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If you want to increase blog traffic, you need the right marketing strategies.
Starting a blog is easy, but driving consistent traffic isn’t. Anyone could start a blog today with WordPress, but once the blog is up and running, the next big challenge is getting attention.
Many blogs compete for attention, so getting noticed isn’t easy compared to years ago.
But don’t worry; you will find traffic tips and tactics you can explore to drive more website traffic to your blog in this guide and beat your competitors.
So…How do you Drive More Blog Traffic?
This post contains some marketing strategies I used to generate more attention, build engagement, and increase the number of visitors to my blog.
1. Define Your Target Audience
The first step to a successful internet marketing plan is to define your ideal audience. The clarity of this question will guide you to making informed decisions that will accelerate your progress.
The more you narrow down your audience to a specific group of people. The easier it becomes to create content tailored to their needs and wants.
This could also give you the advantages you need to dominate your industry quickly. And rank for almost any keyword related to your niche.
Targeting your ideal audience is like in the game of darts. If you don’t aim very well, you probably will lose. If your aim is fair, let’s say you hit the board – good! But if your objective is to perfect – you hit the bull’s eye, excellent!
Think about the problem(s) you aim to solve with your content. Once you can figure this out, defining your target market will become less troublesome.
Take CopyBlogger for an example.
Brian Clark creates a blog for those struggling to write unique, captivating content and those who want to shape their writing skills and make the most of them. He knew precisely those for whom he created the blog.
There are no better ways to define your audience than that.
Instead of the regular blogging tips blog that talks about everything about blogging, writing, and a bit of SEO, WordPress-related, how to make money blogging, etc…
Brian Clark crafted copywriting from all these and made it a stand-alone topic of discussion.
This makes it easier to generate articles and ideas that complement each other regularly. Your audience already knows what to expect when they visit your blog.
It also helps you market your blog for better traffic and revenue growth.
2. Get Quality, Authoritative Trustworthy backlinks
Hey, look here!
I don’t know what you’ve been fed.
But the truth is if you care about quality traffic, that takes positive actions on your blog. The kind of traffic that finds you wherever your website is located.
Not that kind of traffic you’re chasing with your hard-earned money, energy, time, and abundant resources. You’ll need a good chunk of your website visitors from search engines.
Don’t quote me wrong here; social traffic is excellent, and PPC is one of a kind – you get what you pay for. I have had some social traffic share in the past and present and will surely do so in the future.
But let’s face it; nothing could be compared to organic search traffic when measuring the quality of website traffic.
You get rewarded for the one-time efforts you put into publishing SEO-optimized content for an extended period.
According to Rand Fishkin of Moz in one of his publications for ProBlogger.net, he said:
Links are still a huge part of how search engine algorithms rank pages. And without them, you’ll usually struggle to perform – Rand Fishkin
How do you get Quality Authoritative Backlinks?
Dozens of tactics have already proven to be working towards attracting high-quality inbound links.
But just like many intelligent link builders in the industry will tell you. The broken link-building strategy is one of the easiest means of getting quality inbound links from authority sites.
All you have to do is:
- Find pages with dead outbound links on your target website.
- Verify that the links are pointing to dead pages.
- Contact the blog owner – your potential link partner.
- Point him to an alternative post to replace the dead link – something better in quality.
That’s it! Simple!
Suppose you’re looking for a simple tool that lets you discover broken links on the current browser tab. Then check out Domain Hunter Plus – a Google Chrome Extension.
It is a simple yet powerful SEO tool for link builders.
3. Create Viral Content
This is not going to be easy. Yes, it shouldn’t be…if it is, every content sucks.
That’s just the truth about creating something extraordinary.
Content that has lived in the heart of your darling audience for a long time. Something that makes concerned audiences scramble on their heels just to read and put into practice the advice given.
The problem is that most people who attempt to create viral content don’t have the nerves or the resources to put out something great—epic content.
The type of content that is so difficult for other writers in your niche to emulate. These types of content leave people with no option but to bookmark it. Content that gets shared becomes a reference point whenever the topic is mentioned.
How do You Create Viral Content?
There is no right or wrong way to produce viral content. This expert will tell you this; that expert will tell you that…in the end, it’s all about testing. They are tweaking things around to see what your audience likes the most.
