Updated on June 13th, 2026
I love the blogging community, but sometimes you come across a blog or a comment that frustrates you and you press the “x” button before you even finish reading the post. In this post, I wanted to share some of my blogging pet peeves.
Before I begin, I do not want to be overly negative, but after blogging for more than 10 years and encountering the same pet peeves over and over again, it becomes frustrating. I am sure some of you have the same blogging pet peeves as me, so I am looking forward to reading your comments.
Insincere Comments
By insincere, I mean comments that just say “Great post!” and nothing else. It shows that the person did not take the time to even look at my post before leaving a comment. If you do think my post is great, what do you like about it? I also despise comments where the person is only promoting themselves, and they will say, “Thanks for sharing! Check out my latest post here!”. Then they include a link to their own post. I am all for others promoting their blog, but I do not want to read your latest post if you cannot even read mine.
I have also received comments that clearly show that the person has not read a single word or even the title of the post. If you are going to skim through a post, which I admit I have done before, at least know what the title is and preferably the main points before you leave a comment! Furthermore, with the rise of AI, I have received plenty of comments where I believe the commenter copied my post into an AI program and generated a comment. The telltale sign is that the comment is just a summary of what I wrote!
Forced Sign-In and reCAPTCHA
When I read a post, I often have something I would like to share about the post in the comments. However, when I get down to the comment section, I realize you have to sign in to leave a comment. You either sign up through their blog or use some commenting platform I have never heard of before to leave a comment. In these instances, I leave the blog because I do not want to have to sign up to leave a comment. Just requiring a name and email is perfectly fine to leave a comment. If you do find that you are getting more spam comments by having a simpler comment form, I definitely recommend the Akismet plugin on WordPress, as it automatically filters spam comments and puts them in the spam folder.
Similarly, I also find it annoying when blogs force you to do a reCAPTCHA to leave a comment. If I am already filling out my name and email, and you have a spam filter, why do I need to check a box that I am not a robot? I also despise picking out pictures! I am not a suspicious user, and I am just trying to leave a comment on a blog! Anyways, if you have a spam filter plugin like Akismet or if you are on Blogger, Google has its own spam filter, a reCAPTCHA is not necessary.
Not Declaring Ads
Not only is this illegal and can result in the blogger being fined, but it is WRONG. If a blogger is paid to write a post or they are gifted products with the intention of writing a post about them, they have to declare the post as an ad at the very beginning of that post. To make it easier for my audience to know when I am paid to write a post versus when I am gifted a product, I will write AD – Sponsored or AD – PR Product, and in my disclaimer, I clarify what each term means.
Furthermore, you have to disclose affiliate links, and near the beginning of a post that contains affiliate links, I will state, “This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through my links, but there is no extra cost to you.” I have come across numerous posts where I am 99.99% sure the blogger was paid to write it, or they mention in the post that they were gifted products, but they do not declare the post as an ad. It is really simple to just write AD at the start of the post, and from my experience, your engagement will not drop because you simply wrote AD.
Ads EVERYWHERE
Speaking of ads, I want to mention another type of ad. It is great if someone wants to monetize their blog with ads through an advertising network like Google AdSense, but there comes a point where it is too much. I do not mind an ad here or there, but if there is a banner ad that comes up and you have to close it to continue reading, then there are 5 ads in the middle of the post, it is very distracting.
Even worse are video ads. When I am reading a post, then up pops an ad playing a video, it makes me want to leave the blog. Sometimes I have to turn off ads so I can actually focus on the post without all the distractions. If you do have ads on your blog, ensure that they are not overwhelming your readers, and please avoid video ads that automatically play.
Pop-Ups
I know many bloggers are trying to get people to sign up for their mailing list, but at a point, it gets to be too much. One pop-up is okay, but even then, I am not going to sign up to receive updates from a blog when I have not even read a single one of their posts. Also, when there are multiple pop-ups in a row, and you have to close out of 3 pop-ups to subscribe to this and sign up for that just to keep reading the post, that is too much.
I have also seen pop-ups that have a close button so small that you misclick, and there have been pop-ups that did not even have a close button, and clicking outside of the pop-up box did not close it either. In that instance, I had to leave the blog because I could not even read the post!
