5 Great Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog
So, you’ve got a blog – which makes you just like every other company with a heartbeat. How do you turn that blog from a content receptacle into a valuable branch of your business? Instead of mindlessly reading articles about why blogging is important, you need something tangible – something you can grab onto and use. How can you maximize the value of your posts?
In essence, it all comes down to your distribution strategy and how effectively you’re able to attract traffic to your posts.
Top tips for driving traffic to your content
Congratulations, you’ve done the easy part (creating a blog), but now you need it to work for you by generating traffic and leads. Here’s a no-nonsense look at what you need to do:
- Target the right audience. You’ve probably already realized that sharing your blog posts requires group cooperation. You can only reach so many people on your own. In other words, you need other people to help you out by re-sharing the content and putting your posts in front of different groups to which you might otherwise have no access. Aside from directly soliciting people to share your posts or place content on various sites, the best way to make this happen is by skillfully selecting your target market. Did you know self-published books account for nearly one-third of all e-book sales in the Kindle store? Writing a short book and linking to your blog can get you noticed.
- Dominate long-tail keywords. Let’s face it; you’re not going to rank for keywords like “best marketing firm” or “athletic apparel.” Instead, you need to carve out a niche by dominating long-tail keywords. Go for a more targeted approach by building blog content around specific keywords like “best local Atlanta marketing firm” or “cheap youth soccer athletic apparel.” Your traffic will bounce less and convert more.
- Tweet your posts. Twitter is far more conducive to posting links than any other social networking site. It’s trendy, popular among the 20-40 year old crowd, and has an appeal that Facebook doesn’t match. It allows you to embed a link and post a quick note or teaser to entice followers to click on it. Park View Legal’s Twitter page offers a good example of how to balance your tweets for best results. People love clicking on things that could potentially add value to their lives, such as “X Ways You Can…” or “The One Piece of XYZ Advice You Need.” Instead of continuously self-promoting your own posts, take an edgier stance that generates buzz. Give followers a compelling reason to click!
- Make your content SEO-friendly. Unless you’re going to rely solely on organic shares, you to need a bold SEO strategy. Fortunately, there’s no need to compromise content quality when you optimize for the search engines. As Rand Fishkin writes on Moz.com, “SEO, done right, should never interfere with great writing.” Instead, it can guide your content, make it more relevant, and help you dominate your niche.
- Always repurpose. If you aren’t recycling your content for future use, you’re not maximizing the value of your blog. Immediately after publishing a post, you should think about ways you can repurpose the content — for example, tweeting excerpts, sending sections in an email newsletter, etc. — to get the most out of it. What about an infographic or podcast? People love multisensory forms of content and it often takes more than text to generate traffic. Here’s a look at some of the more unique ways to repurpose content.
Make strategic distribution a priority
Unless you take pride in blending in with the crowd, you’re not going to be satisfied with your blog until you’re able to generate substantial traffic. Use these tips to drive more readers to your blog and increase conversions. Don’t look at this as the holy grail of traffic building, but it’s pretty decent place to start.