Increasing Blog Traffic

[redrosephotos]

I've been steadily posting blog articles on my site for over a year now - for anyone interested my site is my username so it's not hard to find.

However, my question is, does anyone out there have any tips on how to increase blog interest and traffic? Sales would be nice but I tend to post articles about various things that aren't directly related to my niche so I'm sure they would be of interest to people. For example, my latest blog is about Google searches and how people can easily be tricked by Google ads in to using inferior companies.

So, does anyone have any tips in this area? My current tactic involves writing the article and posting it up on my Facebook page and a few industry forums.

Cheers

Brent

 

[fisicx]

Why do you want more traffic?

If you write stuff people are interested in and google ranks those blog posts then you will get the traffic. If you aren't getting visitors then it means people don't want to read what you write. Don't worry about going off topic, that's why you have blog categories. Just write what you want to write.

 

[redrosephotos]

Here is a link to my latest blog post.

http://www.redrosephotos.co.uk/photo-restoration-good-bad-ugly/

I think it's informative and opinionated and hits on a topic that many people won't understand.

If that's my stance are you saying I just need to leave as is and move on? Waiting for it to rank itself.

 

[HazelC]

If you write good quality, unique content that your customers / readers will find interesting they will come to you.

I post links to my blogs on facebook, twitter and Google+ and this works well for me.

Oh - a spoke to a client recently, he didn't post content at the same time each week - when he did his visits / traffic went up! Here's the full story (we put it into a blog to help other clients).

http://creativecontentcompany.co.uk/case-study-blogging-client-keep-regular/

Hope that helps?

 

[fisicx]

I think it's informative and opinionated and hits on a topic that many people won't understand.

Yes, but unless they are searching for that topic they aren't going to find your blog post.

Just write about the thing you enjoy and don't worry about visitors.

 

[Athos_LSA]

Wouldn't enabling comments do wonders for your traffic? I've been told that users are far more likely to share / promote the blog if they're interacting with the content through comments. Also, It's a great source of new blog post ideas.

 

[fisicx]

Comments help for people already on the site. It won't suddenly bring a whole load of new visitors. If they are using social media to write their comments they aren't going to be visiting your site so their contribution is negligable.

 

[tacticalsales]

Get yourself into a content marketing/sharing mindset. If you visit other sites and have a valid opinion, make the comment and sometimes you'll be lucky and get some new subscribers - however it takes time and it takes effort with commenting (especially as you have to add value to the discussion).

 

[MRLogodesign]

Can i ask if you SEO' your blog posts?

 

[zigojacko]

Can i ask if you SEO' your blog posts?

What does that even mean?

It's a useless and meaningless phrase now. If you're artificially inserting keywords into page titles, headings and copy for the purpose of trying to make the article perform better organically then this is not SEO, it's spam that lowers the quality of content online - everything that the Panda refreshes sets out to tear apart.

The end user is what matters. A blog post should be written for the user, it should be helpful, it should not regurgitate basic information, it should solve a problem serve value, be wanted. Get this right and the blog post will perform well in search.

Forget SEO, think USER.

 

[MRLogodesign]

Basically i did a blog post about cheap logo design for a friend, the article is here gblogodesign.[co.uk]/cheap-logo-design/ and now when you search for the phrase "cheap logo design" on Google the blog post appears page 1 position 4-5 which draws him quite a fair bit of traffic and some sales.

That was achieved by search engine optimising my blog post so that it has a better chance of being found on search engines, for more info i recommend a read of yoast.com/ as i'm not good at explaining.

Let me know if that helps?

 

[zigojacko]

Basically i did a blog post about cheap logo design for a friend, the article is here gblogodesign.[co.uk]/cheap-logo-design/ and now when you search for the phrase "cheap logo design" on Google the blog post appears page 1 position 4-5 which draws him quite a fair bit of traffic and some sales.

That was achieved by search engine optimising my blog post so that it has a better chance of being found on search engines, for more info i recommend a read of yoast.com/ as i'm not good at explaining.

Let me know if that helps?

I actually had a look at that article and wouldn't expect it to be ranking there for much longer if I'm honest. I won't go into further details though as this would digress this thread away from the OP.

 

[MRLogodesign]

Okay, the reason being?

 

[MRLogodesign]

Also - do a google search for logo design - position number 3 in the uk - massive amounts of traffic, i do know what i'm doing. The number 1 position is about 6 months away from me. It's just hard work and common sense. The sites about 14 months old too.

 

[Athos_LSA]

How do you work out how long it will take to reach a given position on google? I've had companies telling me for years that they will reach x placing in google within 6 months - mainly without results.

 

[zigojacko]

How do you work out how long it will take to reach a given position on google? I've had companies telling me for years that they will reach x placing in google within 6 months - mainly without results.

