In this article, I am going to discuss some of the amateur blogging mistakes that I made, and most of the amateur bloggers make when starting a blog.
Some of the mistakes can hurt your blog so much that because of this mistake, it may not rank in google for months.
But don’t worry mistakes are mistakes it can be corrected and you have to correct it to become successful blogger
So read this post till the end and understand what mistakes you are making and correct it than and there as if I have seen that if you have to do many tasks you end up doing no task so if you think that you are doing the same mistake stop there and correct it
Amateur Blogging Mistakes
1. Using a Free Domain name
Using a free domain name is one of the major amateur blogging mistakes that every blogger makes while starting their blogging journey, I also made this same mistake while starting my journey.
Even after doing a lot of hard work on a free domain, I didn’t get any result, but when I changed it to a paid domain, I started getting some small results.
Having a custom domain name will gives you the result that you deserve.
The custom domain name also gives you the freedom to do whatever you want to do with that name like some free domain name only lets you change DNS properly.
So If you are a newbie who is also making this same mistake, then I recommend you to don’t make this mistake anymore and purchase your custom domain name now, as a free domain name cannot give you the result you deserve, and it will be very important in the longer run.
Disadvantages of having a free domain name
You can’t control That domain name
If you are using a free domain name, you don’t get full access to that domain. If you do anything wrong that the site which you are using a domain of may delete your domain name and sometimes even without prior notice
Seo Unfriendly:
A free domain name is generally SEO unfriendly, and sometimes they are not able to get index in search engines properly, so even if you work hard on your blog, you will not get the results which you deserve.
Hosting issue with free domain
Some of the good hosting providers also don’t allow you to host your site using the free domain name as they also know that it is a free domain and it can harm their rankings as well as sites which are ranking on the same server as some of the free domain has a high spam score
If you are not able to get ideas about your domain name you use tools like domain name generator or add a domain name modifier
I would also suggest you to prefer .com domain name
You can use sites like GoDaddy and Namecheap to buy your custom domain name.
2. Using Free or Cheap hosting
Using cheap hosting is a mistake which I also made when I started blogging back in 2017, I used to host my site on cheap bad quality hosting
Good hosting very important for your blogging success, If you choose a free or cheap hosting there is a very high chance that you will lose your data as that free hosting service may shut down anytime
If you are a blogger who is making the same mistake, I would highly recommend you switch your hosting provider to the SiteGround as it is very fast, secure, and one of the best hosting service providers in the price range.
One of the best things about the SiteGround is that they are now using google cloud platform for their service, which means you will get very fast and reliable servers.
Right now millions of website are hosted on SiteGround, and they are so reliable that very known companies like Yoastis also hosted on SiteGround
SiteGround is also recommended hosting by WordPress as well
If you are hosting your site on any other hosting, I would highly recommend you to move your hosting to SiteGround, and you can also use SiteGround migration plugin to move your site to SiteGround
3. Not Selecting a Niche
Not selecting a niche is one the most significant mistake amateur blogger make
Many bloggers don’t select a niche, and they talk about a lot of things on their blog which is a big mistake as when a reader is reading about something he is also interested about information around the topic but if they get information which they are not interested in they will leave your site
If your site covers a specific topic only then, your readers may read your other content and spend more time on your blog increasing your ranking, and your readers may also remember your site
If you had not chosen your niche, read my article in which I shared my ways to select a profitable blogging niche.
4. Not writing Quality content
Not writing quality content is another mistake that every amateur blogger make
If you want to rank your content on the google, you should write quality and original content
By quality content I mean your content should solve readers problem, Your Reader should get the information they are searching for.
If you think you cannot write good content hire a writer from freelancing site like Fiverr, Upwork.
You can post on our Facebook group there are many content writer there or contact us we have a lot of them we will share their details with you.
Use of incorrect Grammar
You Should write grammatically correct content as the meaning of your sentence can change entirely if your content is grammatically wrong. Your readers may also stop trusting as they may think that if the writers’ grammar is incorrect, what will he teach me
And Google also hates grammar errors as they know some people also read blogs to improve their English
You can install a free chrome extension of Grammarly to write grammatically correct content once you start making money you can also invest in a paid plan like we do.
