I've found that a huge number of bloggers fall into one of two categories:
- Aspiring writers who find every reason to quit before they have a chance to succeed, and
- Accidental successes who've grown a following but have no idea what to do with it.
That's hardly an exhaustive list of blogger archetypes, but it's a good place to start.
The aspiring blogger makes perhaps the most common, and biggest, mistake of all. Usually it starts with self-criticism:
What was I thinking? No one cares about this stuff.
Then it progresses to "being realistic." They tell themselves, "Even if I write something interesting, no one's actually going to find it."
And finally it reaches its natural conclusion: "Forget this, I quit."
I shouldn't have to say it, but that's the number one mistake bloggers make: they stop blogging. To succeed, you have to keep going, even when you don't feel like it. Plenty of successful bloggers have written that it took a year or two of consistent publishing before they saw real results.
These days, though, more isn't automatically better. Google's helpful content system rewards genuinely useful, people-first writing, so the goal is content that's both consistent and worth reading, not just frequent. So take heart, keep at it, and make each post count.
If you keep blogging, here are nine more common (but easy to fix) mistakes to avoid:
1. Not Citing Your Sources
One of the best tools a blogger has is the humble hyperlink. Cite your sources and link out to credible references, even to competitors, when it makes your post more useful. It builds trust with readers and signals to Google that your content is well-researched, part of what it calls E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). Good attribution makes you look more credible, not less.
2. Not Linking to Your Own Posts
Internal links help readers discover more of your relevant content, and they help Google understand how your site fits together and what topics you're an authority on. When you reference something you've already covered, link to it naturally.
3. Cluttering Your Pages with Eye Candy
Oversized images, autoplay video, and bloated plugins make a site pretty but slow, and speed matters more than ever. Google measures real-world page experience with Core Web Vitals, and a slow page frustrates visitors (many leave before it even finishes loading) and can drag down your rankings. Keep your pages clean, fast, and easy to load.
4. Caring More About SEO Than Your Audience
Yes, be smart with keywords in your titles and headings, but don't overdo it. Keyword stuffing has been dead for years, and it's a turnoff for readers. Write for people first. This isn't just good manners; it's how Google ranks now. Its helpful content system, part of the core algorithm since 2024, rewards genuinely helpful, people-first content and demotes pages written mainly to game search engines. Show real experience and expertise, and the SEO tends to follow.
5. Making It Hard to Engage
It's tempting to switch on WordPress comments and leave it at that. That works, but make engaging easy and worthwhile: tools like Disqus or social logins lower the barrier to commenting, and actually replying to comments builds a community around your blog. Just stay on top of spam.
6. Not Selling Anything
Everyone likes to pretend money doesn't matter, but a little extra income never hurts, and it's a great motivator to keep blogging. Whether it's books through Amazon's affiliate program, your own e-books, or branded merch, selling things your readers actually want adds value for them and gives you a useful measure of success. One rule: always disclose affiliate links and sponsored content. The FTC requires it, and it protects the trust you've worked to build.
7. Ignoring Google Search Console
This one has flipped since the early days of blogging. Back then, manually "submitting" your URL through spammy add-your-site services was pointless. Today, you should absolutely help Google find your content: set up Google Search Console and submit your sitemap so Google can reliably crawl and index your pages. Pair that with earning natural inbound links, and you've covered both how Google discovers your site and how it judges its credibility.
8. Using Cutesy Fonts
Unless you're a calligraphy company, skip the exotic fonts (and even then, skip them). Web fonts like Google Fonts display reliably across browsers now, so the old worry about support is gone, but readability still rules. Nobody leaves because your site is set in a clean sans-serif. Plenty will leave if it's in Comic Sans.
9. Spending All Your Time on Your Own Blog
Get out into your community. Comment thoughtfully on relevant blogs, share and discuss other people's work, and look for collaborations. The more genuinely you participate, the more your name (and your blog) gets noticed. One caution: don't drop links in blog comments to chase SEO. That's comment spam, and Google ignores or penalizes it. Aim for real relationships and visibility, not link-dropping.
Bonus: Please don't tack a forced conclusion onto every post just because your high school English teacher said to. If you've said what you came to say, stop. Something witty or memorable is a nice way to wrap up, and a call to action is good too, but neither is required.
The bottom line: Those are 10 of the most common mistakes I see bloggers make. Avoid them and you're already halfway there. Remember, blogging is fun, and it can be rewarding both financially and personally. Keep at it and you'll do fine. And if you'd like help turning your blog into a real source of traffic and leads, see how our SEO team can help.
This is part of our guide to marketing your small business online.
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