Are you a new blogger struggling to drive more traffic to your website and failing? Happens to even the best of us! You are a great writer, have a good command over the subject you are writing on, you are pouring your heart into your writing, and still, NA-DA!
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There’s nothing more frustrating than writing great posts for your blog and still failing to turn it into a successful blog website. I know this because I’ve been there. In fact, a staggering 95% of new blogs fail within the first year, according to Website Builder Expert.
But what’s the reason behind this? Well, the reasons vary, but a lot of new bloggers stumble upon the same common pitfalls.
Failing to understand the importance of content analytics to focusing solely on keywords is just the tip of the iceberg. So, I decided to come up with a guide on the most common SEO mistakes new bloggers make.
While these are not the only mistakes, these are the most common ones. But let me tell you this: you cannot fix all these SEO mistakes manually, even if you spend a lot of time on them. You will need assistance from tools like Rank Math and Google Analytics to tackle these problems.
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A powerful WordPress SEO plugin that helps WittySparks grow organically.
So, without wasting much time, let’s just dive right into the crux of the matter.
Top 6 SEO Mistakes Every New Blogger Makes
On this page
Mistake 1: Ignoring Content Analytics
When it comes to ranking your blog with top-notch content, your creativity and knowledge are not enough! Trust me, this hurts, but it’s a fact. You need data-driven insights and robust content analytics to craft content that resonates with what your audience is looking for. Moreover, you must constantly monitor your content and how your readers respond to it.
Without such a detailed analysis, you are flying blind, and that’s a major red flag for a blogger. If you do so, you will end up in a frustrating cycle of content creation, publishing, and, ultimately, stagnating traffic and engagement.
But why do you not ignore content analytics? Why do you need exhaustive traffic and performance data offered by tools like RankMath and not some basic information like Google Search Console? Well, here’s your answer:
Limited Scope
Basic traffic data from tools like Google Search Console often provides a high-level overview, revealing total visits, page views, and bounce rates. Unfortunately, this is not enough.
These metrics fail to help you gauge reader’s behavior and engagement as they lack information like time spent on a page, scroll depth, and specific content sections generating the most engagement. Such a lack of granular data makes it difficult to craft content that syncs with the reader.
Keyword Blind Spots
In basic content analytics, the keyword ranking data is always missing. And that’s a big problem as this information is critical for bloggers who want to boost their online visibility. It’s pretty obvious that when you understand which keywords your content ranks better for, you can identify content gaps and opportunities.
Once identified, you can leverage them and craft content with relevant, high-performing keywords that drive more traffic. This data-driven approach helps attract targeted traffic and improve your website’s organic reach.
Content Performance Insights
Basic analytics often lacks the capability to analyze individual content performance. It might give you a basic idea, like the number of website visitors, but not by page or segment. You may know your website receives X number of visitors, but you won’t know which blog posts resonate or fall flat. Result? You won’t know which of your posts need some work to attract more traffic.
Attribution Woes
Basic analytics don’t showcase how your readers found your post. Was it through organic search, social media, or perhaps a referral link? But why is it important? Well, you don’t know which platform is driving massive traffic to your blog posts.
So you can’t focus on what’s working. Result? Ineffective use of all the platforms instead of using the one that drives more traffic effectively.
Limited Conversion Tracking
You are writing a blog not just for traffic, let’s be honest. You also want many of your visitors to convert into subscribers, customers, or leads. But for that, you need effective conversion tracking.
If you don’t know how much of your traffic is converted into what, there is no way you can boost your conversion. Additionally, you won’t understand how your blog posts impact your readers.
How Rank Math Can Help You Go Beyond the Basics?
Rank Math is specifically designed for analytics and SEO. There are a lot of ways it can solve your analytics woes. Let’s understand how it addresses each of your analytics challenges mentioned above:
Integration with Powerful Analytics Tools
You can easily integrate Rank Math with other analytics platforms like Google Analytics. This ensures you get a more granular and rich data set. Rank Math can get you critical insights into user demographics, behavior, interests, and content engagement. This will help you better understand your audience and optimize your content accordingly.
Keyword Tracking and Ranking Reports
Rank Math gives you detailed information on keyword tracking and ranking reports. These insights are critical and can help you monitor your website’s performance for these keywords.
