Do you really want to know how to grow your blog traffic? If you’re looking for a quick list of successful blogging tips, you’re not going to get that here. I’m going to tell you what most professional bloggers will tell you: It’s going to take consistent hard work in order for you to reach your blog goals.
Let’s get into what it takes to grow your blog traffic and readership. There’s over 50 tips below, so grab a glass of water and get comfortable. Let’s go!
Support and Work with Others
It’s not good for man to be alone.
If you want to go far with your blog, you can’t go alone. This is why I believe deeply in networking with other writers and bloggers and growing a team to help accelerate blog growth.
Support Other Writers and Embrace Community
Reading other people’s content is one of the best ways to grow as a writer. This isn’t to say that you will jack their style, but it will open you up to new words and ways to approach a topic. Reading and supporting other writers will also open you up to new networks of support for your content. This opens up more opportunities for other writers to share your work with their readers and followers…and yes, this will yield more readers and traffic for your blog!
Support another writer’s content without expecting them to support yours. When a community sees that you regularly support your fellow members, people will support your quality content.
For more on this topic of writing communities, check out our recent post on communities for writers.
A great writer’s community that I’m loving is the Medium writing community. There are so many talented writers there. Read, clap up, and share quality content from other writers (especially writers who support your content). If you like the writer’s stuff enough, give them a follow as well.
Grow a Team and Delegate Tasks
Another great way to scale your efforts as a blogger is by growing from the inside. I’m talking about growing your own team of writers, editors, researchers, website managers, and assistants.
If your budget permits, delegate tasks that you don’t do well. Even more, you should try to delegate tasks of things that you do well (and enjoy in some cases) if it makes business sense for your time and energy to be put into other things. In my personal case, I love writing but sometimes it makes more sense for me to craft an outline for an article and pass it off to a writer on my team.
Here are seven things that you can delegate on your blog:
- Keyword research
- Proofreading and copy editing
- Graphic design
- Blog / WordPress management
- Blog distribution / Social media marketing
- Link building
- Writing! (yup, I said it)
Write Better Headlines
I used to write my headlines or titles after I started my article, but now I craft the various headlines that I need before working on my article’s first draft. This helps me keep the headline and the purpose of the article in mind as I work on the body of the post.
I recently read about a writer who has focused headline writing sessions! This shows how seriously professional bloggers take writing headlines.
Remember that there are three different types of headlines to produce. You will need a good SEO Title, an H1 title or headline for on-page, and you will also need a title for social media sharing. Sure, all of these can be the same title, but they all serve a different purpose and have different roles in getting you more readers.
Power Tip: Craft a different headline for your Medium articles if you import/syndicate articles from your blog to Medium. Medium headlines and subheadlines tend to be more “catchy” than standard blog headlines.
Here are two neat tools that can help you write better headlines:
Emotional Marketing Headline Analyzer
Do Keyword Research
Doing keyword research before you write helps you match your interests and passions with the public’s actual (not perceived) interests.
Skipping keyword research is the biggest mistake that new bloggers can make. The danger is being discouraged by putting your heart, soul, and sweat into a blog post that no one will ever find.
The general rule is to find low competition, long tail keywords (3+ words) that have a relatively high search volume. I go deeper into this process in our Semrush keyword research tutorial.
Of course, the keyword research is only half of the battle. You should work your focus keyword into your SEO title, meta description, and within the body of your article 2-4x depending on its length. You should also find 2-3 secondary keywords that relate to your article. Work your secondary keywords 2-3x depending on the length of your article. Doing this consistently with all of your content will yield excellent organic traffic results.
Here are several more benefits of doing keyword research:
- It helps you organize your editorial calendar and prioritize your blog topics.
- Your content will be more targeted and helpful to your readers.
- Your Google pagerank position will improve over time.
- Increased organic traffic will lead to more conversions on your website.
- You will find keywords that your competitors are ranking for.
- Your positive results will inspire you to publish more good content, which will lead to more blog traffic!
Don’t do guesswork when it comes to the keywords that you use. Get real data on what the public wants to read about.
Here are some resources that will help you find some relevant keywords for your blog and articles:
Semrush’s mission is to make online competition fair and transparent, with equal opportunities for everyone. Semrush is more than a keyword research tool. It is a competitive research service for online marketing.
