If you are running your own blog, one of the most important things you should do is drive traffic. When you have a new website for the first time, you might constantly refresh your stats page to find out how many people are visiting you. The thing is, that’s a useless page for you to be refreshing because no matter how many times you look at those results, they will not change unless you put actionable tasks in place.
You need to work on generating your blog traffic, which means building a loyal audience. There is no magic formula to driving traffic, you just have to ensure you understand where your blog is going and what you want people to see. There are some excellent practices that you can put in place that can help you to drive traffic, and we’ve got 12 ways for you to do that below:
- Think about your titles. For every single post that you write, you need to catch eyeballs. You wouldn’t try to catch a fish without bait on the hook, and your title is your bait. Titles like ‘how’ or ‘why’ or a list or an ‘attention please’ type of situation will always grab the reader’s attention. Is it clickbait? Possibly. There is nothing wrong with that. Instructional posts are always popular – just like this one.
- Go off the beaten track. If you want people to come and visit your post and read what you have to say, you might need to shuffle sideways. We’re talking about contacting a video production company to film you talking – so a blog is not a blog. These posts can be much catchier and more popular than regular posts because people want to hear from and see you. It puts a face behind the website and tells people what you’re doing without having to dive through 15 pages of content – it’s a catchy way to get people‘s attention and drive traffic.
- Keep it consistent. Content is king – there is no doubt about that, but nobody will want to come back if there is no consistency in your posting. Lazy posting and flimsy titles do not bring the customers and do not bring your readers closer to you. Readers appreciate excellent and robust content rather than lots of fluff and rubbish. It may sound harsh, but if your actual posts are not high-quality and helpful content, there’s just no point.
- Make it valuable. You have to ask yourself every time you write an article whether or not it is valuable to the reader. If you are producing content that your readers enjoy, they will always come back for more, and when they come back for more, they will take your site time and again. Not only that, but they will share your site continuously, and you need this if you want to continue driving that traffic.
- Share, share, and share again. In your workplace, in your university studies, on your social media, and on other people‘s blogs, you need to be sharing your blog link. One of the biggest mistakes bloggers often make when they are beginning is sharing their posts only once. Instead of just sharing on Twitter or Facebook, they need to share everywhere and keep doing it. You can schedule your post to be shared on your feed multiple times to increase the chances of more and more people seeing it. If you don’t do this, no one is coming.
- Recycling is cool! We already know this at home, but when it comes to your website, you can recycle your old content on every path. Posts you wrote six years ago in a pre-Covid world and before the clown attack of 2016 will not always be as relevant now. Some guidelines and niche pieces may be worth updating because things change. If your niche is evolving, you need to ensure that you are keeping up with that, and re-purchasing and rewriting your content shows that you are growing from the previous opinions. This makes you much more attractive to other people and will help them to keep going back to your website repeatedly.
- Get on social media. Now that you have your website and content, you must start promoting your blog. Get on Instagram and TikTok, on Facebook and Google business – no matter where you want, you need to post. LinkedIn is one of the best places to post your information for your blog because then you will be able to connect with other content creators and help share their stuff. Sharing and sharing alike it’s going to help all of you to build your own networks and drive traffic.
- Get networking. Attending events and building relationships will help you build your blog connections. People want to come to you and hear what you say because they have met you face-to-face and found you an exciting person. You will meet many people and build connections with others in your niche, which will help you open doors to collaboration.
- Learn how to guest post. You will gain access to their networks when you post on other blogs. This is your key to the door of exposure. The more you expose yourself on other niche blogs, the more you look like an authority and what you have to say. People will then follow you to your blog and stop following where you guest post. This is what you want and will help you get the figures you are looking for.
- Make sure your email has your website. Suppose you are trying to build your reputation as an authoritative blogger. In that case, it makes sense to have your site in your email signatures in your company and at home and pretty much any communication you have with the outside world. Telling everybody and anybody about your blog is easy, and it doesn’t have to be too pushy, either. You’ll be able to write down your blog link, and boom – traffic.
- Use Analytics. Get acquainted with Google analytics. Using analytics to improve your site and gain traffic is something that every single website owner should be doing. You can see where your visitors are coming from and how long you are spending on your website, and you’ll be able to hone your target marketing each time you post. If you know what to do with the Google analytics figures, you can drive more traffic to your website and build more relationships with new customers.
- Don’t forget to optimize. If you want your content to be seen, it needs to be optimized for search engine optimization. This means you need to know your keywords, be able to put your keywords on your website, and ensure that you’re not over-stuffing. Google frowns on keyboard stuffers, and you can end up having your website hidden from searches – which is not what you need. Appearing at the top of the search engine results page keeps your blog fresh.