When you discover this – give it to them till they stop digesting it the more.
But from reliable sources and data we’ve collected together around the web—data that proves what works for bloggers/writers who have had great success publishing viral content regularly.
Based on these factors, follow the below guidelines. You will develop something not too far away from propelling your blog for viral traffic.
Tips #1. Take Good Care of Your Articles Headlines
Copy Blogger once said,”
On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline. And why its so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.
How do You Write a Never to Ignore Article’s Headline?
To ensure your effort is not wasted, there are proven techniques for gauging the viral effect of your soon-to-be-published articles on the web.
If you have a Twitter account (which I assume you must have) with a decent number of followers, then before writing your blog post.
Before a single word, head over to Twitter and tweet your exact article headline version to see how your followers react.
If it attracts a large number of retweets, quotes, or favorites, this could indicate that you’ve thought well. It could also mean that your blog topic is something people care about.
Also, use the same approach for your Facebook account, head over to Facebook, and update your status with your headline.
- See how people react to it:
- Does it attract comments?
- What of likes?
- How many people leave a meaningful, insightful comment on it?
- Do they care for feedback from you?
- What question are they asking further?
All these will help you validate your article’s headline. And learn more about the potential viral effect your article will create on social media.
If it does well on these two social media sites, it will certainly do well on the web.
This helpful material walks you through the art and science of writing magnetic article headlines.
Tips #2. Get Your Ideal Reader’s Word Count
According to a reliable source, the longer the article, the more social shares it generates. Articles of 3,000 – 10,000 words or more perform best regarding social shares.
But this does not mean you should sacrifice quality for longevity’s sake.
Good content is like a woman mini skirt. Short enough to make it interesting, and long enough to cover the main subject.
Don’t go over dragging a topic that can be well wrapped up within 1,000 words or less. Just because you’re trying to make the post-2,000-word count, it will hurt instead of help.
Also, don’t be known for producing thin content all the time, especially if you’re writing on relevant industry topics today, tomorrow, and in the future for debates.
Tips #3. Choose a Proven Topic
What do I mean by a proven topic?
There is no point trying to reinvent the wheel here unless you’re writing about breaking news, events, celebrity gossip, etc. There is absolutely no new revolutionary formula for doing things anymore, at least for now.
We’re seeing an update to the previous version or another version/alternative to something old. The fundamentals remain the same.
For your content to go viral, you’ll need to write on a topic that has already gained the attention of a targeted audience. And attract thousands of social shares, hundreds of comments, and responses.
Choose a topic that your ideal readers are passionate about. Something they are eager to learn more about that has been proven to attract industry leaders’ attention.
A few useful tools on the internet let you quickly find proven topics to write about. You must have used or heard about Buzzsumo, right?
Head over to Buzzsumo and type in your niche keyword idea. Wait a few seconds for the app to return a list of top posts in that category. If your topic is good, you should see several posts with thousands of social shares and likes.
In the example below, I typed in “increase website traffic.” Buzzsumo App returned the top results based on the top social sharesfor the past year.
There are a few lessons to take from the image below if you choose to write on the same topic:
- Concentrate on sharing the post mainly on Facebook and Twitter.
- Ignore Pinterest – it could mean a waste of time.
- Facebook is better for this topic than Twitter.
- List-post performs better for this topic.
As you can see in the image, two (2) of the top three results are listicles. I discussed how to use list posts to drive blog traffic in this post; read on.
Visit the links and see what makes these posts so successful. Use them as the basis and guide for your next post. Take care of the headlines. Analyze what makes them go viral, and attract so many shares and responses.
Then see how you can come up with something better, by upgrading the already successful post to a new one.
Old wine in a new bottle.
4. Make The best out of “List-Post”
If you visit the sidebars of some top blogs, like Jeff Bullas, Daily Blog Tips, etc. You will see how they’ve made the best out-of-list posts to get more blog traffic.
A list post has been proven over time to attract readers’ attention because:
- List-post goes viral.
- They are easy to digest.
- Easy to scan through.
- Each section or number is expected to present a point.
However, for your list post to pose the potential that makes a post go viral, better if it is written on an evergreen topic. A topic that doesn’t compete with time or trends.
