All new bloggers look for free and simple ways to increase blog traffic. There are hundreds of courses available for that, and no one uses all methods. Each blogger has a selected scenario. This post shows how we increased our blog's traffic 80% more in just 6 months by simple and freeways.
I'm not a full-time blogger, so I couldn't spend lots of time on other traffic generation methods. I spent most of the time preparing and writing articles only. Before showing how I did, let me tell you that I have not used the below methods to increase blog traffic.
- 1. Social networking: I do not have active Facebook and Twitter profiles. I have not added all social networking icons to my blog
- 2. Guest Blogging: I never did this to promote our blog except for one article in EzineArticles.
- 3. Keep commenting on other blogs: OK, now let's go to the methods that helped achieve this. The steps may repeat what you read on other blogs, but this is special when explained with a real example.
You may also like to read:
- Selling your Photos Online With Websites That Pay $43+ Per Image
- How to Attract Readers to Your Blog With 17 Easy and Remarkable Ways
- Blogger Vs WordPress Comparison Chart: Pros & Cons, Cost, And SEO Differences
- Smart Strategies to Grow Your Content Reach and Boost Engagement
- How to Stop AdSense From Disable Your Account for Invalid Click Activity
1. Write Articles About What Users Want
This will take some time to read your visitors' minds what they want. Existing posts demand and user comments will help to identify users' requirements.
Once you get it, experiment and write for them; for me, one post started getting more hits in December; then, I found what readers are searching for in my niche type.
2. Guess and Write About Future
Simple, when others write about Windows 7, you write about Windows 10. It may come or not, but users will be searching for it. Be the first to write these types of things related to your blog.
When I faced a network slowness in Windows 7 ( that time, Windows 10 beta was out), I figured out how to fix it and wrote the same method for Windows 10. Nobody read that till Windows 10 was officially released, and people started using it.
Now search for “Windows 10 network slow” in Google, you will see. I'm getting good traffic for that page.
3. Focus on Content Strategy
To increase organic blog traffic to a website, you need to have a well-thought-out content strategy in place. We created a content strategy around planning, curating, and reusing produced content to get the maximum value out of it.
Before you create any content, it is crucial to identify your target audiences to increase blog traffic. This research will help you create content easily relatable to your target audience.
We conducted extensive research on the content my target audience may find valuable to increase blog traffic.
4. Use Crafty Headlines to Increase Your Blog Traffic
A great headline is the starting point of your blog post. If your blog headline is mediocre, people don't read further.
The headline is the deciding factor whether they need to enter the blog post or not.
The headline should build rapport and cause emotions like curiosity, love, fear in the audience's minds because emotions cause people to take action.
For example, you can search up for ViralNova, Upworthy, CollegeHumor.
We agree that sometimes using these headlines may not be suitable for SEO, as sometimes it may be challenging to keep both keyword optimization and attractiveness in mind. Still, you should have to adjust a little to increase blog traffic.
5. Target Search Engines
When you get an idea to write something, first go and search for it on Google. Open some results and see how and what they are saying.
One thing is that quality is key when it comes to content marketing.
Best Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
You can identify the word combination from the first search results (with bold text). Decide the keyword based on it for your new post. Then use your SEO knowledge.
6. Leave Comments on Similar Blogs
This does not imply that you must respond to each blog or article on the chosen blog. Provide helpful feedback that will help us resolve the concerns raised in the relevant topic. I posted a few helpful comments on Microsoft and Reddit with several blog posts. It increased my traffic.
After publishing a post, another idea is to find out the tops blog posts talking about the same. Visit them and leave comments, like “I found the way how to fix this problem. It's related to keyboard, and you have to change one key. More information about how to do it is available here at my blog”, just for an example. Don't forget to revisit them and see the reaction. Keep an excellent two-way communication.
7. Reply Your Visitors Comments and Emails
Each visitor is like a customer for our business; one day, we will be benefited from them. So make them happy and excited by replying to their comments and emails. If they ask questions you don't know, check and find out for them (for tech blogs).
This will not only make the particular visitor happy but new visitors too. Allow subscribing comments to notify automatically.
8. Crosslink Your Pillar Content
Google has a much easier time indexing your content and understanding the most important content when you crosslink your posts.
Plus, unlike backlinks, crosslinking is entirely within your control.
Best Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
Crosslinking means that your new blog posts include links to older blog posts. We focus on adding as many links to our pillar content as possible to a more accessible rank in the search engines.
9. Engage in Forum Marketing
Forum marketing is an often disregarded form of marketing; one reason for this could be that it can take a long time to build up your profiles on forums, and it's an ongoing task. If you stick with it, though, it can get you more targeted traffic and conversions.
To get started, research the most popular forums in your niche, but make sure they are active and not filled with spam. Then, create a profile and start interacting; initially, try not to appear as if you're only there to sell, but rather try to be helpful and engaging and show that you are informed.
Only once you start building good links with other users can you really start promoting yourself, but not too heavily. Many forums allow you to add a signature that appears at the end of your posts, including a link. Try customizing this signature to attract users to your website, or even better, your sign-up form.
10. Use Appealing Images
Images brought me some good traffic from Google and yahoo. Many people use image search with a specific keyword. Try to cover them and enjoy the traffic.
Eye-catching, fun images mean more shares on social media, making reading a much more pleasant experience.