You can also identify content gaps and content optimization opportunities to drive more traffic. Rank Math’s keyword reports have already proven their mettle for me, so I know how effective they are.
Content Performance Insights
Rank Math gives you insights on each of your content pieces. Whether it’s a web page or a blog post, you can analyze its performance with the help of Rank Math. With such insights, you can analyze reader engagement patterns and adjust your strategy to replicate success.
Detailed Attribution Tracking
Rank Math can also get information on how your users find your content. When you know what platforms are driving maximum traffic for you, you can easily leverage those platforms more.
Conversion Tracking and Goal Setting
Using Rank Math, you can connect Google Analytics to your WordPress website. Rank Math then works in sync with Google Analytics and finds information on conversion tracking. Result? Well, when you have detailed information on conversions, you can understand better how your content is performing.
Is it getting you email subscribers, helping you get more buy orders, or generating more leads for you? You will get all the information with the help of Rank Math.
Mistake 2: Neglecting Schema markup
The SEO Invisibility Cloak: Why Neglecting Schema Markup is Sabotaging Your Content
Let’s say your website is like a library with tons of books. Now, if someone has to find out what book they like, they’ll need some sort of arrangement or index. That’s exactly what Schema Markup is like for your website.
It acts like a guiding light for the search engine that’s looking for specific content for its users. If you are not paying attention to Schema Markup, you are making a big mistake.
Here’s why neglecting schema markup can be a serious SEO setback:
Missed Opportunities for Rich Snippets
Schema markup provides search engines with a lot of structured data about your content. This includes information like the type of article, author, publication date, ratings, and more. This additional information can help search engines create and show rich snippets to the user.
This makes your views stand out in a tough, competitive space. Result? You can get more traffic and increased CTR (click-through rate).
Poor Search Engine Understanding
This is a major issue. When you do not have a proper schema, the search engines will use their general algorithm to interpret your website’s content. This can often lead to the wrong classification and prevent your website from ranking for specific keywords.
So, if you are missing out on Schema Markup, you are effectively preventing search engines from classifying your content properly.
Limited Voice Search Visibility
More people are using voice search with every passing day. As voice assistants like Siria and Alexa are becoming more popular, the importance of structured data is rising, too. If you are not using Schema Markup, you are stopping your content from becoming “voice-search friendly.” This will reduce your content’s chance to appear in voice search results.
Missed Competitive Advantage
Snippets are standard practice in certain industries. This is where Schema Markup can give you a competitive edge against your competitor. But if you do not focus on Schema Markup, you might fall behind and lose valuable clicks and traffic.
How Can Rank Math Help?
Rank Math transforms the complex world of schema markup into an accessible and user-friendly experience. Here’s how it helps you harness the power of structured data:
Simplified Schema Editor
Rank Math gives you a simple and easy-to-use Schema Editor. This editor lets you add schema markup to your blog posts. The best part? You don’t need coding expertise to achieve this. You can select the appropriate schema type, fill in the necessary fields, and preview the generated code. Once done, you are good to go!
Pre-Configured Schema Templates
What if you don’t want to create a schema on your own? Well, Rank Math has got you covered here too. It offers a variety of pre-configured Schema Markup templates for the most common content types. This includes articles, recipes, and events.
Validation and Error Detection
Rank Math comes with built-in validation checks. This ensures your schema markup is free of errors. This helps you prevent any potential penalty to your website or content due to misunderstanding by the search engine.
In short, you can boost your content by using Rank Math’s schema markup tools. This is what you achieve:
- It makes your blogs rank better by providing essential structured data and increases the possibility of more clicks and more traffic.
- With Rich snippets, you get a more visually appealing and informative representation of your content on search results pages. This boosts your website’s user experience even before your visitor reaches your website.
- Schema markup plays a critical role in optimizing your content for voice search and emerging search technologies. This way, you can future-proof your blog’s visibility and adaptability to search engines.
Mistake 3: Over keyword optimization
A lot of bloggers fall into the trap of keyword optimization. They believe that the more keywords they stuff in their content, the better ranking they’ll get on the search engine. While this would have been true 10-12 years back, the times have changed now.
Good keyword density is really important. But keyword stuffing is the trick of the past. Search engine algorithms have evolved dramatically over the years. It can destroy your website’s credibility and readability.
