Top 20 Blogging Mistakes That Keep Visitors Off Their Site

Top 20 Blogging Mistakes That Keep Visitors Off Their Site

So it’s true, isn’t it?

For your blog to stand a chance to grow and succeed, you must have a reliable method of attracting steady visitors to your site.

So right from day one, you work hard to implement tactics like content marketing, SEO and social marketing.

But the truth is that attracting visitors to your site is just a piece of the puzzle. The other piece of the puzzle is to keep them and convert them into consistent readers.

And this is where many bloggers have problems.

They are completely obsessed with getting more visitors than they are about keeping and serving them well when they come.

As a result, they make so many blogging mistakes that drives visitors off their site. And odds are you too may be guilty of one or more of these blogging mistakes.

Check below to see which of them it is:

1. Your blog Has No Focus

I once visited a blog. The owner did a good job attracting readers to his site. However, on the homepage, I saw posts about Contractors, Home keepers, Engineers, Children, etc.

Sure, I couldn’t read further. So I simply used the back button.

And here is a lesson for you. If you’re trying to talk to too many people at the same time, if your site has no focus, you’re going to lose a large number of visitors. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you get per day. They will all leave the way they came.

Make your visitors feel stupid for not paying close attention to you

Make one person the focus of your message.

2. Using Pitiful Headlines

Your headlines are the magnets that draw your visitors in to read what you have to say.

The point is using a pitiful headline will only help to repel them from your best ideas. If you want to keep your visitors, use proven headlines that speak to them and address their problems.

And by the way, Jon’s headline hack is a good place to start with.

3. Using Regrettable Opening

So let’s point it out straight.

You have less than 3 seconds to grab the interest of your readers, or they’re gone. And one of the proven ways to do this is through your opening sentence.

How do you open each blog post you write? Do you just write what comes to mind, or do you take time to plan it out? If your opening sentence fail to spark their curiosity, you’ve lost them. Sorry.

4. Wrong Logical Flow

When you write, do you underestimate how important the arrangement of your points are?

Yes, it might seem like a trivia matter to you, but to your visitors, it means a lot.

Imagine this:

You spend 10 minutes reading a post on a blog for the first time. But because the post was not logically organized, you missed the point of what the author was trying to say.

The effect? You feel angry and probably stupid for having wasted 10 minutes of your precious time on that silly blog.

Well, that is the same way your visitors will feel if your posts are not ordered logically.

The result? They will hardly visit again.

5. Writing What You Want

Do you write about any good idea that jumps into your head and seem relevant?

Well stop right there.

Not all posts are of equal importance and urgency to your visitors.

The fact is your visitors don’t want to read any kind of post. What they want is a post that will make them take another step towards the solution of the pressing problems they’re having right now.

From your visitors perspective, write the most urgent posts first

Before you publish another post on your site, ask yourself how it will be useful for your readers. Will it help them take a step towards a solution they desire?

If it doesn’t, don’t publish it. Your visitors won’t be thrilled to read it.

6. Regurgitating Old Ideas

It’s a big temptation to write what other players in your niche are writing about, isn’t it?

For example, if you’re in the Internet marketing space, you would be tempted to write about social media, email, etc.

The risk associated with such decision is that there’s a good chance you will bore a large portion your Visitors.

Here’s why:

Your Visitors have read a ton. And they know a lot.

If you keep publishing what a majority of your Visitors already know, you will lose your credibility, and no one will depend on you for fresh, useful information.

The solution is to make sure your blog post ideas are from your own experience and are what your Visitors want to read.

Do something your Visitors care about. Document the steps you took while doing it. Analyze the results you got. Know why it failed or succeeded. Then take that information and share it with your audience in a fresh, useful and unique way.

7. Being Unnecessarily Controversial

Being controversial can attract a lot of visitors to your site. But that is no reason for doing it the wrong way.

Some bloggers go as far as claiming that some strategies that works don’t work anymore.

While this will cause a huge spike in traffic, however, the traffic will certainly die down to zero once your visitors realize it was all a shabby show of getting attention.

Besides, such action tend to create friction between you and other influential players who still teach such strategies, thereby denying yourself any potential links from them.

Never claim that a strategy don’t work anymore, unless you have an infallible evidence that such strategy has actually stopped working.

8. Not Cool Enough

Being cool is one of the attributes readers love to see in a blogger. They would prefer to stick to someone who understands their situation, and who will be humble enough to interact and show them the way.

Talking down at your readers won’t keep them for long.

9. Failing to Press Their Hot Buttons

Making your visitors feel something - maybe a bond with you is a sure way of keeping them.

Press their hot buttons. Use their fears, desires or needs as a tool to connect with them.

10. Making Posts Difficult to Read

This one has been thoroughly dealt with, however, many bloggers are still doing this.

When you visit their site, what you see is one big block of text facing you. This can put visitors off real fast.

When you write, don’t make it difficult for your Visitors to read.