Check out our Semrush keyword research tutorial for more detailed help.
Answer the Public is a handy keyword research tool that gives you a visual representation of questions asked by the public based on the seed terms (one to two words) entered by curious keyword researchers like you. Use the questions that Answer the Public returns for ideas for questions to answer in your blog content.
Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that was developed by Neil Patel and his team. Ubersuggest is a great tool for tracking your blog’s organic traffic growth and reverse engineering your competitor’s keywords. If you find some great keyword ideas, you can use them for your next batch of content.
Quora is a social network founded by Adam D’Angelo that is built around questions and answers. It’s a hidden gem for finding keywords and blog topic ideas. Read our helpful Quora keyword research article to learn how to use it for keyword research.
Write and Publish Consistently
You have to love the writing grind to get more consistent with your craft. That’s why it’s crucial that you develop a daily writing habit.
I’m writing this section while in bed, under the weather. My eyelids are heavy and my body is fatigued. I will get some rest soon, but I’m determined to get in these words right now.
If writing your own articles is necessary but you don’t enjoy it, work to get through the inertia. Once you get over that hurdle, you will enter a state of flow. The words will come easier. Writing is like exercising…you’ll get stronger the more you do it.
One thing’s for sure…you need to get far away from your smartphone during writing sessions (unless you’re writing on it like I am now – haha). Put that demon of distraction in a different room and make sure it’s on silent/no notifications.
Here are some key tips for writing more consistently:
- Set goals
- Follow a daily routine
- Write at a dedicated writing space (switch it up from time-to-time for inspiration)
- Try different writing methods
Give our 3×3 writing process a try to help you get an organized routine for writing. You’ll be writing with confidence and consistency before you know it.
Make Your Writing More Personal and Rhythmic
Write in a way that connects with human beings by sharing stories and being more transparent. People love sharing good stories with others. My personal experiences are mine and not anyone else’s. This differentiates my content from other writers, even if we’re writing about the same topic. Help your readers get to know you and watch how it positively impacts your blog’s traffic.
Also, good writing flows and bounces like a good song. It has a rhythm and cadence that satisfies the mind while the reader’s brain is informed.
Mastering how to grow your blog traffic has just as much to do with improving your writing style and skills as any SEO or social media tactic. At the end of the day, people want to enjoy what they’re reading.
Here are some writing tips that will help you improve your writing style:
- Read more
- Mix up the length of your sentences in your posts. This helps create a cadence.
- Write to music that helps your words flow
- Try to eliminate filler words (especially adverbs)
- Read what you write out loud
- Find a trusted and experienced editor
Bonus Tip: Write like the way you speak. This will make your writing more human and more enjoyable. If you want to increase your blog’s readership, craft your content to read like a heart-felt conversation.
Serve the Audience That You Already Have
Don’t always be on the search for more or something/someone new. Appreciate the audience that you have. Yes, it’s good to measure traffic or email list growth from time-to-time, but doing that too much can take you away from your mission of serving your current audience with your writing.
Your audience, your tribe loves your content and writing style. Your community responds to and appreciates your articles and email messages. I’m not saying that you should never experiment with different styles of writing, but I am saying that you should be grateful that your community loves what you do.
A great way to serve your audience is by sharing helpful content with your email newsletter subscribers. And that’s what I’ll be covering next.
Grow Your Email List with Lead Magnets and Opt-in Forms
Growing your email list is one of the successful blogging tips that will have the most long-term impact on your blog’s traffic. You see, you own your email list. You can export your email list (something that you should do often) and take it to whichever service you please (we prefer ConvertKit).
Strategically place email opt-in forms on your blog to grow your email list. You must have something of value to offer in order for people to sign up for your list. For instance, we offer our Go Long: Getting Big Wins with Long-form Blog Content eBook as a lead magnet to encourage visitors to join our email list.
Here are the various email forms that ConvertKit offers:
- Exit intent forms
- In-line content forms
- Slide-in forms
- Header and footer forms
- Landing pages
Communicate Regularly with Your Email List
You might be wondering how to grow your blog traffic specifically through your email list. The answer is simple: engage with them regularly through email messages.
