What is Traffic?
Who wouldn’t want more traffic to their blog or website? Traffic simply means web visits to your website, it helps you reach your business goals by getting more readers. More readers means more customers. And more customers means higher earnings. Your main source of traffic should be via search engines, but it’s important to have more than one way of generating traffic.
Search engines always refine their algorithms for ranking websites for search keywords (Search keywords means the words you type on a search engine when searching for any topic). With each update, your ranking for a search result for a specific keyword might go up or down, This will increase or unfortunately decrease your organic traffic.
To make sure you remain safe when hit by a search engine update and avoid losing your organic traffic, you need other traffic sources to depend on as well. Have a look at the infographic also.
Below is a list of all the different ways you can use to get more traffic to your blog or website.
1. Content is King
They say ‘content is king’, and they are right. Without providing quality content with valuable information to your readers, they will not be interested to visit your blog. And all your efforts for generating more traffic will be a waste of time. Below are some tips to help you write a quality content:
Build Your Blog on Quality Content And Provide Unique Information:
By writing quality content and by providing unique information that nobody has, people will want to read more articles on your blog. If they don’t find interesting information on your blog; they will stop visiting it. Also, make your blog scannable so that it is easier to read.
Write Catchy Titles:
Titles are as important as writing a quality post. It is one of the important factors if not the only factor that will determine if people will click on a link and visit your post, especially if what they see is only a summary of your blog post or just a link on another website.Do not forget that the title should be relevant to your blog posts. If your visitors find the content irrelevant to the title they just clicked; they will stop visiting your blog.
Write Reviews:
People love to read reviews before buying a product or registering at a website. Write useful reviews on your blog to get huge traffic. Make sure that you know what you are writing about by using and testing the product.
Tell Stories:
People love to read stories, as they feel it has more credibility, they love to learn from other people experience. Write an interesting story that people would love to read and would love to share.
Top Lists Posts:
Like reviews & stories, people love to read top lists as they are simple, easy to read and straight to the point. Top lists posts have a catchy title too, which maximize click through when shared on social media websites or appeared as search results.
Include Photos And Videos:
Add relevant photos and videos to your blog post to increase reader engagement and to keep your post scannable. Make sure you have legal rights to use the photos and videos or use royalty free photos. Add credit when required for photos and videos you use in your posts.
2. Organic Traffic
If the content is king; then organic traffic is the queen. Organic traffic is the traffic you get from search engines when people click on your link on search results. The better your ranking for search phrases people use in search engines, the more traffic you will get.
You need to optimize your blog for search engines to rank higher for your targeted search keywords. Below are some general tips for SEO optimization (SEO stands for search engine optimization).
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- Perform keyword research using keyword tools such as Google Adwords keyword planner tool to find your target keywords.
- Write titles related to your blog post. Include the keywords you want to rank high for in your title.
- Optimize your meta description. The meta description is a summary of the page content. Search engines display the meta description under the search result link as shown in the image below. The recommendation for meta description is to have a length of 70 to 300 characters, to include your targeted keywords, and to include a call to action.
- Build backlinks to get ranked higher in search engines. Backlink simply means a link at other website points back to your blog.
- Make sure your blog or website is optimized for local search if you have a local presence.
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3. Online Advertising
Most of you know online advertising as a source of making money online, but advertising can also help you spread the word about your blog on other places your blog couldn’t. Below are two advertising options for you to consider:
- Pay Per Click PPC or Pay Per Impression PPI advertising programs such as Google AdSense or Facebook Ads. Offers you targeted traffic based on keyword selection. You control when your ads are displayed to visitors based on keyword selection, age, location, and many other factors.
- Direct advertising by reaching out to other blogs or websites in your niche and rent an ad space directly on their website. The only guarantee for receiving targeted traffic with direct advertising is to select ad space in blogs in your niche.
4. Affiliate Marketing
Another source that you might be familiar with is affiliate marketing, most of you know it probably as you are subscribed to one of the many affiliate programs to make money online, a good example is Amazon affiliate program.
In the same sense, if you are selling your own products and services on your website, offer your readers to earn a commission each time they refer a visitor who ends up buying your products, your readers will send more traffic to your blog while promoting your products. Here are 10 blogs in the ‘make money’ niche worth following; https://midiavip.com/blog/top-blogs-in-making-money-online-niche/
5. Blog Commenting
Commenting on high authority blogs in your niche will not only help you get more traffic and get free backlinks. It will also help you get more exposure on that blog, it’s like being featured on a TV show. Make sure that you write quality comments that add value and makes the readers interested enough to click your link to know more about you.
Additionally, if you run a WordPress blog; there are a lot of plugins that help you manage your blog comments, Having these plugins on your blog will encourage other bloggers in your niche to visit your blog more often to comment on your own blog posts which will increase your blog engagement.
6. Blogging Communities
Blogging communities are great places to get free traffic, backlinks, increase engagement on your blog, and create awareness about your blog. You can meet a lot of like-minded bloggers in your niche to exchange ideas and share experience with each other.
Blogging communities allows you to submit your blog posts in voting up and down model where the blog posts with the highest votes are always showing on top. Look for blogging communities in your niche as each blogging community has different blog categories.
7. Classified Listing or Ads
Classified listing or classified ads websites are normally used for physical products. But it can be used for online services as some classified websites started to include categories for online services. If your website provides physical products or online services then you should join one of the classified ads websites that support your niche.
8. Directory Submission
There are hundreds of websites directories available online (both paid and free) that you can use to submit your website to and get backlinks. Some of these directories have high authority within Google search engine and can tell the search engine if your website worth indexing like Dmoz.org.
