7 Things You Need to Do to Increase Your Blog Traffic

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Hey friend! If you are reading this post, you probably want to know how to increase traffic to your blog and grow your following! I have gathered up all the tips that have personally worked for me, and compiled them into an easy to follow blog post, just for you! I do my best to provide you with the tools and strategies you need, so that you too, can become a successful blogger. We are all busy! So, I have sorted the list and put the easiest and quickest tips at the top so you can focus on quick and easy changes but still see big results!

Oh and don’t worry, If you haven’t started your blog yet, here is a step by step tutorial. Get your blog started today and join me on my journey of earning an income from home 🙂

 

7 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC

 

1 | Be Engaged in the Blogging Community

Networking and engaging with other bloggers is a big part of growing your blog! When you are friendly and helpful to others, most of the time, they will be friendly and helpful to you!

The best ways to be engaged in the blogging community is by leaving comments on other blogs similar to yours, being helpful to others if they reach out and ask for advice, being friendly and always responding to comments, emails, etc., sharing other bloggers posts, liking their social media posts, etc.

All of these things can help grow your traffic!

When you leave a comment on a blog, also include your URL to your blog so that person can visit your blog, and other people who view the comments may as well. Or simply being friendly and helpful to others can have benefits as well. That person that you helped may be more inclined to share your blog, like your posts, link back to your website, etc.

2 | Focus on Writing Quality Content

The key is to create content that your readers will find helpful but also easy to implement into their own lives. You want to be answering questions they may have, or solving a problem that is common among your niche. That is the type of content that gets attention, gets people clicking, and also gets shared.

Some tips for writing great content:

• Write for Your Audience
  • Always think about your reader’s needs and how you can help them or make their lives easier.
  • Ask for feedback in an email or via social media. Ask what they want to see a post about, and then if you see a reoccurring topic, that is what you need to write about!

• Your Posts should be helpful, practical and easily implemented. 
  • Will your post help your readers? Will they get something out of it? Can it improve their lives? Can they implement the advice? Think of all these things when creating your content. It will help you from writing a post filled with “fluff”.

• Post Regularly
  • The more you post, the more chances there are for search engines to find and rank you. BUT do not get caught up in quantity over quality. Quality always wins!!!
  • The key is to try to post a few times a month if you can! Don’t post every 2-3 months and expect your blog to have great traffic!

 

Related Reading: The 8 Things Your Blog Post Should Have Before You Hit Publish

 

3 | Focus on Your E-mail List ASAP

Even if you are a brand new blogger, start growing your e-mail list NOW. This will be one of your biggest assets to your blogs success and traffic. The thing is, search algorithms can change and social media platforms can come and go, but your email list is yours forever! These people like your blog content enough to sign up for your e-mail list, they are already a fan of yours!

See the thing is, every time you create a new post, you can let your subscribers know simply by sending them an email. if you have 5000 subscribers, and even half of them click the link to your post, that is 2500 page views right there. If you keep sending quality emails, and build a relationship with this list, chances are they will regularly read your blog, which increases your overall traffic.

So How can you grow your email list?

• I highly recommend you install the plugin SumoMe and set up a opt-in popup. I personally find a pop-up box super effective in getting subscribers! You can link SumoMe to your email marketing provider to make all the people who opt-in via SumoMe go to your subscriber list.
• Sign up for an email marketing platform such as Convertkit  — Use my link & get a free trial to try it out! Convert kit is super helpful because you can create sequences and automations, which when your site grows, become very useful! It is one investment I highly recommend if you plan on taking your blog seriously.
• You can go with a free platform such as Mail Chimp. But, it is only free for your first 2000 subscribers. I actually started with Mail Chimp but hit 2000 subscribers quickly (you will too), and then decided if I was going to have to pay, I liked the features Convertkit had to offer more than the paid version of Mail Chimp.
• If you can swing it, go with Convertkit from the start. They are much more user-friendly and having to switch all of your subscribers over later on is a HUGE pain in the butt!

Realted Reading:

 The Easiest Step-by-Step Guide to Start & Grow Your Email List

5 Reasons Every Blogger Needs An Email List + How to Get Started Building Yours Today!

4 | Get the Most out of Pinterest

If you do not have a Pinterest account set up yet, you are missing out on LOADS of traffic opportunities! Pinterest is my main source of traffic. Almost ALL of my page views come from there.

If you utilize your Pinterest properly, you can really drive traffic to your blog.

I suggest using these methods:

• If you are just getting started with blogging, make sure you already have 5-10 posts published.
• Create a Pinterest Account, and then make it a “Business Account”
• Create 6+ boards and be sure to include one board exclusively for all of your own pins. This is the board you will pin ALL of your blog posts to.
• Use relevant keywords in your profile, board names & descriptions, and in your pin descriptions!
• Sign up for an automation service so that you do not have to spend hours and hours a day pinning. I personally use Tailwind. 
• Create pinnable images for all of your blog posts. These are typically vertical (recommended size currently is 600 x 900) and should be attention grabbing and visually appealing. I use Canva to create mine. Pin your images to your Blog Board + all other relevant boards.
• Pin fresh content on a regular basis. This includes new blog posts or simply newly made pinnable images for older blog posts.
• Pin other users pins as well to any of your relevant boards.

A great budget friendly Pinterest resource that was super helpful to me was Pinteresting Strategies. I highly recommend her manual pinning strategy paired with a schedule like Tailwind for optimal results. 

5 | Name Your Blog Posts Strategically

You want to ensure you are naming your blog posts in a strategic way, so to ensure you are catching people’s attention. A great example is using “The Best List of _______” or “The Ultimate Guide to_______”. Another great way to catch a persons attention is by poking their curiosity. An example would be “The One Big Thing I Changed to Make My Blog Traffic Explode”. People will be intrigued and want to know what that one big thing is!

Naming your posts in this way helps your Pinnable graphics stand out on Pinterest as well. Taking time to think about the titles of your posts can really help you bring in traffic. You could even create two different pinnable graphics, each with a different titles but both for the same blog post, and see which one does better!

I created a GIANT list of Blog Posts Title Templates to get you started! Grab Your copy below:

6 | Make Your Posts SEO Friendly

If you want your blog posts to be ranked higher in search engines, it’s essential that they be appropriately optimized to do so.

It can take a long time to see real traffic results from search engines, but optimizing your blog posts from the very beginning is the best way to achieve results. It is also worth it in the long run, because eventually, by making your posts SEO friendly, you can gain a large increase in organic traffic as your blog grows.

The best tool to use if you aren’t familiar with SEO is the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress.  It helps you make your post SEO friendly by using a simple red, yellow, green method. It also tells you what to improve to get your blog post to green.

 

Learn more about making your blog posts Search Engine Optimized with this post: Learn SEO: The Beginners Guide to Making Your Blog Search Engine Optimized

7 | Post Consistently

If you are truly serious about blogging and growing your blog, you NEED to post consistently. If you post once a month or even less, you will not see an increase in your traffic.

Posting consistently is also one of the things that will help with your SEO.

Also, if you are a new blogger you really need to focus on getting quality content on your blog so when a new reader finds your website, they can click around and get a feel for what you’re all about, allowing them to connect with you as a blogger. If you only have a few posts, or have nothing posted recently, that person is less likely to return.

 

So there you have it! Start implementing these strategies into your blogging routine and watch your traffic grow!!!

What other tips and tricks do you use to grow your blog? Let me know in the comments below!