Once people are on your list, you should nurture those relationships by sending them newsletter content once per week at a minimum.
I know what you’re going to say, “I don’t have time to create MORE content for a newsletter.” Well, there’s good news. You can make a loophole by tweaking portions of your blog copy and using it for your newsletter. Also, include relevant links to your blog within your newsletter broadcasts. This will help bring traffic to your blog and turn more people into loyal readers.
Sign up for ConvertKit for email marketing
Promote Your Blog and Repurpose Your Content
Your work isn’t over when you hit publish on a new blog post. Actually, the next phase of work is just beginning! You have to be creative to get your blog out there. At this point you need to repurpose your blog content to different channels. It’s a pretty fun process.
One of my favorite experts on this topic is Ross Simmonds of Foundation. His platform’s foundation (pun intended) is content distribution. He famously coined the acronym D.R.E.A.M. (Distribution Rules Everything Around Me). What he promotes is true. Check out this great tweet by him:
What can you turn that old blog post into?
— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) February 29, 2020
One post = 8 Tweets
One post = 5 Linkedin posts
One post = 3 Quora answers
One post = 2 YouTube videos
One post = 1 PDF for download
One post = 1 Slideshow
Repurpose your content and give it more life.
One blog post can go a long way and touch a lot of people if you commit to repurposing it on various platforms. Just remember that each platform has its own vibe and rules of engagement. The big thing to remember is that most social media platforms don’t like their users to leave their website, so craft repurposed copy that can be enjoyed natively without sending traffic away. Your engagement is the product!
Join the Medium Partner Program
My writing career took another step forward when I decided to join Medium’s Partner Program. The Partner Program allows your published articles to be curated by Medium’s curators and shared via multiple channels for specific topics. The Partner Program also allows your content to be monetized because your stories are shared with Medium’s paid members. The more that paid members read your distributed content, the more money you make.
If you tastefully link back to your blog’s content within your distributed content, this will help new readers find your blog. Also, you can link to your email newsletter and/or blog within your Medium profile bio. The more your content is viewed (the more people you help), the more visibility you’ll have for your blog.
Important Tip: If you’re syndicating a blog post from your blog, use Medium’s import feature. It will bring over the formatting of your blog post and automatically use your blog post’s URL as the canonical link.
Nuclear Power Tip: After you join the Partner Program, submit some of your article drafts to the popular publications on Medium. If your articles get picked up by curators, some publications might reach out to you. Popular Medium publications have large followings that can bring a lot of attention to your articles. Just realize that many Medium publications won’t allow you to link back to your blog within the body of your article. But that’s okay because your profile bio is still great real estate for linking to your blog and newsletter as I discussed earlier.
Promote Your Content on Social Media Platforms
I admit that I don’t do this myself. InspireFirst as a team distributes our published content across our various social media channels (Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook). Remember: delegate.
Repurpose your content in a way that makes sense for each channel and its audience. Twitter is great for bulleted summaries of your content. Facebook is great for relatable content…content with a narrative that you can send paid traffic to. LinkedIn is great for repurposing your content into a shortened 3-4 paragraph post that’s accompanied by an image or a video.
You can use Markup Hero to create innovative and engaging visuals to market your content.
But I haven’t mentioned my favorite social media opportunity. Pinterest is my top recommended “social network” to engage on for bloggers. I put “social network” in quotations because Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social network. Sure, you can follow people, but people really use Pinterest to find and save images that relate to their interests. The majority of InspireFirst’s social media traffic comes from our Pinterest activity.
Here are five tips for how to grow your blog traffic with Pinterest:
- Design and natively pin good looking images. If your image or design quality is low, people won’t click on them.
- Add a link to your blog (post) to every pin.
- Write excellent pin titles and descriptions. Include relevant keywords in your pin copy.
- Sign up for Tailwind and help your tribe by sharing their pins (your fellow tribe members will share your pins if they look good — good design is really important).
- Follow other Pinterest members’ relevant boards. Some of the people that you follow will follow you back and likely re-share from your boards.
Pinterest Power Play: Promoted pin – I prefer promoting a quality pin over boosting a Facebook post any day. It’s more cost effective, easier to get started, and you have a better chance of getting your content in front of people who are genuinely interested in your content. According to our recent promoted pin campaigns, InspireFirst paid $.20 (that’s twenty cents) for every person who visited/clicked to our website. That’s unbelievable value!
