My blog traffic sucks. Have you ever said that to yourself? If so, you’re not alone.
The whole point in having a blog is having traffic: lots of it. I would say you want it looking like Los Angeles during rush hour. But if your blog is more like a desolate country road at 2 a.m. in the morning, I can offer you some help.
Instead of giving up, I suggest you read this blog post in depth; take notes and follow the many tips here to get your blog traffic up. You can do it! I will tell you how with these 20 tips.
My Blog Traffic Sucks: What to Do About It
These ideas are practical, simple and something anyone can do. They are listed in no particular order.
Tip #1: It Is About Helping Your Readers, Not Helping Yourself
Naturally, you want to make some money. Why else would you have a blog? After all, you invested in a domain and hosting. But if all your thoughts are on helping yourself, you are in for a nightmare.
The bloggers who succeed are those who are helping the readers. Educate, inspire, motivate and solve the reader’s problems and you will be helping yourself in the process.
Your readers will keep coming back and they may purchase products, click links, join your business and share your work. But only if you are helping them.
If you sell something, you can make a customer today. If you help someone, you can create a customer for life.
~ Jay Baer
Tip #2: Create Evergreen Content That Is Magnificent
There are really 3 types of content that will drive high traffic:
- Humorous
- Educational
- Controversial
No matter which you choose, it will gain better odds of getting great traffic if it is evergreen. What that means is the content will stand through time.
If the content is a passing fad, it may get immediate traffic but it will fade away quickly.
While fad subjects may help, I suggest you focus on content that will draw traffic 5 years from now.
Evergreen content treats a topic that doesn’t date quickly (or at all?) and retains relevance; this way, it delivers growth in traffic, leads and social media shareability over a long period of time as well as associated revenues. While news are crucial in our rapidly ticking clocks, when thinking on your return on investment you have to keep in mind that timeless content builds brand trust on the long run, especially when researched properly.
Source: CognitiveSEO
Tip #3: Use Visuals
People love to share visuals on social networks. Using high quality images, enticing videos and elaborate infographics just increase your odds of getting shares on sites like:
- and others
More shares = More traffic.
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.
Source: AmericanExpress
Tip #4: Publish An eBook
Writing and publishing are quite simple with Amazon Kindle. I suggest you develop an eBook that offers readers valuable information. On your Title page, include a link to your blog, and throughout the book, link to other relevant posts in your blog.
Remember that Kindle readers can click those links.
You may be wondering how this can get your blog traffic up?
There are several ways:
- Keep the price of the eBook low and those who purchase will visit the links.
- By having links within the first 4 pages, people visiting Amazon can see it in a preview of your book.
- Use Kindle Select. This will allow people to read it through the Kindle Lending Library.
- Use the Free Book Promotion for 5 days each month.
This method WILL help your blog traffic.
With products such as paid courses, subscription-based content, and eBooks, bloggers can establish themselves as niche experts. This status can drive massive traffic to your site and make readers more receptive to your blog content.
Source: Business 2 Community
Tip #5: Share On Social Media
While you do not want to come across as a greedy person who only shares their own content, that does not mean you shouldn’t share your works. You just need to throw in other material too.
Whenever you publish a blog post, there is nothing wrong with sharing it on:
- Google+
- Etc…
And, by all means, put social share buttons with each of your blog posts. There are various plugins to do so.
If you go through a lot of effort to create good content, then do yourself a favor and share it, re-publish it, and pitch it to more places. Good content deserves to be shared with more people and the best way to do that is to share it in more places.
Tip #6: Join Online Forums
Find forums that are directly related to the subject matter your blog is about. Create a profile and make your signature link back to your blog.
Now the key is to offer valuable input within the forum. As other members realize your knowledge and wisdom, they will visit your signature link.
They will also share it.
Question and Answer websites are one of the biggest online communities on the internet.
The advantage of answering questions on these platforms is that your answer will remain live for a very long time which means that it can become a regular source of traffic to your blog.
Source: wpbeginner
Tip #7: Share At Other Time Slots
Most marketers and blog owners set their post to share on social media once and move on. With the amount of information roaming the internet, many people will not see your blog post the first time you share it on social media.
I suggest sharing it more than once at different time slots. Don’t overdue it or you will look like a spammer. But you may share it at say 8 AM the day it is published. 2 days later, share it at 1 PM and 3 days after that, share it at 4 or 5 PM.
By using this method, you are apt to have more people see it in their news feed.
Ideally, you want to time your content’s publication and promotional efforts to coincide with your audience’s schedule. Your content will be more successful if your audience finds it when they are most receptive to sharing, linking, etc.