Unreadable Fonts and Colors
Please have a font that is legible! I have avoided reading posts before because they were written in a small cursive font, and I could not even read the first sentence. Also, it can be fun having colorful fonts, but they can be harder to read, too. For example, if you have a yellow font on a white background or a blue font on a black background, they are harder to read than a black font on a white background. Having legible fonts makes your blog more accessible, especially for those who find certain fonts difficult to read or need a greater color distinction between the font and the background. If you need some advice on making your blog more accessible, I recommend reading Unwanted Life’s post on Accessibility: How To Make Your Website And Blog More Accessible.
No Search Bar
Having a search bar is so useful, and I often use my own search bar if I am looking up a specific post to link to in a post I am writing. For other blogs, I will use the search bar when I know the blogger wrote a certain post, such as a recipe, but I am not sure when they published it. I can then easily find it by searching for it, and I do not have to scroll through pages of posts.
Also, if a blogger mentions one of their posts in a comment on my blog, I often go to their blog to find it. However, if there is no search bar, I end up giving up after scrolling through several pages of posts to find it. You can try Googling the post name and the blog’s name to find it, but that does not always work, and you could end up with a bunch of irrelevant search results. Having a search bar just makes it so much easier for you and others to find posts on your blog.
Oh God, I agree with so many of these! I was nodding along to your post. Spam comments and having to login to post comments are too of my big bug bares. If I have to sign in to make a comment, I’ll probably just end up leaving without doing so. Unless it’s a WordPress hosted blog and I’m already signed in myself. We should make it as easy as possible for our readers to engage with us! I hate too many ads as well, especially too many in an individual post or ones that hide the content I’m trying to see. Pop-Ups are the worst! I usually read blogs from my mobile phone and often you can’t click off the pop-up either. 🤦♀️ If I can’t even see your content, I’ll be leaving your website pretty quickly.
If I have to sign in to leave a comment, I’m often leaving too! I’ll only sign in if it’s a WordPress or Blogger blog or they use Disqus. I already have accounts for those, but I’m not making a new account just to leave a comment.
It is annoying when blogs have too many ads and I can see how ads can be frustrating for mobile users too! One of the reasons why I don’t have ads on my blog is that the ad network just bombards your posts with ads that you have little control over.
I do have some pet peeves about blogging too, but most of these are on my list, as someone that has sight problems I find things that are left-aligned hard to read and concentrate on and massive text, I’m not reading letters on an eye test board, so I have to zoom out so I can read the post without getting eye strain and a bad back to read it. Also landing pages annoy me I do not want to have click-through hoops to get to the article.
I find insurance comments, somewhat okay, many people struggle to find words to describe their feelings, which does sometimes happen to me as I’m Autistic as well, so this can be hard for me to find the words to say so short comments can be the only thing that I can say on the subject might be the only way I can say my thoughts on the topic
Sorry for the long comment, also if I sound like I’m moaning 🙂
Don’t be sorry for long the long comment! I love it when others leave long comments because then I can have a conversation!
I didn’t know left-aligned could be hard to read or concentrate on.
I completely agree with landing pages! Some landing pages make it especially challenging to just find their blog posts!
I’m fine with short comments, but I do appreciate it when some one takes the time to write more than a few words about what I wrote. Also, just saying “great post” is different than writing a short comment
We just started our blog so I found this helpful. Still trying to figure out the dos and donts to be successful. Not as easy I thought.
Congratulations on starting your blog! There is a lot to learn about when it comes to blogging, but try not to overwhelm yourself!
Great post ( haha just kidding, but it is). For me terrible grammar and spelling are a real turn off.
And let’s talk about Instagram – I’m not going to follow you if all you post are pictures of yourself!
Haha I don’t mind people saying great post as long as they follow it up with something related to my post!
I try to look past grammar and spelling mistakes because not everyone is a native english speaker, but if there are mistakes in every sentence, it is distracting.
Yes! I will post a selfie here and there on IG, but most of my pictures are things I’ve done
I completely agree with all the points, I especially hate the several pop-ups and ads. It takes you away from the content and then have to navigate back the post. So much is taken away from the reading experience.
