Most serious bloggers care deeply about increasing traffic to their site, whether their main concern is reaching a wider audience or increasing revenue in order to move toward blogging full time. There are many easy methods you can use to increase traffic to a blog in the short term, but producing a steady, sustainable increase in traffic requires hard work and dedication to doing it right. Here are five of the most successful tips for attracting new visitors to your blog.
1. Produce Quality Content
Because of Google’s Panda algorithm update, this tip actually has an impact on Tip 5, too. Google evaluates the content on web sites and uses the quality and length to help determine ranking. Writing relevant, quality posts will gain the positive attention of Google’s crawlers. Not only that, but it will attract the attention of new readers. A few questions should be asked to help determine the quality of the posts on a blog:
Does it seem spammy? –If so, it shouldn’t be published.
Does it answer a question/fill a need? –People won’t want to read a blog if it doesn’t enrich their lives in some way.
Is it engaging? –Providing answers to readers’ questions won’t have a positive impact unless the presentation draws them in and makes them want to finish.
2. Use the Right Platform
This may not be an obvious way to increase traffic and, in fact, it doesn’t necessarily have a direct impact on traffic. Finding the right blogging software, however, is crucial. Having a platform that’s easy to configure and provides the features needed for the blog will allow authors to spend more time writing and less time trying to get their CMS working properly. There’s no single solution for the optimum blogging platform as each person has different levels of technical knowledge and each blog has different requirements. Finding the one that’s the best fit, though, is well worth the time and can help the blog owner spend more time focusing on producing content and marketing the blog.
3. Build Your Brand
Bloggers should be fully engaged in building their personal and professional brand. Getting the name of the author and the blog out in front of as many eyes as possible is a tried-and-true method of driving traffic. True, not everyone who hears about it will visit the blog and not everyone who visits will keep coming back, but if the percentage of return visitors remains the same while the number of first time visitors increases, the blog will experience an increase in regular readers. The blog and author should have active profiles on major social networking sites that are used to engage readers in discussion, producing relationships with readers and cementing the brand in their minds. Email newsletters are also a useful tool for building a brand. Including teasers of popular or new posts as well as content unique to the newsletters will prompt readers to sign up for the service while directing them to visit the blog regularly. To prevent the newsletters from becoming a full-time affair, email marketing software can be used to create templates, manage subscription lists and schedule the newsletters.
4. Start Guest Blogging
One popular method of gaining additional traffic is to participate in guest blogging by writing guest posts for other blogs, inviting other bloggers to submit content to the author’s blog or a combination of the two. Writing content for other blogs helps the host blogger by providing them with free, quality content, alleviating their need to produce more posts and helps the guest blogger by getting their name and blog out in front of a new audience of blog readers. By finding other blogs in the same or similar niche, bloggers can remain within their area of expertise while being exposed to an audience that has already expressed an interest in their chosen topic.
5. Employ Some Basic SEO Tactics
Being highly visible on search engines should be a priority for bloggers, though it shouldn’t come at the expense of regular, quality content. As discussed in Tip 1, solid content will actually help search rankings, so there should never be a sacrifice. Some basic tips for positively affecting search engine rankings include: having a clean layout with consistent, simple navigation, having a human readable file structure (no pages named 2409qkxl.html), eliminating duplicate content and keeping ads to a minimum, reducing clutter. By employing these basic SEO tactics, a blog owner can increase their chances of ranking higher in search engines.
Twitter: GearOutdoor
says:
Interesting facts here. I feel that Guest Blogging is one of the best way to get free traffic and improve your SEO. In my point of view it might takes long time, if you do it properly, but great results will come over time. Thank you for your tips, info and suggestions!
Nick Sotos recently posted..Wilderness Systems Tempest Sea Kayak Review and Coupons
Twitter: trishacupra
says:
I agree with Nick. Guest blogging, done with a sound strategy behind it, is a really solid tactic.
Thanks for all the tips.
