5 Signs Your Blog Sucks … And How to Fix It

Last Updated on October 27, 2019 by Nathaniel Tower

There are over 500 million blogs online today. While there is no quantifiable data regarding how many of them suck, I’m going to go ahead and estimate it’s over 95% of them.

Does your blog suck? I really hope not. I hope you are kicking ass on your blog. Hell, I hope your blog is a lot better than mine. Unfortunately, based on the statistics above, there’s a good chance your blog could be a lot better. 

Is my blog any good?

Before we dive into the 5 signs your blog sucks, let’s take a quick look at one thing every good blog should have. First and foremost, you need great content. If you don’t have great content, then none of the other things really matter. Sure, some people might read and share bad content, but this is not sustainable in the long run. If you don’t produce good stuff, people will eventually ignore you.

The quality of any piece of content is subjective, but it’s pretty easy to tell when something sucks. Great content comes in all shapes and sizes. Some great content is in the form of a listicle (like this one, although this is not necessarily a great piece of content). Other high-quality content is more journalistic.

Of course, great content doesn’t mean your blog is good. You could have a blog featuring the 50 greatest pieces of writing ever and still have a shitty blog. So let’s dive into the 5 signs your blog sucks:

1. You don’t get any traffic

If no one is visiting your blog, then your blog sucks. Plain and simple. This might not mean what you are posting sucks, but it definitely means your blog is currently a steaming pile of nothing. There’s no hard and fast rule for how much traffic you need to lift your blog from suckdom, but let’s just say if you have less than 100 visitors a day, then you’re definitely not there yet.

There is a caveat here. If your blog is new and doesn’t get much traffic, then maybe it doesn’t suck but just hasn’t hit its groove yet. It’s not like you can start a blog, write one good piece, and wake up with a million visitors the next day. It takes time. But if you’ve been blogging for months or years and still have almost no traffic, then you likely need to make some major changes. Here are some quick suggestions:

• Write longer, better, more targeted content about topics people really care about (shoot for at least 750 words on every blog post – you might think shorter is better, but longer content ranks better in search engines, drives more engagement, and provides more value for readers)
• Use engaging images in your blog posts
• Share your content frequently on social media platforms
• Make sure your blog has all the SEO basics in place

The best way to see if you have traffic is by using Google Analytics. If you don’t have Google Analytics on your blog, add it right away so you can see how many people visit your blog and how they get there. You can also use it to help make your blog better by discovering new ways to drive traffic. You should also make sure your blog is verified in Google Search Console. This will allow you to see how often your blog shows in search results, what your average position is, how often people click to view your blog, and much more. It also gives you more control over how your website appears in search results. 

I’m very passionate about analytics and data and would love to spend more time discussing how to use Google Analytics and Google Search Console, but this is a post about whether or not your blog sucks, so let’s move on.

2. No one shares your posts

If you pass the first test and get a decent amount of traffic, then the next sign to look for is how often people share your posts. If no one is sharing your posts, then you have one of two problems:

• Your content isn’t good enough to share
• It’s not easy to share your content

People love to share good content, but they generally only share it if it’s convenient for them. Make sure you have easily accessible sharing buttons on your site. If you don’t, you won’t get many shares. People aren’t going to go out of their way to share something even if it’s really good. Ideally, your sharing buttons should be persistent so they are always visible. If you have to scroll all the way to the bottom before you can share the post, then you are losing out on a lot of shares. 

Regardless of why people aren’t sharing your stuff, a lack of shares is a really strong indicator your blog sucks.

3. No one comments on your posts

One of the top signs people are engaging with your content can be found by looking at the comments. A really shitty blog doesn’t get comments because people don’t waste their time commenting on really shitty blogs. On the flipside, really shitty content can sometimes get a lot of comments because a lot of people are assholes and like to be assholes in the comment section.

If no one is commenting on your blog, then you need to do one of two things:

• Write better content
• Encourage people to comment

Blog comments are important because they foster discussion and drive people back to your blog later. People are much more likely to return to a blog if they’ve commented on a post. You should end every post with a call to action encouraging people to comment. All you need is a sentence or two asking people to join the discussion. It takes just a minute and will produce a lot of positive results. 

If all the comments on your blog are negative, then you either have really bad posts or really controversial content. Either way, you might want to look into that because having a bunch of jerks saying negative stuff on your blog isn’t healthy for you.

4. You struggle to come up with new ideas

Okay, this one isn’t measurable like the first three points. But it’s still almost always an indicator of a sucky blog. If you can’t come up with new ideas for your blog, then it’s usually because:

• Your blog doesn’t have a cohesive theme that makes it easy to come up with new ideas
• You aren’t passionate about your blog
• Your blog isn’t driving enough results to make you want to come up with new ideas

Now, there are instances where we draw a blank and can’t come up with anything new to write about for a period of time. But this is easy to overcome through brainstorming and developing a good blog calendar. In fact, if you don’t have a blog calendar, there’s a good chance your blog sucks.

High-quality blogs aren’t based on people just throwing something up when they feel like it. Great blogs are purposeful and planned out in advance. If you’re always struggling with what to do next on your blog, then your blog probably sucks.

5. You think your blog sucks

Did you get to this post by Googling “does my blog suck”? If you did, then your blog probably sucks pretty hard. No one would Google something like that unless they were pretty sure their blog sucked. If you think what you’re doing isn’t very good, then there’s probably a good reason for that. For example, if you think you suck at running, then you probably suck at running. Yes, there is such a thing as self-doubt, but that only goes so far. Fortunately, you can turn your blog around no matter how bad it is.

There was certainly a time when my blog sucked. And I knew it. But I gradually fixed all those issues and turned it into the high-performing machine it is today! You can do it, too. 

Final thoughts about your sucky blog

Okay, you might be a little pissed at me right now. I don’t blame you. I’ve said some negative things here. But everything on here is easy to fix. Write great content, plan it out, look at the data, and encourage people to share and comment. Having a great blog isn’t that hard. Yes, it takes a lot of hard work, but as long as you are committed, you can do it.

Does your blog suck? Share your blogging experiences in the comments. And don’t forget to share this post on all your favorite channels.