Blogging is more than just creating a blog and writing content. What is good content if the intended readers cannot find it? If we are being honest, almost everyone who has started a business, whether blogging or something else, initially experiences frustration on where to get customers. For bloggers, the task is increasing their blog traffic.
As a blogger, being able to drive traffic to your site is not something that happens overnight. While many people may get frustrated and give up blogging, if you hold on a little bit longer and learn the different ways to help you build blog traffic, you will experience the desired growth.
Sources of Blog Traffic.
As a blogger, it is good to target the different sources that could drive traffic to your blog. Such sources include:
Organic blog traffic.
This is when people search for something on the search engine and get results from your websites. As a blogger, it is good if you target to make organic traffic your primary source of blog traffic. This is because Google and other search engines have been here for a long time and will be there in the coming days.
Also, the number of people searching for things online is increasing daily; therefore, Google and other search engines are and will remain a reliable source of the traffic to websites that leverage them.
Also, for a small business, getting organic traffic is the least expensive way of getting blog traffic. Organic traffic is free. All you have to do is write what people are searching for by doing keyword research.
Social blog traffic.
Social media has become very popular for bloggers to market their content. In digital marketing, we call this cross-channel marketing, where you use different forms of digital marketing to market your business.
As a blogger, taking advantage of social media could help you build a tonne of social blog traffic.
Paid blog traffic.
Some bloggers run adverts so that their blog posts can appear first on searches. This is commonly referred to as search engine marketing. Other ways to get paid traffic on your blog include advertising a link to your blog on social media or displaying ads on other websites.
Direct blog traffic.
This is where people type the name of your website directly on their browsers.
Email traffic.
This is traffic obtained from the emails that you sent out. Visitors arrive at your website by clicking on a link in one of your emails.
Referral blog traffic.
This is commonly known as backlinking. This is where other blogs and businesses link to your website, and you get traffic that way. It may take a lot of time to build enough authority to get a lot of backlinks. However, some ways, such as guest blogging, can help you build backlinks faster.
Having looked at the different sources of blog traffic, let’s look at how you can grow your blog traffic.
How to Increase Your Blog Traffic.
We will discuss some of the most effective ways successful bloggers have built blog traffic. While the tips we will discuss are very effective, you will need to use some of them for some time.
Blogging is not a quick way to make money or get customers, but if you stay in the game long enough and follow the following tips, you will grow your blog’s following.
Learn basic SEO.
I would say that learning SEO is one of the must-do things for a blogger. SEO means search engine optimization; it is how you can make your content available on search results.
You do not have to be an SEO guru to succeed in blogging, but understanding SEO basics will help get your content out there. As I mentioned earlier, organic traffic is one of the richest and sure ways of getting traffic to your blog. To ensure that your blog gets organic traffic, you must optimize it for the different search engines.
I use the Yoast SEO plugin to help me assess how my posts are doing on SEO. Also, to improve myself as a blogger, I committed to learning something new about SEO daily, no matter how small. There are many free and paid resources and courses on SEO that you can take online to better your knowledge of the subject.
Do keyword research.
What are people searching for in your niche? Keyword research should be a part of your SEO strategy if you want to increase your blog traffic. Keyword research helps you know what people are searching for and help them answer the question.
Writing is not enough; you need to write about something people are interested in and looking for. Create keywords within your niche and formulate your blog content around those keywords. There are also free and paid tools that help you come up with viable keywords for your blog content.
For example, you can use the google ads keyword tool, which is unrestricted, or you can use paid tools like Ubersuggest to develop keywords that will drive blog traffic.
Understand your audience.
As a blogger, you must understand your audience. Who are you planning to help? Recently, I saw a quote that said, “sell your solution to a problem and not a product.” That statement holds for blog owners as it does for other business people.
As a blogger, you need to understand your target audience’s needs. What are their major pain points? What can you do to help solve their problem?
One way you can learn your audience is by following online where they are, for example, on social media. Try to contribute to the various online discussions happening on social media and follow what people are asking. This will give you an idea of what your audience would be interested in regarding blog content.
Understanding your audience helps you write relevant content for your blog and, therefore, enables you to increase your blog traffic.
Write consistently.
Consistency is the game in most things, and this includes blogging. If you plan to make money blogging or drive enough traffic to your business through your blog, then you must update your blog content regularly.
Google rewards consistency. If you update your content often, your blog posts will likely appear on top of search results.