Trisha Cupra recently posted..Why your website’s content needs enough space (or what you can learn from the parking lot)
Twitter: TheAvgGenius
says:
Too true – Guest Posting is hard to beat…but I’d also say that about SEO and link-building. Not a lot of bloggers are “into that” but it works in spades depending on methods.
James Hussey recently posted..Backup Creator Review for WordPress Backups and Cloning
Twitter: EvolvingSEM
says:
A lot of good points. I would venture to say that using the right platform for your blog is one of the most important decisions for when you’re starting up a blog. Even for people who don’t have an eye for these sort of things can tell a shoddily put together blog as compared to a neat, clean and well-organized blog. Thanks for the reminder of the importance of the small decisions for your blog!
Corey recently posted..Evolving Interactive News Open for Guest Blog Posts
Twitter: SnagABargain
says:
These are some really great tips. Thanks. I make it a point to do all of these and am trying to learn more about SEO.
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Twitter: TechieSaves
says:
Guest posting is the most important tool for bringing traffic your way.
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Twitter: charlso1
says:
Thanks for the post. I have been using guest blogging to drive traffic to all my sites and it works amazingly. Forum posting and commenting are another tools that work if you want to concentrate in free traffic system. Looking forward to reading more posts from you.
Twitter: AnaTrafficCafe
says:
You hit the nail right on the head with this post. Thanks for sharing!
Ana recently posted..Thesis Theme
I think guest blogging is very important for improving the value of our blog. Of course, content is the King as always, there are also other factors that come into consideration for improving blog traffic. Another important thing that cannot be ignored is KEYWORDS!
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Twitter: azmisurvivor
says:
thanks a lot for the great article. Driving traffic from search engine is not the only thing to do right? but yes it is the main important thing to do. One other thing is the power of social media. Nowadays social networking has become powerful tool to drive mass traffic. Building a network on social media is surely a must now, i guess.
Nice post
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Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
One day i hope i can get to be a good enough writer to guest blog. That would be a priceless way to market yourself all over the web. I also agree that branding and SEO are very important aspects to increase blog traffic. Make yourself relevant and keep good content flowing.
Chris recently posted..The Popularity of Owner Financed Homes Austin, TX
Guest posts are what seems to be making the most impact in driving traffic to sites! Check out different sites like myblogguest.com to find people looking for great content. But don’t forget that your content should be relevant to the site and your keywords!
Twitter: MichaelGibsonIM
says:
You should also include social networking and marketing in that list. Twitter and Facebook play a pretty big role now days. I did a test with another blog of mine where I only used Twitter to market my blog and the traffic generated from that was insane, and it helped increase my SERP rankings.
Michael Gibson recently posted..The Three Foundations For Motivation
Guest posting is a must do today. A few guest posts on authority blogs in your niche can be even more successful than buying solo ads. Guest posting can really give momentum to your blog, and go viral as well. Add to this a couple of well placed keywords in your guest posts, and you have a powerful recipe for targeted traffic.
Franck Silvestre
Twitter: matthewkinsella
says:
I have just started asking people to guest blog on my site and I am hoping it will increase exposure. With any luck someone might ask me to guest post on their blog too.
Matt Kinsella recently posted..101 Ways To Be Lucky and Make Things Happen
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
If you are up for it, you can also guest post here on W3blog,!
You can read about it here http://w3blog.dk/guest-blogger
Agreed! Social media is so relevant right now! I did a post about a month ago about them. So many pop up all the time and it’s almost hard to keep up. But if you promote via twitter, facebook, etc. you should be able to use the ‘word of mouth’ effect through reposts and retweets to help drive more traffic!
Twitter: jbc15
says:
Hi,
Content is king is even more important after Panda. I only use WordPress for my blogs because it is easy to use and constantly evolving. Facebook, twitter, and linked in give extra exposure for your blog and can drive lots of traffic.
Thanks,
Jim
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Twitter: windows7key11
says:
Very nice post i read many times that start guest blogging but still i am fail in finding how to setup a guest post on your blog i also want to setup it i am using wordpress any idea please
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I can creat a profile for you, then send username and password.?
