You’ve done all your research, written the perfect article, made eye-catching graphics, and now you’re refreshing Google Analytics waiting for those precious views. We’ve all been there. After all, one of the main reasons to blog is to increase your website traffic.
So what do you do when you’ve posted a blog and it doesn’t get as many views as you’d hoped for? This article will explore proactive and reactive strategies you can implement to ensure your new content drives traffic while also making use of your existing work.
Write great blog content.
You may argue that this goes without saying, but the reality is that creating high-quality content is a core pillar for driving any amount of blog traffic. While good content is essential, sharing great content is what grows your blog and audience.
What goes into creating great blog content?
**An audience-centric topic. **Your content shouldn’t be all about you. Instead, you should focus on providing value to your audience through value-added, educational content.
**A unique perspective backed up by well-researched insights. **Your audience doesn’t want to re-read the same content they can find anywhere else. Thorough research using well-reputable sources is important, but use it to back up your unique point of view. If you can conduct original research, this is even better and you’ll have an opportunity to be the resource everyone else references.
**A consistent and memorable brand voice. **Any piece of copy shared by your company should be easily discernible as being from your brand. Establish your brand personality, and make sure for each blog, the tone, language, and content are all aligned.
**Clear formatting and engaging headers. **If your reader clicks on your blog only to be greeted by a giant wall of text, they’ll be intimidated. Headers make it easier for your readers to skim the blog and identify the key sections they want to read. Use bullets for lists and bolding to highlight key concepts.
Optimize your content for search.
Search engine optimization is a long-term play, but it’s crucial to any traffic-generating strategy. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be able to start climbing the search ranks, and blogging is a key strategy for improving SEO. To begin, determine the keywords you want to target. Use a tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs to find relevant keywords and average monthly searches. You’ll want to start with keywords that are fairly popular but aren’t overly competitive to rank for. Once you start ranking for keywords, you can start targeting more difficult terms.
Today, Google places an increased priority on user experience over strategies like user experience. Writing content your audience stops to read fully will be rewarded by Google, as will developing content that thoroughly answers their questions. While it’s important to include target keywords throughout your content, be sure to focus on your reader first, Google second.
Guest post on industry sites.
By posting on a related site sharing your expertise, you’re able to connect with a new audience. Picking the right sites to guest post on can ensure you engage with new potential readers.
When guest posting, you’ll typically have the opportunity to include at least one link. Especially if you’re limited, make this link count by referencing a related article on your site. If you’re able to include multiple links, be strategic about hyperlinking descriptive phrases to related content — don’t just link anything! You want to give these new potential readers a great first impression.
Share your content on industry forums.
Industry forums are a great way to connect with your potential audience, find content ideas, and promote your resources. Start by finding relevant forums to participate in, these can include joining Facebook and LinkedIn groups, following topics on Quora, or joining a subreddit. Once you first join a group, spend some time learning about how existing users engage with the group.
You don’t want to come off as aggressively sales-y, so don’t just post about your content. Instead, look for people asking questions related to your content. Provide a helpful answer on the forum, then link back to one (or more) or your resources for more information. Focus on providing valuable information in the initial comment and readers will be interested in learning more through your blog.
Utilize Pareto’s principle.
Pareto’s principle states that 20% of your effort contributes to 80% of your results. Use this to your advantage. Analyze your top blog posts to find what they have in common. From there, explore how you can apply those strategies to enhance all of your content.
Promote your content regularly on social media.
Posting your blogs on social media is mandatory for driving traffic. Not only can you reach your existing audience following you, but when you strategically implement hashtags, you can also reach an exponential audience of individuals interested in your subject matter. Keep in mind that not every social media platform may be suitable for the type of content you are sharing. Some platforms may have more of your specific target audience than others.
For each blog you publish, you should plan to promote it for at least a few months. Unless your content is time-sensitive, you’ll likely be able to promote your content for an entire year. It’s essential to develop an omnichannel strategy sharing your article on each different platform you’re active on.
Missinglettr makes it easy to schedule a year’s worth of blog promotion. For each new article you publish, Missinglettr detects and develops a series of social posts. From there, you just need to hit approve, your campaign will be scheduled, and you’ll be on your way to driving exponential traffic.
See how much traffic you can start driving with Missinglettr — get started with a free trial!
