Blogging is an incredibly potent business tool for many reasons: content marketing, brand awareness, PR, SEO, and so on and so forth. But maybe you’ve encountered some issues with your company’s blog? You’ve sunk a lot of time, energy, and money, and you expect those investments to provide a worthwhile return (and rightfully so). Therefore, we’ve written up some solutions to common problems the modern day blogger will face.

1. Problem: No Relatable Content
   Is your blog lacking readership engagement? This is due to non-relatable content. By focusing solely on the promotion of your products and/or services, you’re inadvertently neglecting the needs of your consumers. Solution: Content is obviously the most important aspect of your blog. Without the good quality content that your followers demand, what good is the blog anyway? It may be serving the needs of your company, but is it satisfying the most important of needs? Focus on the customer, as opposed to the promotion of your products. By using a social media metric analyzer, you can see which type of content your customers demand the most. That information should be transformed into useful answers to your customers concerns. For bonus points, add in a call to action at the end of each article.
2. Problem: Squandered Keywords
   Are you too heavily reliant on Google for your keyword needs? This means your poor keywords are swimming in a massively deep ocean of competition. Solution: Seek out “low competition keywords”. These specific keywords maintain a solid monthly search rate, while not having to compete with the high volume search terms. This effort will take some digging, but will no doubt pay off in terms of driving traffic. Google AdWords: Keyword Planner is the tool you want.
3. Problem: Keyword Stuffing
   Are you guilty of the sin of keyword stuffing? Your titles, descriptions, and articles themselves are barely readable due to too much keyword density. Solution: Take note of the old adage, “quality over quantity”. By choosing a few quality words and phrases, you eliminate the need to devote too many resources to the monitoring of their value. So what’s the right amount? Shoot for about 5 different keywords or set of words. When writing your article, keep the mention of keywords to fewer than 5% of the total word count.
4. Problem: Your Traffic Sources are Skewed
   Are your eggs all in one basket when it comes to traffic supply? Is your blog’s traffic stagnant due to unreliable, sluggish sources? Solution: The most obvious of traffic sources is inherently Google Search. By using proper keyword strategy, Google can be your blogs best friend. Don’t rely solely on these resources. Think outside the box by promoting your blog on sites that are most relevant to your content. If your blog hosts mainly videos, YouTube and Digg are great choices. If the written word is more your speed, look at a site like hubpages to drive traffic.Map out a plan to get your blog syndicated with Business2Community or Social Media Today, but be sure to evaluate your blogging goals beforehand.Sign up with consortiums to host your blog posts. This will open up the potential for more shares, especially if it ends up trending on the front page. If you feel your content is truly worthwhile and unique, try your hand on Reddit and StumbleUpon.Develop a monthly newsletter. Sending out a periodic email to your readers is guaranteed to generate spikes in traffic. Use a call to action at the end of your posts, encouraging readers to sign up!
5. Problem: Tick, Tock
   Are you fed up with waiting around for traffic, followers, or comments? Well, therein lies the problem, you’re waiting! Solution: Blogging takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it? No one likes to hear it, but it’s true; you put in time, you get results. But you first need to establish your goals. By defining your goals both long-term and short-term, you can then identify whether you’re actually meeting those goals or not. Once you see tangible results via Google Analytics, you’ll become more prone to keep on, keepin’ on!

So what have we learned? Blogging requires a multitude of skills, all of which can easily bring about higher website traffic, better credibility, and open up your company to a whole new network of customers and collaborators. By staying open-minded, diligent, and patient, while maintaining consistent quality content that matches your target audiences sensibilities, you’ll have a blog that will no doubt rise above the rest!