I like guest blogging. It helps me share my ideas while at the same time promoting my site and i always try my best to produce a quality content to gain avid readers and followers. I also used Social Media sites to attract direct traffic and to not rely too much with page rank.
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Twitter: ExceptNothing
says:
Great Post . Thanks for Sharing .
As for guest blogging to attract more traffic, the job is not yet done after the article has been published. We as the author of that article should reply to comments if there were any, this will improve recognition and readers will feel appreciated and chances for them to follow you back to your own blog is higher.
Peter Lee recently posted..How To Enable Secure Connection On Facebook
Twitter: itrush07
says:
Planning of increasing my blog traffic through guest posting.. really hoping to start it real soon..
IT Rush recently posted..The Genuine Lost In Space B-9 Robot – The 6 Footer adaptation of the original B-9 Robot ideal for robot collectors
getting increased volumes of traffic is always a time consuming activity – you are right to rank quality content 1. If you have quality content and spend time on writing interesting things people will link to your website.
Twitter: naturallaw1
says:
Yes, content is important, guest blogging is something I need to check into.
Thanks for your post. I’m sure it will help many people out.
Steve recently posted..Definitions, Natural Law part 1
I think guest blogging is the key here. Most people have limited amount of time, guest blogging opens you up to a whole new audience of readers who probably would have never heard of you before, and you’re reaching them in a way where there is already some trust built into it.
Swiffer recently posted..Volunteer Clutter
Twitter: mindykoch
says:
I am hoping to start guest posting as part of my social media experiment within the next 10 days. I am looking forward to seeing how it affects blog traffic. Hopefully it will have as positive an impact as your post indicates! Would be nice! Of course, having good content like you suggested is a crucial part of that!
Mindy Koch recently posted..Social Media Experiment
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Good luck with your guest posting, and if you feel up to it then feel free to submit a post here at W3blog.(Just read the rules first)
Twitter: torymcbroom
says:
And don’t forget blog commenting!
Seriously though, if you craft eye-catching post titles, blog commenting on CommentLuv blogs is a great way to get targeted traffic.
Tory McBroom recently posted..How I Get 87% More Facebook Page “Likes” Every Day
Twitter: andreloibl
says:
I always find it funny how in times of “super secret traffic tactics” it always comes down to the basics: Create stuff that people want to read – and do some SEO but do not over do it. Thanks again for that reminder!
By the way: Guest posting is really a powerful tool – but so few people really use it.
Greetings,
André
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Thank you for the post. I am just entering the world of blogging and understanding how it fits into a business model. It seems like the more I learn, the deeper the rabbit hole goes… Interesting facts about Google Panda, good to know.
Twitter: mindykoch
says:
Hey Besvar, I may take you up on your offer!! I will definitely read the rules first!!
Mindy Koch recently posted..XeeMe – A Great Social Presence Tool
I am a new blogger and just recently started blogging if these steps would be useful for me so I would be very thankful to you because I am afraid of traffic only.
Twitter: pathofseo
says:
He has very good tips. Thank you. I make it a point to do all these things, and I try to learn more about SEO.
Free blogging tips recently posted..Google Ad sense – A program by Google to share revenue for referral Traffic
I think building a brand is where most people miss the mark.
JR recently posted..Best Amazon Affiliate Plugins For WordPress
Thanks for the tips! I have started two new blogs recently and need advice on attracting readers. Guest blogging is a great idea and it can go both ways. You write a blog on another popular site or bring in a well know author in your niche to your blog.
Kent Houston recently posted..Lake of the Ozarks Winter Activites
Twitter: ToasteeRobe
says:
I have honestly done many blogs from my site and I have had a lot of visitors but I am not sure if the amount of sales versus visitors is normal. I would think probably not. Since my blogs are based around my product there’s only so much I can write, or should you really blog about anything, but like you said Google wants Quality content so it really should pertain to your niche…I don’t know what else to do….