Here’s why over-optimizing for keywords is a recipe for SEO disaster:
Unnatural Reading Experience
Imagine a sentence where, every now and then, some irrelevant word appears while you are reading something. Will you be able to read the content in the flow?
That’s exactly what happens when you stuff your content with keywords inorganically. Your content becomes difficult or annoying to read. Result? Your reader will most probably jump off of your website with bad taste. Congratulations! You just lost a valuable visitor.
Search Engine Scrutiny
As I mentioned earlier, Search Engines have become extremely advanced. Now, they are powered by AI, and can easily detect keyword-stuffed content. And when they do, they list your website as one that’s using black-hat tactics.
This can downgrade your website’s ranking, and in the worst case, your website might not appear at all in the search results.
Missed User Intent
When you stuff a lot of keywords, you are doing it with the intent to help search engines find your content. But what about user intent? What about the search engine user who is actually looking for some information?
When you focus only on search engines, you cannot focus on the actual users. You will fail to address the users’ needs and questions, resulting in lower search engine rankings.
How can Rank Math help?
I agree that keyword usage is important; in fact, it’s critical. But it has to be done with proper intent and method. You will have to think carefully and address the user’s intent before moving ahead. But Rank Math can come to your rescue in this situation.
Here’s how:
LSI Keyword Suggestions
Rank Math offers your LSI keywords or semantically related keywords for a specific keyword. These are the keywords that naturally complement your primary keyword. For e.g., if “Sugar” is your primary keyword, then one of the semantic keywords could be “sweet.” Using such keywords maintains the flow of the content and even drives more traffic.
Focus Keyword Analysis
Rank Math allows you to analyze your keyword in detail and come up with multiple relevant data sets like its search volume, competition, and related terms. Crafting your content based on this data allows you to easily leverage the available opportunities without impacting your readability. What do you get in return? More traffic with better quality.
Content Readability Score
Rank Math provides a real-time content readability score, too. This feature highlights critical content sentence structure, word choice, and overall clarity issues. This helps you maintain a natural writing flow even when you are adding relevant keywords.
In short, Rank Math can improve your keywords game significantly. It can help you steer clear of keyword stuffing and get better results.
Remember, authentic and user-centric content always wins in the SEO game. Ultimately, your content should meet the needs of the users. Even Google’s guidelines say: “Human-first Content” will rank better. And that’s where Rank Math can help you out.
Mistake 4: Ignoring Mobile first
Data suggests that the traffic from mobile phones stands at almost 50% or more. And it’s pretty obvious. We can see the rise in the usage of smartphones across the globe and generations. So, if you neglect mobile-first optimization for your content, you are saying goodbye to half of your traffic.
All the search engines, including Google, prioritize mobile-first content over others. However, many new bloggers are often unaware of this crucial factor. That’s why they overlook the importance of mobile optimization and ultimately harm their traffic. Here’s why ignoring mobile-first indexing can be a critical oversight for new bloggers:
Missed Audience Reach
As I already mentioned, over 50% of all web traffic originates from mobile devices. So, If you fail to prioritize mobile optimization, you exclude a big chunk of your potential audience. And this is a big, big loss! Imagine losing website traffic, missed leads, and hampered outreach, ultimately hindering your blog’s growth potential.
Poor User Experience
Have you ever visited a website that does not appear properly on your phone or it does not function properly? Go back in time and revisit your experience! I am sure this must have frustrated you, and you probably even ditched that website!
That’s what your users will do if you ignore mobile-first optimization! Such negative behavior can lead to penalties from search engines, preventing you from getting more traffic in the future.
Search Engine Penalties
Google has clearly stated that it actively penalizes websites that are not user-friendly. This pushes down such websites on Google search results. So, if your website is not optimized for Mobile, it will go down in the ranking, and people won’t find it. This can reduce your website traffic drastically.
This is a mobile-first era; keep that in mind. So you have to opt for your content and entire website for Mobile. At the same time, this might sound daunting, but it’s not. Especially when you have tools like Rank Math at your disposal, let’s understand how you can utilize Rnak Math for better mobile optimization.
How Can Rank Math Help?
