1. Utilize Google Analytics to understand where your traffic is coming from
Google Analytics is a useful and free tool that can help you understand what strategies are working to spread your content among readers and rank your blog higher in search engine results. It gives a ton of information, such as where your traffic is coming from, how many of your readers are new versus returning, and what keywords and searches are driving users to your blog.
Many bloggers consider social media like Facebook and Twitter key assets in their growth strategy but underestimate the power of Google Analytics. By utilizing analytics and understanding what areas of your marketing strategy are the most effective, you’ll have guidelines for how to continue growing your blog and where to improve your tactics. Any information you can get is crucial—so don’t let the power of Google Analytics pass you by.
2. Link to your blog on social media and Q&A websites
While the strategy takes a bit of direct work, understanding where your potential readers are and utilizing these platforms to drive them to your blog can be an extremely effective way to find new readers.
On social media, you can consider utilizing things like hashtags and groups to distribute content in circles interested in relevant content. And by growing an organic following, you can utilize your followers’ retweets to spread your content into new circles—and potentially even enjoy the benefits of a post gone viral!
Websites used for answering questions, like Quora, or for distributing content, like Medium, can also be very effective tools to spread your content. Because your content on these websites is distributed to users who are already interested in the topic, there’s a very high potential that you can establish yourself as a knowledgeable expert in the area and enjoy increased readership as users are referred from your links and to your blog.
When people see you being knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful online, you’re establishing a positive presence that will keep them coming back for more.
3. Utilize keywords effectively
Keywords and SEO are one of the most important parts of marketing a blog, and yet this strategy is seldom understood. Think of it this way: when you think about what someone would have to Google to find your blog and consider the article relevant to their problem, you’re already ahead of other bloggers.
For example, if you were reviewing a movie with a name that was very common and would have diluted Google searches, like Private, you could use the year that the movie was released or the director of the film as keywords to improve searchability.
It’s important that you don’t stuff keywords, however. “Stuffing keywords” is defined as the practice of cramming keywords into an article, typically in a list or group, at an unnatural frequency, or in a situation where they’re out of context. This typically harms the readability of an article, and it will harm the ranking of your blog on search engines too.
There are tools you can utilize to help you come up with keyword ideas. Google Search itself is a great place to start, but people find success with a variety of tools like Moz, WordTracker, UberSuggest, and Keyword Tool planner.
4. Search Engine Optimize your content
Possibly the most important component of driving traffic to your blog is ensuring that it is optimized for search engines. There are some good practices you can employ with your content to help your blog rank highly on Google.
1. Include a title and meta description. The title should be short and relevant, and ideally, it should have one or two keywords included in the title and description, respectively.
2. Include alt tags on all images. This will help search engines parse and understand the relevance of any images you add.
3. Link internally to other relevant posts on your blog. In addition to helping optimize your blog for searches, this also helps reader retention.
4. Setup Google authorship. This improves the perceived credibility of your blog.
5. Assign relevant categories and tags to your posts, but don’t spam. You should add 3-5 tags to each of your posts that directly relate to the content.
6. Include keywords on any anchor text—if you want to show readers “how to write copy”, your hyperlink should be akin to that and not “read more”. The former is going to help your blog rank in related searches.
7. Ensure that your permalinks include the post name. For example, “website.com/how-to-write-copy”. You can modify this in WordPress permalinks settings.
5. Post regular, high-quality content
Posting regularly and maintaining a high standard of quality will help your blog in two ways: the readers who enjoy your blog are going to keep coming back, and the regularity of your posts will help your ranking in search engines.
Posting daily or on a schedule will suffice for regularity. The most important part of producing high-quality content is maintaining standards for content and formatting. Using headers, whitespace, and images properly will improve readability, while well-written content is ultimately what your readers will enjoy.
6. Integrate a newsletter into your strategy
Many blogs have found success by sending daily newsletters to subscribers. It can be extremely expensive and time-consuming to put ads out on the Internet, and there’s no guaranteed returns either. Newsletters are a promising part of a marketing strategy because each reader is someone who has agreed to receive your content by email every day for free.
In exchange for this, you can offer exclusive and interesting content that will ensure they remain subscribed to the newsletter. Many people utilize newsletters with blurbs linking to full articles to improve traffic to their blogs. Some also find success with referral programs, which reward current newsletter subscribers for attracting new subscribers.
Remember, your blog won’t become an overnight success. But if you invest time, effort, and quality strategies into your blog each day, you’re likely to see increasing returns and growth. The most important thing you can do to drive traffic to your blog is to never give up. With patience and a commitment to learning, you’ll find yourself growing with your blog each day.
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