As a blogger, I usually enjoy reading other blogs, in fact, I do it almost every day. But have you ever stumbled upon a blog post that you were interested in reading and exited the page right away? Oh, I have many times! These blogging mistakes make me cringe when I see them happen.

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As a beginner blogger, you will probably quickly become confused with all the information floating around on the internet of what to do or what not to do on your blog.

Sometimes there are no real good answers, you just have to test what works for you or what doesn’t.

This list is what personally irritates me the most on blogs. If they bother me, then there are others that feel the same way.

If you’re getting a high bounce back rate on your blog, you might be making some of the following blogging mistakes. Here is my list of 6 reasons I did not read your blog post.

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1. Your Blog Has Pop-Ups

Who else thinks these are the most annoying thing on the internet to date? I think many of us can agree on this one, that this is a huge turn-off.

You shouldn’t be asking people to sign up for your email list as soon as they arrive on your website.

They have not even gotten a chance to read the first sentence and you have this ridiculous pop-up thrown in their face already. You’re not even giving them a chance to look at your content and decide for themselves.

Then you have the pop-ups where you can’t even find the exit button. Right there I will just hit the back button on my browser and not even consider going back to your website.

2. You’re Being Crude Or Rude When You Write

I am by no means a goody two shoes or someone who is sensitive or easily offended. I am a 41-year-old woman who enjoys watching South Park and Family Guy, so for me to make this claim says a lot.

With that being said, I do believe if you are running a business you need to act in a professional manner, no matter what type of business it is. If you have a blog, you’re most likely trying to make money doing it so why wouldn’t you act professionally?

I completely understand blog posts are written in a conversational manner and should be in your own voice. Being funny or witty is great, writing like your talking to your buddies at the bar is a whole other situation.

I came across this recently and that is what actually sparked the idea for this article. The funny thing is their blog design was great. I couldn’t find anything else wrong with their blog. But I only made it through the first paragraph and I just hit the back button. Maybe they had the ‘I don’t care this is my blog and I’ll do what I want if you don’t like it don’t leave’ attitude?

The problem with that attitude is if you’re trying to make money from your blog you are alienating a big portion of your readers and potential advertisers as well. The thing is, you don’t know who is reading your blog. Acting like a jerk is just going to drive people away.

3. Your Blog Post Looks Like One Big Blog Of Words

Seriously, if I wanted to read a novel I would pick up a book. One of the worst things you can do is just have paragraph after paragraph of nothing but words, one big blob of unsightly words.

You need to find the right balance between words and added media. Having one long paragraph that doesn’t end will lose your readers. They will get bored and leave.

Try breaking up content with headlines, bullets, and numbers. Use short paragraphs and plenty of white space.

Give your readers something to look at. Add a few media items such as pictures, videos, screenshots, graphs, charts, or gif’s. Do NOT go overboard though because that can backfire quickly. I’ve seen too much going on in a blog post and that turned me off as well. When there’s too much chaos going on it’s hard to focus.

Which leads to the next major blog offense.

4. Your Blog Has Too Many Ads

I get it, we’re all trying to make a living and hopefully turn our blogs into a full-time income. But cluttering up your blog with unrelated ads can make it look messy.

To me, certain ads cheapen your blog and make it appear sleazy. It’s like some guy in an alley trying to sell you stolen car stereos out of his trunk of his car.

Most readers nowadays have become wise to this sort of advertising and find it distracting. My advice is to find others ways to monetize your blog.

5.  You Do Not Have A Responsive Website

If you didn’t know already a responsive web design automatically takes the content and various features of a standard website and reformats it to fit all screen sizes.

So basically it will look great and work well on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

Did you know that as of 2019 there are 2.71 billion (yes billion) people that own a smartphone? I mean come on, almost everyone you know has one, even my 88-year-old grandmother does! Considering over half of internet searches are done using a smartphone, not having a responsive web design would be the death of your blog.

In 2015, Google rolled out a change to the search engine algorithms which now factor in a website’s mobile presence as a ranking signal. This reason alone can justify why responsive design is important!

6. Your Page Load Time Is Slow

Anyone remember AOL dial-up internet? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

via GIPHY

The internet has come a long way since then. Thankfully, the majority of us have access to the internet with the click of a mouse. With increased internet speeds we have become spoiled and we expect things to appear immediately.

With these expectations, we have become extremely impatient. If your website is taking too long to load I won’t even bother. Ain’t nobody got time for that! There a million other blogs I can go to for probably the same information so why am I going to waste my time waiting around for yours?

I highly recommend getting a premium theme built on the Genesis framework. These are widely used by many bloggers and for good reason. Not only do they have mobile-ready responsive designs, it will also make your site faster, more secure, and more SEO friendly.

Personally, I use Hello You Designs themes on both of my blogs. They are gorgeous, feminine, and work great.

Final Thoughts

If you want to increase your followers and reduce your bounce rate you should consider fixing these issues. Is there any other blog mistakes that you can think of that turn you off? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading!

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