10 Critical Mistakes Bloggers Make and How to Avoid Them

When I was growing up, someone told me that - "every man makes mistakes". I believe in those words, why? Because making mistakes, is part of us; it is what build us and makes us who we are.

At some point, we all have made (and still making) some mistakes in this village called the blogosphere.

There are some mistakes you'll make that you won't know until someone tells you or point your direction to the error. Like leaving the default FAVICON of a theme, you bought instead of using yours.

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Sometimes, not correcting your mistake in time can negatively affect or ruin the future of your blog. So my advice is to always double-check your works and do research before implementing what you don't know about.

10 Critical Mistakes Bloggers Make and How to Avoid Them.

In the line of blogging, it is okay to make mistakes. But sincerely, there are some mistakes that shouldn't be made, don't you think?

Below are 10 critical mistakes most bloggers make knowingly or unknowingly...

Still using the default admin username?

Many blogs get hacked daily and one of the main reasons why these blogs get hacked is simply because they are still using the default admin login username or using their names as admin username.

If you are one of those bloggers that use their name as admin username, you are making a great mistake because someday, you will wake up and discovered you've been hacked.

How to Avoid this:

You will need to use a "hard to figure out" admin username when installing your WordPress or if you've already installed the WordPress platform, you will need to change that "admin" "your-name" and use something "hard to discover" as your admin username name.

Though it is almost impossible to change your admin username, but thank God, I have written a post on how to successfully change your username. So if you'd like to change your blog admin username, follow the link to change yours and protect your blog now.

Don't have an "about me" page

Many new bloggers believe that the "About Page" of a blog doesn't mean a thing so they ignore such vital information of letting their blog stand-out.

If you haven't learned anything about blogging, I'll teach you this: when a reader who loved reading your blog posts or a private investor who want to advertise with you visit your blog, they will first visit your "About me Page" to know more about you and maybe give you a contact from your info.

How to correct this:

Maybe you don't know how to create a good about me page. I'd recommend you to start by writing about yourself, your company and what the company is all about (if you have one). Add an image of yourself so people reading the "About me" page of your blog can get more familiar and personal :). And at the end, leave your contacts so they can get in touch (including your social networks pages)

Don't have a "contact" page

One of the most important things to think of about your blog is your contact page. "Contact" page is important, but many bloggers don't have one, I wonder why!

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It is important to have a contact page so your potential clients can reach you or your readers who want to get close and personal with you can contact you.

How to correct this:

If you don't have a contact me page, it is either you don't know the importance or you just don't know how to create one.

You can easily create a contact page simply by installing the " Contact form 7 " plugin and you will have a contact page in no time.

Having just too many plugins

Too much of everything is bad, we already know that. Taking too much of anything in, will do nothing but cause you harm.

Most of the blogs that have crash problems is usually caused by too many loads on their server. Sometimes, your hosting provider will have no choice but to either shut down your site or tell you to upgrade your plan because of the bandwidth you consume.

Aside that, search engine hates slow blogs and when your blog is too slow, you won't rank well in search engines.

Your plugin is one major cause of your blog being slow, and it's one of the things that will bring your blog down if not attended to...

How to avoid this

Reduce the amount of plugin you are using. Using up to 30 plugins will do nothing but slow down your blog and eventually, crash it.

Using 15+ plugins as your max is very much okay, other edition should be hand coding (manual input)

Not optimizing your images and blog

The images you use on your published post can slow your blog down if not attended to. And sometimes, the images used in your theme can also put weight on your server and cause your blog to load slowly.

How to avoid this:

There are some plugins that allow you to optimize your blog's images thereby, making your blog run faster.

Just optimize that image and be glad you did 😉

Not updating your blog regularly

There are many bloggers who fail to update their blog when a new version is out or fail to update their plugin their being prompted to do so.

Updating your blog or its plugins almost immediately is bad and not updating it at all is even worst.

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If you don't update your plugin or blog's platform, your blog will be vulnerable to attacks. You might just get hacked in the process, who knows!

How to avoid this

Update your plugin frequently, don't be lazy to do so because your laziness or negligence might cause you your blog.

It is advisable to update your blog's plugin after the first seven (7) days its release, why? So you can avoid if the plugin has a bug.

Using a vulnerable and unresponsive theme

When I started blogging, I never knew 95% of the free themes out there were malware infected. Then, I'd use Google to search for a beautiful theme to install... but I letter realized that my blog is being under threat.

Many blogs get hacked today because of the theme they are using. If you are using a free theme that is not from WordPress theme store, that theme might be infected with Malware.

How to avoid this

Buy yourself a theme from any of the trusted themes shops online. Or if you don't have the money to shop for a theme, try downloading your free theme in WordPress theme shop.

If you must download a free theme elsewhere, make sure you scan it for malware or other malicious threat before using. To scan your themes for exploits, you can use a plugin called " Theme Authenticity Checker" or " Exploit Scanner ".

Still using the default permalink

I bet you must have been to a blog where the owner is still using its default permalink. Yes I know :).

In case you don't know, it is bad to use the default permalink for blogging except you don't care if not Google indexed your contents properly.

The default permalink looks like this: "www.yourwebsite.com/?p=123". Permalinks like this don't get favoured by Google or any search engines because it's not SEO friendly. Best permalinks are like this "www.yourwebsite.com/2015/07/sample-post/" or like this "www.yourwebsite.com/sample-post/"

How to avoid this:

Do you want to improve your search engine ranking? Then it is time to change that permalink of yours to something different and awesome.

To change the default permalink - First, go to your admin panel >>> Settings >>> Permalinks >>> and chose either the above examples.

Don't do regular backup

Your blog is your business and backing up your blog regularly is a big step to ensuring the safety of your blog.

Many blogs get hacked and it will take them like forever to get their blog back up and running.

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Like some few years ago, my friend got his blog hacked. It took him more than a month to get the blog back up and running as normal. Because the restore his company did was not what he wanted, they'll have to check and scan the blog for malware so such thing never happened again.

Depending on your hosting provider for a backup copy of your blog anytime it crashes is bad. Someday, they might not have the backup copy you are looking for and that would put you a step back. How to avoid this:

Try backing up your blog like twice a week or anytime you do something new with your theme, or when you write a new post or got some comments.

Who say backing up your blog is not important?

Not using a Gravatar

I'd truly love to know who is dropping that comment, so I can better thank and appreciate him/her.

Gravatar is something every blogger should have attached to their emails. It helps other bloggers know you better; it also helps putting you out there showing everybody that you're serious in your business. It also builds personal branding among your fellow bloggers.

How to avoid this

Nobody takes a non-gravatar blogger seriously, so getting a Gravatar attached to your email is compulsory and a must.

Conclusion

Making mistake is okay but always try to avoid some and when you do make a mistake, try to correct it before it sucks you.

Back to you

Do you have other mistakes to mention that I did not mention here? Why not let us know by using the comment box below.

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