The 5 Reasons No one's Reading Your Blog (And How To Fix It)

Be honest, how much time do you really spend writing your blog?

Is it an effortless 30-minute outpouring of your vast knowledge onto a page, followed by a quick formatting and optimisation session that has you posting your piece of perfection online within the hour?

Or, as one report suggests, is it more of a marathon effort? 

I hope it makes you feel better to know that, on average,  56% of bloggers spend 6 hours writing a blog post and that the average length of their offering to the blogging gods is more than 1,200 words. 

So, after you’ve put in all this effort, it can be totally disheartening to see that no one’s actually reading the bloody thing.

But, you’re not alone; there are plenty of “dead blogs” that see virtually no traffic, but I don’t want all your hard work to be consigned to the internet’s graveyard.

So today, I’m going to take you through the 5 main reasons no one’s reading your blog, and I’m going to give you 5 ways you can fix it so that the people you want to be working with can benefit from the skills and the knowledge your sharing in your blog.

Ready to find out what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it?

Good, let’s jump in.

Reason ​​1. Your Headline Isn’t Compelling Enough.

To get people to read your blog, you need to start with the basics, which brings us to your headline. 

Your headline pretty much determines whether people click on your blog post, so if your headline is boring or not relevant to your target audience, they’ll have little reason to click.

Google also thinks that a low number of clicks on new posts means a lower quality website which can indirectly impact your rankings as well as your domain authority. 

How To Fix It - Learn How To Write Compelling Headlines

So, to fix this, you need to write more compelling headlines!

Engaging headlines will immediately improve your click-through rate (CTR) on blog posts, and remember, if people are clicking on blog posts, they are also staying on your site for longer, which reduces your bounce rate and improves your ranking. 

But writing compelling headlines is another thing altogether, especially when you’re under pressure to make it unique, bold, engaging and targeted!

So I suggest using a tool like the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. With this free tool, you can input your idea for a headline and then run an analysis on it to get a headline score and information on how to improve it in terms of…

• Skimmability
• Clarity
• Reading Grade Level
• Word Balance 
• Sentiment 
• And more…

Reason 2. Your Blog Isn’t Optimised For SEO.

Next, let’s consider SEO. Without the right SEO strategies in place, people will struggle to find your blog when searching online. Instead, they’ll end up reading someone else’s, and yours will remain unread and unloved.

How To Fix It - Use My SEO Checklist

To fix this, you need to learn the basics of SEO and how to optimise your blog so the search engines find it and put it in front of the people who need to read it.

You need to use your target keywords strategically throughout your blog, including the title and the body of the content. And you also need to optimise your meta description with your keyword so both Google and your readers know exactly what a post is about. 

I’ve written you a blog that sets out EXACTLY what steps you need to take to optimise your blog for search engines. So, once you're finished here, have a read of How To Write an SEO Friendly Blog Post; it even has an SEO checklist for you to keep by your desk!

How To Fix It - Improve Your Blog’s Page Speed

You can also improve your blog's readability by improving page speed.

Page speed can be improved by choosing the right hosting service and removing junk code from your pages. A tool like HTML-Cleaner can be useful if you are unsure where to begin when removing code like this. 

It will show you where the code is and let you remove it at the click of a button. Nice!

Once you start using SEO in your blogs, you’ll start to see a slow but steady increase in traffic to your website, and eventually, you’ll see your blog showing up on page one of the search results pages (SERPS), and you’ll start ranking for your target keywords and terms. 

Reason 3. You’re Not Writing About The Things Your Audience Want Help With.

Look, if you're using it to market your business, blogging is not a case of “write it, and they will read”.

If no one’s reading your blog, it’s likely because you’re not creating the content your audience wants to see. Quite simply, you need to write about what they want help with.

Of course, there’s a place for your musings and “what I did on my holiday” posts, but if you’re blogging to drive traffic to your website and introduce them to your expertise, then make sure most of your posts are about things that are relevant to your business, and that are aligned to your target audience’s interests.

If you’re not, your readers either won’t click on your blog at all, or they’ll have a quick look and click away, which is not good, as this increases your bounce rate and gives Google the heebie-jeebies as far as moving your website up the rankings!

How To Fix It - Do Your Keyword Research

This issue is SO worth fixing! 

You won’t just gain more readers, you’ll also see higher levels of engagement too, which can do wonders for your ranking.

And what you need to do is make sure you do your keyword research. 

You can use Google Analytics to find out what your audience is interested in and searching for, and you can find out what your audience is looking for help with by doing simple Google searches. You can also explore trending topics related to your blog online. 

Here’s a great blog giving you the low down on all the best free keyword research tools you can use to get started, so you can find out what your target audience is actually looking for.

Reason 4. Ah, Ms. Bond, We Weren’t Expecting You!

One of the main reasons no one’s reading your post might simply be that they don’t know you have a blog they can read. 

If you’re not posting very often or showing up consistently, then it’s unlikely they’ll be looking out for your latest blog posts, and any readers you did have will stop looking out for your posts. 

Humans love patterns and routines, and when you establish a consistent blogging rhythm, your readership increases.

Your readers will know when to expect a new post or an update from you, and you can prime them to expect a blog post and a chance to interact with you at a certain time every week. 

How To Fix It - Create A Content Plan and Stick To It.

If you are not great at planning and you find yourself staring at a blank screen, wondering what to write and then telling yourself it doesn’t matter if you put it off for just one more week, then you need a content plan!

Now you’ve done your keyword research; you know what your readers want to hear about, so sit down one morning or whenever you feel most inspired and write a list of blog ideas you can use over the next 12 weeks. 

Then, when that blinking cursor is goading you, you can whip out your content planner and put it firmly in its place!

In terms of setting a blogging cadence, try for once a week and at least twice a month.

Reason 5. Your Blog’s Not Formatted Properly 

If your blog is difficult to read, then people are going to take one look at it and click away.

Poor formatting is one of the biggest turn-offs for online users, so if you have issues with formatting, font, structures or blog post layout, then readers won’t be sticking around. 

Now, this could be an issue with the blog template you’re using. In which case, you’ll need to find a friendly website designer who’s up on SEO and can design a better template for you, but most of the time, it’s something you can sort out yourself.

How To Fix It - Fix Your Headings and Paragraphs

The most important thing you can do is make sure you have a great heading structure.  

Your blog needs an H1 heading with your keyword in it, and then you need to use heading hierarchy from there on in.  Use H2 for subheadings and H3s for points within a subheading etc.

Make sure your paragraphs are short.  Paragraphs that are only three sentences long will be best and make sure you use a subheading to make your blog posts easier to read, skim through and break down. 

Remember, most readers will only spend a maximum of 5 minutes reading a typical blog post, so you need to make it easy for them.

Try and use plenty of white space, use bulleted lists where possible and if relevant, use images to support your points. 

What To Focus On First

I hope this blog has given you some insight into why no one is reading your blog posts and, most importantly, has given you some hope that it’s not that you’re a terrible writer or your blog is dreadful; it’s just that you might not be writing about the right things, and you’re most probably not packaging them up so Google can put them in front of the people who actually want to read them.

I’d get started with keyword research, then I’d plan out my blog posts and the headlines I’d use for the next 12 weeks, and then I’d get writing, making sure I was structuring it properly as I went along. Then once I’d finished writing, I’d make sure it was fully optimised (using that checklist I told you about).

If you make sure you do this, you WILL get people reading your blog, and with that increased traffic, a boosted online presence, and of course, more leads and, ultimately, sales. 

So, let me know when you are going to write your next blog and what’s the topic!