I agree! You visit a blog to read posts, and it does take away from that experience when there are pop-ups and ads.
All great points! I’m pretty sure I do some of these things but oh well haha I totally get where you’re coming from <3 I loved reading this post and reading you explaining your thoughts!
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Haha that’s okay! Thank you!
You are so right! Insensitive comments are really a turned off for me. Thanks for sharing these pet peeves. Wonderful Post! Have a great day!
Rampdiary | Fineartandyou | Beautyandfashionfreaks
I would much rather have someone not say anything in a comment if all they’re going to say is great post or something generic like that. Thanks and I hope you have a great day too!
Insincere comments drive me so mad too! I try my best to be as open as possible when I leave a comment, first off because I don’t want to offend the person who wrote the post and secondly because I hate it done to me, so why would I do that to someone else? But the issue with me is I am also very much petty… so I shall make sure I return the favour! As you also mentioned, having to sign into different systems drives me nuts…opsies! And grammar errors that are so evident, I hate it when I do and can’t stand it anywhere!
Haha I know that people will leave insincere comments because they want to get a comment back, but I won’t return the comment & others like you may say “great post” right back.
Recently I tried signing up to one of those blogs that require you to make an account, but then I was bombarded with emails so no thanks!
Haha! Enjoyed this. My biggest is ads. I have left commenting on those blogs that have too many ads and don’t allow me to scroll or read. And I’m.also against an unreadable font type size and color. Another blog with a sharp background color and then an equally sharp font color, I’ve not visited that blog again. It stresses my problematic eyes. Capcha simply erases the comment I did and have to write again. So yea, value another person’s time and they would return you too. Xx
Isa A. Blogger
If I still want to comment on blogs that have too many ads, I HAVE to turn on ad blocker or else there will be a ton of pop up ads and video ads, which are super annoying.
I feel you on unreadable fonts and sharp colors stressing your eyes!
It’s also so annoying when you write a comment then when you do the capcha it says that you took too long or you got it wrong so it reloads the page and deletes what you wrote!
Ha, I just love how ranty this post is! I also loathe pop ups of all kinds, including the cookies ones, which always confuse me. Are they necessary? Another pet peeve is when I can’t pin directly from the post.
I’m fine with the cookie pop ups because from what I understand, it’s necessary under the GDPR if the blog is based in the EU or they target people in the EU (https://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/cookie-consent-notices/)
I agree with not being able to pin directly from the post! For my advertising packages, I share the the posts on Pinterest, but if there isn’t a pin it button, then if I to create a pin myself.
The wonderful thing about blogging is connecting and engaging with others, and I can agree with insincere comments. It’s lovely responding to comments that show they’ve read the material and connected with it vs. something generic just to receive a comment back. I also agree with having to sign in and create an account just to comment, ahh! (I do understand the spam aspect, but AKISMET has been a great tool for me!)
I definitely agree! I like reading what others thought about my posts, but I don’t like it when they leave an insincere comment just to get a comment back.
I created an account on one of those blogs recently then I was bombared with a TON of emails so yea no more creating accounts for me!
I agree Akismet is a great tool!
Design is also such an important part that most generally end up missing out on. A good page doesn’t just invite readers but also helps with better comprehension
I completely agree and if someone has a blog that can’t even be read, then no one will want to visit.
You highlighted some interesting pet peeves. The insincere comment seems to be everyone’s experience. I personally do not care that much about what readers comment. If it becomes a pattern of commenting only 2-3 words, then I will return the same favor.
Google Adsense places the ads on my blog, I know sometimes it’s a bit much sometimes. My biggest pet peeve is when Bloggers post into blog support groups and only expect other bloggers to engage and comment on their blogs without reciprocating. I had to call out 1 or 2 bloggers who consistently do this.
I understand that bloggers get busy, but at least within 5 days, return the favor to the Blogger who took the time to visit your blog. If you are so super busy, then you do not need to post your blogs in these groups.
Yea it seems like every blogger has experienced receiving insincere comments, and usually is the same people leaving the “great post” comments again and again.
I had Google Adsense on my blog, but I removed it because there were too many ads.
