Write better blog posts: 13 blogging mistakes and how to fix them

If you aren’t a writer, creating blog posts can feel like a chore. And when a task is not something we want to be spending our time on, it’s easy for that task to fall to the wayside.

Maybe you’ve started to use AI writing tools to fill the gap, or you have a marketing team or intern cranking out posts for your website and social media. Still, the content you create isn’t attracting the traffic and conversion results to match the effort invested.

Tell me again why I need to write blog posts?

Blog content can serve your overall marketing strategy by meeting people where they are in their decision-making process.

• Build trust and awareness for your brand
• Reach potential customers searching for solutions to their problems
• Target niche audiences with specific questions and needs, allowing you to compete for more achievable keywords
• Repurposed for social media, your content can be shared across channels, provoke discussion and debate, all of which helps surface your content in both traditional search engines and AI search

Companies that blog regularly generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. But to see these results, your blog posts need more than just regular publishing, they need strategic improvements.

Google and other search engines seek fresh, useful, timely content. Yes, a lot of informational queries are now answered in AI overviews. That’s not necessarily bad – if it satisfies the intent of the search query.

When you position yourself as a subject matter expert, with a thoughtful and unique perspective, dynamic blog content begins to gain traction. “Yes,” you say “but there’s so MUCH content being created every day, how can my post stand out and make it into the top 10 SERPs?”

Avoid common blogging mistakes: “Them’s table stakes”

Technical flaws, generic content, and incompleteness can undermine your credibility and make it harder to appear in search results. I’ll walk you through 13 common blogging mistakes that prevent your content from reaching its full potential.

Ready to implement these fixes? Download my free Blog Post Checklist at the end of this article to keep these 13 improvements handy every time you publish.

Content strategy and planning

1. Random posts with no content strategy

Publishing random blog posts whenever you have time leads to inconsistent results. Without a clear content strategy, your blog becomes a collection of unrelated articles that don’t build on each other or serve your business goals. Having a plan means front-loading some discovery work which, you may argue, you don’t have time to do. But, if you have time to do it wrong … I think you see where I’m going with this.

Your content strategy helps you to maintain clarity of purpose with firm boundaries around what makes sense for your business. Don’t waste time following the lead on trending topics. Find the content gaps in your industry, add your own angle, and offer a unique perspective that ties back to your business and what you do best.

Develop your content strategy:

• Define your target audience and their pain points
• Brainstorm topic clusters around your main services or expertise
• Whittle it down to core topics you can commit to writing about
• Plan content themes for each month or quarter
• Develop a content calendar to maintain consistency – if you can manage 1 post a week, that’s great, but pick a schedule that works for you (be realistic)
• Advanced: Align blog topics with your sales funnel stages

Topic clusters can work particularly well for business blogs and build that E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) signal Google loves. Develop a comprehensive pillar post on a core topic, with supporting posts that dive deeper into specific aspects, shows search engines (and readers) the depth of your expertise.

2. Writing for your business instead of your audience

Many business blogs focus on telling: company news, product updates, and internal achievements. Rather, we should be showing our expertise by crafting content around the topics readers care most about.

As a small business, you are more likely to have direct access to your customers than larger organizations. You have first-hand knowledge of real customers problems and questions. That’s content which can provide unique value to readers in showing (not telling) your understanding of, and solutions to, customers’ real-life challenges.

Plan first. Then write for your audience:

• Think about the questions your customers ask most often
• Research those topics to discover what other published, ranking content exists and what gaps you might be able to explore
• Address specific pain points your audience faces
• Use language your customers use, not industry jargon
• Share insights that help readers succeed
• Focus on benefits to the reader, not features of your business

Before writing any post, ask: “What’s in this for my reader? How does this help them?” If you can’t answer that clearly, reconsider the topic.

3. Skipping keyword research

You might have a fantastic idea that you would love to write about. But great ideas without planning … will disappear like tears in rain. In order to compete, you must consider audience intent (you got this, this is your business!) and the words that real people use to describe their problems.

Keyword research should inform your topic choice, not be pinned on blindly like a donkey tail after the fact. Use free tools like Google Keyword Planner, AnswerThePublic, or Google Trends to find keywords and run your own Google search analysis to discover what people are actually searching for.

Understanding the search volume around your keywords is another aspect to consider. If the keywords you are optimizing for have no traffic, well – they won’t result in any clicks if no one is searching for those terms. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doesn’t have to be complicated, but ignoring it is an opportunity lost.

