The blogging drought phenomenon happens all the time, particularly with company blogs. In most niches and industries, you’ll be in competition with hundreds (if not thousands) of other bloggers for the attention of a small pool of readers. To stand out from the rest, your blog must be truly one of a kind in all aspects – design, content, marketing, and so on. Making an exceptional blog that receives ample traffic requires serious time, dedication and money.
Based on an article posted on the New York Times, roughly 95% of blogs fail. If you really want to make your blog work, you must beat this hostile statistic. The first thing you must focus on is increasing your blog traffic. The key here is to generate RELEVANT and TARGETED traffic. Receiving “more traffic” won’t always get you the results you want unless the increased traffic is pertinent to your brand and niche.
Here are tried-and-tested tips and ideas on how to boost relevant traffic to your blog.
1. Be smart in selecting the content topic.
If you write something that no one or only a few people are interested in, you’ll have difficulty generating blog traffic, regardless of how well-crafted your article is. So, how do you capture the attention of your market?
Write relevant topics – subjects that your target audiences search about online. This is why Google Trends is considered the “BFF” of bloggers. It’s mainly where you – and every other blogger – can see which keywords and key phrases your market uses in their online search. Aside from Google Trends, you can also use BuzzSumo and SEMrush.
While following topic trends is important, it’s also crucial that you choose the topics that fit your market, content strategy and brand. Capturing the attention of your market with the right topics is a significant step in standing out from your competition.
2. Pick a type of content.
Passing off a large blob of text as content is a big no-no for most online readers. Even if your topic is “on point,” all they see is ‘blah-blah-blah.’ You want to encourage your target market to read your content and not shy away from it. Keep in mind that some content types get more traction than others. Based on a study by BuzzSumo, the top two content types that people appreciate most are listicles and infographics.
Between the two, listicle is a crowd favorite. It’s also scientifically proven that people love to read listed content. See, even this piece of content you’re reading right now is a listicle.
3. Prioritize long tail keywords.
Neil Patel explained it well. Focusing on single keywords doesn’t work anymore – at least, not as a viable SEO technique as before. It’s extremely hard to rank specific keywords, so rather than targeting them, emphasize standard terms that often appear in conjunction with your content’s main keyword.
4. Share the content multiple times.
An article from KISSmetrics zeroed in on the fact that most company blogs don’t share their content as often as they ought to. When it comes to spreading and sharing your blog post, once is not enough. The trick here is to schedule re-share and reposts in a timely fashion.
For instance, you can share your newly published post on various social media platforms as soon as the article hits the web. After a day or two, tweet about the article again, but with a different message. After a week, share the article on Facebook or Google+ again. Reposting your article tells your target market that your content is still timely and relevant.
5. Shake up your theme once in a while.
If you’ve been a blogger for quite some time and had fallen into a lull of things, introduce something new to your readers. Post some fun, off-topic stories once a week. Do a ‘throwback’ on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays. Mixing in something new can shake things up and catch the attention of your target market. It can also revive the interest of your followers and make them more active in dropping comments or sharing your posts.
6. Take advantage of your email list.
An email list is one of the top sources of blog traffic. Sending an email newsletter to your loyal subscribers is like giving them a nudge to check your blog at once or when they have a free time. An email list is a vital tool for generating relevant traffic because if you sustain it, it will keep on growing. Also, unlike the number of your blog visitors that can quickly fluctuate, your email list is a reliable database where you can reach out to people at any given time.
7. Start with your headlines.
Headlines matter. People who search online almost always reads the headline to gauge if they will read the article or not. There are a lot of strategies on how to write engaging headlines, but the two important factors you must always keep in mind are the following:
Treat your headline as a promise. The content is where you deliver that promise.
Regardless of how you construct your headline, it must always leave an unanswered question. And yes, the answer will be the content.
Recommended Headline Generator Tools:
Fast Headline Creator
Kickass Headline Generator
Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator
Headline Wizard by Tim Gross
8. Repurpose your old content.
Everything is a cycle. At some point, the trending or relevant topic you’ve written about months or years ago will resurface and become the new, improved ‘thing’ once more. This is an excellent opportunity to give your old content a new lease of life. Not only will you improve your audience’s user experience, but you'll also get more traffic. When searching for an old topic to update, make sure to:
Add new information about the topic that is genuinely helpful to your readers.
Add new links or resources to support the updated content.
Once you’ve updated an archived article, you can publish it as a new post under the same URL. But, if you want to use a new URL, make sure to add a 301 redirect from the old one so your readers can follow the flow of content correctly.