I’ve experienced that too where bloggers will share their posts in the comment threads on Twitter and even say “returning comments!” but then they never do.
For me, it takes around a week to return comments because I normally have the most time on the weekend to so that’s when I dedicate time to doing that, but during the summer I have more free time so I can return comments quicker.
OMG these are all of my blogging pet peeves. I can not stand when people leave insincere comments but at least they make the effort. I can not stand when you take the time to leave a comment and they can not even take the time to visit the bloggers blog who left the comment ditto for YT. I feel like it is saying “I am better then you” and is some what rude.
And ugh DISQUS. I hate that!! But there is a way for the blogger to set up so you can comment as a guest but many do not know this. I heard that if you use them and then try to move away from them they take all the comments with the.
And being a graphic designer, oh yes bad design is a big turn offf.
Allie of
http://www.allienyc.com
Yes! That’s one of my pet peeves too where you take the time to visit another blog and leave a comment, but they won’t return the favor or even reply back to your comment! It’s especially annoying when you visited their blog in the first place because they joined a comment thread on Twitter and wrote “returning comments!”
I HATE DISQUS too! That’s terrible that they’ll take away all your comments if you stop using them!
Yes!! The sign up to leave a comment is so frustrating! I did it once with a blogger who advertisers with me. But like you otherwise I click off as I do not need to sign up to more things. Pop ups can be frustrating when you can’t exit them! Another blogging pet peeve is like yours with self promo, but doing it on your promo tweet for a post. That really irritates me! Thank you for sharing.
Lauren x
I signed up once for a blogger too, but I ended unsubscribing because I was bombarded with emails
Oh that is frustrating!!!
Yes to all of these. I hate comment set ups that aren’t just basic wordpress – without the .com sign in. Half of the people on comment threads make it too hard and by asking people to sign in you’re only getting people with websites who’re signed up to .com (I am, but only with one of my 3 blogs, and some of my devices I’m not signed in so can’t comment). As for all the ads. I really want to get to those networks, but I hate video ads that pop up – especially on mobile as they’re hard to get rid of. I get what people say, that they don’t care because the amount of money they make offsets losing a few readers. I think the whole asking people to log in is going to get worse once 3rd party cookies go, because basically everyone will want people to log in to be able to advertise to them. I think engagement and advertising is going to plummet for a lot of people (mine definitely will unless google does something clever that I have no idea about)
I agree you shouldn’t be forced to sign in to leave a comment, but some blogs on WordPress, Blogger and other sites like Wix require you and I am signed into WordPress, but for blogs on other platforms I just want to leave instead of commenting.
I hate video ads on mobile too! I was visiting a blog the other day and I kept trying to close the video ad, but it kept popping up and playing…
I have tried a few advertising networks including Google Adsense, but I left because there were way too many ads even with limiting where they could be and I didn’t even make that much money.
I hope Google does have something planned!
I honestly couldn’t agree with you more! Every single pet peeve you’ve written about I myself find incredibly irritating – especially the comment one. I totally appreciate the comment, but you can tell they haven’t read your post which can be quite frustrating. It is a MUST to have a search bar, I hate having to scroll through thousand of pages to get to the post I want to read haha. Thank you for sharing such a relatable post, you’ve written it so perfectly! Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
I would much rather someone not leave a comment if the only thing they’re going to say is great post or something generic that’s not related to the post! Yes it’s a must to have a search bar because no one wants to scroll through pages of posts to find the one they were looking for!
This is a good one! These are so valid and probably the reasons why I don’t read as much blogs as I used to these days. I get put off easily and I feel like the heart of blogging is being sacrificed for the sake of promotion…
Yes blogging is different than what it used to be and even now, there’s a big focus on SEO instead of writing whatever you want
Great post! Thanks for sharing! (HA – just kidding)
There are a ton of bloggers who return comments in a way that make it pretty obvious they didn’t really read the post and it drives me absolutely crazy. I have my comment section set so that all comments have to be approved and I’ve found I get far less spam comments since then.
As for the AD thing, I admit that I don’t always list a big disclaimer on the post – instead, I’ve put a full AD disclaimer in my sidebar with a link to my disclosure policy as a way to adhere to that.