Those companies normally make them up just to win your business.

Predictions can be made of course, normally this is taken from a mix of analytics data, competitiveness of targets and competitor analysis. The companies that say placement X in X months don't do this though, it's just part of their standard script that they say to every one.

 

[Athos_LSA]

Thank you, it's great to confirm my (worst) suspicions, though it is possible to estimate where you'll be in a few months? We're not completely at the whim of google? Right?

 

[zigojacko]

Thank you, it's great to confirm my (worst) suspicions, though it is possible to estimate where you'll be in a few months? We're not completely at the whim of google? Right?

It's certainly possible to make predictions although there are a lot of unknown factors that could stand in your way between present time and the predicted time of course. Predictions would also largely be made based on X quantity of marketing efforts between Y and Z.

Any reputable agency should be able to provide a base guideline for a target - along the lines of 'based on X work, we'd expect to see Y target achieving Z result by A'.

 

[PeterJSmall]

OP: I recently came across a blog (no affiliation to myself) that may be useful. They break down gaining traffic, subscribers and engagement to using the following method:
1. Identify the influences in the sector you're interested in getting traffic from.
2. Engage with those influencers on twitter, comment on their blog, sharing their blog.
3. Reach out to build a relationship with them over email.

The company was called GrooveHQ and the post was titled of how we got to 1000 subscribers. I can't post the link here because I've just joined this forum.

 

[zigojacko]

OP: I recently came across a blog (no affiliation to myself) that may be useful. They break down gaining traffic, subscribers and engagement to using the following method:
1. Identify the influences in the sector you're interested in getting traffic from.
2. Engage with those influencers on twitter, comment on their blog, sharing their blog.
3. Reach out to build a relationship with them over email.

The company was called GrooveHQ and the post was titled of how we got to 1000 subscribers. I can't post the link here because I've just joined this forum.

Great piece of content this.

How we got to 1000 subscribers

 

[Athos_LSA]

Thank you @PeterJSmall , that was really useful.

 

[MA Consultancy]

Get some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) done on your blog and post your articles on all social media not just Facebook!

Mike
MA Consultancy

 

[zigojacko]

Get some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) done on your blog

This doesn't make much sense to the average person. All that is needed is make sure your website is well structured, built correctly and doesn't possess any technical issues that will hinder a search engine crawling its content. Everything else with the blog post should be about the user, if the user finds it useful, then a search engine will see that.

and post your articles on all social media not just Facebook!

What will that achieve? Not much point if no-one follows you on social media. Outreach and engagement just forms one part of a much wider content marketing strategy. Simply posting your articles to multiple social media accounts isn't going to cut it. No-one cares anyway unless what you have to say is worth saying.

 

[fisicx]

Ziggy, don't diss the man - I've looked at his website and he obviously knows something we don't....

over 9000 links on the homepage must be the secret.

 

[zigojacko]

Ziggy, don't diss the man - I've looked at his website and he obviously knows something we don't....

over 9000 links on the homepage must be the secret.

Heh, that's where we've all been going wrong.

 

[MRLogodesign]

How do you work out how long it will take to reach a given position on google? I've had companies telling me for years that they will reach x placing in google within 6 months - mainly without results.

My prediction is based on my own set of practises and many painstaking days of seo. In 6 months i will bump this thread, hopefully in victory or defeat but remember it is my "prediction" on my own website by the way.

Term - logo design - current Google position page 1 position 3 - organic

 

[redrosephotos]

Well thanks for al the contribution so far. It's all useful and I'll take it on board.

I did used to use comments on my blog but as has already been stated, it doesn't bring in more traffic because you need the traffic in the first place to get blogs.

As for the "SEO" comments. I structure my posts with a design in mind but essentially it's a post about something relevant to what I do with my take on it. Ultimately I want to be interested in what I'm writing too.

"All that is needed is make sure your website is well structured, built correctly and doesn't possess any technical issues that will hinder a search engine crawling its content."

The above is something I have given some thought over the last few months but rather than diverse too much I'll start a new topic in the members area - to prevent the nonsensical SEO answers sometimes posted on these threads.

 

[HazelC]

A slightly different response, but have you considered video marketing to get traffic to your blog ? There are as you may know several sites which host videos other than YouTube and Vimeo.
I read this article and hope it will help you in marketing your blog

designerwebs-uk co uk/articles/how-to-market-your-business/

sorry forgot the full stops between designerwebs-uk and co and uk

Video blogging is really good for Google too - Google owns YouTube so it helps with SEO

 

[StevePoster]

Increasing blog traffic doesn't mean that it will be for your site many blog sites had been growing traffic, but unfortunately, it didn't have any sales or conversions, even if they are updating their blog site pages regularly. Before creating your content blog post think of what your targeted audience needs and provide them what they are asking for and that will benefit them in the long run.

