10 Reasons No One is Reading Your Blog
Do you ever wonder why no one is reading your blog?
At the beginning of my blogging journey, I spent a lot of time writing only to have my mom and a few friends actually read it (Thanks Mom).
Looking back, it was disheartening, frustrating, and very discouraging.
This was basically how I spent my first 18 months blogging.
My readers were minimal, no comments, zero vitality, and subscribers were basically people I knew in real life.
Many times I thought about quitting but I knew that would never fix the problem.
Luckily I’ve learned from my mistakes (well most of them) and made huge progress in the last year.
If you’re struggling and thinking of giving up don’t! Keep at it — Remember that nothing great ever came easy.
Here are 9 BIG reasons why no one is reading your blog and how you can fix them to increase your traffic, money, happiness, and sanity.
1. You Write About You
It’s easy when you first start blogging to act like your blog is an online journal.
While your blog should be personalized, it should be focused on your reader.
People, for the most part, only care about themselves.
As a content creator, it’s your responsibility to give the reader what they want.
Before you hit publish on any post ask yourself, “What is the value my reader will get from reading this!?”
2. Your Topics Are All Over The Place
This is a very easy mistake to make when you first get started.
When you first start blogging it is important to write with some consistency on one topic. You can have several categories but make sure it is all going towards the overall theme of your blog.
If you’re a personal finance blogger don’t write about food recipes.
If you’re a mommy blog don’t write about motivational quotes.
Not only will your readers be annoyed, Google will be confused on what your site is about and likely undercut your domain ranking.
Keep your topics consistent, at least in the beginning, to grow your audience and establish authority to Google.
3. You Have Zero Posting Schedule
As Gary Vee said, “The more content I put out, the lucker I seem to get.”
Have you ever started following a new blog and love getting their emails to your inbox only to have them vanish after a few weeks?
I know I have and also did the same in the past.
You have to create a consistent schedule to stay at the top of readers minds and also give Google fresh, new content. Pick a consistent schedule and stick to it.
It could be one day a week or two days per month (although I encourage more) but stick with it. You might skip a day or have something come up occasionally, that’s fine….but try to be 95% or more consistent with your schedule.
To stay consistent with your posting schedule stick to batch writing. This will help you create the most content and help get you ahead of schedule.
4. You Never Promote on Social Media
Do you suffer from imposter syndrome?
I know I did my entire first year (or more) of blogging.
Rarely, if ever, did I actually promote my content on a regular basis on social media channels. Then, once I got started I tried to be on each social media channel and eventually burned out.
Instead of trying to be Gary Vee (who has a social media team), focus on one or two platforms that will help you the move the needle.
Write epic content and be proud of your work. Don’t be afraid to share it with others!
If you are providing great content that will benefit people who are suffering in any way you are doing yourself a disservice by NOT promoting!
Get over imposter syndrome, create amazing content and promote the hell out of it.
Remember, you are only one post away from potentially changing your life!
5. Your Site is Ugly
First impressions are everything in life and your website is no different.
If someone lands your page and it is sloppy, unorganized, and littered with irrelevant ads they will most likely leave (quickly).
Even worse, if your site takes a while it to load people will exit before your content even loads!
My site used to load so slow it was cringeworthy (like 8 seconds).
Make sure your site provides a good user experience with a paid blog theme, relevant un-intrusive ads, and a fast loading time.
Trust me, your readers and Google will reward you!
6. Your Content Sucks
Even if your site loads quickly and creates a great user experience, bad content will always make readers leave.
If you’re just starting out know that some of your content probably isn’t great, it’s part of getting good at anything.
As Malcolm Gladwell says in his book Outliers, “It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert.”
How does that apply to blogging?
Just like it does to learning a new sport, starting a new side hustle, or writing on your first blog.
Everyone sucks at the beginning of anything new, that’s life.
While some people are more gifted writers than others, 99% of new bloggers will produce some bad (or in my case, really bad) content. But that’s part of the process!
I can hardly read stuff I published from the first 18 months but I’d rather have ok content that I can improve than never hitting publish at all.
If you stick with anything and want it to succeed enough you can figure it out. Blogging is no different.
Don’t be afraid to suck, be afraid to never try.
7. Not Writing With Specific Keywords
One of the biggest mistakes most people make when writing blog posts is neglecting keyword research prior to writing a post.
I know because I didn’t do this for nearly two years and WASTED so much time writing content no one read.
What’s the point of writing great posts if no one can find them?
Don’t neglect keyword research like I did, spend time researching keywords before you start writing.
One great post on page one of Google can produce readers (and income) for years to come.
8. Your Blog Has No Formatting
When I first started blogging I didn’t understand the importance of formatting a blog post. I would put H1 tags in the post, have an H4 follow an H2 … just rookie mistakes.
Luckily, this is an easy fix to help clean up your site quickly.
Basically, your headers provide an outline for Google on the content of your blog post. It will also help guide your readers through the natural flow of the blog post.
For example, your title will automatically be an H1 header when you input the title field in WordPress. As you write the post you will need to expand and use H2 for main headings and H3 for sub-headings. You might use H4 and H5 as well depending on the post.
9. Your Headlines are Boring
I remember reading a stat about email marketing that 80% of people will see your email but only 20% will click through. Yikes!
It’s easy to spend time on your post as it takes a while to create 800–3,000-word posts with epic content. But, if you have a lame, boring headline it won’t make readers want to click through.
Again, what’s the point of writing if no one ever reads it!?
Whether you use CoSchedule headline analyzer, buy an ebook, or read a ton of articles, make sure you prioritize creating click-worthy headlines.
The biggest rule about headlines is to educate the reader what your post is about. Don’t set super high expectations to only have a short post that doesn’t meet their expectations.
While you want them to be catchy you don’t want to lie to readers.
Here are some good ideas to get you started making headlines sexy:
- The Little Known Secret to (Insert what post is about)
- 89 Ways to Improve Your SEO (be bold and make a big list)
- What Everyone Should Know About (Insert topic)
- Are You Committing These (Insert topic)?
10. You Have No Backlinks
By posting on others sites you gain access to a new audience, grow your exposure, and create a backlink to their site.
The more backlinks from well-known sites you have the more Google will begin to realize the importance of your site and will rank you higher in search results. This strategy will take some time but should not be overlooked.
Make friends and reach out to fellow bloggers. Let them know you love their work and would love to contribute with a post!
Most of the time they will welcome guest posts and love giving their readers fresh new content.
Get People Reading Your Posts!
Blogging isn’t easy and if anyone tells you it is run the other way. But, I’ve proven to myself that it isn’t impossible to get people reading your blog.
While I’m still well short of my traffic goals, I am confident these tips will help you increase your page views dramatically!
Don’t be like me and spend all your time writing posts that no one will read.
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