Managing a blog can be a time-consuming initiative with little-to-no rewards if you cannot handle it efficiently. Sure, publishing new content is rather easy (heck, I do it from time to time, in case you haven’t noticed), but have you ever heard of the saying “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Well, the same applies to blogs hosted around the web. Considering there are upwards of 350 million blogs on Tumblr alone, chances are that your blog will receive very little traffic competing against some of the digital behemoths online. However, there are specific tactics you can utilize to increase traffic to your blog.
1. Use Keyword Research Tools
As a search engine marketing professional, I have become accustomed to using keyword research tools for a myriad of purposes. Yes, I may be unique in thinking of keyword research as a pleasant task, but it can also prove to be the catalyst to a successful campaign deployment. Whether it’s for developing paid campaigns targeting health insurance keywords, creating SEO strategies, or optimizing content, my first instinct before developing strategies is to consult with the technological keyword fairies of the internet.
One platform, in particular, I find very useful for content creation is SEMrush, an all-in-one SEO management platform alongside Moz and Ahrefs. And no, the preceding sentence was not sponsored or paid for in any shape or form. I just happen to use SEMrush on a daily basis. The specific feature that I rely upon when investigating keyword trends and potential topics for content is known as the Keyword Magic Tool, which allows me to drill down queries for specific keywords and identify popular searches, questions, and long-tail phrases.
For example, when examining potential titles for this blog post, I discovered that “How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog” was the second most searched long-tail phrase for “blog traffic,” and the only search phrase with fewer than 4 million search engine listings among the top-six phrases. The data indicates that while there is a good amount of traffic for this long-tail phrases, there aren’t as many results as the highly competitive “how to increase blog traffic” and “how to get traffic to your blog” phrases in the United States.
2. Optimize Your Content
OK. You’ve identified the keywords and phrases that you will utilize in your content. What’s next? Optimization, of course! However, writing for search engine robots can seem rather mundane and monotonous, especially if you want to adhere to the keyword density recommendations set forth by the search community. When it comes to writing kickass content, my preferred method of choice is to develop well-written material first and then optimize for root keywords afterward. When it comes to SEO, writing content optimized for BOTH the conversion funnel and search engine robots is essential. Unfortunately, many agencies and businesses opt to write for search engine robots rather than human beings, resulting in uninteresting and inadequate copy sprawled across the web. Not only does over-saturated or robotic content fail to rank well, but it’ll drive potential customers away and adversely impact your conversion rates.
3. Social Media Promotion
If you spend a significant amount of time creating content for social media channels, the chances are that you have cultivated a healthy following of users ready and willing to consume whatever material you can throw at them. However, the is one caveat to that statement: the posts must be engaging. Unlike bot accounts which tend to act as sycophants hanging on your every word, real-life users will tend to unfollow or ignore brands that trot out regular and repetitive content.
If you’re able to maintain a steady level of engagement from your followers, chances are you can push users to your blog rather easily. When it comes to sharing blog content, you must tweak your social posts for each platform. For example, content can be promoted rather easily on Twitter via a series of Tweets, where you can break up your content based on the different sections outlined in your blog posts. Facebook, on the other hand, may require a more strategic approach; for example, you can utilize a lead magnet in paid ads to increase the number of subscribers for your blog’s newsletter. Setting up social media advertising campaigns can help you drive even more traffic to your blog, especially if you can target niche audiences at a cost-effective rate. When it comes to ad targeting, try to develop lookalike audiences based on past site traffic and users that have converted. Refining targeting will provide you with a more relevant audience and limit the amount of money spent on promoting your ads to users unlikely to read your content.
4. Content Syndication
While this goes hand-in-hand with social media promotion, it deserves its very own paragraph due to the ease and simplicity one can syndicate content these days. The two most reliable platforms on the internet for content syndication are LinkedIn and Medium. With LinkedIn, the posting feature for individual profiles gives you an opportunity to re-post material in LinkedIn’s format, increasing native discovery within the platform. The same applies Medium, which is becoming a source of vital information in various niches. The “import a story” feature on Medium makes syndication a breeze, as it’ll crawl your original post and pull all content from the URL submitted. Medium allows you to add up to five hashtags to increase discoverability within the platform, which can lead to increased brand awareness for your company and more views of your content.
5. Native Advertising on Discovery Platforms
While Facebook and Twitter provide rather cost-effective means to increase traffic to your website, there are native advertising platforms dedicated to promoting content across the web. Some of the most popular platforms include:
- Outbrain
- Taboola
- StackAdapt
These media buying platforms for content appeal to both publishers and advertisers alike, giving both types of businesses an opportunity to make more money online. For publishers, it’s as easy as adding a widget for “content around the web” on their websites. For advertisers, it gives them a native advertising opportunity to increase web traffic by advertising on related websites. However, tread lightly with native advertising. In some cases, your content is shown on the most broadly related websites, which will end up costing you an arm and a leg, while returning very few conversions at the same time.
6. Promote Your Content to Your Mailing List
Chances are you have a “subscribe to our newsletter” widget on your website. Even more likely is the fact that you aren’t mailing your database as much as you should. While email marketing is a highly effective digital marketing tactic in particular niches, it has caused some people to mass delete emails entirely. However, if you efficiently nurture your list and don’t flood inboxes with spam on a daily basis, you can develop a newsletter campaign that will send a significant amount of traffic to your blog every time you upload a new post. Whether it’s in the format of a daily, weekly, or monthly digest, you can send updates to your database to increase traffic to your blog.
7. Submit Guest Posts on Other BlogS
Looking to kickstart your blog and develop a bigger audience? Communicating with publishers around the web, particularly those that carry influence in your niche, can expose your blog to a brand new source of traffic. Creating compelling and insightful content is essential to utilize this tactic effectively. Publishers around the web tend to receive a staggering amount of solicitations, especially from webmasters trying to promote their not-so-great looking infographics about mundane facts. Merely repurposing your content is also not a successful tactic as the bloggers and webmasters you’ll be reaching out to are looking for fresh content.
Conclusion: Have Fun with Blogging!
Developing an increasing number of visits to your blog takes a considerable amount of work. Not only do you need to establish credibility with search engines and users alike, but you also need to ensure that you produce content consistently. Time management is one of the most common issues when it comes to overseeing a blog. Establishing a content marketing calendar is vital to the success of a blog and will allow you to plan a month’s worth of content, permitting you to make adjustments on the spot. Additionally, content marketing isn’t successful if the material robotic and done just for the sheer fact of having fodder for search engines. Write compelling and inforamtive articles to maximize exposure and interest with your audience. The more you enjoy writing blog posts, the liklier you audience will enjoy reading it, too.