5 Signs That Your Blog Is Dying

What if your blog is not in such a good shape? Could it actually be dying without you even noticing it? I mean, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but maybe it’s a good moment to take a look at some indicators and assess if everything’s going well or not.

One of the things that separates successful blog owners from those who fail is the ability to notice all those little details and act accordingly just in the right moment. What this means is that even if your blog is kind of dying, it’s never too late to make some changes and get it back on track again.

Here are the things you should pay attention to:

1. Irregular posting

It’s always easier to explain things on an example. My favorite niche for this is weight loss and weight loss blogging, so most of the scenarios will revolve around this topic.

Who said that a dying blog has to be the result of external factors (like low traffic, for example)… It’s our actions that tend to be the most destructive, and this is where you should check first.

Irregular posting is one of the first and most serious trouble indicators.

It’s simple, actually, if you want your blog to be successful, you need to make sure to publish new entries regularly. No matter if it’s one per week, one every other day, or two per day … once you decide on a schedule you need to stick with it.

For instance, can you imagine a newspaper without a precise release schedule? Could that work? Sure not. Being just a little predictable is actually a good thing here.

No matter what niche you’re in, there surely are many different types of content you can publish. For my favorite weight loss niche, the possibilities are: progress updates, meal of the week, before and after series, workout of the week, weight loss product reviews, diet of the month, etc.

2. Low traffic to new content

Low traffic in general is a pretty clear sign that your blog’s in bad shape, but what’s maybe even more disturbing is low traffic to new content.

Here’s the thing, your old content has already managed to build some search engine presence, so it’s probably receiving quite a bit of organic traffic that can even keep coming long after the first signs of dying.

Not the story with new content. New content can receive traffic only through subscriptions, returning visitors, word of mouth, and social media shares. In the end, it provides a great overall image of your blog’s condition and ability to attract attention.

The rule of thumb is this: If you know how to bring visitors to your new content, you will do just about fine in blogging.

3. Lack of focus (content creation)

These days, people no longer have the time to pay attention to all cool sites talking about everything. The information overload is so big that only the most laser-focused sites can hope for success.

The weight loss niche is a great example here. If you decide to write about general weight loss topics, you can find it very hard to attract returning audiences. However, if you go a little deeper, to dieting, and then to Paleo Diet (for example), your results can be much better even though the overall audience is noticeably smaller.

That’s why you – the author – need to provide the most on-topic content you can. Of course, every once in a while you can publish an off-topic post, but it can’t account for more than 5% (or so) of your content.

Lack of focus is a really negative sign because if you can’t keep your blog on topic, sooner or later your readers will notice this and move on. Simply, if you can no longer provide, they will no longer pay attention.

4. Search engine rankings decline

Whether we like it or not, search engines are still the best source of traffic online, and if you want to keep your blog alive, you need to work on your SEO constantly.

That’s why one of the most basic indicators of your blog going south is when your rankings start to decline. And I’m not talking about some individual incidents. I’m talking about regular long-term decline.

The rules of SEO change quite often. Any decline in rankings can be caused by an algorithm update, by you doing something that’s no longer considered a good practice in SEO, or by any other factor.

That being said, there are some niches that are more threatened by any changes than others. Weight loss and dieting is one of those niches. So is making money online and other related topics. If you run a blog in any of those high-risk niches, you need to be even more up-to-date with everything than other bloggers.

5. Poor reader interaction

This is one of the more obvious indicators, but some bloggers still tend not to notice this in time.

What I mean by poor reader interaction is that your content is receiving almost no comments or social media shares. Of course, this connects directly to your overall traffic, but if you do have traffic, yet no social shares then this can only mean trouble.

There are some things you can do to improve this, though:

1. Ask a question at the end of each post. A question that your readers can answer in the comments.
2. Ask your readers to share your content. Do it bluntly, like: “don’t forget to share this with your followers.”

This concludes my list of five signs that your blog is dying. Tell me, does your blog experience any of the above problems? If so, what are you planning to do about it?

Karol K. teaches about the details of weight loss programs like WeightWatchers (find his opinion here), and alternative ways of eating healthy, through food delivery services, for example (you can find out more by going here). He contributes articles on weight loss and dieting in general. He also enjoys writing occasionally for WeightLossTriumph. He’s a fan of healthy living and being in shape no matter what. In his personal life, he proves that one does not have to struggle to be healthy.

Post Tags: blogging tips, search engine rank, traffic