5 Super Simple Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
So, you’ve set up a company blog and a viable posting schedule. You’re updating consistently, your content is fresh and you’re getting regular compliments (from your Mom). But why are your readership stats still so low?
Why aren’t your articles getting the attention they deserve? It’s probably nothing to do with your content. You can write the most captivating work of art to rival the likes of Shakespeare, but if you can’t get eyeballs on it, you may as well write in vanishing ink.
So how do you drive more traffic to your blog? You’ve heard of terms like SEO, SERP and money keywords. And you don’t have to take a Master’s degree to understand and apply some simple concepts to your blog. In fact, driving more traffic to your blog is super simple! Check out these five pointers now.
1. Optimize Your Content
The key here lies in keywords. You may roll your eyes at SEO, you may feel that it’s ever-changing requirements aren’t worth being met. But, you don’t have to become the next Rand Fishkin.
Just keep in mind some basic practices for your content. Keywords, metadata and loading speed matter, end of story. If you want your articles to get seen in a search result, make sure that you optimize your content.
If your super-relevant article about preventing hair loss contains the best information available, but not the keyword, hair loss, it probably won’t get seen. It’s quite simple to weave in keywords, or write your article round them, so make sure you get into the habit.
2. Don’t Abandon Your Posts
We’re all busy. We’re all trying to create content to satisfy needs, improve ranking and drive traffic. But that’s no excuse to put out a post and then abandon it while you move on to the next one.
If you share your post on Facebook and Twitter, that’s a great starting point. But, it isn’t enough. One round of social sharing does not guarantee to get your article seen. And if it gets missed by your followers the first time, and left all out on its own, it may never get seen again.
So, come up with a schedule to repost your content at a later date. Edit the wording, instead of just copying and pasting the title. Change it into a question, get creative, try a different image–but make sure that you get it in front of people again.
3. Share The Spotlight
Allow for the occasional guest post on your blog, preferably from an influencer in your industry. Of course, you shouldn’t stuff your blog with poor content or links unnecessarily. But if you set some high standards and invite authors who know a lot about their subject, you’ll benefit from double the readership.
They will share the post on their site and you will get more traffic, likes, shares and potentially, new clients. You’ll also expand your contacts network, as many influencers write for other websites as well. Suggest writing a post at another publication, or for their site some day and build up the links pointing to your site.
4. Stretch Your Content Out
Stretching your content, or “repurposing” your content, is a great way to get more content on a time crunch and save yourself valuable time. You can also create ebooks, white papers and downloadable content to bait the hook for your customers.
Once you’ve researched and come up with a valuable blog article, don’t stop there. Turn it into a podcast, video, Facebook post, newsletter, or slideshow. Milk your content for all that it’s worth and you’ll save time and money while gaining valuable points with search engines and becoming an authority in your niche.
5. Make it Easy to Share
How many times have you read a great article or taken one of those cool surveys on social about who you were in a past life? Were you excited to share what you found out? If you were all set to spread the word and greeted with an obnoxious error message, forced to sign up, or complete too many steps, I’m betting you gave up.
Make your content easy to share. Ensure that your social media buttons are obvious, working and well integrated into your site. Don’t make users create an account to share your content. You want the word to spread like wildfire, not cold butter cubes on toast.
There are a ton of ways you can really drive more traffic to your blog. Many of them involve time and dedication, while others involve throwing money at your project. But, if you start working on the above five super simple ways today, you’ll see your readership stats start to soar in no time.
Author Bio
Christina Comben is Content Manager at localization services provider, Day Translations. With an MBA in marketing and a billion blog articles under her belt, Christina knows her stuff. She’s multilingual and passionate about writing, continued learning and traveling every chance she gets.