5. Writing for search engines
Many new bloggers think that they have to include lots and lots of Keyword to rank in the search engine and they start doing keyword stuffing which is a horrible idea
If you write for search engine, it will also decrease the readability of the article which means any reader comes on your page and try to read it will be very difficult for him to understand what the writer wants to say
You have to understand that Google is a search engine and Google wants to give the best experience to their Reader
I would highly suggest you write according to the users not for the search engine as if your readers don’t like the content Google will get this signal and de-ranked your site and you will never be able to rank your website, but if you write for your readers and they like that content Google will get this signals that readers like the content and Google will rank you higher in the search result
I would highly recommend you to write for the readers, not for the search engines.
6. Not working on on-page SEO
Many bloggers don’t do on-page SEO on their site, which is a massive mistake as on-site SEO is the only thing they can control
Common on-page SEO strategies include optimizing title tags, quality content, internal linking, external linking, etc.
I will quickly cover some of the essential things you can take care of while doing on-page SEO or while writing your blog post.
Internal linking
Internal linking is an excellent way to do your on-page SEO
when you do internal linking, you also increase the chance that your user reading your one article will read your another post as it will be related to the same niche
This way you get the benefits of a backlink, and your readers will read your related article as well, which will lead to higher ranking
Website Speed
Website Speed is also critical on-page SEO factor you can control you will have to invest on good website hosting, and you must install a caching plugin like W3 total cache or WP rocket
by the studies, It is seen that right having good website speed generally rank higher on Google
you can also use content delivery network CDN which will it boosts your site speed
Use Unique, Keyword-Rich Meta Descriptions
You should use keywords in a meta description for that whenever someone is searching for the term there is a better chance that you are ranking higher in the Google and if your Reader can see the Keyword in the meta description than it is more likely that Reader visit your blog
Use unique keywords as it can increase the click-through ratio and better site ranking
Optimize Your URLs for SEO
Try to include your main keyboard as it will help you to increase your site ranking
try to keep your URL short as much as you can
I will recommend you to have a URL having less than five words in the beginning when you are targeting long-tail Keyword
Use External (Outbound) Links
Use outbound links on your website as well because it boosts the authority of your site when you link to a related webpage of yours Google will get the signals that this website is related to that topic and Google will trust your site as you are also providing value to your readers
Use Target Keyword In First 100 Words of your blog post
Use your target keyword in the first 100 words of your post will boost your ranking and your Reader will also get the sense that they are on the right page
You can use WordPress SEO plugin Rankmath It will provide some of the suggestions and checklist by doing which you can improve your on-page SEO
Read backlinko’s article on On-Page SEO to understand on-page SEO in detail
7. Not targeting right keywords
Not targeting the right keywords is also a big mistake, usually many bloggers who are just starting their journey target keywords that have a large amount of search volume and think that they will get at least a small number of visitors on their blog, but it is not true.
When you are starting your blogging journey, you should start with keywords having very low keyword difficulty even if that Keyword doesn’t have much of the search volume.
You must be thinking that how to know the search volume of a keyword, so I would like to tell you that you can use free tools like Google keyword planner and Paid tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.