9. Ebooks
Ebooks can be a great way to increase your blog traffic and build your email list. They are generally given away to encourage website readers to subscribe to the email list. An ebook could be simply built from your old blog posts. Include a link to your blog or to a specific post that is worth mentioning to make sure people reading your ebook can find your blog.
10. Email Subscription
Email is still the top form of communication. Although some people argue that it is no more valid for website marketing, however, still it is a great source of traffic if you know how to use your email list effectively. Below are some general tips on how to maximize the use of your email list:
- Build your email list from the first day you start your blog start your blog and use it to share your latest posts with your subscribers.
- Make sure to effectively write your emails to maximize your email click through.
- Use one the top email marketing providers like MailChimp and AWeber or any of its alternatives.
- It is worth mentioning that you need to treat your email subscribers carefully, don’t spam their email with a lot of non-sense and non-useful emails. Make sure to share only valuable posts.
- Occasionally share exclusive information and tips with your email subscribers to increase their engagement and increase their loyalty to stay on your email list.
11. Facebook Groups
Facebook groups can be a huge source of traffic if done effectively. You need to engage with the group members so that they interact more with your posts. Make sure that you are providing valuable information and be helpful. Also, make sure to post on Facebook groups related to your niche.
12. Forum Promotion
Forum posting can be good for your business and can bring a lot of traffic. Join Forums in your niche, read the forum rules before you start posting. Make sure to add valuable posts that help other people solve their problems.
13. Giveaways And Contests
Giveaways can drive massive traffic to your blog and increase your social media engagement. 35% of all Facebook fan page likes are coming as an entry to giveaways. This shows us how important giveaways could be to your business.
Make sure you plan your giveaway ahead so that it doesn’t fail to attract the required amount of followers. The last thing you will want is to spend a hundred bucks to only get a couple of followers.
14. Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the best ways not only to increase your website traffic but also to create awareness about your blog. This method is used by the most successful bloggers in the blogosphere.
Although some bloggers are claiming that Matt Cutts through one of his posts on his blog said that Google put an end to guest posting for SEO, however, they misunderstood the message. Google has put an end to SPAM guest posting and SPAM blog farms. Zac Johnson supports my claim that Google is fighting spam guest posting practices as he explained in his blog post “Is this the end of Guest Blogging?… Not for Me!”
Guest posting works in both ways, the first way when you write a guest post in related blogs to direct traffic from that blog to your website, and the other way is when you accept guest posts from quality bloggers. The guest poster will definitely promote the article he posted on your blog by sharing it on their social media accounts.
Don’t be afraid to write a quality guest post for another blog, remember that the better quality of the guest post you write, the more possibility the readers will be interested to know more about you and click your link to visit your blog.
On the other hand, accepting guest posts can be a great way to find content to post in your blog if you don’t have any inspiration for writing your own, but it is important to accept only quality guest posts. If those posts have links make sure the links are to relevant high-quality websites.
If you are looking for a guest post to fill the gap in your posting schedule then Myblogguest is a great place to find free guest posts.
15. Infographics
Sharing infographics on your blog is easy and can drive massive traffic to your blog. You can share popular infographics in your niche while adding your own view of what you have learned from that infographic, or you can create your own infographic in less than an hour, using many of the free available infographics generation tools.
16. Press Release
Press release can increase your exposure and help you reach more potential readers. It keeps your readers updated on your blog or your products latest features. The traffic press releases drive to your blog is targeted traffic.
17. Podcast
Podcasts are becoming more popular today. You can start your own podcast series and include a link to your blog, or you can transform your blog posts to an audio podcast for greater accessibility to your articles using many available free texts to speech softwares.
You can then publish your podcasts to podcast websites like iTunes or embed the podcast into your article to offer your readers the possibility to listen to your article rather than reading it. This would bring massive traffic especially if you have a series of blog posts on the same topic.
18. Questions And Answers Sites
Join questions and answers websites. You can help people find answers to their problems by presenting them with a solution from one of your blog posts. You can also get ideas for new blog posts from the questions asked. Some popular websites to join: Yahoo answers, Answers.com, and Quora.
19. Slideshare
Presentations are one of the ways to show your expertise in your niche. SlideShare is one of the top websites where people look for presentations. If you have any presentation to share or if you can convert your blog posts into a presentation, you can upload it to SlideShare and add a backlink to your blog, you can generate a massive traffic from SlideShare if you optimize your uploaded presentation file for search engines.
20. Social Bookmarking Websites
Social bookmarking websites like Reddit and StumbleUpon can bring you a lot of traffic. But don’t waste your time on the wrong social bookmarking website. Make sure it’s popular and it brings targeted traffic.
Make sure to add only your top interesting blog posts, although social bookmarking websites can increase your traffic, it can also increase your bounce rate if readers skip your blog posts frequently because they don’t find it interesting enough.
21. Social Media Websites
Social media websites can help you get more traffic and build awareness about your brand. If you establish yourself as an influencer in your niche; you can even make money from your social media accounts. You should always use social media for your blog post promotion. You can generate a lot of traffic using social media websites like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Scheduling your social media posts can help you get more traffic with scheduled posts by publishing the same post at different times when a different set of your followers are online. You need to make sure that you write interesting posts to maximize your click through.
22. Video Promotion
Video marketing is one of the viral traffic sources these days, websites like YouTube and Vimeo can generate huge traffic to your website. You don’t need to be an expert in video production or spend a lot of money, you can create a short promotional video by yourself for free. Find out about free video animation tools here.
Final Tip
There are a lot of ways to generate traffic to your blog, but not all would work in your niche or on your blog. Also, You will not have the time to use them all for each blog post. You need to test out the different ways and focus on the ones that bring you the highest traffic.
In the end, I hope those tips can help you grow your blog traffic and get you one step closer to reach your goals. We’ll keep updating this list with more useful resources, so bookmark this post!