Creating great content is a fundamental element of a successful blog or brand. Given how SEO factors into how most websites operate, many people are already aware of this simple fact. Even e-commerce stores and businesses are finding out that the lack of quality content can hurt their visibility, engagement and sales. If you have been focused on producing content in order to appease the Google Gods and their minions, then it can be very disheartening to discover that few people are actually sticking around to read what you’re saying. If you’re struggling with bounce rates or average time on page stats, then keep reading to find out what you can do to fix it.

You’re Selfish

Let’s face it: we like to talk about ourselves. Most of us are guilty of doing too much talking and not enough listening, and that is definitely true in the world of online marketing and self-promotion. The only problem is that focusing too much on yourself or your brand can be a death-knell in the world of online content creation. Especially for businesses that revolve around selling products and services, the need to incorporate your brand’s mentions casually is paramount. People want to read content that is engaging, entertaining and informative. They don’t want to read something that reads like a marketing pitch or is entirely “me, me, me”. Abandon this approach unless you want to be pinging noise at visitors who promptly hit the back button.

You’re Boring

What may be interesting to us might not be interesting to our readers. It is important to have a fundamental understanding of what your audience cares about, for reasons relating to everything from marketing to engagement. Content that doesn’t inspire emotion or satisfy specifics within a deep niche can all too often fall short with readers. People expect to be either informed or entertained by anything they read. If your approach is completely monotone, devoid of specifics or otherwise framed in a way that doesn’t interest most readers, then you’re bound to lose their attention spans very quickly. Even small blogs should invest in some research – even if it’s just social media outreach or online polls – to figure out what their readers want to hear.

You’re Bad at Writing

Nobody wants to hear that they’re bad at what they’re doing. In the world of blogging and content creation in particular, this can be a depressing and demoralizing reality. If the subject you’re covering is one where there is interest, however, then it doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the world. There are multiple ways to approach this. For starters, you could take some writing classes and research what constitutes good writing. Likewise, and if you’re in the position, you could hire a freelancer writer or copywriter to help create more engaging content. In this situation, a copywriter can be good not only for fixing your lack of engagement issue, but can also be great for improving overall SEO.

Don’t be dismayed. Many bloggers and brands run into this problem sooner or later. We all start from scratch and learn as we go. The good news is that all of these potential problems can be addressed so that you’re not just pinging noise at people.