Claim SEMrush free trial from here
8. Not Doing Proper Competition Research
Not taking care of the competition of your site is also a mistake many bloggers make
You must do a property competition research before you start writing your blog post as it will help you to plan out how we should work so that you can rank higher in minimum time
If there is a lot of competition in your niche, then you will have to target long-tail keywords first which have comparatively less search volume and having less you Keyword difficulty
But if there is no or very less competition you can work on Keyword which has a very search volume
You can also Leverage your competition work to find the keyword ideas which you can easily rank on for this you will need to have a Keyword research tool Iike SEMrush which will give you a list of Keyword which you can easily rank on or on which your competitors are ranking and driving traffic on their site
9. Not Having proper Post URL Structure
Many bloggers made this mistake of not to changing the blog URL
Many people blog URL looks like
- https://bloggingpartner.com/?p=123
- https://bloggingpartner.com/2020/07/25/sample-post/
- https://bloggingpartner.com/2020/07/sample-post/
- https://bloggingpartner.com/archives/123
Which is not a good thing
So I would recommend you that when you are setting up your wordpress site, change your URL structure to post type
Follow these steps to change these settings
- Login in to your WordPress website
- In your Dashboard, you will find settings
- Click on settings and then select permalinks
- Select Post Name as your default or you can select Custom and put /%postname%/ in the space provided
- Click on Save Changes
10. Not having Important Pages in your site
Not creating some of the important pages is very common mistakes which can be harmful if you apply for Google AdSense or any affiliate program
Some affiliate programs will not provide you access to their affiliate links if you don’t have these important pages on your site
- Privacy policy
- Terms of service
- About us
- Contact page
- Disclaimer
- Refund Policy
- Sitemap
You can use sites like PrivacyTerms.io , TermsFeed.com to create some of you important pages
Note: You would have to make some of the changes in those terms and privacy pages as these site create legal pages for US based sites. You should consult a lawyer for creating legal pages
11. Not having a good Blog design
I know as a newbie, you don’t have that much investment to make in your blog when you especially when you are not making any money from your blog.
When you are starting your blog, I will highly recommend you to invest some money in awesome premium themes as free themes don’t provide many functionalities like
- A free theme doesn’t provide support
- Most of the free theme is not SEO optimized
- Many free themes are not Mobile optimized
- The free theme has limited features and options
- Free themes are slow
- Free themes are not customizable
Some of the Free themes are not secure
I would highly suggest you to invest in premium themes like GeneratePress or Astra
You can also use drag and drop page builder like Elementor or Thrive Architect which is very easy to use and you will be able to design your page without need of hiring a developer to customize your design
12. Copy content without providing source
Many of the new bloggers just copy and paste content from others, and they don’t even give credits to them.
If you copy content from any site than google hates that as Google has to index the information which it already has
Copied content is Known as plagiarism content you can use tools like Grammarly to check if your content is in category of copied content or not
If you want to rank your site on a search engine, then your should always write original content, If for any reason, you have to copy the content, then don’t forget to give a link to them as the source link.
13. Building Backlinks without having enough content
Bloggers think like a building backlink is the only way to get your site rank on google search result as they have come to know about backlinks from somewhere
Agree that are building backlinks is a way to rank your site but a building lots and lots of Batman straight away when you start a new blog is a very bad idea
Many bloggers in that they will write two or three blog post and start building backlinks on them and think that they will get ranked
But the truth is to you have to build around 20 to 30 quality blog post first and then start making backlinks because backlinks are a way google like to think that if someone is linking to them that they then it should be a good site
But in real life, if you have only 2 or 3 posts, there is very little chance that someone will link to you
So I will recommend you to first have to create lots of posts, and then you have to start building backlinks
Instead of building invest your time and money in building content for your blog when you are just starting your blog
And make sure that you make backlinks on sites which are related to your topic, you can also spy your competitors backlink profile to outrank them
you use tools like SEMrush to analyse their backlink data
14. Not linking to others
Many bloggers think that if they link to others, their readers will go to other sites and will start following them instead of your site, but it’s not true.
If you link to others, your readers will be thankful that you shared a useful resource to them
And also if you link to other quality sites which is related to your niche google will also understand that you provide value to your readers and Google will also get the signals that your site is related to which topic
15. Not publishing Blog Consistently
Consistency is very important for blogging success. You should write a blog post regularly. If you follow this google will get good signals, google will crawl your site regularly, and in this way, your site will rank higher
Even your blog readers will also become you, followers, they will come back regularly to your site to read the latest post
I know sometimes it will be difficult to find topics for your blogs, for that follow below steps
- You can use sites like Quora, Reddit, and even Facebook groups to understand what people are searching for and write an article on that
- When you get the keyword do research on google and find the top 10 to 15 articles on that term
- Analyze what they are talking about in that article and what may people like in them
- Create an outline using those blog and then start writing posts on them
If you think that you cannot write consistently you can hire writers from freelancing sites like Fiverr or from many different Facebook groups
16. Working on-site optimization, not on content
Many bloggers make this mistake the thing that they think that their side should look the best from the beginning, so they work on logos branding and all that stuff for months and months but not work on the piece of content they should publish to get traffic, and they think that they have worked so much on their blog, but they are not getting results
This same mistake I also made with this blog as well, I have invested so much of my time in just designing the blog and not writing the content.
