You’ve started a blog for your business. Congratulations!!
Now what?
Next step: you’ll want to attract and grow an engaged audience. So how do you drive more traffic to your blog? With just a few simple steps, you can exponentially increase readership and interest in your brand. Here, we’ll highlight 5 tips for helping grow your blog.
Let’s Discuss Your Blog Strategy
1. Create content (and lots of it!)
The first step to increasing your blog traffic is to write, and write some more. Start by creating a list of possible blog topics. Research trending topics in your industry and consider frequently asked questions by your clients, or popular search items in your industry.
To find out what questions are being asked within your business sector, check out Quora. Another great resource for finding out what other thought leaders are sharing in your industry is on the site Buzzsumo.
Once you get your master content list together for your blogs, it’s important to ask yourself two questions:
- Is the content evergreen? You don’t want your content to “age out” of existence too quickly. Try to pick topics that will have a long shelf life, ones that will benefit your readers for the long haul.
- Does it answer a question? People are likely reading your blog because they need to solve a problem. Make sure you’re providing content that serves a purpose, and answers a specific question in a variety of ways. Yes, your blog is meant to promote your business (subtly), but you have to make it meaningful to your readers by adding value.
Now, ramp up the amount of content you’re putting out there. As we noted in a recent blog, create a schedule and put it out there! The more relevant, evergreen content that you share, the more eyeballs you’ll have over time.
2. Be Snappy and Searchable
Dry content is no fun for anyone. You want to write in a catchy, engaging way, but also aim to increase your SEO. Here are some suggestions:
- Make your headlines work for you: Aim to create engaging, attention-grabbing headlines that are also keyword rich. Let’s say you’re a hot dog vendor blogging about the origins of hot dogs at baseball games. Through your search (we’ll highlight more about keywords in a moment), you find that the keyword pair “hot dogs and baseball” are trending right now. Now, combine that search phrase with a creative “snap,” and you might land on one of the following blog titles:
- “How Hot Dogs and Baseball became an All-American couple.”
- “How Hot Dogs and Baseball became a sizzlin’ summer couple.”
- Break up your content: Long, drawn out content doesn’t help your business or your readers. Keep your content concise and engaging. Use paragraphs, bullet points, and headings to break up the blog content, and make it more consumable for your reader. For more about this check out our latest blog.
- Use visuals: Another great way to break up your content is to use visuals. As we’ve noted in a recent blog, make sure that you use imagery that’s free and clear of rights restrictions. This image is from Unsplash. Free visuals for the win!
Hot dogs and baseball: an All-American couple (Photo by Ball Park Brand on Unsplash).
3. More about Keywords
We touched on keywords in your headings & titles, but what about in your content? A sure-fire way to increase blog readership is to make sure that you’re sprinkling in relevant, SEO rich content throughout your blog. One helpful resource is SEMRUSH’s Keyword Magic Tool.
Once you get your list, make sure to use your keywords across every aspect of your blog, including:
- Blog title & headings
- Sprinkled throughout your blog content
- Even in your image file names!
4. Data capture
Another key way to increase your blog readership is to capture the emails of your visitors. This is a great way to keep readers in the loop about company happenings and new blogs.
To do this, you need to create a “data capture form” on your blog. This can be a pop-up window, a sidebar, or a simple call to action that asks people to join your mailing list.
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5. Encourage sharing
Don’t be afraid to ask your readers to share your post. If they like what you have to offer, (and if they think it’ll be relevant to their network), it’s likely that they will share it!
By doing this, not only are you expanding your blog reach, but also sending a signal to search engines about the level of engagement of your posts.
And all you had to do was ask!
Add these five tips to your blog routine, and you’ll be well on your way to increasing your blog traffic.
