“How to increase blog traffic” (fast and for free)?
The answer would vary depending on what niche you’re in, or the topic you blog on.
For instance, if you write on DIY and recipes, Pinterest would be your topmost priority.
If you write on current affairs, you shouldn’t rely on SEO; because big players are already hogging the top results and you are unlikely to overtake them for at least a year.
If you write about personal experiences, Twitter is the best of all to focus more on – due to its openness. Instagram is the next best option to build your personal brand.
So, “how to increase blog traffic” – the answer would vary.
But that said, let me answer this broadly and without any BS.
Blog Design: Get The Basics Correct
If you’re not ready to spend some money on a theme, the chances of finding a good one are slim.
But still, do your research. Browse good websites like Theme Forest and Theme Grill.
Spare enough time and, hopefully, you will find a good theme for your blog.
Here are a few tips to help you make the right choice:
★ Pick a theme that is simple and clean. There’s a whole different beauty in minimalism! 😉
★ Pick a theme that demands less customization from your end. You don’t want to waste too much time changing things.
★ Never pick a theme that has too many features. Managing it would be a complete mess if you’re a beginner. Moreover, if you don’t know HTML/CSS/JavaScript, it would be even more difficult.
★ Avoid downloading/installing “cracked” themes. They might have many security lapses. Besides, illegally using premium themes for free can open a whole different Pandora of problems if your blog gets popular in the future.
★ Check the speed of the theme on Google’s PageSpeed Insight before picking one. Make sure it’s fast and loads in under 4 seconds.
★ Pick a theme that’s SEO optimized. (For instance, it should have schema markups, proper canonicals, easy navigation, and so forth.
★ Look at your competitors. See what the standard blog design in your niche is. This will give you a fair idea of the kind of theme you should pick.
“Will this blog design give a good User Experience (UX) to my visitors?”
This is the MOST IMPORTANT question. Ask this when selecting your theme.
If the answer is “yes”, pick it. If “no”, keep looking.
Getting the right template is the basic and first step in the process.
After all, you can do everything to increase blog traffic. But if the visitors aren’t enjoying their time while browsing your blog and consuming content, not only would they leave but they would also leave with a bad brand impression.
And it’s going to be really tough bringing them back.
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Follow an SEO Checklist
Assuming you now have a good blog template and that you have at least 3-5 posts published, time now to follow an SEO checklist and optimize your blog.
Don’t sweat it! It’s easier than it sounds.
I have published a thorough SEO checklist (updated for 2020) here on Spell Out Marketing. It packs all the details, including the steps you should take.
Plus, you can also download the PDF of that SEO checklist for free.
So, check out: Complete SEO Checklist
Once optimized at the base level, your blog would start ranking decently high on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) for the targeted keywords.
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Create High-Quality Content In Large Volume
Creating content is essential to get traffic, of course.
However, give up the notion that only quality matters. Today, quantity is equally important.
Meaning, you need to publish high-quality content in a large volume.
This will speed up the growth of your blog. It would beat your competitors.
The chances of ranking higher on SERP quickly would increase tremendously.
Moreover, you would be able to make more money online from your blog much quicker.
Tresnic Media did a case study on this thesis a few years back.
They published 50 blog posts in just 5 weeks; 2 posts a day. This led to an increase in their website traffic by 1000%.
Interestingly, when they stopped publishing content aggressively and went back to the normal schedule, this increase in traffic sustained and lasted.
So, as vague and scandalous this may sound, you should try to publish as many pieces of content as possible. The more, the better.
Here are a few essential tips for creating and publishing content:
★ Maintain consistency in publishing your articles.
★ The length of the article should only be as much as the topic demands it.
★ Include the internal link of other posts on your blog to help readers navigate to more resourceful content.
★ Format your content correctly. Make sure it’s easier to see and read.
★ Include images and videos in your content.
★ Create content for a purpose. Always. Content with no goal is content wasted.
★ Make sure the content is engaging and in a conversational tone.
★ If your content doesn’t provide any actionable, learning, or entertainment value to the readers, it isn’t of good quality.
★ Unless your niche demands it otherwise, focus on creating pillar/evergreen content.
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Build An Email List
This is quite basic to understand.
(Try to) Collect the email address of everyone who visits your blog.
Now whenever you publish a new article, you can send an email to these collected addresses, informing them that you have just published something and that they should check it out.
Sure, the open rate would be low. And the Click-Through Rate would be even lower.
However, if you can manage to keep your email list engaged by pushing relevant/valuable emails on a regular basis, you can easily drive decent traffic to your blog posts through such emails.
It’s like controlling your own source of traffic that SEO and social media don’t provide.
This is one BIG reason why bloggers are asked to essentially build their email list. Because that’s going to play a key role in growing their blog, increasing traffic, and making money online.
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Get Active On Social Media
This is a must!