Twitter: pumbles
says:
Some excellent ideas there, thankyou, but we need to remember the ultimate aim is to attract people to our websites. It is too easy to concentrate on the SEO, and leave a website which is boring and not engaging to visitors.
The real art, which I am still learning, is striking a balance.
Barry Ranns recently posted..WordPress Dashboard Not Working?
Good tips, the most important for my is the quality articles
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Twitter: hackersfind
says:
Its Very Great Pleasure for Me if i am on your blog….
Thanks for providing this information and all other posts are also awesome…
i m gaurav garg from india… and doing hats off to you for the awesome blog and services…
and after reading your post i am thinking about the guest posting in other high pr and traffic blog.. you are awesome…
Thanks
Gaurav recently posted..Nikon D3000 Digital SLR Camera
So if I’m understanding this correctly, high quality unique content seems to be the best thing for your website PR which will drive traffic to your site. Am I correct? Great list by the way!
Dave recently posted..Game Review: Good Robot Bad Robot
Some good stuff. I have always thought about guest blogging but never have been able to get anyone to let me get a nice article for them.
If you would consider having me write a good one for you let me know! You got me email!
Thanks!
Volkswagen Van recently posted..VOLKSWAGEN CAMPER VAN
Some really good basic tip – Definitely a must read for all new bloggers.
I especially fave Guest Blogging, with which i have had great succes in gaining new returning readers.
Twitter: gmailadvices
says:
Guest blogging is the one part I really need to work on.Any way thanks for the quality article.
Reg
Raj
raj recently posted..What is Gmail And How To Create A Gmail Account?
Twitter: techdistinct
says:
I think quality post and Guest blogging is the only way for any individual to increase blog traffic.
Abhishek | TechDistinct recently posted..How to Use Google Music Store on Android Phones
Wow! This can be one particular of the most helpful blogs We have ever arrive across on this subject. Basically Great. I
Twitter: remacgregor
says:
Great post! I’ve often been torn between SEO and writing quality content. But it’s reassuring to hear that you can achieve good seo without sacrificing the quality of your work.
Thanks for posting!
Rachael Macgregor recently posted..My 60 Min Per Day MLM Blogging Strategy
Twitter: Maxillo_Faciale
says:
Yes, I think quality content are fundamental.
Things to Avoid:
– Duplicate content
– Inconsistent Contents: pages with little content
– Text / Images Only: Balancing text and images
– Be yourself: let users easily share content
– Translation tools: eliminate automatic translation tool
– Re-read: avoid repetitions and errors of spelling and grammar
– Video too long: the maximum length should be 3-4 minutes
– Pages are too long: divide your content into multiple pages if too long
– Only valued content: producing content only if they bring added value and are detailed
Twitter: MetaSocialWeb
says:
All good tips on blogging but number 5 to me is crucial.
Keep your SEO in mind whenever you blog. Driving traffic to your site quite often requires page authority (PA) and optimization of your posts. Also, for SEO purposes it is important to blog on a regular basis. Search engines now take into account how often your site produces a new blog.
If you have time, post daily.
Christopher Bayes recently posted..Social Media Metrics – SEOmoz Comes Around
Twitter: adventuress1
says:
I also think that writing articles to web 2.0 properties like Squidoo will help with your ranking.
carmen recently posted..Samsung Galaxy S2 Unlocked Sale
Yes, using right platform is so important, because the right one is SEO friendly built in. and ther tip is , let people comment your article with ‘dofollow’ link
Twitter: ericoconnor
says:
Great post and love the mention of guest blogging. I have just started to guest blog and I’m finding great results!
Eric OConnor recently posted..Best Chicago Wedding Venues
Twitter: devjosephite
says:
Thanks for the article. Hey while guest blogging is it necessary that we write articles in sites that have the same niche will that make any difference to Google while calculating PR.
Twitter: namaserajesh
says:
Thanks for posting such nice tips to increase blog traffic, I’ll start writing guest post.
Rajesh Namase recently posted..WordPress Tips to Customize Different Things in Your WordPress Blog