How to Get Traffic to Your Blog
Last update: 27 July 2023 at 04:17 pm
5.00/5One thing that every blog author has in common is the stress of trying to increase traffic on their site. It would be dreamy if all your targeted readers simply flocked to your page with no effort but the undeniable reality is that you have to build your audience. It can be a very stressful process and you may even feel like quitting your blog but remember the positive impact a successful blog can have on your business.
Once you get the hang of search engine optimization and other strategies, your blog will be reaching thousands or even millions of people! If you’d like to learn more or get professional help with search engine optimization, you can check out these SEO agencies at Sortlist. Let’s look at some of the best techniques you can use to get more traffic to your blog.
Content is King
If you really want to get more blog traffic then having content that is desired by many is extremely important. The phrase content is king is well-known but many writers neglect it easily. Remember that creating great content is not just about creating quality work but marketing your work strategically to ensure your posts get the views they deserve.
Another important factor in creating content is making it timeless. Make sure that your content will always be irrelevant and will always be a good source on that topic. At any point in time when people search for something on that topic, your blog posts should benefit them in some way.
Creating Viral Content
We know that creating valuable content is important but how can we create content that markets itself? The answer is to create content made to go viral. The best thing you can do for yourself is to look at what your competitors are doing. How do successful blog posts get the traffic they do? What do they have in common that makes so many people want to read, engage and share their blog posts? We’ve picked up three things that all successful content has in common.
1. Write catchy headlines
The headline is the first thing your readers see so it has to be catchy enough to make them want to read your blog. There are three things you need to remember when writing a headline.
- Firstly, a good heading tells a story- it’s relatable. Usually talking about a person in the headline grabs readers’ attention more than simply stating what the article is about.
- Secondly, a good headline involves questions. Sometimes this can be a direct question that a person might ask themselves such as ” How to lose weight in ten days?”. It could be in the form of a story where the reader questions what happens next, such as” She ate like this for ten days, see what she looks like now…”.
- Thirdly, to create an excellent headline, you have to be a little bit polarizing. The reader must either completely agree or disagree. If someone agrees they will want to read your work and if someone disagrees they will be tempted to read. This is a kind of clickbait but it will get readers to your page and they will read your quality article.
2. Longer Content
To create a sharable post, you should aim for at least 1000 words. However, longer content like posts that have between 2500-3000 usually gets even more shares! There are so many reasons why you should aim for longer posts. Let’s unpack some of these reasons:
- More words means you can slot in more SEO tags without the risk of keyword stuffing.
- Longer posts make it easier to keep your posts timeless as you can easily include backleads and organic links
- Lots of people are still writing shorter posts so your longer blog posts will stand out from the crowd
- Longer posts make you look like more of an expert because your readers will find all the information on your page. They won’t have to look for information in another blog post.
- Readers typically share and reshare longer posts because each read gives a new perspective or highlights a different aspect of your piece.
3. Develop Superb Topics
Trying to come up with a topic is an extremely stressful process. If you come up with a bad topic, nobody will want to read it or they may read it and denounce it as irrelevant. Since it is such an essential aspect of the blogging process, we’ve put together four steps to help you develop the best topics:
Step 1
The first step is knowing what your audience wants. There are a number of ways to figure this out. You could use common forums to figure out what your audience wants to read. It’s pretty simple and effective. All you have to do is type in one of your main keywords into the search box. If you use the right keywords, you’ll find many frequently asked questions, search queries, and common topics of people interested in your field of knowledge. While reading through the questions you’ll also get an idea of keywords to use for your article.
Another way of finding what content your target audience is interested in is to browse through your competitors’ social media pages, check out all their social networks, and read through their content. You should try to cover similar content but not identical. Try and find a different paradigm or uncovered aspect of that topic. This is also a fairly simple technique.
If you’re looking for something more complex and tech-savvy then you could use SEO and keyword research tools to find your target audience. You could use SEO tools to find the website your competitors use to find backlinks and from there you could find any niche they haven’t covered and what your target audience is truly looking for. There are also many professional keyword research tools that show you the keywords that your competitors are using. If you do some keyword research you’ll find what your blogs should include and you’ll grow your readership.
Step 2
Yet another tech-savvy method of creating a topic that’ll get those sharing buttons clicking, is using a topic generator. A topic generator can help you easily generate ideas. The process is simple. You put your primary search engine keyword and you’ll see all kinds of topics within that interest area. As easy as it is, it does have its downfalls. It’s a bit of a guessing game. If you don’t do your target market research and know who your audience is, you’ll blindly choose topics that appeal to you. However, these topics may not appeal to your readership. So it’s advisable to not skip step 1 before attempting step 2.
Step 3
So far we’ve spoken a lot about taking inspiration from your competitors but what about your own blogs? Getting topic inspiration from your own blog posts is a surefire way to come up with a successful topic. Browse through your posts and look for useful comments. You could also check out reviews on the products or services that you offer.
When you read through your blog comments, you should also try to engage with some of your readers. Of course, when looking for topic inspiration, you should look for comments from readers who are experts in their own right. One way to do this is to check your social media or google analytics. For example, you can look at the profiles of commenters on LinkedIn and Instagram. There’s typically a bio that mentions what the person does for a living. You could also check out comments on other niche blogs. For example, if you’re a business writer, check out a dedicated business blog. It’s highly likely that you’ll find comments from entrepreneurs and other business people.
Aside from comments, you should also look to reviews. Well, what do reviews have that comments don’t? For one, people may feel more comfortable sharing personal topics such as weight loss, via anonymous reviews. If you’re just getting started with blogging or you don’t have a lot of reviews, you could look at reviews for similar products. Reviews will help you gain a better understanding of your referral traffic. Make sure that you aren’t aimlessly reading through review. Try to find answers to questions such as, ‘who is your target audience?’, ‘what are some of their common problems?’ and’ what online solutions can we use to solve those problems?’.
Step 4
A well-known method for topic finding is to look through curated content. What is curated content? It’s content that is created by others that you sift through and chose a select few to share to your blog post. The content is not limited to one outlet. This means it could be anything such as a blog post, a social media post, advice from someone you admire, or anything you want to share on your site that may increase traffic. Try your best to select high-quality content to maintain the standards of your blog posts. Let’s look at some of the benefits of content curation:
- Use up the gaps in your content calendar – Most of the content on your blog posts should consist of your own writing. However, there may be some gaps in your planner, and sharing the work of others is a low-budget option for filling those spaces.
- Share valuable, expert information with your readership -By ensuring that you select content carefully, you can share an expert-written article. The guest posts will make your blog appear more reputable and get more traffic as well.
- Become an accomplished thought leader -Sharing guest posts will not only give you more blog traffic, but it’ll also help you become a thought leader. When you share interesting posts, make sure to add your opinions. Be clear and concise. Let them know what you think when you share a guest post.
- Generate a stronger network -Content curation gives you the chance to build a network with other blog and content creators. You should let them know why you appreciate their work and avoid asking them to return the favour. If you give it time, sharing their articles will build a connection because you’ll be sending more traffic to their page and in return, they may share your posts at some point.
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