Mobile-Friendly Site Preview
This feature allows you to preview your website on different mobile devices. This will show your website exactly how your users will see it. This will give you a clear idea about any mobile-specific issues like responsiveness problems, layout inconsistencies, or text readability. When you identify these problems, you can easily fix them.
Mobile SEO Checklist
You also get a mobile SEO checklist with Rank Math. This checklist highlights critical optimization factors like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and structured data. You can use this checklist to ensure your website meets all the critical mobile SEO criteria for optimal search engine visibility and a wonderful user experience.
Integration with Google Search Console
You can easily integrate Rank Math with Google Search Console. This ensures you get all the mobile-specific insights like mobile usability errors, speed issues, and more. This allows you to identify and rectify any mobile-related problems promptly.
When you adopt a mobile-first approach with Rank Math, you can:
- You can maximize your audience reach as your content is accessible on all types of devices. This will drive more traffic to your blogs and grow your community.
- By addressing any responsiveness issues, you keep your visitors engaged when you prioritize a positive mobile experience. The more intuitive your website and content are, the more satisfaction your readers will get. Result? Positive push by search engine for better ranking!
- You can avoid search engine penalties and optimize your blog for mobile-first indexing. This ensures your content remains easily discoverable and well-ranked, no matter what device your potential visitor is using.
We live in a mobile-first world, accept it. Mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives. So, they should become an integral part of your SEO strategy, too. You can give your SEO a massive push.
Mistake 5: Ignoring broken links
A lot of new bloggers often focus on keywords and content when they start writing blogs. The big mistake they make is to ignore the broken links. Why is it important? Let’s understand with an example.
Let’s say you are going to some beautiful place for a serene weekend. But you can’t find your way to that place as there’s a maze of roads, and you do not have any GPS navigation! Feels frustrating and terrible, right?
That’s exactly how your web visitors feel when they encounter broken links on your website. Such broken links deliver a negative user experience and act as a roadblock in driving more traffic. Result?
Your website’s SEO performance is hampered, you lose visitors, and your search engine ranking drops. And what’s causing this? Just a couple of broken links! Here’s how such links can be harmful to your website:
Frustrated Users
Encountering broken links is an irritating experience for users. It disrupts their browsing flow and leaves them confused about the intended content. This leads to a negative impression of your website. But why does it matter?
When your visitors have a bad experience, they bounce -off your website pretty quickly. Your bounce rate shoots up, and search engines decree this as an excuse to downgrade and downrank your website. Puff! You just lost a massive potential traffic.
SEO Downgrade
As I already mentioned, Search engines like Google value websites that provide a reliable and user-friendly experience. Broken links are an example of an ignored, un-updated website and search engines hate those websites.
Broken links indicate your website lacks maintenance and is a big No-No from search engines to drive users to such a website. So they don’t divert visitors to your website and, in fact, downrank it so people won’t find it even if they are looking for it specifically.
Missed Opportunities
You have links to a particular content, meaning it was valuable. But now, the broken links indicate you are not utilizing that content. Meaning? You are missing an opportunity to engage your audience with relevant and informative content.
How can Rank Math help?
If you are a new blogger, Rank Math can be a boon for you! There are multiple ways you can manage your links with the help of Rank Math. Let’s understand how.
Redirection Manager
This powerful feature identifies broken links on your website by scanning all internal and external links. Once done, it provides a detailed overview of the problematic links so you can find and fix them easily by redirecting them.
301 and 302 Redirects
Let’s say some of your URLs have changed. Rank Math allows you to set up appropriate redirects for broken links. This will ensure your users are directed to the intended content, even without noticing a thing. This is a critical part of delivering quality user experience.
Bulk Redirection Management
What if you are dealing with a large number of broken links? Well, Rank Math has a solution for that problem, too! You can use Rank Maths’s bulk redirection management feature to fix multiple broken links collectively. All you have to do is upload a CSV file containing the broken links and their redirects. Rank Math will handle the rest.
When you use Rank Math to manage your broken links, here’s what you deliver to your users.
- Enhance UX: You eliminate the frustration of broken links, ensuring a smooth browsing experience for users. This significantly boosts users’ satisfaction and likelihood to return.
- Maintain SEO Score: When you fix your broken links, you fix your SEO score. But how? Well, efficient broken link management indicates that your website is being well maintained. And search engines respect that. So this will boost your SEO score, and your ranking will go up.