Haha I’m fine with someone writing great post or thanks for sharing if they follow it up with something relevant to what I wrote
I have it set to where I have to approve comments from someone who hasn’t commented before.
That’s great you still have a disclaimer because I’ve read plenty of posts on other blogs that don’t have a disclaimer or a link to their disclosure policy.
Great post! Just kidding. But seriously, I HATE the having to sign in. Sometimes i’ll do it if I like the blogger but rarely. I’m not sure if I have a capctha on mine. Whoops! But I have massive privacy issues including sock puppet accounts so I need extra help filtering spam
Haha I don’t mind people saying great post if they follow it up with something relevant to what I wrote!
Recently I signed up to a blog, but then I was bombarded with emails so I unsubscribed pretty quick!
I checked your blog and you don’t have a captcha! But I noticed that when I included my blog URL when filling out the comment form, it said it was a forbidden message and marked it as spam. When I removed my URL and just used my name and email, the comment published.
I definitely agree with you! Pop ups and too many ads are 2 of my biggest pet peeves. I actually hadn’t thought about a search button for my blog so I will have to add that soon. Thank you for mentioning that one!
It can be a struggle reading posts if you have to fight through pop-ups and ads!
That’s great you’re adding a search button because it is so useful!
Omg, trying to close pop-ups especially when your reading from your mobile is such a fricking pain. I get so annoyed when I can’t find the button to close it off and I just end up leaving without reading anything. I totally agree with the insincere comments. Saying great post alone doesn’t tell me anything. It’s best you just like it and leave it as that. I always try to leave good comments where I share my insights or thoughts about the post and then I’ll say great post, thanks for sharing. I’ve never done any sponsored posts so what you said was very informative. Whenever I did use an affiliate link I would say so at the beginning. Is declaring ads or affiliate or referral links at the beginning of an email the best practice too?
I tend to read other blogs on my laptop because it can be a struggle fighting through pop-ups on mobile.
Yes! It’s much better to not say anything at all if the only thing they’ll write is “great post”
I would say it is best practice to declare ads or affiliate/referral links at th beginning of emails. You want to be upfront with your readers that the email has affiliate links
I also hate it when an email/follow button isn’t immediately obvious, you’re trying to get people to read more of your content, no?
Yes I agree! If I want to follow a blog but there’s no follow or email button, then I might end up forgetting about them.
such a relatable post for us bloggers. i agree with all of these. there are so many times where i can tell someone didn’t really read my blog post when they say “thanks for sharing” or “great post”
you either make time to reply to posts or you just don’t do it.
Yes exactly! It’s better to leave no comment at all than a generic “great post” or “thanks for sharing” comment.
I totally feel you on all of these points! Pop-up ads are so annoying, I will never put one on my blog because it is just far too annoying. I also hate having to sign in for a comment, and especially if the comment section isn’t obvious x
That’s great you don’t have pop-up ads on your blog because they are annoying!
Yes! You expect the comment section to be at the end of the post, but instead you have to read to find the button to press that takes you the comment section. It’s just more work!
I totally agree with so many of them! My biggest one must be comments! I find that if you really don’t want to comment or it’s not something that you are interested or even wants to try to be genuine, just leave it! Also search bars are so so needed and sometimes you can’t ever find them!
I agree! It’s much better to not comment at all than to leave an insincere comment.
Yes search bars are a must, but I have come across plenty of blogs that don’t have one
Definitely agree with most of these. I’ve recently started using AdSense because I need to start going down that route and that’s the only place I can start and I’m not a fan of the ads on my blog for that reason.
I used AdSense a while back for a few months, but I HATED it because there were so many ads even when limiting where they can be, and I made pennies despite having decent traffic and way too many ads on my blog.
Spam comments are so irritating, I don’t allow them through and I don’t return their comment either. You mention Captcha but the websites that irritate me beyond measure are those hosted on Wix or Squarespace where you have to sign up to leave a comment. I’m afraid I just leave the post at that point!
That’s great you don’t allow those comments and you won’t return them!
I agree! I’ll read a post, but when I get down to the comment section, I’ll realize you have to sign up to leave a comment and I end up leaving too!