Essential SEO practices for every blog post:

1. Research keywords before writing
2. Include your primary keyword in the page title, first paragraph, and variations throughout the content (be cool, keep it natural)
3. Use descriptive headings (H2, H3) that include related keywords
4. Write compelling meta descriptions (155-160 characters with your keyword and a call to action) – these blurbs can encourage clicks when your post appears in search
5. Add internal links to other relevant posts on your site
6. Include external links to authoritative sources – “be helpful”
7. Optimize images with descriptive filenames and alt text, and size them for web use

Focus on creating content for humans first, then optimize for search engines. Keyword stuffing and other manipulative tactics will hurt your rankings. Learn more about SEO fundamentals from Google’s own documentation.

4. Trying to cover everything in one post

Trying to cover everything in a single blog post often results in surface-level content that doesn’t provide real value. A comprehensive article on a specific, narrow topic is fine – but you want to avoid the generic 101 overview.

Narrow your focus, stand apart from the crowd:

• Choose one specific problem to solve per post
• Break broad topics into a series of related posts
• Target one primary keyword per post
• Provide actionable advice readers can implement immediately
• Link between related posts to create topic clusters
• Approximate length of an article: 1,500 – 2,000 words (more if this is a comprehensive or pillar page)

Instead of a “Complete Guide to Vegetable Gardening,” break it up into separate posts like “When to Plant Tomatoes in Your Region” and “How to Prevent Common Tomato Diseases”.

Tip: Create an editorial calendar around this series of articles and connect it to an email list specific to this topic. You can use these articles to create a drip campaign in email and social channels.

Writing & formatting

5. Formal, dense content distances readers

Using flowery words and complex sentences doesn’t impress readers and may repel the very people you’re trying to attract.

If you make your content easy to read, you aren’t ‘dumbing down’, you are opening up your information to anyone who wants to read it. You are making it accessible.

Sara Winters, “Thoughts on the ‘dumbing down’ argument“

Online readers prefer conversational, easy-to-digest content that feels like it’s written by a real person. Dense paragraphs and complex language make your content harder to read, especially on mobile devices.

Engage readers with conversational content:

• Write like you’re talking to a friend
• Use short paragraphs (2-3 sentences maximum)
• Ask questions to engage readers
• Use contractions and casual language when appropriate

6. “Walls of text” without formatting and structure

Large blocks of text are intimidating and difficult to read, especially on mobile devices. Structural elements (like headings and lists) help readers scan and process information and get to the content they care about more quickly.

Reader-friendly post structure:

• Include headings each new topic and subtopic, approximately every 200-300 words
• Use bullet points and numbered lists
• Add relevant images, charts, or graphics with concise alt text
• Use bold text sparingly to highlight key points
• Include white space between sections
• Consider adding videos or other multimedia when appropriate

Structure helps machines (AI and Google) better understand and serve your content. Why would you want to make it harder for these tools to connect you with your potential audience? Take the time to add meaningful structure to your posts.

7. Treating blog posts like advertisements

Nobody visits your blog to read sales pitches. Readers come for helpful information and solutions to their problems. Blog posts that focus primarily on promoting your products or services will drive readers away.

Let people see you as human. Be real. Ask yourself, Who would you rather see at your door, a friend or a door-to-door salesman?

Bernard Roth, The Achievement Habit

Provide value without being salesy:

• Focus on solving reader problems, not selling solutions
• Share industry insights and best practices
• Provide actionable tips readers can use immediately
• Tell stories and share case studies (without heavy promotion)
• Mention your products naturally when they’re truly relevant

When you do promote your services, try to make it feel natural and helpful rather than a hard sell.

8. Skipping the proofreading and editing process

Writing is editing. Unclear writing, as well as typos and grammatical errors, can undermine your credibility as a trusted expert. Through editing, you’ll connect loose threads and find deeper themes to develop. You can tighten up unclear messaging and maybe even discover a new angle you hadn’t thought of before.

Even after you hit publish, you can always come back and make changes to your web content. Step away from your writing for a day or two, you’ll catch so many things you missed: awkward phrasing, logic gaps, unnecessary repetition – and moments of inspiration that, on reflection, serve only your burgeoning writers ego (guilty!).

Help your inner blogger emerge with an editing workflow:

• Write your first draft, then step away for a few hours (overnight if possible)
• Read your post aloud to catch awkward phrasing
• Use tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor for basic grammar and readability
• Check that your main points are clear and well-supported
• Verify all links work and statistics are accurate
• Have someone else review important posts

Investing ONE hour in refining and editing your content shows readers you value their time.

Technical optimization (pre-publish checks)

9. Long, unedited URLs confuse readers and Search Engines

Long, convoluted URLs like “yoursite.com/blog/2024/03/15/this-is-a-really-long-title-about-our-latest-product-announcement-and-why-you-should-care” hurt both search rankings and user experience. And you definitely want to avoid keyword stuffing in URLs.

