A Few Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Business’s Blog

M

Mark Walters

These are a few of my suggestions...

Create Content That People Like To Share - The content that you publish on your main business website will mostly likely be commercial in nature, as it’s primary purpose is to directly influence visitors to buy products or services from you. Commercial orientated content has almost no chance of being shared on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Your blog allows you to be more creative when creating content. The purpose of that content isn’t to directly make a sale, but to increase traffic, brand awareness and online authority. By creating content in formats (top 10 lists, infographics, videos, etc.) and styles (humourous, controversial, passionate, etc.) that are popular on social media sites, your blog posts will be shared more and will attract more traffic.

Use Social Websites To Make Connections And Share Content - No matter how great and shareable the content on your business’s blog is, if you don’t have connections and influence in the social sphere then you’ll struggle to attract visitors from social media websites. You need to use those sites not just as a tool to promote your own content, but also to make connection with others in your industry and to help them promote their content. Other blog owners will know if you’ve taken action on social sites to help them, and if they see that you’ve helped them, the chances of them helping you out in return are much higher. Spending just 10-15 minutes a day on sharing content and messaging people via social media sites is all it takes.

Create Content To Post On Other People’s Blogs - There will almost certainly be other blogs in the same, or a related, niche as you that have a regular and loyal readership. Readers of those blogs are prime candidates to be readers of your business’s blog. The ideal way to convince those people to visit your blog is to demonstrate your expertise on those blogs that they’re already regularly visiting. It can be hard to convince other blog owners to publish your content (with a link to your site) on their site, so you need to make sure you’re providing them with something of value in return. That value could come from giving them a piece of content that’s of outstanding quality, having a good social media following that will visit their site to check out your content, offering to publish their content on your blog in return, or even a financial payment.

Track And Analyse Where Visitors To Your Blog Are Coming From - Some content that you publish will get linked to, shared on social sites and generally increase traffic to your blog, and some won’t. Using Google Analytics you can track exactly what types and formats of content work best and then tailor your future output along those lines. You can also review data (such as viewing time and bounce rate) on old blog posts to highlight under-performers. If a blog post is having a negative effect by driving people away from your site then you can rewrite it or, as a worst case scenario, even delete it. Additionally, you can see in Analytics where visitors to your site are coming from, which means that you can focus your efforts on the traffic sources that are providing the most visitors to your blog.

...how about yours?
 
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eventdomain

Create Content That People Like To Share


I've created mountains of content before - highly used content and it wasn't something people shared - as in post on their blogs. The chances of finding a perfect match, eg: fitting content to other's blogs is a long shot at best, then the hassle of selling it to them is too much effort for the minimal gain involved.

The only exception is a blog that resides on an information website, as its more acceptable that sales will be done on the main website. Unless the blog IS an actual info-resource in its own right, then sales will be tough as its seen as self-promotion and thus not wholly beneficial info for the audience. A separation is required to keep things targeted.
 
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Websitehandyman

Free Member
Nov 25, 2011
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Staffordshire
Getting traffic is no problem, getting the right traffic is.

Your traffic had different values, if you just do a info blog the most valuable could be just someone who stays and reads. But your more likely to want more from a visitor. Perhaps you want some click on social network, a count or a visitor who will links back. Could be you need a click on a banner or link and perhaps the most valuable visitor - someone who leaves their personal details as a lead.

Each of the above types of visitor needs a different approach. Sure the will be overlap, I mean after all any visitor from a search engine might give a lead but that's classed as a freebie :)

So determine what fish you want and go fishing in the right pond where they be feeding and even perhaps the right time to bite.
 
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fisicx

Moderator
Sep 12, 2006
46,685
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www.aerin.co.uk
I don't want more traffic to my blog. I want more clients.

I could pend an hour a day writing great stuff and doing all you suggest but I could also spend that same hour marketing my business and earning money.

I know which one I prefer to do.
 
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fisicx

Moderator
Sep 12, 2006
46,685
8
15,381
Aldershot
www.aerin.co.uk
Yes but it's not an effective marketing plan for all businesses.

The local barber isn't going to get as much new business through blogging as he will though traditional marketing.

A picture framer is going to get more work with an advert in the local supermarket than he will though sharing a blog post about how to hang a picture.

If I'm wrong (which is quite likely) can you point to a blog that does as you suggest and is getting new customers?
 
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The best way to get the right traffic for free is Twitter. Yes it takes ages but it does work.