Yes indeed I hate blogs which have endless popups of ads, where I can hardly read the post without an ad in the way and no search bar is horrible too how am I going to look up other topics that interest me on their blog.
Yes! You shouldn’t have to battle through ads just to read a blog post!
Exactly! Some blogs don’t have categories either so you can be scrolling through pages of posts if there isn’t a search bar
I totally agree with your list of blogging pet peeves. These all get on my nerves too!
It’s good to hear that I’m not alone with these pet peeves!
I couldn’t agree more with this! I think for me my biggest pet peeve is definitely insincere comments, I don’t see the point of leaving one if you don’t even read the post and it’s something really generic. This also reminded me that I need to fix my search bar, which is in a really inconvenient space but I can never figure out how to move it. Thank you so much for sharing!
I know people will write insincere comments because they don’t want to read the post, but they want to get a comment back on their blog.
I hope you can figure out how to move your search bar!
I hate it when a blog asks you to sign up to make a comment, it’s so annoying! I also hate seeing lots of Ad’s on people’s blogs, they make the blog so glitchy and slow to scroll through x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Yes! Recently I signed up to a blog to leave a comment, but then I was bombarded with a ton of emails so yea not trying that again!
I agree! I’m fine with a few ads, but when I have to battle through ads just to read the post, then that’s a problem!
I haven’t been around long, but I have been here long enough to agree on a couple of your points. Insincere comments are definitely annoying. It really makes it feel like a toss away from the commenter. And, for the blogs where you have to sign-in to that service before commenting? That really bugs me. I will read some great posts and have no way to comment. I am not going to sign-up to a bunch of different services to comment. For those blogs, I will share my thoughts via Twitter. As a blogger or business person for any industry, you shouldn’t make it hard for people to reach you. I can definitely appreciate where you’re coming from.
I completely agree, but I know some people will leave an insincere comment in hopes of getting a comment back on their own blog 😑
That’s great you share your thoughts on Twitter because I don’t do that and I just leave the blog instead. I agree that it should be easy for others to reach you!
Oh my gosh I am annoyed by so many of these, too!! I hate when I go to read a post and can’t see it past all the ads and pop-ups. And I always wonder if the bloggers know? They must have such short visits and a high bounce rate! Maybe they’ll read this and find out!
You would think they would realize their blog has a ton of pop-ups and ads, but maybe they don’t?! Hopefully they’ll check their blogs if they read this post!
I couldn’t agree with you more! Having to sign in to leave a comment really frustrates me and makes me close the window. Pop ups and non-genuine comments are also a massive pet peeve of mine x
I don’t understand why you would have to sign up to leave a comment?!
Yes!
Oh these aggravate me to no end. Especially with the signing in to comment, I turn away too. I’m glad I’m not the only one with points. Don’t get me started on the unreadable fonts!
I don’t understand the reason to have someone sign up to leave a comment! Also if the font is pretty, it should also be readable!
These are all pretty much my pet peeves too; and you’re right about it getting increasingly frustrating the longer you have been blogging. I also dislike when someone is doing an ad for a product and just from how they have written the post you can tell they either haven’t or don’t use the product or are just saying nice things about it because they feel they have to. It’s far more obvious than I think they realize. Whew!
I agree with you! If you’re going to write a post reviewing a product regardless if it’s sponsored or not, at least try it before writing about it and recommending it to others!
Woohoo! Loving this incredible post that highlights many of my own pet peeves. Having to mark ‘I am not a robot’ or battle with popups and ads just to read a post almost instantly turn me away, but I also hate cluttered fonts and poor color coordination, and am 100% against insincere comments. 🙂
Yes! It shouldn’t be that difficult to read and comment on a post and I agree with you on the cluttered fonts!
I have to agree with all of these, especially the insincere comments one – I’ve had the blog promoter types and the one word comments and like you I find it just…icky! Massive hugs, I hope these don’t end up putting you off blogging! Xx
I’m sorry you’ve had to experience the insincere comments too.
Aw thanks. I have no plans on quitting anytime soon, but like with the insincere comments, they can be especially frustrating!
You make valid points. I hate insincere comments too.
I would rather have someone leave no comment at all if all they’re going to say is great post!