10 ways to increase your blog traffic

Getting more visitors to your blog is a challenge that a lot of bloggers face.  There are so many benefits for getting more visitors to your blog, so here are 10 ways to increase blog traffic, whether you are a brand new blogger or an established blogger.

Why you should increase your blog traffic

There are so many benefits if you get more traffic to your blog, with a lot of it coming down to allowing you to earn more money. No matter how you monetise your blog, more traffic should see your income increase.

If you make money from traditional display advertising, then you will earn more money the more times your adverts are displayed. Simply put, the money visitors you get, the more your adverts will be seen, and the more you will earn.

If you are using affiliate marketing, then the more people who read your blog, the more conversions you are likely to have.

If you do sponsored posts then you will be able to charge more money for having a bigger audience.

Get more traffic to your blog with search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation is where you try to get your blog or blog posts on the first page of Google, Bing or other search engines. When someone searches the internet for something you have written about, you want your blog post to be high up there so that it gets clicked on. Search engine optimisation can take lots of time so here are 5 tips to get you started:

1. Install a plugin – I am using Yoast but you can also use All in one SEO. Using a plugin will give you prompts for every post you write, helping you to get your posts as search engine friendly as possible.
2. Make sure your website is mobile responsive – that they automatically adjust to fit a phone or tablet. My theme from Studiopress comes with this automatically.
3. Write to answer questions that people will be searching for – like my blog post on how much spending money you need for Disney World.
4. Link to other posts on your blog, don’t just link to “click here” but rather try to link to relevant posts using the right phrases.
5. Submit your site map to search engines. Here’s how to submit your sitemap to Google.

There is so much that you can learn about SEO but don’t get too bogged down by it. You can also get lots of traffic from other methods.

Utilise social media

Apart from Google, social media is my biggest traffic source, across Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

I love social media, whether it is posting photos of my cats or promoting my newest post. Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest are my highest social media referrers, although I do also have Instagram and YouTube for my blog. Twitter is definitely my favourite social media, and it is also my highest referrer. 

I am no pro when it comes to Pinterest, but it is something that I am actively working on. I am using TailWind to help me schedule and loop my pins. If you would like to get a $15 credit for TailWind then sign up using this link.

With social media, it is important to remember that it is a two way street, and you shouldn’t just be sharing or promoting your own stuff all the time.

Post consistently (not necessarily more)

It is really important that you remain consistent with your publishing schedule, so that your readers know when to expect a post from you. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to post more.

If you are anything like me, inspiration hits you when you are least expecting it, and you might find yourself writing a ton of blog posts in a short space of time. WordPress and Blogger both have an inbuilt scheduling tool that will allow you to schedule posts.

Is there a best time to post? Probably! I’ve recently switched from publishing at 10.30am to 6.30pm, and you will find what works for you. I publish at least twice a week, on a Monday and Friday.

Guest posting

Guest posting is where you write a blog post for another blogger to host on their own blog. If you are writing about a topic that you have already written about in the past on your own blog, then you will need to make sure the content is different and not copied word for word.

You can choose to swap guest posts, where you write something for a blogger and they write some content for you. Or you can offer to guest post on other blogs without publishing a guest post on your blog. It is really flexible.

Be sure to watch out for this guest posting “scam”.

Reciprocal sharing

Reciprocal sharing is where you agree, with other bloggers, to share each other’s blog posts. It could be that you share them on a particular social media platform, such as retweeting Twitter posts, or you are left a link to a blog post and you choose where to share it.

You can try Bloggers Helping Each Other on Facebook, or Viral Content Buzz.

Interlinking

If there is just one thing that you take away from this blog post, it should be to interlink your existing blog posts. This blog post is a great example – I have included a few links to relevant blog posts, because if you are reading my blog post about blog traffic, you are likely to be interested in other blog posts about blogging.

You can apply this to any existing blog posts – if you are doing a haul blog post then link to your previous haul…or if you go on to review a certain product in that haul, go back and add the link to your haul blog.

I would recommend that you set these to open in a new window.

If you are a newer blogger, you might not have many other blog posts to link to, but as you develop your blog, this will become easier.

Run giveaways

Running a giveaway can be a great way to increase blog traffic. Typically, you would get a prize, either self funded or via a brand/PR contact, and you would ask people to enter the competition using a widget on your website. You can also ask for social media likes, follows or visits to extra entries.

The problem with running a giveaway is that it can spike your traffic temporarily, and once the giveaway is over, you might not retain many of those followers. There are a few ways to try to encourage them to stay on though.

I found that when my competitions get posted on websites like Money Saving Expert (you cannot self promote your competitions on there!), a lot of the entrants stay on and become regular readers because I am blogging about making money and saving money – a topic that they also get from Money Saving Expert. You can also use an email capture form to get them to sign up for your newsletter. And of course, creating high quality, useful content.

There are a few rules around running a competition, so check out this post on hosting a legal and successful blog competition, written by Di Coke.

Send out newsletters about your posts

It is so important to capture readers’ email address as soon as you can. Getting a reader’s email address is like gold dust, and it is an invitation to pop into their inbox.

A great way to utilise these email addresses is to let your readers know that there is a new blog post on your site.

How often you send these will be up to you – I personally prefer a round up, but some readers have asked for an email every time a post goes live!

I am using ConvertKit for my newsletter and I cannot recommend them enough.

Get brands to share your posts

If you are writing a blog post that mentions a particular brand then be sure to tag them on social media, and you might find that they share your post across their social media channels.

You could even go one step further and email the brand, or privately message them, with a link to your post about them.

Don’t confuse this with getting paid for any work you do – a brand offering to share your post on social media is not a fair exchange for your hard work. After all, can you pay your rent or mortgage with exposure?

Using Traffic Transformation to increase your blog traffic

If you want to get serious about increasing your traffic then you might want to consider investing in Traffic Transformation. This newly updated book by Lena Gott is jam packed with a whopping 21 strategies that Lena herself has used to go from 17k pageviews a month to 400k+ a month in just over 10 months! Isn’t that insane?

Not only do you get the book, which is over 100 pages long, you will also get keyword research training!

I hope that you have found these tips to increase blog traffic useful.

Start your blog in just 7 days

I love the freedom that blogging gives me, and I have been lucky enough to generate a six-figure income from blogging. Over the next 7 days I want to help you with not only the technical aspects of starting a blog, but also deciding why you should blog, how to launch and how to make money from your blog. Best of all, this challenge is totally FREE! Sign up here.