Here’s some tea for your afternoon: there are 600 million blogs floating around the internet. Crazy, right? But just wait until you hear this one, the failure rate for blogs is currently at 80% — that’s over 50 million! Small business blogs fail, there’s no denying it.
Don’t panic though, because recognizing why small business blogs tank can help avoid becoming apart of that 50 million Blogger Club.
Keep reading to learn what to avoid so your blog doesn’t plummet to the depths of obscurity.
It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Even if you’ve read all the jaw-dropping stats, testimonials, and Wikihow pages about blogging, the cloud of failure can still linger above your blank WordPress page. Continuing that zest for the success of your blog months or even years into starting one is fatiguing and is a contributing factor to failure.
Dedication and time are the key ingredients to a prosperous blog. On average, it takes 3-6 months of blogging before you can see tangible success via Google Analytics. That can seem like foreverrrrrr in such a fast-paced industry.
Avoid blogger fatigue by:
Creating a blogging schedule
Being patient with success measurements
Staying committed through & through
These three key points can help reduce blogger fatigue and keep writing fresh and original. Let’s look at some other key points.
Content Creation Is Difficult
On average, it takes bloggers an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes to produce a blog post. From an outsider’s perspective, blogging seems like a walk in the park but don’t be fooled by a four-hour writing timeframe. You see, not everyone has that certain writing je ne sais quoi that blogging requires.
To succeed as a small business blog, your content needs to be engaging, authentic, and useful. With such an oversaturated market, originality is the refresher readers want — feed off that desire and deliver.
Ann Hadley once said, “quality content means content that is packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience.”
Be honest with yourself about your creative talents. Even if your head hasn’t been in the writing game since high school ELA don’t fret, blogging can still become a reality. Consult with content writing experts about your goals and ideas, start journaling to jumpstart the writing process, and read, read, read!
Ignoring SEO = Small Business Blog Failure
Frankly speaking, SEO is a tricky subject to master but ignoring it does more harm than good. In 2019, 68% of all online experiences began with a search engine. If your main goal is to increase website traffic then failing to optimize your blog is a shortcut to failure town.
SEO makes your blog findable, readable, and shareable. The three sisters of SEO will disappear if you don’t apply best practices. Let’s take a look at what that includes!
Utilizing keywords
Keywords are the words, phrases or questions people type into a search bar. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMRUSH to generate prime keywords. Always strategically sprinkle these keywords, don’t just throw them everywhere like confetti!
Properly formatting
Since the average reader only spends 37 seconds on an article, or blog post, readability counts. Cut down large paragraphs into three-sentence chunks and utilize headlines. Skim your writing and make sure the main ideas are identifiable.
Writing quality content
Google bases its search engine rankings on what provides the most useful content for the searcher. Having a comprehensive and legible blog post that tackles what audiences are googling can help boost rankings. Read through your post and ask yourself, is this helpful to my reader?
Lack of Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a practice defined by Marketing Terms as, “writing a blog post to be published on another blog as a temporary featured author.” If your blog isn’t getting the sought-after traction don’t fear because by offering your writing credentials to other, more notable sites, you can drive traffic back to your site.
Guest blogging is a beneficial two-way street.
You can craft beneficial business relationships with other brands, grow your audience, and drive referral traffic by investing a considerable amount of time into guest posting. Getting started with guest posting can be a bit treacherous but thankfully there are trained professionals ready to help get you started.
Fly, Don't Fail
As Tim Fargo once said, “success is normally found in a pile of mistakes.” Small business blogs fail, there’s no denying it but one way to prosper is to learn. Avoiding these popular blog blunders can help increase your traffic, authenticate your brand, and turn website visitors into lifelong customers.
For more small business blogging tips and tricks, be sure to contact us today!
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