Follow and engage with your target audience. When they follow you give them an incentive to see your blog (organic is better).

Your target audience is easy to find too. For example, if your target audience is 15 year old boys, just follow a load of 'Call of Duty' followers (they will be mainly teenage boys). In numbers they will follow back.

Be careful not to get banned though.
 
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H

Holopainen

Are there any recommendations on how often I should post at my blog? Once a week, every two days, every day? And should I post at the same time?
Another question is about the days of week when it is better to post a new content. I read that it is more likely to post on Friday so people have some time during the weekend to read your content. Is it general true, or it will depend in each case?
 
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M

Mark Walters

Are there any recommendations on how often I should post at my blog? Once a week, every two days, every day? And should I post at the same time?

Post as often as you have something worthwhile to say. Better to blog once a month with a quality post than once a day with low quality posts.


Another question is about the days of week when it is better to post a new content. I read that it is more likely to post on Friday so people have some time during the weekend to read your content. Is it general true, or it will depend in each case?

It will depend on what type of content you're publishing and who your target market are. You'll need to run your own tests.
 
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E

eventdomain

The best way to get the right traffic for free is Twitter. Yes it takes ages but it does work.

Takes far too long, we've tested this over 12 months. The free aspect via expecting user-gen content is asking a lot - I'd say 90% of Twitter posts are purely self-promotional junk, (you can tell this by Twitter messages system) its a shame that a website with the power Twitter has, is being allowed to be used in this way.

Even if you get targeted followers - they never purchase. Not everything that's free works and most stuff given for free is the wrong thing.
 
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Surminga

Free Member
Jan 8, 2012
47
5
London, UK
Off-Page SEO (On Page SEO comes naturally when writing articles and meta information updated every so often etc.) and Forum participation are two of my favs - not to mention Social Media, where it is all happening and the benefits are wonderful.

Off page SEO is vital as it provides long term traffic if worked properly - it is also highly targetted to your sites needs and keywords. Forums are also great for getting targetted traffic as you can go and participate in forums surrounding your niche and the people on those sites are those which are ideal for your site and hopefully convert to clients, not just a quick stop and off again.
 
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D

Deleted member 157854

Create Content That People Like To Share - The content that you publish on your main business website will mostly likely be commercial in nature, as it’s primary purpose is to directly influence visitors to buy products or services from you. Commercial orientated content has almost no chance of being shared on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Your blog allows you to be more creative when creating content. The purpose of that content isn’t to directly make a sale, but to increase traffic, brand awareness and online authority. By creating content in formats (top 10 lists, infographics, videos, etc.) and styles (humourous, controversial, passionate, etc.) that are popular on social media sites, your blog posts will be shared more and will attract more traffic.
I must say Mark makes a good point here. I've noticed in the last year submissions to my blog directory have changed noticeably from personal/interest to business. It seems every business is adding a blog but most of them are so obviously just another window to sell the business product. Today I had a refreshing submission from a pr company - here's their blog: holyroodpr.co.uk/blog/. They listed it in the Odd News & Satire category rather than the usual Business sub-category.
 
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Getting more of the right kind of traffic is key to ensuring the best chances of making that conversion - whether it is a new client or a sale. I believe the most important factors here are based around the first point "Content people like to share" - and the particular type of content you are putting out will deterimine who visits your blog.

So it's worth giving some thought to potential customers/clients and getting inside their heads a little bit - try to find a path that achieves this. The Internet is a great place for people to turn to for help and advice, shopping/gift ideas and sometimes their initial search won't even be for the product or service, but will simply describe their need (for it). These are some good areas to start blogging because you have the creative freedom to talk and discuss the problem (or need), rather than the product or service itself (which the website itself should be doing!)

It's also worth being aware of trending news and anything being widely read/researched in the mainstream media - this extra flurry of interest can sometimes be tapped into when you blog - provided it has some relevance to your products or services (hopefully in a positive way!)

Successful blogging is definitely a creative process and it's difficult to give one size fits all rules that will work for all companies in all industries. Obviously using social media to get the message out will help this happen, but as always - content is king!
 
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An optimized approach to growing a blog community relies on an understanding of who the audience is and what their information goals are, not just what the brand wants to achieve. The first thing I'd recommend is to find a niche related to the major problems your business solves for customers and make a plan to dominate it. Here are some more ways to increase traffic on your blog http://socialmedia.biz/2012/10/18/how-to-increase-traffic-to-your-blog/


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