Maybe you’ve just started slinging content, or maybe you finally dusted off your analytics, but it can be frustrating if you’re not getting the page views and engagement you expected from your blog. Creating content for your website and social media is always a good idea. But if you’re doing it wrong, you are at best failing at the SEO game and at worse not producing the writing people are interested in reading. Let’s look at the common reasons your blog might be under-performing online.

The 3 Common Culprits: SEO, Reach, and Content

Whether you have the goal of promoting your business and getting leads or it’s pure passion, more people reading your blog is always better. Dust off your Google Analytics and take a look at the most common blog issues:

• SEO: Website traffic comes in many forms, but the one your blog should be pulling in the most is Organic traffic – traffic from search engines. This could be the problem if you’re not getting a lot of this traffic or searches for your blog topics aren’t bringing up your blogs.
• Reach: Second to search traffic, referral traffic from other websites and social media can be a valuable source of motivated readers. When this traffic is low, it’s often a sign you need to knock on more virtual doors and get more active in self-promotion – more on that in the next section.
• Content: If people are getting to your blog post but aren’t sticking around – low time on the page and a high bounce rate (people leaving your site after one page view), it might be your content – your writing, graphics, or a combination of the two.

Troubleshooting Your Blog

If your issues fall into one or more of the above issues, you’re in luck – these all have straightforward (though not always easy) solutions. With a bit of training and work, these blog issues can be repaired.

Improving Your Blog’s Ranking with Google

While blogs are one of the best options for SEO, they only work if you set it up right. You’ll need to build your posts around keywords – common searched-for phrases, and make sure your metadata (meta title, meta descriptions, and image alt-text) is good to go.

Promoting Your Blog on Social Media and Websites

Search engines can only do so much – you’ll also need to self-promote your blog. Social media is a great tool for this as blogs are ready-made content to share online. Also, think about other sites where your content may be shared. Learn more about those options in our Backlink Blog.

Improving Your Blog’s Writing and Graphics

Why are people clicking away from your blog? Assuming you’re not using clickbait titles, the three major culprits are: your graphics are unappealing or missing, your writing contains errors or is too dense, and you lack an easy way for people to act on your information. Here are some quick solutions:

• Invest in stock photography or learn how to make your own and feature it on the blog. Make versions of the graphic to share on social media as well.
• Make sure to run your writing through a spell checker (or another person for review). Think about breaking up your content with headers, bullet points, and additional graphics.
• Make sure to include calls to action! These links to your services and contact information allow users to quickly take action if they like what they see and want to know more.

Want to learn more? Check out our posts about writing blogs for every industry and how blogs translate into more traffic. If you’re interested in blogs but not interested in writing them, learn more about outsourcing your blogs. Vision Advertising has been helping businesses write blogs, build websites, and promote on social media for over 20 years! Contact us to find out how we can help you.