Tip #8: Publish More
Statistics have proven that bloggers who publish twice per week get much more traffic than once a week.
Just write and publish more great content and you WILL see a traffic increase.
One of the most effective, but often ignored, blog promotion methods is publishing more articles; research from HubSpot has shown that businesses that publish 16+ blog posts monthly get 3.5 times more traffic and 4.5 times more leads than businesses that publish between 0 – 5 blog posts monthly.
Source: Start Blogging Online
Tip #9: Write Guest Posts
As I am sure you have noticed, I regularly guest post here at Chuck’s blog and it has helped my own blog traffic. Just having the simple link to my blog in the about section at the end of each post does allow me to gain readers that Online MLM Community receives that I normally would not have had visit my blog.
Just find blogs related to your industry and offer to write guest posts. You will see an increase in personal blog traffic by doing so.
Guest blogging is one of the renowned content marketing strategy leveraged by marketers. You can get the SEO benefit, more audience for your website, brand exposure, and build your authority as an author on the web.
As an author, guest blogging can help you develop your network, grow social media following, and eventually generate leads for the business. Your post would be shared on social media, and due to that, your link profile will become stronger.
Source: SEO Basics
Tip #10: Comment At Other Blogs
If you leave valuable comments at other blogs, people will click your name to see what you have to offer on your blog. Not only are you creating a simple backlink, you are showing your expertise and readers will click to see more.
Comment on the most recent post of relevant sites that have good traffic is another best way to generate traffic, develop relationships, build a following and add backlinks for your blog. Always try to leave good valuable comments on articles. While posting comment, always take care of anchor text. Use brand name or individual name would beneficial and spam free. Before commenting, read their post carefully, comment about something you liked or agreed with in their post and then you can share your link with your thought, your viewpoint in a genuine, opinion about the topic and article.
Source: The Next Scoop
Tip #11: Ask And You Will Receive
Case studies have shown that bloggers who simply ask their readers to share their posts get the shares they ask for. And if they don’t ask, less readers actually share the post.
There is nothing wrong with simple saying: If you found this content helpful, help another by sharing on social media. Buttons are below.
It works! Your readers will share it if you ask them.
Don’t underestimate the willingness of your loyal readers to do small favors.
If you have confidence in your post’s quality, perhaps all you need to do is ask readers to share it.
Source: Master Blogging
Tip #12: SEO Optimization
There are 2 WordPress SEO plugins that I favor. I suggest you use one of them:
- Yoast SEO
- All In One SEO
Follow their directions and you can optimize your blog for search engines. While it won’t happen over night, you will see an increase in search engine traffic if you follow the methods these plugins teach you.
It doesn’t hurt to read up on SEO good practices either. There are many great publications on SEO.
Make sure that you are using proper SEO techniques. You should never let this get in the way of your writing, but after you have drafted your post, take the time to ensure you are using good search engine optimization tactics. Create a focus keyword and ensure it is used properly.
Source: Theme Country
Tip #13: Longer Blog Posts
While people on the internet do have short attention spans, longer blog posts have showed the means of drawing more visitors. There are several key points in these long posts:
- Use several visuals
- Have interesting headlines throughout the post
- Do not “fluff” the post with info that is not valuable
The days of 500 word posts gaining top spots in search engines are gone. I suggest posts to be at least 1,500 words and over 2,000 can be better.
Does that mean an 800 word post is bad?
NO!
If you said all you need to say in 800 words, by all means publish it.
I just suggest that you try to prioritize your blog posts to longer as search engines give them more authority.
Research by Buzzsumo, in a partnership with Moz, which analyzed over 1 million articles, found that articles that are 3,000 – 10,000 words get twice as many shares and 3 times the links that content with fewer than 1,000 words get.
Source: Start Blogging Online
Tip #14: Link To Influential Bloggers
In researching this post, I studied what top bloggers do. You will see that I put these links in the reference section. People like:
- Neil Patel
- Rand Fishkin
- Matt Lindley
- and more…
These bloggers will probably see the link and by doing so, the influencer is influenced to also share your mighty content.
The next time you share one of your blog posts on social media try tagging any brands or people that you mentioned within a status update or you could go as far as to actually ask them (nicely) if they’d help share your content – if you say awesome stuff about them, chances are they will be happy to help you.
Tip #15: Join Communities And Groups
We already discussed sharing on social media, but I must take it even deeper. On Facebook, Linkedin and Google+ there are groups and communities you can get involved in that focus within your industry.
Personally, I am a member of several MLM groups as well as entrepreneur and freelance groups.
When I share my content in these groups, I get a huge influx of blog traffic because that group is focused on the same subject.