More Successful Blogging Tips
You thought I was done? Here are a few more successful blogging tips as you dig into how to grow your blog traffic.
Put Your Blog’s URL in Your Email Signature
Get more blog readers by simply putting a link to your blog in your email signature. This is an easy passive way to get more traffic.
Here is a screenshot of my email signature. Not anything fancy.
Put Social Media Sharing Buttons on Your Blog
Give your readers an opportunity to share your content with their network. This is a great way to passively introduce your blog to new readers and increase social media signals.
You want a plugin that hosts the social media sharing buttons. This will help keep your page speed fast. Grow by Mediavine (formerly Social Pug) is InspireFirst‘s social media button plugin of choice.
Write and Feature Guest Posts
You have to spread the love, y’all. If you’re a good writer with a topic that fills a void on another blogger’s website, approach them about crafting a guest post. Focus on serving their interests first. After all, it is more blessed to give than to receive. If things like up well, one guest post can drive a good amount of traffic back to your blog.
Be sure to adhere to the other blog’s rules and guidelines. If they only allow one link back to your website, don’t try to sneak in an extra one. Dishonesty is not a good look. If they require blog posts to be at least 1000 words, give them 1500 words of excellent content. Make a great first impression and they might ask you to write for them again!
Here are more ways to crush your guest blogging efforts:
- Make sure your guest post is 100% original and not published anywhere else.
- Do keyword research and find a focus keyword and secondary keywords for your guest post.
- Proofread and edit your copy before submitting it. The 3×3 writing process will help.
- Show that you’re paying attention to their blog by working links to their other content within your guest post.
- Design or source a featured image that fits with the design of their site (realizing that they have the right to go another direction).
The more guest posts that you land, the more links you’ll get back to your blog! Read more here.
Have Others Write Guest Posts on Your Blog
Bring the loyal readers of other writers to your blog by inviting them to write on your blog. This is an attractive offer to bloggers if your blog has a high domain authority score. Plus, they’ll love to get a link to their site on your blog.
The benefit for you is that this opens up your blog to your guest’s social media followers and email list subscribers if they decide to share their post with their community (which is something that you should encourage them to do). Also, this will help you fill out your editorial calendar with more quality content. We know that consistently publishing great content is an answer for how to grow your blog traffic.
Put SEO Basics into Action
Executing white hat SEO best practices (along with publishing quality content) is the safest and most effective way to grow your organic traffic. It will take an investment of time and money (likely) to get your SEO in order, but getting it done will pay off. Once the search engines trust you, you’ll be in good shape as long as you don’t pivot to breaking rules.
Here is a quick list of successful blogging tips of SEO basics that you should put into action to grow your blog traffic:
- Make your website mobile-friendly. Google won’t rank sites that aren’t responsive. Check out AMP if you want to nerd out on great web/mobile experiences.
- As I mentioned earlier, do keyword research like your life depends on it.
- Write a healthy amount of long-form blog content (1200 words or longer). The value that you provide will keep readers on your page longer (dwell time – which is a factor for SEO).
- Install the Yoast SEO plugin and satisfy its suggestions until you get a happy green face (you’ll find out what I’m talking about).
- Link to your other posts within your blog posts. These are called internal links. Mix in a quality external link (that opens in a new tab) here and there to keep your link profile nice and healthy.
- Pitch answers on HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to score links from high authority websites. This is one of my favorite forms of link building.
- Optimize your blog images before and after uploading them to WordPress. This helps improve your pagespeed.
Nerdy Power Tip: Look into schema markup (also called structured data). Schema is basically a language that search engines understand. Look, I’m no expert here but I know this stuff is growing in importance. You can apply schema markup to different pages or posts based on the type of content it contains. This will help the search engine better understand what’s on the page and display relevant information from the page (i.e. product ratings). Learn more about schema for WordPress and find your site’s schema markup by using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
In Conclusion
Wow! We’ve covered a load today. You won’t have to read another successful blogging tips post for a while! Take it all in and join our newsletter to get connected and ask your questions (you’ll also get our latest eBook when you do).
This post was proofread by Grammarly Premium.