Coming up with a great content calendar and doing keyword research is not the end. You have to go into actual writing. While sometimes, writing can be challenging, and most writers face real imposter syndrome. I like to encourage writers that it gets better with time. Just like any other job, you will learn a lot on the go when you start blogging. I also created a comprehensive guide on how to write perfect blog posts; you can check that out.
One of the ways I have been able to stay consistent in my blogging is by having a content calendar. Bloggers can use so many free resources to plan their content. Something as simple as google calendar will help you plan your content.
I also use Canva to design all my graphics, and the pro version has a content calendar that you could use to plan your content. If you want to start small with content planning, you can use the notes or the schedule app on your iPhone. A content planner shouldn’t necessarily be fancy but just something to help you know when you plan to post a blog post and what you intend to write about.
Start an email list right away.
This is one of the mistakes new bloggers make. They assume that an email list is for the successful more established bloggers. On the contrary, an email list is for every blogger who wants to experience growth in their blogging career.
You have worked hard to create content that people can find online. You have published and promoted your blog content, and finally, you have people coming to read your blog.
How do you ensure that those people will return in the future to read more of your blog content? It is by asking them to sign up. If you write good content, people will not have a problem subscribing to your blog, which will have you getting repeat blog visits from your old readers.
Create valuable and comprehensive content.
When you create value, you will likely have both new and returning readers. The time visitors spend on your website informs the search engine how helpful your content is in response to the search query.
Creating guides or long pillar content that answer all the questions attributing to the topic concerned will keep readers longer on your site and thus inform google that your page is helpful, leading to high ranking in search results which means more blog traffic.
Also, if you write comprehensive blog posts, visitors will likely subscribe to your newsletter, which is almost a sure way to read your blog posts in the future.
Create readable content.
The Yoast SEO plugin also helps you assess your content’s readability. Some things that make your content readable include images, graphics and infographics.
Visual elements help people stay on your blog longer than just writing long plain paragraphs. Also, ensure that you leave a lot of white space in your content. People have a short concentration span. So if you write blog posts with long sentences that form long paragraphs, people will leave your blog as soon as they land.
Write short sentences and short paragraphs. Use legible fonts. As a blogger, it is very tempting to create a fancy-looking blog. Well, forget how fancy your fonts are. Can your readers read them without struggling?
Retaining readers long will help you increase your blog traffic by the old readers wanting to stay on your website longer and search engines rating your posts as helpful to readers.
Create content that your users request.
User-generated content is a sure way of getting traffic. Like studying your audience, your existing users will help you know what they are looking for. An example is engaging with your users in the comment section and responding to their questions and concerns.
If the comments are something you could create a blog post about, then write the post and respond to your users using a link to your new blog post or an existing blog post that answers their questions.
Internal linking.
Internal linking is where you link a blog post to your existing blog posts. Internal linking is an SEO best practice, but it can also help increase your blog’s traffic in two ways.
Internal linking to your other posts helps the search engines to recognize the relationship between your different posts.
Also, internal linking helps increase your pageviews and reduces your bounce rate because your visitors read one post, leading them to the other that they didn’t necessarily look up.
Create catchy headlines.
Your blog post headlines are your first impressions of the posts. When people search for something, the first thing they see is the title.
If you can write a great title, people are likelier to click on your blog posts than having a boring title.
One primary way to write great titles is to elicit readers’ emotions. Emotional selling applies in blogging as well. Creating titles that trigger joy, fear, shock or any other emotion from a reader will get them clicking to read.
Another characteristic of a good title is that it highlights the problem of the readers and promises a solution. If you can do that with your readers, you won’t have a problem increasing your blog traffic.
Promote your content.
I always say that running a business without promoting it is like winking at a girl at night. The same applies to your blog posts.
Writing perfect blog posts with catchy headlines is not enough. Promote your blog posts. Let people know that you have a solution to their problem.
Some of the ways you can do this are by using social media. Cross-channel marketing is a popular and effective way of promoting a business in the modern digital age.
With that in mind, use various social media platforms to promote your blog posts. One of the social media platforms that have helped me drive traffic to my website is Pinterest. Learn about Pinterest marketing as part of your growth strategy.
Also, enable the social media sharing icons on all your blog posts to allow your readers to share your posts with their connections, which may also increase your blog traffic.
Finally..
Growing your blog traffic is not something that happens overnight. For some, it may take several months, even years. However, if you keep learning the best blogging practices, sooner or later, you will reap a harvest.
Do not forget to learn basic SEO and Pinterest marketing. These two will be game changers in your blogging career.
As usual, do not hesitate to ask about anything unclear in the comment section below and subscribe to our newsletter for more helpful blogging tips.