Posted on May 18, 2017

The 5 ‘Fails’ of Blogging

Are you experiencing low readership, poor conversion rates, or negative feedback about your personal or business blog? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you could be suffering from one of the five fails of blogging. But it’s not too late, there is always time to improve. Infographic shares 5 reasons your blog posts may be under performing. Read on to get suggestions for turning things around.

 

#1 You Haven’t Optimized for Search

A blog will obviously fail if no one can find it. In order for your company to get the most from your blog, there has to be traffic – and this means having your blog optimized for SEO.

When potential customers are running a search, your blog should be positioned near the top of the organic results; and to do this, you’ll need copy that’s positioned for and optimized to take advantage of SEO.

#2 Your Content is Boring

There is a lot of competition for your reader’s time. If your content doesn’t immediately grab and hold their attention, it’ll be doomed to lie dormant and unread on your site.

This can be especially challenging for businesses in “boring” industries, whose content tends to be “dry” from the outset. Even if the content is something your clients are interested in; it must be presented in an engaging way.

Good blog content grabs the reader and holds them – not in suspense, but in a way that fills them with useful information. Just having a list of why X product is better than Y won’t engage a reader. However, illustrating how product X is the appropriate solution to a problem your readers are having will attract attention.

#3 You Haven’t Considered Social Sharing

Are your new blog posts appearing on your social profiles? Do you have an email subscription service to notify subscribers of new blog posts? Can your blog posts be easily shared on social media networks like Facebook or Twitter?

Social sharing is a simple way to make your content available to potential readers. Blog content should be shareable in a variety of formats, on a wide range of social media services by the reader as well. Your goal is to drive social media users to your blog, where your engaging content (see #2 above) can convert them into clients/consumers.

In this way, you could actually think of your blog as being part of your company’s social media strategy.

#4 Your Blog Doesn’t Create Value

If there’s one aspect that’ll drive a stake through the heart of an underperforming corporate blog, it’s that the subject or content doesn’t create or generate value for the reader.

What is value? Value is answering questions, addressing issues and solving problems. Does your blog answer customer questions? Does it speak to the client’s interests? A blog is as much a communication tool as it is an informative device. At the same time, though, it has to speak to the customer – not preach to them. It must be relevant to both the client and industry.

#5 All You Blog About is Yourself

Along with boring content, one of the fastest ways to turn away a potential client is to be an obvious self-promoter. Your blog has to contain more than just information about your products or services.

Think about blogging as a social party; there’s always that one person who spends the whole night talking about him or herself. Nobody wants to hang out with that person – and the same thing happens with corporate blogs.

There’s nothing wrong with announcing a new product or service on your site, but if that’s all your blog contains, it’ll be dismissed quickly. Blogging relevant industry information can help, as it generates a perception that your business is on top of its specific industry. Even better, keep your focus on your customers. Talk about solutions to their particular pain points – whether or not your company is the solution.

Does any of this seem familiar? Do you have any other tips to improve blogging? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

 

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