Is your blog losing readers? Are the people that used to comment on all your posts no longer commenting? Are your posts not getting as many views as they used to?
While there are plenty of things that you can do to attract new readers, it’s important to also keep your loyal readers engaged. Here are just a few things that could be causing your readership to dwindle.
Not posting content as often
If you’re not posting content as often, your readers may slowly start to forget about you. If you can find the time, try to post at least one new post per week to keep people engaged – anything less than this and it could start to look as if your blog is drying up. Having guest bloggers contribute content can allow you to keep your blog constantly updated without having to constantly post content yourself.
Off-topic posts
It’s important to limit yourself to a handful of topics. If you start covering anything and everything on your blog, you could find that you lose loyal readers. Many of the readers that initially started reading your content regularly will have done so because they enjoyed specific topics that you wrote about regularly – make sure that you’re not abandoning these topics.
Boring content
Content can start to get boring if it isn’t particularly useful or original. Some bloggers get into a bad habit of churning out boring content just so that they can keep their blog updated. Try to think about the content that interests you rather than posting new content for the sake of posting new content. Don’t be afraid to be a little controversial and try to share useful knowledge when you can.
Clickbait
While clickbait may boost traffic to your blog, it may lose you some of your loyal readers if you rely on it too much. Pure clickbait is any content designed to get clicks which fails to deliver on its promises. There’s nothing wrong with luring in readers with a catchy title if you’re able to keep the content relevant and engaging. If the content isn’t relevant or engaging, it’s likely to just annoy readers.
Slow-loading pages
If your blog takes a century to load, you may start to see a drop in readers. A blog can start to run slowly for a variety of reasons. It could be that you’re using too many plug-ins or using too much embedded media such as multiple videos per post. Alternatively, it could be a hosting problem. If you think the latter might be the case, it could be worth looking into fast managed WordPress hosting. This is likely to drastically speed up the rate at which your pages load.
Too many ads/pop-ups
We’ve all been on sites that are impossible to use due to the amount of ads and pop-ups. Make sure that half of your blog isn’t taken up by ad space – it will slow down your site and could distract readers from your content. Pop-ups meanwhile can get annoying – especially if there are several of them. These could include adverts as well as requests to accept cookies, requests to join mailing lists and requests for donations. Pop-ups can be made less annoying by triggering them to not all pop up at the same time or by using small pop-ups that don’t lock the entire screen. You can read guides online on how to make pop-ups less annoying.
No interaction with readers
Interaction with your readers can help to make your blog more engaging. Make sure that comments are enabled on your posts and use social media to further encourage comments. Try to respond to as many of these comments as you can as this will help to encourage conversation further. Don’t be afraid to argue with readers – some readers may be looking for a debate.
Misspellings/errors
You could also start to lose readers if your posts are littered with misspellings and errors. It could show that your content is rushed and that you’re not putting much care into it. Incorrect facts can be particularly bad for your credibility – if you regularly post informative content, make sure that you fact-check everything beforehand.
Wordy posts
A lot of us are impatient readers and can struggle with posts that are too wordy. Lengthy posts can be engaging, so long as you’re writing about an interesting topic. It also helps to break up text into paragraphs with subheadings and images along the way. Large walls of text are likely to intimidate readers – if you have a tendency to go on length diatribes without adding any white space or images or subheadings, you could find that readers start to get put off.
Dated design
Many of the most successful blogs are constantly updating their design so that it doesn’t get stale. This helps to keep the site feeling fresh and exciting. Consider whether your blog is in need of a revamp (if you haven’t played around with the design for several years, a revamp could be necessary). It’s particularly worth looking out for any plug-ins that may be outdated – not only may they be slowing down your blog, but they could pose a security risk if they haven’t been updated for a while.
