10 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid in 2025 (And What to Do Instead)

After more than a decade of blogging, we’ve made just about every mistake in the book, some of them more than once. And the truth is, we’re still making a few of them. So if you’re launching or trying to grow your blog in 2025, let us save you some heartache (and a whole lot of time). Here are the 10 most common blogging mistakes to avoid, from two bloggers who’ve been in the trenches and learned the hard way.

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1. Overthinking Everything

One of the most common blogging mistakes is simply to overthink everything you are doing. We’ve both spent entire weekends tweaking our sites into the night instead of just hitting publish. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of making endless to-do lists, rewriting blog post drafts over and over again, or planning instead of executing.

But the truth is: Perfectionism might feel productive, but it doesn’t pay the bills. You need consistency, not perfection. Hit publish and keep moving forward. Every successful blogger you follow? They started by putting out imperfect content.

2. Prioritizing Aesthetics Over Functionality

We love a beautiful blog as much as anyone, seriously, we’ve spent hours designing our headers and obsessing over font pairings. But in the long run, all that aesthetic polish won’t mean anything if your site takes forever to load or doesn’t actually serve your readers.

Some of the most gorgeous themes (like Showit and Divi) might look sleek, but they often come with bloated code, complicated setups, and poor performance. Fast and clean always beats flashy.

We learned this the hard way and finally switched to a lighter, more functional setup with Kadence and Heartenmade templates. They’re beautiful and optimized. If you want to go deeper into why aesthetics can become a trap, check out this post on why you should stop wasting time on fonts and colors.

3. Ignoring Content Structure and SEO

Let’s be honest: SEO can feel overwhelming when you’re just starting. So many bloggers either avoid it entirely or go too far in the other direction, stuffing their posts with keywords in a way that feels robotic and unnatural.

We’ve done both.

The best SEO strategy? Think like a reader first, then like Google. Start your posts with a hook. Lead them into a story. Make it emotionally compelling. Build content clusters, related posts that link to one another. Install a solid SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast right from the start and make sure every post has a title and meta description, and that all your headings make sense in hierarchy. Google can’t rank what it can’t understand.

4. Overusing Stock Photos

We get it, stock photos are convenient and often look more polished than what you can take on your phone. But in 2025, readers are craving real. Real spaces. Real faces. Real voices.

Too many stock photos make your site feel generic, and worse, they can hurt your SEO if they’re unoptimized and overused. Even a basic phone pic of your desk, your kitchen, or your workspace adds authenticity. It tells readers: “Hey, there’s a real person here.”

Don’t forget to add alt text and compress your images for faster load time. Want your photos to pop with minimal effort? We recommend using Lightroom presets, something we both use daily.

5. Neglecting Performance and Speed

It’s not the sexiest topic, but site speed matters more than you think. The slower your blog loads, the higher the bounce rate. Every plugin, popup, and embed chips away at your speed and site health. If you’re layering on sliders, animations, or unnecessary features early on, you’re setting yourself up for technical debt.

We’ve both dealt with bloated databases and site errors from trying to do too much. That’s why we now keep our tech stack lean. Think: fewer plugins, minimal design, and clean code.

You can dig deeper into this topic in our post on simple blog design and why it matters more than you might think.

6. Choosing the Wrong Host

Hosting is one of those foundational decisions that feels invisible, until something goes wrong. When you’re on shared hosting, your site speed is at the mercy of everyone else on that same server. If traffic spikes or something breaks, good luck getting decent support most of the time.

We’ve both been through nightmare migrations because of cheap hosting. That’s why we switched to BigScoots, and we haven’t looked back. The peace of mind? Worth every penny.

If your blog is your business, treat your hosting like your infrastructure. Because it is.

7. Writing for a Community You Don’t Understand

We see this mistake all the time: bloggers write what they think people want, instead of spending time in the actual communities they’re trying to serve.

If you haven’t talked to your audience, through comments, DMs, polls, or even casual conversations, you’re working off assumptions. Spend time in the spaces where your readers hang out. Engage. Listen. Then write content that speaks to what they’re already struggling with.

8. Using Outdated Content Strategies

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: mega listicles and keyword-stuffed posts are not the move anymore. AI can summarize that content in seconds.

Today’s readers want digestible deep dives, clarity, and stories. Try focusing your posts on a single pain point or transformation. Keep it tight, aim for around 800–1000 words, and bring in your personal experience. This is what makes your content irreplaceable.

If you’re wondering how blogging works now or is blogging worth it in 2025, we go into all the details of what has changed and how you can succeed blogging right now.

9. Expecting Google to Do All the Work

SEO is powerful, but it’s not enough on its own, especially in the beginning. If you’re ignoring Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, or even your newsletter, you’re limiting your reach.

Lazy blogging is expecting Google to drive all your traffic. Brand building happens across platforms. Don’t let someone else scoop up your audience because you’re not showing up.

10. Trying to Do It All Alone

This is the one we’re still working on. Content creation can be incredibly isolating, especially if you’re doing it on your own without a sounding board, support system, or creative circle.

Since we started coworking with each other (and with other creators), our creativity, productivity, and even joy levels have skyrocketed. Whether it’s bouncing ideas, venting frustrations, or just having someone to share the wins with, you need people.

Collaboration doesn’t make you weak. It makes you sustainable.

Don’t Make These Common Blogging Mistakes

Blogging isn’t dead. It’s just evolving. The people who succeed now are the ones who adapt, simplify, and build with intention.

If you can sidestep these 10 common blogging mistakes, you’ll be in a much stronger position to grow without burnout.

We’ve made these mistakes so you don’t have to. Let this be your shortcut.

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