Increasing traffic on your blog starts with having a solid content strategy.
With millions of blogs on the internet, it’s essential that you strategically target your niche audience if you want to create a loyal following and increase your blog traffic.
The tips below will help you create a strategy that will boost your traffic over time.
1. Identify your Audience
If you want to increase your traffic, you have to take the time to identify your audience.
Whether you realize it or not blogging at its core is about solving problems.
When you can write a blog post that solves a particular problem, people with that problem are likely to share that post.
This is important to remember and is the main reason why bloggers suggest you niche down.
When you’re able to niche down, it becomes a lot easier to hone in on a specific problem.
Because you’re focusing on a particular problem, you can target a very specific audience that suffers from this very specific problem.
2. Work on SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. A search engine optimized blog post means a potential for more traffic to your blog.
If you make money with your blog, it can also mean an increase in your income.
To learn how to properly search engine optimize your blog post, read my article SEO for Beginners: How to SEO Your Blog Posts.
3. Plan Your Posts
Although this may seem like an easy step, a lot of bloggers actually skip this part.
Often, bloggers struggle with writing consistently because they struggle to come up with new ideas or they’re distracted by things going on in their personal life.
Planning your posts will keep you accountable by helping to eliminate common excuses for not writing.
Editorial Calendar is a WordPress plugin that allows you to schedule your content within your WordPress dashboard.
4. Publish Posts Regularly
Once you create a content calendar, you’ll want to make sure you’re publishing blog posts regularly. To start, pick a schedule that you know you can stick with.
If you can post weekly, that’s great. However, if you can only post bi-monthly, that’s okay too.
Consistency will keep you at the forefront of the mind of your audience.
Consistency is also great for improving your page rank because search engines love sites that are regularly updated.
5. Interact with Other Bloggers
Over the long term, you want to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche.
It’s much easier to build a blog up when you have other people promoting it for you.
When you are first getting started you might be too nervous to email the bigger bloggers.
Heck, some probably won’t even read the emails, so another great way of trying to get their attention is through blog comments.
However, don’t just leave a generic comment. Leave a comment that genuinely offers some value to the blogger.
Your job isn’t to promote your own site. Usually, you can put a link to your site in your name so no need to spam it further.
If you continue to pop up in the comments of specific bloggers then it becomes much easier when you actually reach out to them.
Recommended Resource: MiloTree is a smart popup that helped me reach over 25,000 Pinterest followers! It can be used for Instagram, Facebook, email, and more.
6. Link to Reputable Websites
Linking out to high-quality websites is great for SEO.
Bloggers are often afraid to link out because they fear it will hurt their own page rank.
The truth is, by not linking out, you’re actually missing out on increasing the value of your own content and building relationships with other bloggers.
When you write a blog post, you definitely want to make sure you’re linking to your own content, however, also make sure you include a few external links to other helpful resources.
7. Guest Post on Other Blogs
As you are connecting with like-minded individuals online, try to find opportunities to guest post.
Guest posting can be a great way to get your name out there to a wider audience.
If you’re looking for blogs that accept guest posts, try doing a simple online search for blogs in your niche that accept guest posts.
8. Create Pinterest-Friendly Images
One of the best ways to get your pins repinned is to create attractive pinnable graphics.
Every single one of your blogs posts should include at least one pin-worthy graphic. Here are some tips for creating a pinnable image:
- The image should include the post title and your blog’s URL.
- The image should be vertical. Vertical images stand out better than horizontal images on Pinterest. I typically size my images at 750px in width by 1244px in height (feel free to increase the height of your image. I wouldn’t go any lower than 1244 pixels though).
- Use catchy titles when you can. Which pin are you more likely to repin? “How I Increased My Email Subscribers” or “How I Doubled my Email Subscribers in 60 days.” I know I’m more likely to pin the latter. People are drawn to catchy titles, so try to make yours catchy.
- Use phrases like “How To…” or “5 Ways To…” or “The Ultimate List of…”
Here’s an example of Pinterest friendly images:
When I started focusing on increasing my traffic with Pinterest, I decided to go through a lot of my older posts and rework the images to make them Pinterest friendly.
If you have older posts that you think need more pins, try going back and creating new graphics for those posts.
You can use a free online photo editor such as PicMonkey to edit your images.
9. Repurpose Your Content
Recreate the same piece of content using different media formats, such as audio or video.
When you develop a blog post, look for ways to get more out of it. Try turning it into an ebook, video, podcast episode, Instagram Reel, etc.
Don’t spend so much time creating new content. Instead, find ways to get more bang for your buck with content you’re already created.
Now, instead of getting traffic from a single blog post, you’re also getting traffic from your social media accounts, etc.
This article by Wordstream shares 11 Ways to Repurpose Content.
10. Promote on Social Media
It’s impossible to grow a successful blog without some type of promotion strategy and in today’s world that promotion strategy has to entail social media.
The problem with social media though is that there are so many different platforms out there!
Which ones do you use? Do you try all of them? How can you keep track of everything?
The good news is that you shouldn’t try to conquer every social media platform out there because not every single one is going to work well for your niche.
The bad news is that you might waste your time on a platform that is never going to perform that well for you.
The key is understanding which social media platforms you should tackle and conquer so that you give your blog the best chance of success it can possibly have.
Recommended Article: Guide to Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Niche
11. Set Aside Funds for Advertising
Consider setting aside funds for advertising as a way to increase your traffic.
Pay-per-click options, whether on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google, can be a good option for getting traffic to the right places.
When advertising, focus on your niche to best reach your audience.
This will help you stretch your dollars and target the people who are most likely to be interested in your content.
Although it takes time, with hard work and consistency, you can increase traffic to your blog.
You can learn how to stand out from the millions of blogs on the web by strategically reaching out to your target audience.
If you keep these tips in mind, each post will build up your reach and help you reach your ultimate traffic goals.