Search engines prefer concise, descriptive URLs. People are more likely to click on and share short, readable URLs. It’s all about trust and meeting expectations.

Lead with your primary keyword (the main thing people are searching for). In the example below, “marketing strategy” is the primary search term, with “small business” being the qualifier.

Long and confusing: /how-to-choose-the-best-marketing-strategy-for-your-small-business-in-2024

Optimized: /marketing-strategy-small-business/

Removing the date also makes this evergreen content that you can improve and add to over time.

Clean up your URLs and keep them human-readable:

• Keep URLs under 60 characters when possible (3-5 words)
• Include your main keyword
• Remove unnecessary words like “and,” “the,” “of”
• Use hyphens to separate words
• Edit the default URL WordPress creates
• Don’t keyword stuff or create misleading, “clever” URLs

10. Oversized images l o a d i n g . . .

In the digital world, three seconds is an eternity. A single uncompressed image may be several megabytes, causing your blog post to load slowly, even on good internet. “So long mobile users and people on slow networks and older devices…” you whisper to yourself as you upload a 3MB PNG image exported from Canva to your latest post.

Page speed directly impacts both user experience and search rankings. Google considers speed a ranking factor, and users expect pages to load in under three seconds. Many free tools like TinyPNG or built-in WordPress features can automatically optimize your images without noticeable quality loss. My favorite tool is ImageOptim.

Optimize images before you upload them:

• Compress images before uploading (aim for under 100KB when possible)
• Use the more modern and compressed WebP and AVIF formats if available
• If you can’t, use JPG for photos and PNG for solid graphics – using PNG for gradient images will 10X the image size (I’m looking at you and shaking my fist in an agitated manner, Canva!)
• Resize images to the maximum display size needed (most blog content areas are 800-1200px wide – not 4000px)

11. Missing alt text on images hurts accessibility and SEO

Alt text (alternative text) describes an image for people who can’t see it visually. Don’t exclude visitors with visual impairments, people on slower connections, and people using reader mode from fully experiencing your content.

Alt text can also help search engines understand your content. When search engines can’t “see” your images, they also miss important context about your content.

Alternative text should always be used when images convey contextual meaning. This also applies to images posted to your social media channels and used in your newsletter.

How to write effective alt text:

• Describe what’s actually in the image
• Keep it under 125 characters
• Include a relevant keyword IF you can do it naturally, but recognize that this is not the purpose of alt text and you should not use this as a place to stuff keywords
• Don’t start with “image of” or “picture of”
• Skip alt text for images that are purely decorative

Learn more about writing effective alt text from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

12. Missing calls to action leave readers without a next step

A blog post without a CTA is like giving a great presentation, dropping the mic and walking offstage. Your audience may be left in awe, but they are probably not taking that next step to subscribe to your email list or contact you about your service. Obstacles to action generate inaction.

Guide readers toward the next step, whether that’s subscribing to your newsletter, downloading a resource, or contacting your team.

Provide that logical next step:

• “Download our free [relevant resource] to get started”
• Natural mentions like “If you need help with [challenge], here’s how we approach it”
• “Get weekly tips like these delivered to your inbox”
• “See our complete guide to this [topic]”

Need help creating an effective content strategy? See how we can help your business blog reach more customers.

Post-publication: don’t forget to share your work (and make it shareable)

Lucky 13. Publishing without promoting your content

Hitting publish doesn’t mean you’re finished. I know, crafting that great blog content took a lot out of you. But creating the content is only half the battle. If you don’t actively promote your posts, they may never find their intended audience. Content promotion extends your reach and helps drive brand awareness as well as more traffic to your website.

Content promotion strategies:

• Share on your business social media accounts (share snippets from your article, multiple times over several weeks) – if creating a post on LinkedIn, let the first comment be a link to the actual article.
• Include recent posts in your email newsletters
• Engage with industry communities and forums where your audience is
• Reach out to people mentioned in your post
• Repurpose content for different platforms
• Add social sharing buttons to your post to make sharing easy

How do I know when I’ve made it? Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studies has a lot of great content around marketing strategy and analysis, here’s one on measuring content performance.

I see better blogs in your future…

To recap, do these things:

• Pre-writing research (keyword research, topic validation)
• Create SEO-friendly URLs
• Optimize images
• Write engaging content that speaks to your audience
• Promote your posts

Focus on providing real value to your readers. You may not skyrocket to international acclaim and Google’s coveted Top 10 results overnight, but over the next 3-6 months, ceteris paribus, you might just become noticed as a trusted expert.

Images used in this post created by Naila Conita