If you care to keep enjoying the fruit of your one-time labor for years to come.
Research has shown that by giving everything equal, some list posts will perform better than others. Numbers are vital in how viral a list post could go.
Figures “10, 23, and “16” have over time proved to be more effective than other figures. I don’t know why Figure 10 plays best. But judging from my days as a football player I could tell this figure “10” has some magic to it.
The most amazing, talented players I know of love to put on the jersey number 10. I don’t understand why it is so, but it is just that way. Name them, and you will be left with an endless list:
Maradona, Pele, Zidane, Del Piero, Toti, Ronaldinho, Messi, Okocha, Figo—at one time in Madrid, De Lima Ronaldo—also at one time in Inter Milan, Zico, Platini, Ruud Gullit, Etim Esin, and the list is endless.
In content marketing, and mostly on the part of the readers, I think it is because “10 items” seem not too bogus and not too thin for a comprehensive list of information.
Compare this to when you roll out 70, 100, 150, or 50 list posts.
Lots of readers won’t bother reading past 20 points on your list of 70 points before skimming away. They might just press the share button for the sake of rewarding your efforts in publishing such tedious work.
Remember to keep it simple, short and sweet.
5. Analyze Your Published Content
If there is one better way to accelerate your blog traffic growth quickly, it is to study in-house content performance.
Chances are, you already have some quality posts written that perform better than others, right?
Have you considered looking into why these posts perform better than others? Maybe in traffic terms, comments, sales, or just shares?
For instance, I have discovered that on this very blog, you’re reading. Most of the posts that generate affiliate income for the blog don’t attract shares, comments, or social media traffic.
They are posts that perform better in organic traffic. Well writing for such a purpose and closely targeted at a specific audience.
Whereas, posts that drive the most traffic. Both social and organic traffic – are topics related to search engine optimization – traffic, link building, and things like that.
On the other hand, I see posts that are not SEO-focused attract a larger percentage of comments.
So if I’m out to drive more blog traffic, it will be the best idea to publish more posts on SEO topics. But if I am out to increase affiliate income, I know what type of post to publish frequently.
Here are a few strategies to discover your best-performing posts.
First, install WordPress’s popular post plugins on your blog – there are dozens of these plugins. After installation, set your preferences. You could set it to fetch posts based on comment count or views. I prefer comment count for obvious reasons.
- It shows first-time visitors how engaged your blog community is.
- Attracts attention, and could possibly increase page views.
- Let you know what’s working and what’s not for your audience.
- Gives you post ideas to write on.
- It attracts advertisers to your blog.
If you want to go deeper on knowing how your posts are performing on the web. Head over to your Google Analytics account
There is no better way to understand what’s been happening on your blog than to visit Google Tools.
Once in your Google Analytics dashboard, click on acquisition, search engine optimization, and landing pages. Here you will see a list of your top-performing post in search traffic.
What you need to do here could be divided into two:
First, if there are posts that attract a good impression but have a low click-through rate. Consider revisiting such posts to add more content and optimize them better. Build more relevant links to it then wait to see if there could be any significant changes in search ranking.
Alternatively, you could decide to write fresh content targeting the same keyword. If the first post can’t tweak around to get more search visibility.
Google never penalizes anyone for targeting the same keyword more than once with different content.
To get a list of your top-performing posts on social media in Google Analytics. Click on the acquisition, search engine optimization, social, and lastly, click on landing pages.
Here you will see a list of your top content that is bringing in social traffic to your blog.
Now you’re armed with valuable information on the type of content that is performing better among your social followers. You can now build on what is already working.
Conclusion…
How to increase blog traffic that increases your lead acquisition and eventually generates more sales won’t be an easy task. You need a clear roadmap and a proven strategy.
Most of the time, you won’t find one. You’ll need to discover what works for you – no handout.
What deters many from achieving success with tactics is the lack of consistency. They do this thing for a moment or once. And the next you’ll see from them is switching to other next BIG tactics on the internet.
Most of what works today for the “A” list bloggers results from months of consistent hard work on a strategy. They work long on it till they see the expected result.
What have you been doing to increase your blog traffic? Let’s hear you in the comment box.