I suggest you join some groups, introduce yourself, like other member’s content and share your own content.
Once you know where your target audience is, you can join forums and social media communities, which house your target audience. Take part in the discussions in which you have clear knowledge.
However, you need to keep in mind not to spam. If you follow the proper netiquettes, you will be rewarded with quality traffic. Otherwise, you will be marked as a spammer that nobody wants to be associated with.
Source: MediaLabs
Tip #16: Build A Subscriber List
Make sure there is a clear and easy method for people to subscribe to your blog. As you publish posts, ensure there is an automatic delivery to your subscribers.
This is a sure way to gain heavier blog traffic.
Even if you provide great content, there are so many distractions online that many readers will not return to your blog. Building a subscriber list lets you remind people when new content is released, keeping your name fresh in the memory. Email is one of the best ways to build your list, but you can also create a feed that updates with each new post. Your subscriber list will become a valuable asset to your business, providing direct access to an eager audience.
Source: AffiliateMarketerTraining.com
Tip #17: Boost Posts
While there is some costs, boosting Facebook posts is an excellent way to increase blog traffic. The costs are quite minimal and you can target demographics such as age, gender, location and more.
I suggest just testing it for $10 or $20 and seeing how much more traffic you can get.
Boosting posts is one form of Facebook advertising that allows you to boost one post’s specific content (rather than having to create a distinct right-rail ad) to a select audience.
The beauty of Facebook’s ad targeting is that you can boost posts to a direct, custom audience. Boosting posts is relatively simple, too.
Source: SearchEngineJournal
Tip #18: Tell Stories
Since we were small children, we love to hear stories. Use story telling techniques in your blog content. People are more apt to share a story other than a post that is technical in nature.
Do you think your story might be boring and not worth telling?
Don’t underestimate your readers! All stories are worth reading. Just because you don’t assume it will be interesting, don’t prejudge your readers.
Tell the story and let your readers be the judge.
The reason we tell stories is so other people, your customers, can connect with those stories on an emotional level. When it comes to businesses, people would rather interact with a company that has emotion over a faceless, branded corporation.
When telling your story, make it relatable, make it connectable, and draw people in a way where they can feel what you’re saying. You’ll also want to make sure your content is written to the highest possible quality.
Source: woorank
Tip #19: Be Mobile Friendly
The percentages are much higher that people will be visiting your blog from a mobile device. You need to make sure their experience is just as good as if they were on a laptop or desk top computer.
Just check your blog from a mobile device to see if it is compliant. There are many plugins that can help you ensure your blog is mobile friendly.
The modern age of the internet is mobile. If your blog isn’t optimized for mobile view, you’re hindering your potential for a higher conversion rate. Smartphone usage has become a major source of traffic to the blogosphere, and you simply won’t be able to keep up without making sure your site is mobile friendly.
Source: BloggerTips
Tip #20: Link To Past Posts In Current Posts
When you have a word or phrase that coincides with a previous post you have written, it can greatly help your content to hyperlink it to that previous post.
While you do not want to overdo interior links, a good measure is 2-4 of them in each post.
At the end of each post, point out and link to past posts on similar subject matter. The goal is to have a visitor bounce from post to post, ping-ponging around your site. The longer they stay and look around, the more they get to your know you, your ideas, your thoughts and your brand.
Remember that it’s very tough to attract new readers. When one stops by, entice them to stay as long as possible.
Source: The Write Life
My Blog Traffic Sucks: Additional Tips
I just gave you 20 great methods to raise your blog traffic. It will help you turn that North Dakota gravel road blog into a St. Louis I-80 blog.
But let’s not stop with 20… Here are some additional ways:
- Write review posts – review products, books and companies and you will get more traffic.
- Respond to all comments on your blog.
- Ask your current audience what they would like to see on your blog.
- Feature “expert” related articles. Interview experts in your industry and share a roundup of their tips and strategies.
- Run contests and giveaways.
- Make sure your blog is eyeball friendly. Too many ads and obnoxious colors can drive people away. It does pay to study the best designs.
- Target emotions and add logic.
- Solve problems.
- Publish resource posts.
- Re-purpose your content into eBooks, Videos, Webinars, Podcasts, etc…
Final Thoughts
Just like multilevel marketing, having a blog with a traffic jam requires hard work and consistency. If you keep at it and follow the tips I gave you here, you will no longer have to say to yourself “my blog traffic sucks.”
Do you have any questions? Do you have any other methods of raising blog traffic? Just post your thoughts below.
Thank you and may blog success be in your near future. Hey, if you found this post helpful, share it with the buttons below please.
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Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.