5 Mistakes That Can Affect Your Blog’s Ranking

Last updated on February 24th, 2022 by Rahul Kumar Singh

Remember all the self-doubts and fears that you had before starting your blog? The reasons due to which you thought that nobody would care about what you have to say. Or how could anyone learn from your blog when you’re not that good as a writer. Most of us often have similar thoughts before trying out something new. However, things often most likely get worst when your fears of low ranked blog turn into reality.

If your blog is failing at getting traffic, don’t be discouraged. When it comes to blogging, there is a learning curve that you need to cross. After all, millions of blog posts for various blogs publish on the internet every day. Your blog is one of them, so you need to work on your content and SEO strategy to stand out. Notably, avoiding these five mistakes can positively affect your blog’s ranking:

1. Adopt a Useless Domain Name

Choosing your domain name is an integral step to increase your blog’s ranking. Using a personalized domain name may seem like a good idea initially, but it doesn’t say much about your blog. Even when a potential reader comes across your website, they can’t decide what it is about. Instead, if you incorporate a keyword from your niche into your domain name, it will help improve your ranking. For example, if you have a cooking blog, try using the domain name “expertcooking” or something similar to show that your blog is about cooking. In ‘expertcooking,’ there are two keywords, i.e., expert and cooking.

The word expert here indicates your mastery of the subject, while cooking tells what you are writing about. It is an essential step to rank high in search results. You have to get recognized on google and draw potential readers. Adopting a useless name is the most common mistake new bloggers make. Correct it now and improve your chances of being found by different search engines. Losing on the SEO basics might cost you high in the longer run.

2. Not Paying Attention to the Design

Web design has a direct impact on how your audience perceives your blog. It has the power to either make them stay and learn more about what you have to say or leave and go towards a competitor blog. It enables you to keep your leads, so you can’t afford to make any mistake with the design; otherwise, they will simply bounce off.

While designing your website, keep your target audience in mind. It should provide an enriching user experience. A clean and straightforward layout is the best way to divert attention to the more critical parts. It is best to avoid making it too cluttered, or your audience will immediately lose interest. Also, it is best to limit the number of options in your drop-down menu and arrange them according to audience preference.

Besides, choose a font that is easy-to-read and visible over the background. The actual font selection, however, depends upon your audience. For example, the younger audience likes fun and stylish fonts, whereas older readers prefer cleaner fonts as they are easy to read.

3. Overusing Keywords

Anyone who understands SEO fundamentals knows the importance of keywords. Keywords are some carefully chosen phrases or words that help search engines identify the topic that a blog covers. Back in the initial days of search engines, bloggers could manipulate the results and get their sites ranked higher by stuffing them with keywords. But this practice significantly reduced the content quality and ultimately the user experience.

Surely nobody wants to engage with a site that reads “the best laptops to buy” over and over again. Naturally, the search engines wised up. Today, overstuffing may work for the turkey but certainly won’t do good for your blog. Google especially penalizes any website that tries to rank higher with keyword stuffing, so you have to avoid that at all costs. It is better to use them moderately as there always comes the point when keywords start turning sour.

4. Not Including a Meta Description or Title Tags

If you think placing a few well-chosen keywords is enough to make your blog rank high, think again. SEO is not just about keywords; it is an entire procedure that takes more work. One crucial factor of this strategy is a title tag and meta description. The title tag is the title of your post that shows up on the search results, while the meta description is the extract of your post visible beneath the title in search results.

It would not be wrong to say that these two sell the click – meaning they tell the reader what your post contains and entice them to open it. So, whatever you write here will be the first thing any searcher would see. Not writing both or any of these will rank your blog lower, so pay close attention to these helpful SEO factors.

5. Providing Useless Information

Blogging is such an attractive opportunity that everyone is creating their blog right, left, or center. But let us tell you something, not everyone puts in the time to write a high-quality piece. Notably, that is where your blog can stand out. Think about what you are going to say before you start. If you can’t provide unique insights into the subject, you won’t be able to hold your audience’s attention for long.

Nobody wants to read what they already know, no matter how sugar-coated it is. Take the time to plan your blog. Conduct thorough research and learn everything you can. This way, you will know what information is already available and what needs further explanation. Once you know what you are going to say, you’re halfway through drafting engaging content.

Also, read – Blog Commenting Sites

The Bottom Line

SEO is a powerful tool to increase your blog’s rankings. When used accurately, it will surely boost your traffic. However, if you pay minimal attention to optimizing your content, its ranking will suffer. Yes, it takes some work, so you have to avoid making the mistakes that can ruin your entire SEO strategy. Above are the five mistakes that can affect your blog’s ranking. Avoid making these, and your blog will soon rank high.