Countless new blogs go live on the internet every single day. The process has evolved over more than two decades, and has become increasingly competitive, monetized and detailed. Most blogs that find success do so by focusing on a particular niche and serving up content that pleases a particular audience.

Despite the huge demand for blogs, the vast majority of bloggers fail to see their dreams realized. In many situations, these failures are directly tied to the content produced bloggers. If you’re planning on starting a new blog or simply want to avoid the mistakes of the past, keep reading to find out why bloggers often fail at content.

Cramming Everything Together

Most people looking for content to read online aren’t in pursuit of digital novels, but some bloggers must have missed the memo. Despite the fact that long-form content is desirable both by people and search engines, how that content is formatted truly matters.

Too many bloggers fail because they cram their content together, writing excessively long paragraphs that make following the flow of the content very difficult. For those who want to avoid pinging noise at audiences, using smaller paragraphs, headings and subheadings is absolutely critical to success.

Failing to Lead or Excite

With so much competition online these days, your blog posts must stand out in some way – or else face being ignored. In many cases, you only have one or two sentences to persuade your target audience to click and/or read your content.

This is why creating a captivating lead and title is so important in securing an audience. Whether users encounter your content via search or on social media, there’s minimal real estate in which to persuade the prospective reader to click and engage. While it may be unfortunate, this is why clickbait titles are such a common phenomenon these days.

Forgetting About Keywords

Above all else, writing blog posts and content for people is paramount. Nevertheless, search engines must have context clues to determine exactly who should see your content, and where they should see it.

Keyword research is an absolute must for bloggers who want to maximize visibility in search engines. By engaging in this research, bloggers can ensure not only that search engines are capable of assessing the content properly, but also that key topics and themes are covered properly (reducing any off-topic ramblings that might be off-putting to readers).

Writing Infrequently

Search engines and people alike prefer to read blogs that constantly publish new material. While not all bloggers write on the daily, having a reliable schedule that lets users know when to check back in can be a huge boost for engagement and retention.

This is why so many bloggers pre-write and schedule content to publish in advance: by having a steady stream of content, search engines know to check back and index regularly, and so do readers.

If you don’t want to be pinging noise out into the great digital ether, then following some simple rules is critical. By posting on a regular basis, researching the appropriate keywords, giving readers a lead that excites them and formatting content properly, you’ll be able to captivate readers and keep them coming back for more.