9. Take full advantage of social media platforms for promotion.
Practically everyone who goes online has some form of social media account. Maximize this reality. Today, staying active on different social media platforms is a great opportunity to foster relationships not just with your target market, but also with industry influencers. Apart from promoting your posts and engaging with your followers, you can also curate the content of the influencers and unobtrusively add links to your content.
J U N I P E R Social Media BUNDLE
by 46&2 Collective in Templates
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10. Promote beyond the standard social media platforms.
While it’s tempting just to focus on promoting your content on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you must step out of these comfort zones. You can get a competitive advantage when you share your articles on smaller (but still well-known) networks. Most of these smaller networks have active audiences/members, so your content can stand out with less competition for attention. Promote your content to these three smaller networks for a change:
Quora – a Q&A-based website where all content is created, edited and curated by its user community.
Tumblr – a microblogging site that is the “home base” of the young and the hip, which makes it perfect for niche-based content.
Empire Avenue – a site that is one-part social networking platform, one-part social media marketing tool which members are mostly composed of SMBs, social media professionals, and bloggers.
Kaleidoscope tumblr theme
by Pixel Revel in Web Themes
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11. Guest blog.
Among the fastest ways to grow and expose your blog is to write for other people’s website as a guest blogger. Make sure to target blogs that are bigger and more popular than your own. You’ll be allowed to include a link to your blog and a bio where you can invite the readers to check out your online space.
12. Be a contributor.
Apart from guest blogging, you may also become a contributor to major websites related to your niche. Becoming a contributor is not an easy feat, though. You have to start small and work your way up because there are a lot of bloggers competing for the same position. To have an edge over them, make sure to submit unique, well-researched and engaging sample content. Also, avoid sending the same sample article to different websites. Tweak it a bit to match the content with the style of the site you’re aiming for.
13. Use visual content as often as possible.
People are visual creatures. And so, visual content is a big deal. In fact, there’s a lot of content marketing statistics to back up this fact. Visual content can get you more shares and reposts than regular, text-based content. To make your visual content stand out from the crowd, you can:
Create/use a unique featured photo.
Use colorful and engaging graphs and charts to emphasize data and numbers.
Add infographics.
Embed a video.
Create your own brand-related cartoon which you can use repeatedly.
Use screenshots.
Add memes.
You don’t have to be a Photoshop expert to make your own visuals. There are many attractive templates that can make creating visual content a breeze.
14. Create a podcast.
A podcast is a great medium to showcase your expertise. It’s also a tried-and-tested way to generate more traffic to your blog. But the thing with podcasts is consistency both in making new ones and the actual promotion.
When you start off, it’s okay to feel like no one is listening to you (which can also be true), but if you promote your podcasts consistently, your audience will grow. And in your future episodes, you’ll have more listeners.
Another great podcast tip is to invite a guest, ideally an influencer in your niche. With your followers and their supporters combined, you’ll generate relevant traffic for your blog.
15. Mention influencers in your content (and let them know about it).
Influencers in your niche have a lot of followers. More often than not, they’re good with bloggers mentioning them or citing their articles; some even expect this to happen. You can take advantage of this opportunity and succeed, but only if you provide additional insight. Mention an influencer or use their work if you can add value and help your target market. This is also a good way of building relationships with other bloggers in your niche.
Caution: don’t mention them just for the sake of name-dropping as this can burn bridges instead of building them.
16. Monitor trends.
In the online world where everything is practically a competition, in most cases, you need to strike while the iron is hot. Find out what’s hot and new in general and in your industry, and write about it. Avoid rehashing what’s been said about the trend. Instead, emphasize why it’s the new “it” thing and add relevant information about it. Also, make sure to connect your brand to the trend.
4 Recommended Tools to Monitor Trends:
Google Trends
Google Insights for Search
Twitter's trending topics
News Map
17. Run a giveaway.
Although this tip is geared towards business blogs, personal blogs can also run a contest to generate more traffic. Create a special offer like winning a huge discount on your favorite product or give away a special package for free. Your blog readers can be contest participants and win the prize if they share your game on different social media platforms.
18. Host a caption contest.
As mentioned above, visual content is a big deal. Using the images related to your niche, you can engage your target market with image captions. This is an exciting way of sharing your brand’s funny, laidback side – something that will remind your readers that there’s a person behind the blog. Establishing a regular image caption content is also a fun way of engaging with your followers on your blog and other social media platforms.
19. Create a SlideShare summary of your article.
With an average of 70 million visitors every month, SlideShare is a lot more than a simple content-sharing platform. You can use SlideShare in various ways, but one of the most recommended by the experts is an overview-type of content.
Create an overview of your article with the slides highlighting the key points of the content. Add a link back to your post in each slide. At the end of the presentation, you can embed it and share the link to your blog and other social networking sites.
