like doorway pages and affiliate product content, will prevent you from ranking in search. Be sure your blog has plenty of informative content that actually has value in the eyes of readers.
14. Not using subheadings
Some first-time bloggers may publish content without subheadings – filled with long, intimidating walls of text. Not only does this affect the reader experience, it also reduces your chances of ranking in search engine results.
15. Taking readers to unrelated pages
Adding external or internal links to unrelated pages will confuse your readers – period. As a rule of thumb, only add links if they can help readers make the most out of your content.
16. Leaving readers with unanswered questions
Readers won’t be happy with your content if they still have unanswered questions by the time they reach the conclusion. This typically happens if you use “clickbait” headlines without regard for your audience’s expectations.
17. Redundancy
Repeating the same points over and over again in the same post will make it dull and uninspiring to read. Redundancy also includes the unnecessary repetition of words or using words with the same meaning, which may cause confusion.
18. Being too lazy to proofread and edit
Relying on the built-in spelling and grammar checker in Microsoft Word will make you miss other writing issues. Read your draft aloud to check its flow and use an automated proofreading tool like Grammarly to find advanced issues.