At times, growing your blog traffic can seem like chasing an ever-elusive unicorn through digital fields and forests. If your traffic has been stagnant for what seems like forever, it can feel like you’ll never post anything that will move the needle.
But let’s face it: blogs need traffic to thrive. It’s every blogger’s dream to get hundreds of thousands (or more!) views per month because blogging success is mostly a numbers game: more traffic means more opportunities to generate revenue. And the readers are out there: each month, more than 409 million people view more than 20 billion blog pages.
Use this rapid-fire guide to start growing your blog and getting your share of internet traffic, all without running paid ads:
1. Validate Your Blog’s Focus
When you first started your blog, did you take time to research your area of focus? Is it something that has enough interest? If you skipped this crucial step, go back and do some research to make sure you’re writing about things people are interested in. Your blog may need a slight makeover topic-wise to make sure you’re still connecting with the right audience.
To do this, go to any popular forum like Reddit or Quora to see what people are talking about in your niche. If you’re trying to monetize your blog, look at different affiliate products to see if your niche has enough products to promote and if they’re profitable enough to pursue.
2. Do a Competitor Analysis
Part of the validation process should include competitor research. Who else is writing on the same topics as you, and how much traffic are they getting? Use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to view your competitors’ traffic, keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and other details that can show you how you stack up.
3. View Your Blog as a Reader
One important thing that’s easily overlooked is how your blog looks to your audience. Bloggers are usually so close to their projects that they can miss out on critical opportunities to improve the user experience.
View your blog as a reader. Go through your blog page by page, link by link, to make sure you’re providing value and ease of use. In fact, you could even ask your current audience for their feedback to find problems that need to be fixed.
4. Create a Tribe on Triberr
Blogging is a unique ecosystem in that there’s a ton of competition, but “competitors” can actually help each other. Triberr is a perfect example of this: it’s a content platform that connects bloggers and influencers with each other to amplify your social presence.
You can create your own Tribe on the platform and invite people to join. When you have new content to share, your tribe will be among the first to help you spread it on social media. And naturally, you can always return the favor to others on the platform to grow your tribe even bigger and show you’re a team player. It’s a win/win for everyone!
5. Post on Top Blogs in Your Niche
Guest posting opportunities can be digital gold because it gets your name in front of a different audience. Find top blogs in your niche and pitch an idea for a guest post. You can link back to your own blogs and even include your blog name in your bio.
6. Include Influencers in Your Blog
Want to make shareworthy blog content? Include shoutouts to brands and influencers in your blog. They’ll be flattered if you know their name and will be happy to share the blog with their audience, which gives you more traffic by default.
You can do this in several ways: include their Instagram handle, give them a backlink, or tag them in a Facebook post. You can also reach out directly to let them know you included them in the blog.
7. Make Your Content More Detailed
Long-form content is king of organic search. Whatever your topics, make them as detailed as possible. Include things like:
● Images
● Infographics
● Stats
● Charts
● Examples
These are usually more time consuming to create and a lot more text-heavy, b. But they’re also more likely to help you rank for more keywords (especially long- tail keywords).
8. Increase Your Posting Frequency
New content is critical in building a loyal audience. The more you post, the more often people will come back to your blog (provided you continue to offer value).
Look at your current posting stats: if you’re posting bi-weekly, try posting once a week. If you’re posting weekly, try posting twice a week. The key is to keep your content quality high — otherwise, you risk chasing away your loyal audience and could end up losing traffic! If you don’t have time to churn out quality blog posts, consider working with a content writer who can help you fill in the gaps.
9. Expand Your Social Sharing
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to stick to one or two social media platforms for building your brand. This helps you avoid stretching yourself too thin so you have more time to be more engaged.
But if you’re not getting much traction where you are, you might consider branching out to other platforms. It could be that you’ll find a better, more engaged audience on a different platform. Experiment with one platform at a time until you find the best one(s) that work for you and your blog.
A few to consider:
● Medium
10. Get an Expert’s Opinion
If you’re at a loss as to how to grow your blog traffic, enlist the help of another blogger or expert to help you sniff out what’s going wrong. A freelance writer or website designer can help spot issues that you may not be aware of and provide insight as to how to improve them.
Need more insights to grow your blog? Check out my recent (and longer) post on how to skyrocket your blog’s traffic.
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