I’ve been visiting a lot of blogs in the past week or so. In my little experiment to increase my blog views, one of my goals is to visit and comment on 5 blogs a day.
There are a few reasons for this, not just to increase views – as if every blogger that I commented on visited me in return, that would only be 5 extra views a day which isn’t actually that much! I wanted to do it because a few years ago I felt a had a little community of around 20-30 people who would visit and comment regularly. I would do the same with them and after some time, you feel like you really know them! It’s so nice and it makes you more motivated to put out decent content. Also, visiting other blogs can be inspiring. So I’ve been wanting to try and create a bit of a comment community again as most of those bloggers I used to have that relationship with have now stopped blogging!
During this quest, if noticed few things that I’ve found a little off-putting about some blogs – so I thought a post listing what things put me off visiting blogs might be helpful for others to have a look at their websites and improve user experience (or you can just think I’m a judgemental cow and move on – either option works!).
Things that put me off visiting your blog.
Can’t see which post is the most recent.
Blog themes have so many features these days, with categories, carousels and pinned posts often being displayed before the most recent posts. I hate not knowing what is new content and what is older content. When this isn’t clear, I don’t really know where to go! Please have a clear section of your most recent posts in order of most recently published!
I also dislike it when I can’t see a date on your posts. I have no idea why this bothers me so much, it’s mostly the first few times I visit annoys me. Basically, I want to know if your blog is active or not! If your posts are not recent then I’ll likely leave and not come back so not knowing if it is active or not is a problem for me. I like to visit the same blogs regularly so want them to update regularly (at least once a month)!
Popups everywhere!
I can deal with sidebar ads and ads in the middle of posts, but what I can’t deal with is invasive popups. There’s usually already a popup for accepting cookies which is frustrating but needed – when I don’t need is further popups with hard to find ‘x’ to close sign taking over the page, or those that come in about 30 seconds after getting on-site asking me to subscribe. No, I just got comfy and into your blog post and now I am annoyed.
Poor Site Structure
One of the most common reasons people won’t want to stick around on your blog is if it has a poor structure. This is going to make it difficult to find the information that they want or that they are interested in. Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix here. Your best option will be to speak to website designers who can resolve the problems behind the scenes here.
Sidebar buttons not working.
You seem cool, I love your blog so I want to check out your Instagram page. But I click the icon and it leads nowhere! Please make sure the links to your social media are on your page (if you have social media!) because I want to follow you.
Irrelevant guest posts.
We are all guilty of this – I mean it’s hard to refuse cash and I don’t know your financial circumstances so you might really need that extra £50 or so for a food shop because you’ve just lost your job due to covid. But just be aware that if you have a beauty blog and then suddenly start posting about loans and gambling, it does cheapen your blog and it is a bit off-putting. I know I have done this in the past so I do understand the need/temptation. Ideally, guest posts and collabs should fit the current topics of your blog.
I’m just not interested in your niche!
It’s not you, it’s me! I’m sorry but there are just some things I am not interested in! If you write about something I’m not interested every so often, I’ll still visit, but if it’s the whole theme of your post then sorry! I’m sure there are plenty of other people who share that interest. That just isn’t me! You can’t cater to everyone and not everyone is going to love your blog and that’s fine – as long as you love it!
Do you disagree with any of these? Also what puts you off visiting blogs?
I agree with all of the points you listed. I also hate pop-up ads and non-working sidebar buttons. Another thing that irks me is a messy blog layout, I enjoy a clean blog design with simple fonts that are easy to read. Another thing is when I don’t see an About Me page. I don’t know if it’s just me but when I visit blogs, I want to know who the person is behind the blog, and it disappoints me when there is no About Page for me to go to. Anyway, great post you have here. Also, love your blog! Keep posting! I’ll be a visitor from time to time ^_^ xx
Renee
You’ve just reminded me I need to update my about page!
I find not being able to navigate easily and find the most recent post quickly is off putting to me too. I want to be able to engage so tend to out the effort in but it does becoming a bit annoying!
Pop ups are one of my biggest peeves as well. And music that auto plays that you can’t easily turn off also puts me off majorly as well. I unfollowed so many blogs this year because I just find the subjects they’re blogging about so irrelevant.
This has been a great read and it’s always good to know what other find off putting when it comes to blogs. I definitely feel the same about the popups and I also get put off by a fussy layout that is tricky to navigate. Another weird thing is if it doesn’t have a search bar to easily take me to specific content.
Hey Corinne, well, it worked for me! I’m here because I am curious about your blog after you left a comment on mine! Point one earns a resounding YES from me. You have no idea how many blogs I gave up on because I couldn’t find the most recent posts. Their themes usually group blog posts by categories with NOTHING about what was the latest post. And that annoys me! Thanks for sharing!
Ahrgh, another lost comment! I totally agree with all the things you say here.
The latest post thing is really annoying for me too! I hate it when there is that revolving top bar where you see popular posts but then you can’t just see the latest post.
I also don’t like the pop ups and I agree about irrelevant guest posts- usually for crappy boring things like car insurance or vaping or something like that!
I have to say one thing that puts me off is a non chatty writing style- I am quite verbose and like using certain vocabulary choices but I don’t like it when the prose is rather long winded and lacks anecdotal elements or asides.
I have to say I am guilty of the not updating my profile mainly because I’m not very good at the tecny side!
I won’t link my IG and blog because I fear parents finding me online- already I am stupid for having made my url when I first started blogging but I am stuck with it now and not sure how to change it- since I’ve had it for almost 15 years, even if I change it, I suspect there would be still links. So I keep IG and blog seperate so at least a parent or child who finds me might only find ONE half of my online presence. It’s not because I’m saying anything bad, it’s just I don’t want them in my personal life!
I have a very general blog, as you know, but I get that there are posts people aren’t interested in!
I’m a French blogger and building a comment community has been so difficult! French people are more using Instagram as a blog than actual blog plateform. Thank you for your article! I will try to think more about broken links and so.. in the future!