Increase Blog Traffic 2021
Whether you have just started running a blog site or have already established yourself, there are still ways to improve site traffic that you should keep in mind. Being a strong writer with quality content is important, but there are certain strategies you can employ to keep your writing visible to your intended audience. Here are 5 tips you can get started on right now:
Find Your Audience
If you haven’t done so already, ask yourself what kind of audience you want, and plan a content strategy. While it might be tempting to try appealing to everyone, you’d pull yourself in too many directions and your content would lack any specific identity. One you’ve found your content idea and specific audience, study their interests. What social media do they use? Which relevant websites drive the most traffic (this can be done through Google analytics)?
Also, don’t forget to engage with your audience as well. If visitors to your blog leave comments, respond to them. Making yourself available to your audience will make them want to come back. You could even engage with online communities outside of your blog site. If you see someone asking a question relevant to your topic, interact with them and even send a link to your blog post if appropriate. Instead of trying to focus on everyone, find the audience that suits your topic and create the kind of content that both you and they enjoy.
Cater Your Content to Your Audience
Now that you have an audience and a content strategy, how do you create useful content that is interesting and engaging? Audiences want content that provides some sort of value to them, whether it gives them something to learn, or provides entertainment. If you want your content to be educational, think about the knowledge you have on that topic, and what you could teach others about. If you want the content to be enjoyable, think about what makes you interested in the topic and try to communicate that passion to your audience.
For many blogs, there may be a priority to produce content about current events, since the relevancy is immediate and will draw attention. While relevant content has value, it will only draw attention for so long. Try to balance trending stories with evergreen content.
Keywords Are Your Friend
If you want your writing to be visible, you need to understand and utilize keyword research. Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a method of structuring your writing to include keywords that are popular enough to appear in the top search results of Google. The significance of this is that Google determines its search results through the most popular searches, so if you can find and use those searches, your content will trend on Google. Google is by far the most popular search engine, so the importance of your content being ranked in Google cannot be understated.
While keyword research is effective, research on keyword phrases is essential to stand out from competitors. Keyword phrases (or longtail keywords) are 3 or more words often searched together on Google. This leads to more specific searches, and if done right, Google is more likely to target your content over others. To find these longtail keywords, search words related to your topic and see what Googles’ search suggestions tell you. You can also look at the bottom of the results page to view the “Related Searches” section. These two functions of Google are telling you the most popular searches related to your topic, so be sure to take advantage of these research tools.
Keep Your Site Consistent and Up to Date
One of the best ways to ensure visitors of your site keep coming back for more is to keep a consistent schedule. If you post a new educational blog post every Thursday at 2pm, your readers will know to expect that content and be there at that time. You could even post your schedule online and on your social network pages, so people know where and when to access your content.
To Increase Blog Traffic 2021 on your site, it is also important to make sure your site is running smoothly and consistently. No matter how good your site is, no one will stay if the page has a long loading time. People consume content through many forms, so ensure you optimize your blog on both computers and mobile devices.
Support Others so They Will Support You
No matter what your content is, you’re going to have some amount of competition from other bloggers. However, these competitors don’t need to be seen as enemies. Look for other bloggers who write about the same topics, and find a way to collaborate with them. This could be anything from commenting on other blogs and tagging the writer on social media, to giving them a guest post or guest blogging topic related to your content.
By doing this, you are helping and promoting these bloggers, and they will respond by promoting your blog. You could even provide a link to your site while working on your own guest posts, but be sure to mention other blogs as well. These methods are proven strategies to increase your blogs traffic, as you will be seen as part of the online communities related to your niche.
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