But now, whenever and create any new blog, I do focus on writing content first when I start getting traffic and then focus on branding.
I would highly recommend that you should focus more on writing content in the beginning
When you start getting traffic on your blog that you can do this work
17. Ignoring list building
Ignoring list building is one of the mistakes which I made when I started my blogging journey, I started Building my list After 1 Year as I don’t know about it in the beginning and no one told me why it is important
Building a list is very important as it will be your targeted audience which will help you to drive traffic and generate revenue for your blog
If you have started your blog but not yet started list building than start it now, building a list is one the best way to grab your audience
You must be thinking how list building will help you
You already know that google keeps on changing the ranking algorithm time to time, and maybe one day it may happen that you lose your website ranking all the traffic which was coming on your blog will disappear and you will start losing your review
But if you have list of your audience you can send them a mail and you will get targeted audience on your site and will gain traffic which is a good sign and you may start ranking again
If you have a good list you can also promote a product to your customer which will help them to solve their problem
Now question arises which email marketing software should you use
There are a lot of email marketing tools in the market but what I recommend to you is ConvertKit
Why?
Because I have tried few of email marketing tools for my this site, my clients Site and some of my other blogs and found ConvertKit best
Features of ConvertKit
- Free Unlimited landing Page Builder with fully customizable templates
- Integration with lots of tools like Elementor, Teachable, Shopify and so on
- Responsive templates
- Access to A/B testing
- Ability to organize your subscribers from one email list with tags and segments
- Automated funnels and Email Sequence
- Free List Migration Service
- Offers a free plan which can be useful to build a list of 1k subscribers (they recently introduced their free plan)
- And Much More
Delivery rate of email in Primary tab is also very Good of ConvertKit, and because of it I am now able to connect with my audience more
Create A Free ConvertKit Account upto 1000 Subscriber from here
18. Not having a clear monetization strategy.
A lot of bloggers when they start blogging they don’t know how they can monetize their blog, most of the new bloggers start their blog thinking that they can monetize it by placing ads on their site
But the truth is their many times at the Google AdSense don’t approve your blog then will do what for you don’t get so much of traffic that you can earn from it, and you have to pay more cost of the hosting then you are getting from the AdSense
A lot of bloggers when they start blogging they don’t even know how they were going to monetize their blog
When you have a clear monetization strategy in my from the beginning you can take care of many things from the beginning like
- Writing content that complies with google guidelines if you are applying for Adsense
- You may design your blog in a way that when you get an approval of any affiliate or Adsense you can quickly add or edit one thing and will get implemented without breaking anything
- You may focus your content in a way which can increase your earnings like you decided to monetize your blog with ads than you may have to write content which brings more traffic but if you are writing for affiliate you may have to create review like content
So having a clear monitization strategy may help a lot in long run
Like I know I will monetize this blog via affiliate links so even if I don’t have the affiliate link of any product I create a custom link for that product and use it everywhere, whenever I will get approval I will simply update that link with my affiliate link
You can use Link manager WordPress plugin like PrettyLinks
19. Scared to invest
Many bloggers are scared to invest, but believe me. You are making a very big mistake. I also made the same mistake when I started my blogging journey.
I was also scared to invest, but after some time, I understood that Investment is important. I invested in good hosting, premium themes and plugins
Think this way, If you thought of starting any business like opening a shop or selling products, you must have to make a lot of Investment in the beginning, and there is a lot of risks involved like some of the products will get expired or get damaged
But in online business you don’t these types of risk involved even then people hesitate to invest in online business
I would suggest you to take blogging as a business and do investments in it
You should invest in quality hosting, premium theme, plugins and also some of the tools to do keyword research like SEMrush, Email marketing tools, page builder tools, etc
