3 Steps to Increase Blog Traffic

Step 1 – Simple S.E.O.

Content is King:

The most important aspect of any blog’s Search Engine Optimization is writing good content.  Relevant and useful content will continue to be the most important aspect of all successful blogs.  Great content not only provides the reader with information, but also encourages the reader to engage with your blog, even if the engagement is simply to read your previous posts.  If you do not have relevant, useful content, you will not maintain many readers.

Frequent Updates:

Frequently updating your blog is important if you want to maintain a high ranking in search engines.  A high ranking in search engines is important simply because new readers need to find you.  75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.  Updates show readers, and search engines, that your blog will continue to be relevant in the future.  Your updates should be a mix of both new posts and updates to old posts that are time sensitive.

On-Site S.E.O.

The following steps are very important for blogs that are their own separate websites.

• Blog Title:  Your blog title should be appropriate for your topic and easy for your readers to connect with your blog’s “brand” and easy for them to remember.  Include topic related keywords if possible.
• Blog URL:  Make sure your blog’s URL is easy to remember so your readers can quickly and easily return to your blog. Include topic related keywords if possible.
• Post Titles: Make sure post titles are not only interesting / eye catching, but also optimized to be shared.  Try to keep them short so they don’t take up too much room in Tweets.
• Alt Image Tags: Alt Image tags are used for non-visual browsers.  The text that you input for an alt image tag will be read when the image cannot be displayed.  Many browsers also display the alt image tags when a mouse hovers over the image.  These tags should be very brief descriptions of your image.  Again, include topic related keywords if possible.
• Links:  It is good to link your posts together.  If you mention something in a post that you’ve talked about before, link the keywords in your new post to your old post instead of explaining the topic again.  This will keep your blog posts short and simple for frequent readers.  It will also allow new readers to “catch up” with everyone else while showing off some of your old posts that readers may have missed.

Step 2 – Be Social

Not only are 62% of adults worldwide using social media, but they’re using it very frequently! 22% of time spent on the internet is for social networking!  It is important to make sure you are sharing your blog posts on social media for your target audience to see.  Be sure to find out which social media networks your target audience is using and focus on those.  For example, there’s no need to post your DIY Crafts on the professional based network LinkedIn, you’ll have better luck gaining readers by posting that type of content on Pinterest.  Don’t just share your posts and leave, engage with others!  Talk with them, they will enjoy reading your posts if they can associate it with a personality.

Step 3 – Encourage Others to Share

Always encourage your readers to share your posts with their friends!  It is amazing how many people will share an article if asked nicely to do so.  Turn your readers into advocates!  Personal recommendations go along way, especially in the social media world.  But don’t just ask them to share, make it easy for them share!  Make sure you have easy to find “share” buttons for each blog post and a place for them to subscribe to your blog so they can easily be reminded of each new blog post.