I present to you some tips to boost your blog traffic, tips that blog gurus swear by.
Blogs, also known as weblogs, are the new great thing business owners make use as a business strategy. Starting a blog and submitting content only, will not make hundreds of people reading your blog. Some effort and marketing knowledge must come at work, so your blog will be more “noticeable”.
1. Increase Your Blog Traffic Through Social Media
Any blog should have an intimate feel. The blog owner/writer should try and reach people on a personal level. And what other way of doing that than using social media?
- Facebook – Considered one of the ultimate promotional methods, Facebook fan pages can really bring more followers to your blog. You can make people aware of your Facebook page by adding a widget on your blog. People are really drawn to contests, animated content, competitions, and surprises; allow them to access those by “Liking” your Facebook page. Design interesting “Subscription” forms and redirect the visitors back to your blog.
- Twitter – Those 140 character messages can really do wonders, if used correctly. Tweet smart, in a personal way, encourage people to ask you questions, answer even to the silliest things, use proper tags. Associate “business” tweets with “meaningful” ones and you’ll gain the sympathy and trust of your followers.
- YouTube – Create short, high quality videos to promote your blog. Avoid using the generic PowerPoint/Keynote presentations. Instead, try talking to your camera. Address the public in a kind, considerate way. You can even try and do some comic sketches.You Can Use AutomationLater/Hootsuite are applications that allow logging in to different social media accounts at once. You’ll have the option to update your Facebook page, Twitter, Myspace in a single hit.
Related Posts: 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
2. Increase Your Blog Traffic Through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
According to Google.com, over 3 billion searches are made every day. There is a massive traffic opportunity out there, if you know how to make your blog content SEO friendly.
SEO friendly platforms, WordPress, Jamoola, Drupal, are easy to set up and “Beginner’s Guides” and tutorials are all over the internet. Bloggers tend to be afraid of SEO for many reasons, the main one being the bad reviews and experiences with spammers.
Done correctly, SEO will bring you hundreds of people seeking exactly your posted content. In a 100% context, 20% SEO will get you 80% traffic. There isn’t any greater reward than that. The following are some great SEO tactics:
- Meta Keywords, Description & Robots tag
- Title Tag
- Body Text
- The first sentence in the Body Text & the first words used/sentence
- The URL
- The H1 and H2 Texts
- Same Site Link Texts
- Same Site Link URLs
- Keyword Density (8% is perfect)
- IMG Alt Tags
- Outbound Link Text
3. Increase Your Blog Traffic By Monitoring Your Analytics
What should a blogger monitor on his website:
- Number of visitors / day or in a certain period of time
- Number of visitors per blog post
- The time a visitor spent on the blog
- The Bounce Rate (The number of visitors who enter the website, but leave without reading other pages belonging to the same site)
The next step is improving the content that has been the most successful. Try adding new information or update it with images or video. Add a widget to your blog showing the number of visitor per day, or feature the number of viewers on each article. That way, your articles will get even more attention. Take notice of your top performing days of the week/month and try adding an extra post on that particular day.
4. Increase Your Blog Traffic Through Post Frequency
Make a plan and stick to it! Posting random content, at different hours and different days of the week will turn your blog into a mess. Your visitors should have something to look forward to. There isn’t such thing as the perfect frequency scheme (x articles/day, x days/week), but you can try out a few ones and see how they work for you. For example:
- Number of articles/day: 2
- Number of days/week: 7
- Period of time: 6 months
And then -> MONITOR YOUR ANALYTICS (See point 3.)
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5. Increase Your Blog Traffic Through E-mail Marketing
When used correctly, e-mail marketing is a powerful tool to increase the number of visitors on your blog. This few steps, done exactly in that order, will teach you how to take advantage of the e-mail marketing:
- Get Visitors To Subscribe Via Your Blog Newsletter – People, who are willing to give you their personal e-mail address, as subscribers, do it for 2 reasons. Either they are subscribing for a free product (video, content, course, etc.) or they simply like your content. Offering a free product has been reported to be the most effective.
- Don’t Spam! – As they opt-in, let your subscribers know how often they will receive newsletters. Make it a maximum of 3 newsletters per week so people won’t feel bombarded.
- Promote the Blog – The content of your newsletters should also be SEO friendly.
- Segment Your Subscribers List – Categorize your subscribers by activity, time zone, interest in your newsletters, etc. Using an autoresponder, e-mailing will become much easier.
These tips and tactics will get you the traffic flow you’ve always dreamed of. And remember, the more effort you put in your blog, the more visitors that appreciate it you’ll get!
What is your favorite and biggest source of blog traffic?
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