If your business’s website has a blog, it can be disheartening to put a lot of work into it only to see little to no engagement within it. Blogging is a big part of content marketing. When done right, it can actually help your site grow and improve your business’s online presence. It’s a great white hat SEO tactic and lead generation tool rolled into one.

“But why is no one reading my blog posts?” you may ask. You may be asking this if you checked Google Analytics and didn’t see any traffic to these pages (maybe there is, but you’re not looking past page 2 of the results! Hey, it’s possible.). Or, maybe you did everything ‘right’ according to the latest content marketing articles dispensing advice, and you’re still not seeing the results you want from it.

The answer to this question is multi-layered, but let’s take a look at the most common reasons why it’s likely people aren’t reading your blog posts and see what can be done about it.

  1. Too much content

Let’s face it, the amount of content people read online now is exponentially more than it used to be. According to one source, there are approximately 70 million blog posts published via WordPress daily. In comparison, according to another source, only 2 million blog posts per day were being published in 2012.

That’s a serious amount of competition and a ton of content to read. Can you imagine getting that amount of content on your desk in hard copy? The number of pages would reach beyond the moon (and then some).

So, you can probably imagine how a customer must feel to see tons of articles on what they’re looking for and so many results because of it. This is why according to one study about 95% of people rely on page 1 of search engines for information.

So, how do we approach this dilemma? How can we stand out above the vast sea of information and not drown in it?

What to do: the answer is a simple one: start reading. Start reading the first few results of the blog topics you really want your website to stand out for online. Are they answering people’s questions (you can find these on Google’s front page also, in the section “People Also Ask:”.)? Do they cover topics you only partially address in your blog? Or do they skip a section that you have a lot of expertise in, and that customers need help with?

If you glean something along those lines from the blogs you read, the next thing to do is also simple: write a blog post. Use keywords and phrases that you know people will use in the content, but don’t make them the focal point; the content you write must be written for a human and not robots, after all. When you’re done, post it online.

Rinse, and repeat.

While you’re doing all of this, you need to be 3 things:

  • Be patient. Results from blog posts take their time.
  • Be consistent. Just because you posted one blog post, doesn’t mean you’re done. Keep posting and promoting the blog everywhere else.
  • Be positive. You may think because there’s so much content, it’s not worth the time and effort, but the reality is the opposite. Content marketing and blogging is continuing to expand and prove useful to businesses of all types as time goes on. If you know you can contribute something that others aren’t, let people know! Useful content will never go ignored.
  1. You’re not sharing enough

Social media is an essential tool in terms of content marketing and blogging. Not sharing your blog posts on these sites is the same as refusing to hand out business cards at a networking event. If you ever thought “If I build it, they will come,” applied to blogging as well, you’d be wrong—how will people come if they don’t know about it?

What to do: if you promote the fact your blog exists, more people may be inclined to visit it. Share your thoughts on your social media of choice. There are several articles we’ve written about how to use social media to your advantage, but for those who can’t be bothered, the basic strategy is: create conversations, share others’ work as well as your own, and be consistent when posting. If posting daily feels overwhelming, you can always schedule it using an online tool.

  1. The SEO is turning black…

Search engine optimization (SEO) tactics have changed since blogging really launched in the past decade. What was considered ‘good’ content then now looks out of date, even obsolete. People have also grown since then, seeking out longer articles and more useful content than ever before. If you’ve been writing your content for Google all this time, you really need to take a step back from the computer screen and see what’s there…the SEO within those posts may be turning into the black-hat kind.

What to do: brush up on what’s what in terms of SEO, especially the white hat kind (we highly recommend our white vs. black hat SEO article to start!). Next, conduct some keyword research; the keywords and phrases people may be looking up now are probably very different compared to then. Afterwards, scrub away all of the black hat tactics you’re possibly using in your blog. Delete old articles that serve no purpose (not even to yourself), or expand upon what you have. Don’t forget to check up on your Google Analytics to see which blog posts are performing the best; maybe it’s a good time to reshare that article?

  1. Your content needs more work

Maybe it’s been a while since you last published a blog post, or you have a blog but have only worked on it a little since it was first initiated. Whatever the reason may be, there are business owners who are great at being just that, the business owner, but they don’t excel as much in the writing department. This sense of inconsistency leads to a lot of issues we’ve seen on sites: posts that are outdated, keyword-stuffed content, posts that consist of a sentence and a link and that’s it…the list can go on.

What to do: there’s no harm in taking a look at your old content and then recycling what’s there. It’s got potential to be expanded upon since enough time has passed and things have changed. Take your content a little further by using synonym keywords as opposed to trying to stick the one unnatural, yet widely searched, keyword that people look up. Again, be sure to share this revamped content on social media.

  1. You don’t know what a blog is or how it can help your site

If this is the reason, you’re missing out! Content marketing is continuing to grow as an organic means of engaging with and converting people merely visiting your website into loyal customers. With the tech and trends shifting from year to year, it can feel overwhelming to start blogging now, but if you don’t, or you refuse to expand your understanding of this form of promotion for your business, then you won’t see any growth to your website period.

What to do: have a blog installed on your site by our professionals at V3, or at the very least, get a new website if your current one doesn’t feature a blog and you’d like to get one. It’s easier to do that than to update a site, because the tech and software used to support it now may not be enough to support any new pages or features.

Hiring a professional agency to help you take care of your blog is also a solution if you feel you don’t have enough time. Not only do we help build beautiful websites, but also content is one of our services. Whether you need a new site to support your blog properly, or you’d like an extra pair of eyes to see how your site’s faring, give us a call.