11. Create a Business Plan Foy Your Blog
This is where you determine your blog's purpose and why your blog exists. Here are some key aspects that you'll want to address in your blog's business plan:
- Your blog's mission statement
- Your blog's ideal reader
- Your blog's business and brand goals
- How do you plan to monetize your blog
- Your blog's marketing strategy (online and offline)
12. Related Posts and Interlinking
Are you using the SEO Smart Links plugin? It is an excellent tool to connect old posts with the same name, categories, and tags. Use the related posts plugin and link three to four old posts on your new post content.
13. Update Old Posts
Have you noticed your posts get hits by different keywords than what you targeted? Use Google analytics to find incoming keyword traffic and modify posts to utilize all search impressions.
Here's how we like to refresh old content:
- Improve the content.
- Add more content.
- Add more images/screenshots.
- Remove any out-dated information.
- Add more up-to-date information.
Under search queries in Google webmaster tools, you will get an idea about keyword impressions and CTR. Search with the same keyword and see how your blog posts appear on search results. Will you click it if you were a user searching? Think and modify.
14. Make Your Content SEO-friendly
Here is the screenshot below for problogsolutions.com from google search results.
When working on SEO, you need to know the existing factors influencing your ranking. These elements affect your ranking in either a negative or positive manner. There are two types of ranking factors:
On-page
Off-page
To make your content SEO-friendly, you will have to pay attention to on-page factors.
Here is the list:
- Use keywords in title, description, and H1 tags
- Use SEO-friendly URLs
- Make a user-friendly layout, use H2 tags, bullets, etc.
- Use keywords in the first 100 words.
- Make your design responsive.
- Optimize page loading speed
- Create long and original content
- Optimize images with SEO attributes (ALT tags)
- Use outbound links with quality and relevancy
As we already mentioned, and as you probably already know, SEO takes both time and knowledge.
15. Use Pinterest to Increase Blog Traffic
It's essential to understand how Pinterest works. Although it is a visual platform, it is also a search engine that relies on text and keywords to show users the right content. When a user is logged in and on the Pinterest homepage, they will see an intelligent feed that attempts to show content that is likely to interest them
Success with Pinterest can really be broken down into two main parts:
- Creating images that get people’s attention and encourage them to click.
- Optimize your profile, boards, and pins with keywords to show your content to the right people.
Getting the best results and increasing blog traffic with Pinterest can take a little bit of time, but you'll see the results if you stick with it.
16. Follow Up With BackLinks
This is one more helpful idea I found. When some bloggers added your post link in their post or some users submitted your link in any forum, better go and see what they are talking about. It will give some idea, and you can also comment to increase the traffic.
I don't know Russian, but someone added my blog post on the large Russian community, which increased traffic. I used Google translator to understand it and left some comments there. Still, it's driving me enough good traffic.
More interesting topics for you:
- Optimize WordPress Ecommerce Website for Conversions
- 9 Easy Solutions – How to Increase your Adsense Earnings
- 9 Best WIFI Signal Booster App for Android Tablets And Phones
- How to Make Firefox Faster With 13 Easy Tweaks for Speed
- 59 Best Website Builder Tools for Small Business and Online Store
17. Don't Write News Please
You are not running a top news blog, so do not try to write any news like ‘ latest windows version released or ”WordPress update is out; download here and wait for traffic. It will not work. High PR and famous websites will take care of them, and you can't compete with them now when your blog is new.
You can write this type of news with many feed subscribers or direct visitors.
18. Write and Write
You must understand what I mean. If you are entirely new to blogging, allocate at least 6 months to get good traffic. Keep writing.
19. Optimize Site Speed and User Experience
Something that is overlooked by all bloggers, including ourselves, is page speed and user experience.
If you are a blogger who wants to increase blog traffic, having a fast site with a great user experience is necessary.
Best Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
A well-optimized site will make readers stay longer, view more content, have more trust, and have a much more excellent overall experience. These things are HUGE factors in how Google will treat your site in its search rankings.
Listed below are some of the popular website optimization testing tools:
Quick tips for a better user experience to increase blog traffic:
- A well-designed homepage that directs readers where they want to go.
- A clean sidebar that’s not overwhelming.
- Mobile-friendly website.
- Nice large headers to break up content.
- Short paragraphs 2-4 sentences long.
Taking action on some of the points above will almost increase blog traffic and significantly improve user experience.
20. Keep it Unique
I'm not discouraging this habit, but if you don't have something worth and unique to write, leave it better. Do not just write useless, old, and most covered topics on your blog because you wanted to publish daily when it comes to Quality vs. Quantity in blogging; always quality wins.
FAQs About Best Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
-
What are the different traffic sources of a website?
Direct traffic, organic traffic, traffic from email marketing, paid search, referral, social, and others are the possible traffic sources of a website.
-
What is the most effective way to increase traffic to a website?
Quality content about almost 2300+ words consistently, long-tail keywords, competitive analysis, Quora, optimizing your site for SEO, link-building, social media, influence marketing, giveaways, paid ads could be the best ways to increase traffic to a website.
-
How much traffic is suitable for a website?
Well, it varies from niche to niche. If you have an affiliate site, 100+ visitors a day may result in good earnings, while for an AdSense website, even 1000+ visitors may not get your desired results.
Conclusion – Best Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
One final thing. Consistency is the key here. These traffic strategies are proven, but we can't promise you overnight results. Stick to them, and you will eventually get fresh visitors to your blog, increase your email subscribers, boost your conversion rate, and build a sustainable business.
The above methods can help you increase visits and page views to a blog. More importantly, be patient.
Share your comments and thoughts about these best ways to increase blog traffic points.