- Maximize Content Value: With proper broken link management using Rank Math, you ensure all your content is easily accessible. The more content is available to the users, the more value you can derive from it; it’s that simple!
Mistake 6: Image SEO
Images are one of the best ways to capture your visitor’s attention and grab them by the hook when they visit your website. But you can’t just upload a good image and let it do its job. It has to be labeled to ensure search engines find and present it when someone is looking for it. That’s what a lot of new bloggers forget!
I’ve seen numerous blogs with good content and images but lack image SEO. This is a major problem when it comes to driving traffic using images. So, if you ignore image SEO too, you limit your content’s discoverability. And that is a problem for your blog. Here’s how forgetting image SEO can hinder your blog’s success:
Missed Search Opportunities
When you neglect image SEO, your images’ visibility drops down. Images can appear in image search results when optimized with relevant keywords. You miss opportunities to present your content in front of those who are looking for it.
Accessibility Woes
Remember, search engines rely on alt text to understand the content and context of your images. This information is also crucial for visually impaired users who rely on screen readers to understand the website content. If you do not have proper alt text, your images become inaccessible to a lot of users, limiting your reach.
Uninformative Content
Images without descriptive captions lose the opportunity to engage your audience further. Captions can provide valuable context, explain complex visuals, and even offer calls to action. This ultimately enriches the user experience and potentially increases engagement with your content.
How can Rank Math’s image SEO Help?
Rank Math equips you with the tools to unlock the full potential of your blog’s images through its dedicated Image SEO module. Here’s how:
Bulk Image SEO Optimization
Need to optimize a lot of images simultaneously? Well, the Bulk Image optimization feature has got you covered! You can save time and effort by optimizing multiple images simultaneously using this feature. You can default settings for file names, alt text, and captions, making the optimization process efficient and scalable.
Keyword Suggestions
You can leverage Rank Math’s keyword suggestion feature to identify relevant keywords to include in your image file names and alt text. Result? Your content will become discoverable through relevant search queries, both within your website and through image search engines.
Alt Text Assistant
Rank Math’s alt text assistant provides guidance and suggestions as you write alt text for your images, ensuring they are descriptive, accurate, and keyword-rich. This enhances accessibility, improves user experience, and sends valuable signals to search engines about your image content.
In short, Rank Math allows you to:
- Boost Content Discoverability: Increase the chances of your images being discovered by users and search engines, expanding potential traffic sources and driving organic reach for your blog.
- Enhance User Experience: Make your website accessible and inclusive by providing meaningful alt-text descriptions for all images, catering to a wider audience, and fostering a positive user experience.
- Enrich Content with Meaning: Leverage captions to add context and depth to your images, creating a more engaging and informative reading experience for your audience.
Act Smart, Act Wise
Look, I understand this might be a lot to process and digest in one go. Moreover, Rank Math is no magic wand that you turn your poor-performing blog post into a high-traffic driving post. But it can really help you fix some critical issues that are impacting your blog’s performance.
And these SEO mistakes take time and effort to fix. You cannot expect to fix them all in one go. So act smart, use the right tools, and start optimizing your blogs for more traffic.
Wrapping Up
I hope this guide has offered you a deep insight into what common SEO mistakes you can avoid as a blogger. Remember, this is just a starting point. The journey to create a powerful, high-volume, and high-traffic blog website is long. You will need a lot of effort and helpful tools to streamline your blog.
So, if you find this blog helpful, do not miss out on much more helpful content on my website. I’ve reviewed a lot of tools that can help you in your blogging journey. There are a lot of guides, too, that will ensure you don’t face the problems I did in my initial blogging journey!
Till then, happy writing!
FAQs
Why isn’t my quality content driving traffic?
Not using content analytics might be the culprit. Understanding audience preferences through data is key to targeting and engaging your readers effectively.
My focus on SEO isn’t paying off. What’s wrong?
Overemphasis on SEO at the expense of content quality can alienate readers. Balance SEO with genuine, engaging content to improve both rankings and reader satisfaction.
Can I enhance my blog’s performance without advanced tools?
Yes, engage with your audience to understand their needs, focus on creating valuable content, and adhere to SEO basics like keyword optimization and mobile responsiveness.