Use lots of paragraphs with enough spacing in between. Make sure that each paragraph is no more than five lines.

11. Presenting a Cluttered Website

Cluttering your site with every form of Ad and affiliate offer creates an unpleasant user experience for your visitors.

You may have a million products you want to recommend, but putting them all on your homepage will trigger your visitors’ back-clicking behavior.

It is better to recommend products one after the other after a specified time interval.

12. Using Discouraging Humor

Once in a while, it is a good thing to entertain your visitors with humor. The problem though is that humor is subject to personal preferences.

What may seem funny to an individual will likely piss another person off and even discourage them to leave your site.

When using humor, it is best not to joke about things that your Visitors attach significant value on, such as their Nationality, Religion and Political Preferences.

13. Bombarding Visitors With Sales Message Immediately

Yes I know, your goal is to make money online. And you should. However, you shouldn’t start bombarding your visitors with sales message right away.

Take the time to build relationships with them before selling. It pays tons of dividends.

14. Not Emailing Your Lists

Having your own list is the most valuable asset you can have online. The good thing is that those on your email list can be a reliable source of traffic.

Email them when you publish something useful.

15. Ignoring SEO

Search Engines can be a good source of traffic too. If you’re terrible at it, many of your potential visitors won’t know your site exists.

16. Failing to Outreach

There are over 100 million blogs out there. If you’re not constantly reaching out to other bloggers in your space, you have a very slim chance of getting your site noticed.

17. Not Inter-linking Your blog Posts.

Linking your posts together is a wise idea. It helps to retain visitors. If every posts on your site is independent, your visitors will leave as soon as they’re done scanning.

18. Browser Compatibility Issues

Your blog design may look great on Chrome, but have you crosschecked with Internet Explorer?

No Visitor will be glad to read a post that runs off the page on her browser.

It’s wise to crosscheck your blog with the major browsers out there.

19. Not Guest posting

Publishing great contents on your site is good and OK; but if you’re just starting, you’re better served publishing your posts on other influential sites in your space.

20. Neglecting The 1st Law of Marketing

This one is serious.

Many bloggers fail to realize that the success they desire has been summed up in just one law.

As a result, they break the law and end up paying dearly for it. I paid dearly for it too, until I understood it.

Ignore the 1st Law of Marketing. You may never become popular!

So I’ve included a link below that explains it better.

The fact is that neglecting or misunderstanding the first law of marketing is the only reason why bloggers never attract much visitors to their site, never make enough sales, and never succeed with blogging.

Do You Want to Retain a Large Number of Your Visitors? Eliminate these blogging mistakes!

Yes, you should.

But with these mistakes, you don’t stand a chance. So what you have to do right now is to look at this list, identify the blogging mistakes you’re guilty of, and fix them immediately.

Also, understanding the 1st Law of marketing as well will help you avoid other prevalent pitfalls on your way to successful blogging.

Godwin Adams is the Founder of Business Pillar. He is interested in teaching bloggers how to successfully manage their blogs and live a happy life

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Comments

  1. says

    Hi Jane, amazing piece of writing if I do say so myself, really impressive stuff. Point number 4 on your list, boy I’ve seen plenty of them about, and yes it is frustrating when you find a post you really want to read and learn about, and the author has completely left the boat stranded… And I’m left searching for answers to my problems elsewhere… I hate that!

    OK point number 12 I raised my eyebrows too, I don’t think I’ve ever met a sane enough blogger that would joke about the things you mentioned, and of course doing that could well have a detrimental effect far worst than losing the respect of your audience. Something very simple like taking the Lord’s name in vein, could really nark someone or a group of people off, I know it would nark me off for sure! So I agree, stay well away from being controversial about political and religious views and elements.

    Point number 6 I completely agree on. If I was writing mostly about internet marketing and blogging, and I read a post about list building on another blog, I wouldn’t challenge that post by writing yet another boring post about list building, you’re correct there, this is just churning out content that already exists a million times over, and that people already know about.

    However, if I found that I was using a specific list building technique or strategy that has been working for me, and no one else has written about it up to this point, I would feel compelled to write about it on my blog. You make a very good point on this, people can relate to case studies, stuff you’ve tried out and show them the results of your efforts.

    OK thanks for sharing this wonderful post Jane, very useful. Just want to say quickly, I love the clean layout of your blog, the fact that it’s clutter free, it makes your awesome content truly stand out! The homepage of your blog doesn’t offer a ton of options like a lot of blogs do, you have a clear goal and make your proposition stand out well :) Congrats!

    Have a good weekend buddy, I know it’s only Thursday :)

    • Godwin Adams says

      Hey Fabrizio,

      Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you liked the post.

      As for point number 12, it would be so silly for any blogger to do so. But the truth is that I’ve seen many of them all over the Internet, and it does nothing but put off the reader.

      Thanks.

  2. says

    Hi Jane,

    What an amazing post you have put together! I’m so happy I came by. Everything you mentioned here is so true. We must have a good congruent headline and remember that our opening sentence has to be good enough to attract people to read our blog post. Yes we only have that 3 second span!