 

[MyEventBucket]

My advice is Use Aksimet to link your posts to related content which will bump your SEO up. People will be able to do the same thing with your content if it flags up as related content. Use multiple social media sources to fire your content out. I recommend LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Google+. StumbleUpon will bring you a lot of daily international traffic. Google+ is the most important as it will give you Google ranking quickly. Facebook is poor in my opinion. Especially if you have a page. They only publish it 4% of your likes. Useless! And paying for Boosted posts is useless as well.

 

[redrosephotos]

I may be wrong but I thought Akismet was a spam filter? How can it be used to link posts?

 

[RichardDee]

It might seem obvious to some, but have you tried sharing on Twitter and using hashtags related to the nature of the post or your business? This can get you lots of re-tweets and result in your content being shared by lots of different people. No need for spammy SEO techniques or any of that old bunkum!

 

[money road]

seo is pretty good. rich snippets, google maps, keywords, anchor text, I am really impressed

 

[bethhewitt]

Akismet is a spam filter and not a very good one any more.

I recommend creating relevant content to your niche.

Setting profiles up on all social networks.

Emailing your list/subscribers when you have good content.

Comment on other posts/blogs in your niche.

Share value in forums relevant to your niche.

Syndicate your content regularly.

I sometimes use Empire Avenue.

I also run a blogging community that has active bloggers who syndicate and share one each others content.

SEO is good, but GOOD content is now KING...

Guest posting is good, if you partner with a reputable person. Blogging for anyone, or allowing anyone to blog on your site, could do more harm than good.

Beth

 

[Martinly Tran]

Good quality, unique content post is always the best method to increase traffic for your blog Write more and always remember to keep your readers in mind

 

[sophiaanderson321]

Start sharing your posts on the social media platforms. This will increase the traffic.

 

[bhagabati]

Do some research on keywords on your niche.Make a list of low volume keywords and you should look at exact search volume.Then write your content by targetting those keyword phrases.Make sure you include those keyword phrases in the title and description of blog post.Then slowly submit those blog post url to social networking sites and bookmarkings sites and also build links to those blog post url.You will see results by doing this.

 

[Bob Philpin]

What does that even mean?

It's a useless and meaningless phrase now. If you're artificially inserting keywords into page titles, headings and copy for the purpose of trying to make the article perform better organically then this is not SEO, it's spam that lowers the quality of content online - everything that the Panda refreshes sets out to tear apart.

The end user is what matters. A blog post should be written for the user, it should be helpful, it should not regurgitate basic information, it should solve a problem serve value, be wanted. Get this right and the blog post will perform well in search.

Forget SEO, think USER.

Listen to this - it's FULL of sense (nice one dude)!

 

[Bob Philpin]

A simple formula:

1) Find the most poular forum in your niche
2) Spend 2 SOLID hours searching for questions that people are asking
3) Create a blog post in answer to each question
4) Share on said forum
5) Repeat weekly

Try it out - it works wonders, gets you the authority that you want AND you don't get slapped by the mighty Google when same crazy ass change takes place!

To your success,

Bob

 

[ROIO]

This doesn't make much sense to the average person. All that is needed is make sure your website is well structured, built correctly and doesn't possess any technical issues that will hinder a search engine crawling its content. Everything else with the blog post should be about the user, if the user finds it useful, then a search engine will see that.

Well, that even remotely isn't close to reality. Sure, it is very important to have technically well built website. Fast loading etc. all matters. However, marketing and proper use of onPage SEO is crucial to success (and optimizing ROI). If we take two webpages, both technically correct, both created with BEST user experience in mind, but just one with the proper onPage SEO, guess which one is going to get better and faster rankings? (this is purely theoretical because there are no two identical webpages but the point is here).

Also, user interaction with a page is measured by search engines, and it is apart of ranking algorithm, still SEs have no magical capabilities to judge the mood and happiness of a user. If one day SEs will be capable of doing it properly, then SEO firms and experts will learn how to manipulate it. It's a never ending game.

Now, most important thing. Is blog meant to be a personal type of website? Or maybe monetization is the key? To some extent both can be "mixed up", but if our goal is to monetize and make money, then all activities must be planned ahead. Sure, it can be just a simple blog to make some extra money on the side (like for coffee or a better dog food), but if it's meant to be a real business then marketing, SEO and all that things must come to play.

DIY can be a good way to go if that's just a hobby site. But if it's about real business DIY is just a huge waste of time and other resources (unless we have no other choice, no money etc.).

So, assuming OPs blog isn't meant to go for a top $, then the best way to get targeted traffic is through relevant forums, maybe Twitter and Pinterset. Facebook is better for building brand awareness and funneling low quality leads.