Ways To Get Traffic
and Promote Your Blog
September 34, 2022
Authority Publishing
SUMMARY
Getting more people to read your blog is both
an art and science. Employ these 20 tips on how to get your blog noticed.
Every business owner who's ever hosted a blog has experienced
the frustration of trying to gain readership. Though we’d all like it if
readers just magically came to us, the reality is, it takes some work to build
an audience.
It’s easy to get frustrated and just give up
on blogging, but once you experience the benefits, you'll understand that your
blog can have a tremendous impact on your business by attracting traffic to
your site, helping you build a social media audience and making an impression
on prospects and clients alike.
Following are 20 proven strategies that can
help you boost readership and increase traffic to your blog.
1. Write more.
Studies show that the more often you update
your blog, the more traffic it will receive. Google gives higher priority to
websites with fresh content, so if you want to get more attention from the
search engines, update your blog at least twice a week.
2. Promote with social media.
Share each new blog post across your social
media networks, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.
If you spend time cultivating your networks and share great content, social
media sites can become some of your top traffic sources.
3. Write better titles.
The titles for your blog posts are almost more
important than the content itself. That's because titles help potential readers
decide whether they should click and read more. Pay attention to the article
titles you see on magazine covers. They entice readers with promises and
solutions. When you do the same, your readership will increase.
4. Know your niche.
While you may be interested in sea life,
exotic travel destinations, Little League baseball and weight loss, you'll
confuse your audience if your content doesn’t follow a clear theme. Decide who
your target audience is, what they want to read and what specific messages you
want to convey.
5. Include photos.
Studies have shown that photos in blog posts
boost readership. Not only does a photo make the post more visually appealing,
but you can also include keywords in the Alt Image tag on the photo, boosting
search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. Keep in mind that you can’t
just pull any photo from Google because you risk violating copyright laws.
Instead, locate royalty-free images from a site like Clipart.com.
6. Incorporate keywords.
Speaking of SEO, keywords are at the heart of
SEO. One of the easiest ways to generate more traffic to your website is to
ensure that every page on your site has a keyword strategy. So for each blog
post you write, choose one key phrase that you believe readers would use to
find that post. Next, incorporate that phrase into the title of the post, the
headline on the page, within the content on the page at least two times, in a
featured image on the page and also as part of the page link. Keyword
concentration helps Google understand what that page is about, which can ultimately
lead to more traffic from the search engines.
7. Incorporate links.
When you mention another company’s product or
service in a blog post, include a link to that company’s page. Not only does
Google like to see outbound links on your site, the company you mention may
also notice your post and link back to you. Plus, readers appreciate it when
you provide resources to make it easier for them to find the things they're
looking for.
8. Add social sharing buttons.
At the top and bottom of your blog posts, make
sure you include social sharing buttons for Twitter, LinkedIn and the other
major social networks. Make it easy for readers to spread the word.
9. Retweet past content.
We aren’t all looking at Twitter at the same
time, so when you share a new blog post link, the majority of your fan base
won’t see it the first time. Repeat your tweets, and don’t be afraid to share
past content. Readers don’t care when it was written as long as it’s still
relevant.
10. Invite guest contributors.
When others write for your blog, you add more
content that you didn’t have to write yourself. As a bonus, those contributors
will also share with their networks and may ask you to write for them, opening
up new readership avenues for you.
11. Add video.
Google owns YouTube, which is one of the many
reasons that videos can drive more traffic to your site. Supplement the written
content on your blog with short videos that are informative and entertaining.
12. Invest in promotion.
If you believe your audience is spending time
on Facebook, occasionally invest in sponsored posts. For as little as $10, you
can “Boost” a post and increase its reach significantly.
13. Conduct give-away events.
Create fun theme days such as “Free Book
Fridays” where your readers can win a prize by submitting a comment or sharing
your link via social media. You can provide prizes yourself or invite companies
to donate or sponsor these promotions.
14. Write guest posts.
Locate other blogs that reach your target
audience, and offer to contribute guest blog posts. If the site has a
substantial audience, you can bet that readers will in turn want to engage with
more of your content.
15. Cross-promote to your mailing list.
Instead of writing all new content for your
electronic newsletter, share the first paragraph from several recent blog posts
and include a link to continue reading on the site. Not everyone is taking the
time to read your blog each week, so this will help get your subscribers
invested in your blog.
In addition to the tips above, the following
smart strategies will also help increase readership:
16. Make your content easy to read by using plenty of subheads,
bullets and numbered lists.
17. Promote your blog in your email signature and your bio in any
online profiles.
18. Make it easy for blog visitors to subscribe to your RSS
feed.
19. Invite readers to leave a comment, then respond and let
them know you’re engaged.
20. Finally, have fun with your blog. If it feels like
drudgery, your readers will notice. But if you enjoy producing the content,
that will come across and have a tremendous impact on your success.
Read more articles on online marketing.
A version of this article was originally
published on September 02, 2013.
Photo: iStockphoto
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