    We must write for people and not ourselves. We cannot just put content out there that is not useful. Believe me..when I see this I run away so fast he he.

    I love #6 because we have to use our own content in our own voice. Sometimes I write about a problem I had and how difficult it felt (emotion) Then give the answer to the problem. I do get a great response when I do this because we all make mistakes and they can see us as their equal.

    #12 is absolutely necessary! Never ever get into politics or religion is my motto. If I’m off line or online. It only brings negativity and shows a lack of respect to others. Thank goodness I’ve never seen a blog like that!

    When it comes to sales, if I go on a blog that bombards me with sales, I won’t ever go there again. There is the 80/20 rule that works well…80% great content and 20% we can talk about a product or service we have. But that has to be done carefully. We cannot say “Hey everyone…buy this!” he he he

    All points you raised are wonderful Jane and I thank you,

    Blessings,

    -Donna

  3. says

    Godwin all are visitor killers! The focus one confuses the heck out of me. We note a disconnect when we see something off. This happens offline with businesses and online with blogs. Example: today in New York City my fiancee Kelli noted how when she sees a restaurant with 2 different themes, she automatically doesn’t trust it. Like, we saw a place that was a Western Style Diner, then, it labeled itself as a place serving Indian Food too. What?

    We love Indian Food, and we love American Style Diners, yet we’re confused as hell if a store labels itself as both in the same. Impossible, or, even if it’s not impossible, it sends a mixed message that makes you not trust the damn place. How can the chefs know 2 different style foods so well that it serves both and does a fine job serving both. Not gonna happen. So automatically we didn’t trust the place and would never stop by. You can’t do 2 or more things well enough to be really good at those 2 things.

    It’d be like visiting a doctor’s office and finding out that the doctor is also a lawyer. What? How can you find enough time to become a skilled, competent doctor and lawyer? You can’t. So you can’t find the time to be really, really good at blogging about making money online and pet supplies lol. I said in one of my eBooks, you can’t be Darren Rowse and Perez Hilton at the same time, meaning you can’t be an amazing blogging tips blogger and gossip blogger at once ;)

    Godwin, I agree with @donna_tribe:disqus! Epic post! Thanks for the share my friend :)

    Ryan

    • says

      Hey Ryan,

      You’re right on point. Focus is the key to succeed in any business venture. Some business owners want to target a lot of people with their message because they fear leaving money on the table.

      The problem with such approach is that they engage in a lot of services without doing any of them as well as they should. I too would be suspicious of the restaurant you mentioned if I encountered them.

      Thanks for stopping by Ryan.

  4. says

    Hey Jane,

    14, and 19. Yes these were and are my mistakes.

    I remember for the longest that I didn’t email my list. I had used my blog, PPC, and solo ads to grow my list fast. The problem was I was more focus on getting leads and sales then I was with building a relationship with my list. Yes true, I had the messages automated, but you know that’s not good enough. You actually have to put in the time to broadcast a message to your list. If they took the time to opt in then it’s our obligation to email them.

    With 19 I’ve been putting it off ever since I started blogging. Everyone says it’s one of the most efficient ways to get traffic, so come 2015 I’m going to request to do a couple of guest posts. I definitely want to push myself a little harder for the coming year.

    As for number 10, I don’t know how many times I came to a site and had the hardest time reading. On top of that, I lost focus on what the author was really trying to get across. All of have to say that we must think about our visitors more so and make their experience as simple and pleasant as possible. We definitely want them to come back!

    Thanks Jane for the share! I hope you’re having a great weekend!

  5. says

    Hello Donna,

    Thanks for stopping by and leaving such a wonderful comment. Yes, I can relate with what you said. Unfortunately, most bloggers don’t even know about the 80/20 rule, and as a result, they bombard visitors with numerous sales messages without thinking for once if that’s what the visitor actually wants.

    I think Bloggers will see a handsome reward when they educate their visitors from their own experiences first before attempting to sell them on anything.

  6. says

    Yea Sherman,

    You’re right. When we invest the time to build our list, it is also our responsibility to broadcast and communicate with them. It helps to increase the trust we want them to have.

    And yes, guest posting is also a good strategy to share your ideas with a wider audience. Let me know how it works out for you.

    Thanks for stopping by.

  7. Emebu says

    Hi Jane,

    Thanks for bringing this post to the public, these points are well understood,i used to be a victim of point 5: “Writing What You Want” but now i have learned my lesson the hard way though.

    Once again, thank you so much Jane.

  8. says

    Hello Jane !

    This is a great resource. Some time we make great mistakes because we don’t know which way to take or may be we have not been advised on the correct path to follow.

    You see, sometimes I look back and I say to myself, How I wish I never made those mistake I made when I started. It all brings it down to information, I mean the right information/education… So far as there is life, there would always be a mistake and there would always be a correction and there would always be learning… I have learnt something anyway…

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