You can read a million articles about increasing traffic to your blog — without finding a single practical list. In short, it starts with solid content strategy. With millions of blogs on the internet, you will need to strategically target your niche audience. The tips below will help you create a strategy that will boost blog traffic over time.
1. Identify your Audience
Although this may sound basic, you should take the time to identify your audience. Visualize your ideal reader and write down their interests. Keep this in front of you whenever you work on your blog to help you focus your content.
Consider where they may seek out content and how they use the web. This will help you reverse engineer both your content and your outreach to ensure that you are meeting your core target.
2. Conduct Keyword Research
To optimize your website for search engines, you need to target keywords relevant to your blog. So, start by making a list of topics. Then, look up synonyms and variations.
There are several keyword generators, both free and paid.
Also, you can conduct your own searches and see what related phrases appear. These will turn into keywords around which you should develop content.
Keep this list handy, along with information about your target audience. Everything you generate for your blog should loop back to these two pieces.
3. Plan your Posts
Although it may seem like an easy first step, your blog will benefit from a content calendar. Plan your posts around the topics and keywords that best fit with your blog.
Often, bloggers struggle to write consistently on related topics, getting distracted by new ideas or their personal life. However, the majority of your posts should be focused on drawing traffic.
This means that you need to plan posts around your audience and stick to those concepts. It can be as simple as a handwritten list or excel spreadsheet. If you are looking for something more complex, you can use use free or paid content planning tools to keep track of your posts.
Each post should include:
- Blog Post Title
- Blog Post Description
- Focus Keyword
- Graphics, photos or other rich content ideas
4. Release Posts Regularly
Once you create a content calendar, you will need to release posts regularly. To start, pick a schedule that will work for your blogging habits. If you can post weekly, that is best.
However, if you only post monthly or bi-monthly, consistency keeps you top of mind with your audience. Otherwise, your blog may appear dead if you go for weeks or months without publishing new content.
5. Interact with Other Blogs, Forums and Websites
The beauty of blogging resides in the community it creates. This requires interaction between you, as the blogger, and your prospective readers. So, instead of passively publishing content, you will need to go and find others with similar interests.
Comment on their blogs, forums or websites. When you post, your profile will generate with your content.
If you develop a reputation for engaging content, people will follow your profile back to your website. All of this will help increase blog traffic.
6. Link to Reputable Websites
When you include a link to another website, this creates a pingback. Additionally, it raises the trust ranking of your website.
So, it is important to include links to related information when you post on your website. With time, this will help you connect with other trustworthy content and increase the ranking of your website.
7. Guest Blog
As you are connecting with like-minded individuals online, try to find opportunities to guest blog. One of the easiest ways to do this is offer to trade guest blog opportunities. You can start by hosting a series on your own blog and offer other bloggers a chance to join. Then, it will be more natural to ask to guest post on their website at a later date.
8. Embed Pinterest-friendly Images
For each post, you should check to make sure your posts include pinnable images. These allow people to share your content on Pinterest, leading to more views and traffic. Currently, users access Pinterest more like a search engine than a social media platform. So, including visual content makes you a part of that platform.
9. Create Rich Content
Rich Content is defined by content that integrates different media, such as text, graphics, video, and sound. When you develop a blog post, look for ways to add rich content that users may want to share. Over time, this can expand the reach of your blog and generate more traffic.
If you aren’t comfortable with graphic design, there are several shortcuts you can use, like Canva. Similarly, you can create videos or gifs swapping services with video-savvy friends.
Regardless, rich content should be core to your posts.
10. Promote on Social Media
One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make is promoting their posts poorly on social media. Typically, you need to promote your post several times, in different creative ways to get engagement and clicks.
However, once you build a reputation for sharing interesting content, your followers will start to trust the quality of your posts. Over time, the traffic will increase from your social profiles.
11. Set Aside Funds for Advertising
Especially when you start your blog, you should set aside funds for advertising. Pay-per-click options, whether on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google, can be affordable if you monitor them closely. When advertising, focus on your niche to best reach your audience. This will help you stretch your dollars and target the people who are most likely to be interested in your content.
Boost Blog Traffic
Although it takes time, you can increase traffic to your blog. You can learn how to stand out from the millions of blogs on the web by strategically reaching out to your target audience. If you keep these tips in mind, each post will build up your reach and help you reach your ultimate traffic goals.