Get on all the major social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, and more.
And then distribute your time among these platforms according to their relevancy and ROI to you.
- Where does your target audience spend most of their time on?
- Which platform brings your blog the most traffic?
- Where can you engage with your audience much more conveniently?
- Which platform can help you generate more revenue?
These are some questions you should ask when deciding on which platform you should spend most of your time on.
A simple way to find answers to these questions is to look at your successful competitors.
What they are doing, where they are spending most of their time, what kind of posts they are updating.
Know their strategies and then simply follow their suit.
Of course, in the name of “relevancy”, do not ignore any platform.
After all, the more platform you can be on, the higher will be the chances of getting more traffic.
Also, don’t confuse “being on social media” with “being active on social media”.
Just marking your presence on all platforms isn’t sufficient. Fans won’t flock to you. They won’t click on your links. You’ve got to work for it.
Actively managing your community on social media is the key.
Here are a few essential tips to drive the most traffic to your blog from social platforms:
★ Post relevant content regularly.
★ Engage with your audience. Respond to their comments, tweets, and messages.
★ Start conversations with your audience and niche influencers.
★ Use social media management tools to automate the posts. (E.g. Hootsuite and Buffer)
★ Use interesting and attention-grabbing captions and images.
★ Regularly share your old blog posts using new headlines, captions, and images.
★ Use ‘relevant’ hashtags. Remember, you want engagement and NOT just impressions and likes.
★ The more active you are on social media, the more consistent will be your audience growth.
Alee King has a nice post on social media marketing tips on Blogging Wizard. Give it a read here.
The “Other” Tips To Increase Blog Visitors
There are many other things you can (and should do) to increase traffic in blog:
★ Guest blog on high-authority websites.
Not only it would help you with backlinks, but it would also bring you brand traction that would increase blog traffic indirectly.
★ Write good headlines and Meta descriptions.
Just ranking high on SERP isn’t sufficient; not at least in this RankBrain era.
You need to make sure that people click on it. And writing good headlines and Meta descriptions is the only way to do that. (Branding, too, plays a key role in this. But that’s a whole different conversation.)
★ Create a web tool and host it on your server with your domain name.
Like Neil Patel has Ubersuggest.
This tool will be the USP of your blog that people will always return to use. It would drive your organic traffic even when you aren’t necessarily producing new content.
(Yes, it’s not easy. And it requires likely a big investment. But it was worth mentioning! You can try some white-label solutions.)
★ Make it easier for readers to share your content. When they share your articles on social media platforms, it would help you bring more traffic.
★ Refresh and re-publish your old content. Update their dates to the latest.
This is one of the key content marketing techniques that ensure you get the most return from each of your articles.
★ Do competitive analysis and find the best-performing content of your top competitors. Create content around the same topics, with the same keywords – only do it better than them.
★ Invest in your brand name (your personal OR blog’s).
This way your audience would remember you and come to your blog directly – and NOT rely on Google, social media, and emails to find you.
★ Create some controversy (that you really believe in). Publish some content that is non-conventional and challenges the status quo in your industry.
Controversy always attracts attention. A few weeks back I published “Backlinks Are Dead”. It brought me quite a few emails, some of which were outright impolite though.
★ Spend money on paid advertisements. This is the most straightforward way to increase blog traffic fast.
Google Ads are expensive at present. Facebook ads deliver an incredible return. Instagram ads are underpriced. LinkedIn ads are perfect for B2B. Twitter ads, a bit costly comparatively, is ideal (along with Snapchat ads) if you’re building a personal brand. Spend thoughtfully.
★ Grow yourself as a blogger.
The more you grow, the better you will get at your craft. And this will be evident in the quality of your blog.
If your content is of good quality, and that it provides high value, it will inevitably win in the long run.
★ Make efforts to go where the attention is. This is a simple approach.
Understand the psychology of your target audience (what they want, prefer, more) and then get in front of them with exactly what they are looking for.
When you win their attention, you will win the game.
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Conclusion
“How to increase blog traffic?”
Honestly, it’s not difficult. The answer is pretty much straightforward.
The biggest reason why so many bloggers fail to achieve this is that most of the time, they do not work hard enough. Moreover, they lack patience.
You cannot expect thousands of blog visitors in just weeks. Especially if you’re a one-man team.
It takes time. Even years.
So, patience is the most important thing, followed by persistence.
(This means, STOP Googling “how to increase blog traffic fast”! There’s no such thing as “fast” here.)
It gets tough when you’re working hard and aren’t seeing any substantial return. But if you want to be a successful blogger, you’ve got to keep up.
I hope this post on Spell Out Marketing brought you high value. If it did, please share it on the social media platform that you use the most. It would mean a lot! 🙂
P.S. I completed this blog post in 78 minutes. Do you want to write fast too? READ: How to Create Content Fast (Without Hurting Quality)