20. Create a “Top 10” list.
The top 10 list never gets old – and for good reasons. It’s a fascinating and entertaining way to learn something new. Also, you can make a top 10 list on just about anything. To stand out from the rest, stay away from topics that have been listed over and over again.
You can get creative to make your readers laugh or get creative to make them think. You can discuss unusual or controversial topics. You can go with the crowd-favorites. The bottom line is for you to research about your topic and inject as much information (or humor) in every item on the list. BuzzFeed is an excellent source of inspiration for topics to explore and otherwise.
21. Interview your target audience about your niche.
Most bloggers interview the influencers on their niche, but only a few try to speak with their audience. Invite one or three of your customer or target audience to an interview – a written one or via a podcast. You can hit two birds with one stone with this tip: you have a golden opportunity to connect with your market and to promote your brand. Your interviewees sharing their experience on social media is also a way to get more traffic and followers.
22. Do a ThrowbackThursday or a FlashbackFriday.
Everything online moves fast: what’s in today will be out tomorrow. But, people have an affection for the past. You can use this emotional attachment to create a stronger bond to your readers. Use your blog as a time machine every once in a while. Post what had happened in your niche a year ago. Look into your blog archives and see what you can revive. In terms of product marketing, nostalgia is a great decision-making influencer.
23. Post product reviews.
Most online users trust product reviews, especially if you’ve established yourself as a fair reviewer. Posting a product review is advantageous to you because it can draw large traffic AND can give you extra revenue. If you want to monetize your blog, this is a clever way to do so. Affiliate links, especially Amazon Affiliates, can help you earn a steady income just by posting product reviews.
24. Design a blog that visitors can appreciate.
Aside from content, the user experience is something you need to focus on. The design of your blog matters a lot. Some online users will judge your blog based on its design alone. If you have a dull-looking or a crowded blog, it can turn off a lot of visitors.
Whatever theme you use, make sure it’s user-friendly, clear and crisp. These days, you don’t have to be a designer to create an impressive blog design. If you want to have a unique layout, go for a paid theme. The following are all great options:
Oleander - A Blog & Shop Theme
by Solo Pine in Web Themes
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Headstart - Divi Wordpress Theme
by Authority in Web Themes
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25. Remove pointless or redundant distractions from your blog.
Traffic generation is more than just acquiring new visitors for your blog. It’s also keeping the traffic you already have. To do this, you need to make sure you only give the best to your visitors. Examine your blog and check if there are elements that you don’t need or that visitors find annoying or distracting. Remember, every single thing on your blog must have a purpose. If you find an element that doesn’t help you to achieve your goal, delete it.
26. Insert internal links.
Adding internal links to your content is making it easier for your readers to find the best content on your blog. It’s also a smart way in helping search engines index your content. It’s important that you learn not to overdo it, though. Adding internal links just for the sake of it is a bad move as it can be grating to your readers. Only add relevant links that can help your blog visitors.
27. Make it easy for others to share your content.
This tip is particularly relevant for visual content as they get more traffic than text-based articles. There are several tools you can use to make your images easy to share, but the easiest – and, arguably, the best – on the list is the SumoMe’s Image Sharer app.
28. Leave comments on other blogs.
The ‘right’ comment on a popular post from an authoritative blog is one of the most effective ways of generating more traffic for your blog. Check out the top blogs in your niche and leave a comment on these blogs regularly. This is a smart way of letting the blog owner and his followers to notice you. Just make sure that the comment you leave is relevant to the topic. Also, avoid blatantly promoting your blog.
29. Use major events to catch people's attention.
One of the traits of successful bloggers is creativity. They can turn anything – even subjects not even remotely related to their niche – into something they can connect with their blog. One of the ways to do so is to key into major events (ex. election, Superbowl, fashion shows, etc.) and capitalize on them using an angle relevant to your niche. If you dig in and tap your creativity, any event can be tied up to your blog.
30. Improve the loading time of your blog.
There’s no doubt about it: if you waited for minutes for this article to load, you wouldn’t be reading this last tip right now. Most likely, you’ve already blog-hopped to other sites.
Your blog’s loading time is necessary. It’s common knowledge that the main reason for massive drops in conversions is the site’s loading time. If it’s slow, you can say goodbye to your potential readers. The loading time can generate traffic, but more importantly, it can keep your existing visitors happy enough to go back to your blog in the future.
You now have 30 tried-and-tested tips and tricks to generate relevant traffic to your blog. While you can try all of this (even at once), it’s important that you choose the best tactics that fit your blog. You can also experiment or mix and match. Find the combination that will work best. Get started now.
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