Increasing the amount of traffic coming to your blog is the aim of thousands of Internet users. Yet most of them will never succeed because they don’t know what they’re doing. Knowledge is power, so we’ve presented 21 tips you can use for making sure people find your blog.
The most important thing about any blog is to make it targeted. It needs to be able to focus on one audience and make them feel welcomed. You need to know what this audience wants and what makes them want to read about what you’re publishing.
Different audiences require different things. If you’re writing about cars from 1952 your audience is going to be quite small. Your competition is also going to be quite small so you have a fan base which is hungry for more. You need to stick to classic cars from 1952, though. Going off on a tangent on something else will only lead to you losing out on new readers.
1. Go Twitter
Starting a Twitter campaign is simple. All you need to do is make sure you post something at least once every day. It doesn’t have to be anything special. Just make sure what you’re saying can grab your audience’s attention.
2. Research Your Tags
Pick tags for your pages which people are likely to search for. Keyword tools from Google can help you find out what most people are searching for. Make them relevant and don’t be afraid to change them again.
3. Images and Google Images
Always include images. It makes your posts more attractive and it’s a positive effect on SEO. Make sure you have your images listed in Google Images for maximum SEO benefits. Again, make sure they’re relevant to your subject.
4. PPC Advertising
PPC advertising is an option for new blogs which need to get off the ground. Carefully decide on your budget and the keywords you’re aiming for. It can quickly get expensive if you don’t keep tabs on it.
5. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is still a great way to boost your SEO and get more direct traffic from elsewhere. You’ll usually have to wait a few weeks before you starting reaping the rewards of good guest posting. Start making note of the best tips for writing a blog.
6. Write Good Content
Quality content is all the rage these days. The most important thing is to make it useful. Ask yourself whether what you’re posting would make you want to find out more about it. Would it benefit your life in any way?
7. Target Facebook
Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. It makes no sense to not have a presence on it. You should try to post something at least three times a week. Unlike Twitter, most of your followers will come from your website first.
8. Reader Friendly
Do everything you can to make the reading experience easier. This means making sure your text doesn’t hurt their eyes, it’s of a suitable size, and they don’t have to sign up for an account before they can view your content.
9. Build Your Brand
Make sure you have a brand logo which is easily recognisable for a distance. Use it to advertise your website through images. Build up your character and put yourself in as many places as possible. Build the brand and the audience will follow.
10. Linking
Make sure you add resources to your blog which are helpful. They can be from anywhere, just as long as they’re relevant and they don’t come from any of your close competitors.
11. Affiliate Marketing
Nobody likes affiliate marketing. It’s the worst kind of thing you can do. If you’re assaulting your visitors with ads you can expect your bounce rates to increase. Remove the adverts and you won’t have to deal with this problem any longer.
12. RSS Feed
The RSS feed should form an essential part of your blog. Millions of people use these feeds each day to find new and fresh content. Some of your readers will pick them up so they can stay updated on what you’re writing about.
13. Google+ Authorship
Sign up to this program and your profile picture will go next to any posts you have in the search engine results. Anyone can track articles and blogs you’ve published. It enhances your personal brand and increases your chances of garnering a larger following.
14. Make Your Comments Search Engine Friendly
Make sure your comments section has a follow tag. This means the search engines will read the comments. It increases the chances of spam, but as long as you regularly check for spam you’ll get some real SEO benefits.
15. The Monthly Newsletter
A newsletter adds some extra content for readers to take advantage of. Keep it to a monthly publication until you have a large audience. As well as giving them something extra, you’ll also publish links to content you’ve already published. It’s almost like a monthly roundup of content.
16. Reciprocate with People
Some people will promote your blog out of the blue. You won’t know who they are. They’ll love your content, though. The best thing you can do about this is to reciprocate and give them a little shout out. It’s common courtesy and it might encourage others to promote you.
17. Ask the Audience
Ask your readers what they think about your blog. You can do this on social media, through your blog posts, or via a simple poll. It makes your readers feel valued. They believe their opinion matters. If they think this, they’re more likely to revisit your blog because they know they’re valued.
18. Make Sharing Easy
Add some social media buttons to your blog. They make it easier to share things because all readers have to do is click a button and it will post a link to your blog on their timeline. It’s an easy way to share simply because your audience doesn’t have to do anything. In this way you can bring traffic to your blog.
19. Stealing Links
Look up your blog’s competitors and open up the Meta data for their pages. See which domains they’re receiving links from. Try to hijack their SEO efforts by getting links from these domains yourself. It’s dirty and underhanded, but this is blogging!
20. Question and Answer
Some question and answer websites will allow you to link to your blog from their websites. Add another level of customer interaction by signing up to one of them and answering questions. It’s a better platform for receiving customer feedback. And it makes you more accessible to the general public.
21. Chat!
Spread your blog around by participating in relevant conversations on online forums. Interacting and posting links on forums will likely lead to your blog gaining in SEO value. The amount of new readers you get depends on how often you decide to interact.
Article by Vishal
Vishal Gaikar is a professional blogger from Pune, India. If you like this post, you can follow him on Twitter.
