10 Things to Avoid When Becoming a Blogger

Blogging is so popular these days because it is an optical choice for a content promotional hub. It acts as the content chameleons, combining the strength of social media with the old-fashioned print media.

But before you take a deep dive into this exciting world of blogging, take a step back and know the fundamentals. You need to learn how you can propel your blog into multi-billion business merchandise.

If you want your blog to be in the HOT column in terms of leads, avoid the following common mistakes:

#1 : Buying links

Buying links from the already established websites is a short term solution to attracting readership to your website. And the consequences can be very dire and destructive. One day Google will flag your website and you’ll have to start from scratch.

Wondering how they’ll catch you?!

Well, Google has advanced bots with a special team that works tirelessly to locate all questionable links, including your paid links.

For instance, you buy links from a website which you aren’t related in the first place. Google will flag some of those links as irregular linking.

Therefore, it is vital that you stick to healthy linking practices such as comment linking. Your blog will still hit the ground rolling, albeit at a steady pace.

#2 : Content duplication

Many bloggers like taking shortcuts when it comes to content. They resort to creating identical content for the same keyword. And this can be disastrous if Google notices such irregular activities.

So instead of waiting to be penalized by the search engine, try focusing on a single topic in detail for creating evergreen content. Create different content and as you might need it in the future you can save it in cloud storage (you can check affordable One Drive or Dropbox plans)

#3 : Don’t chase PageRank

Yes, page rank is important if you want your website to succeed. In fact, the higher your page rank, the better your rank in search engines, and the more readership you get.

But guess what?!

Page rank is dead!… Focus on analytics, content relevancy, ROI, and other important aspects as advised by Google itself.

#4 : Don’t leave title tags automated

Tags, undeniably, play a vital role as far as search engine optimization is concerned. And unfortunately, new bloggers tend to think that the longer the title, the higher the chances of increasing traffic into their website. What they don’t realize is that short, highly optimized titles are the ultimate solution to a keyword search.

Therefore, before you jump on the bandwagon of old fashionable long titles, try optimizing your title tags.

#5 : Don’t sacrifice looks for content

While some bloggers rely on content to nature their blog, there are some who think that design of their blog is the only gateway. An appealing website will attract visitors. But be cautious with the number of graphics you use when designing your blog.

Remember, too many graphics can overshadow the content, hurting your business in the process.

Do not use Flash and sacrifice page speed for motion sound. This can prevent search engine bots from effectively crawling through your pages at a desirable speed.

#6 : Don’t rely on free hosting blogs

Using free blog hosting providers like Blogger and TypePad can provide a decent platform for you as a starter. However, they don’t provide enough flexibility in terms of installation of Plugins, high definition themes, and other important extensions that may truly give your website superior SEO results.

Therefore, it isn’t advisable host a website for free. It is not the best alternative. Shop around for an affordable web hosting plan. It is worth to fork a few bucks and have a complete control of your site than gamble with free hosting services that are very inflexible .

You need independence to take your blogging life to the next level. Don’t entrust it to somebody else!

#7 : Keyword stuffing

Search engine optimization inherently judges the authenticity of your content based on the recommended keyword density and unit keyword stuffing. And if you don’t want to get into trouble with Google, stick to SEO rules that advocate for the appropriate keyword density.

Therefore, instead of duplicating your texts focus on creating a useful page that has your keywords implemented in it as part of your content. Also, don’t try multiple search engines like Google.

#8 : Writing little content

If you’ve decided to blog, you must write. Otherwise, you risk losing even your existing customers. Why? Many sites don’t prefer publishing very short guest posts. Confine your writing to at least 400 words.

Remember, an extremely short post can hurt your readers and can be considered as low quality as far as SEO ranking is concerned.

#9 : Incorrectly done SEO

SEO optimization is a very important aspect of blogging. You need to embrace advanced approaches that can help you in optimizing your content.

For instance, if you’re doing link building, do not just link to the first page of your website. Instead, focus also on building links to your most popular posts.

Try to implement schema.org markup on your site content, enabling schema markup can help search engines rank your site in a more acurate spot.

And, remember to update yourself on the emergent SEO knowledge out there.

#10 : Don’t forget the ALT tag

While Google is in the view that it does not place much emphasis on ALT tags, other search engines like AOL, Yahoo, plus Bingo. It is important to note that a picture, unless optimized with the right keywords, is just a file. And you can only optimize it using the ALT tag when placing an image in your post.

In addition, to get even better results, name the file of your image keyword. For instance, if your blog is about copyright laws, your image should be named as copyright-laws.jpg, and not pic2.jpg.

Bottom line

There more than a dozen mistakes new bloggers make that can hurt their websites. Mistakes like forgetting to update the sitemap, grammatical errors, and broken 404 pages can hurt a website. It’s, therefore, advisable to learn the best practices for a better blogging experience.