In general, the most successful blogs are the ones that can attract numerous visitors and convert a high percentage of them into subscribers. Attracting visitors is dependent on both understanding the things that need to be done and being willing to put in the labor to get them done. Success has no shortcuts.
Here are 10 tips for building up traffic to your blog:
1. Plan Ahead
Although some people might be interested in reading a blog that consists of nothing but random posts done up in a manner resembling stream-of-consciousness, most people prefer reading blogs built around either a single topic or a small number of related topics. Centering the blog around a single theme helps ensure that the blog’s content is focused and contributes to the blog’s overall direction. Choosing the right theme is also important for both attracting the right audience and maintaining your interest in blogging.
2. Be Consistent
A strong, consistent brand is one of the most important marketing tools in the blogger’s arsenal. Choose a brand that appeals to the target audience’s tastes, learn to use phrasing that helps to communicate the chosen brand, and then use it in the posts. For example, a blog that discusses the latest advances in computing technologies can use a lot of technical terms, while the same isn’t true of a blog meant to introduce consumers to interesting gadgets. Bear in mind that a single bad choice in language can ruin a brand built up by dozens of posts representing the labor of multiple months.
3. Understand the Audience
Maintaining focus is needed to build a strong brand relevant to the blog’s central theme, but the right brand cannot be chosen unless you understand the target audience. Go to established blogs frequented by members of the target audience, read up on the language used in their posts, and pay close attention to their style. Similarly, go to failed blogs and use the contrast to tease out the diverging choices that led to success or failure. Learning from the mistakes of others is as good as or even better than learning from personal mistakes.
4. Use Good Design
A good blog design maximizes its ease of use and legibility. Avoid using images, scripts, and applications that add nothing to the blog’s overall effectiveness. Not only are they an eyesore, but their usage also results in slower loading times that can cause frustrated visitors to turn away. Furthermore, if the intent is to channel visitors in a specific direction, then the destination should be clearly labeled and put in a prominent place on the homepage. Fewer barriers to access makes it easier for visitors to get there.
5. Differentiation
Going head-to-head against established and experienced competitors is unwise because it is an uneven contest. You can circumvent this problem by finding something to differentiate your blog from its competitors. Avoid cheap gimmicks that will become annoying after the first couple of uses. Instead, choose something that holds up well over time and is integrated into the blog from the start. Common means of differentiation include fresh perspectives and specialization in niches of the central theme.
6. Be Useful
Good content is one of the biggest blogging priorities. Readers demand useful information that is passed on to them in a clear and simple manner that retains enough character to remain interesting. In contrast, readers will feel cheated by useless information and outright refuse to slog through information presented in a boring manner.
7. Frequent Updates
Frequent updates can help attract the positive attention of both search engines and potential subscribers. Furthermore, each additional post on the blog is another page that potential visitors can find through search engines and become intrigued enough to end up visiting.
8. Keep to a Schedule
Consider setting up a posting schedule to practice posting and build personal discipline. However, if you do end up setting a schedule, do not break it because that can damage the trust that the subscribers have invested into your blog. This does not mean that you cannot miss the occasional update. After all, readers understand that bloggers are humans who will encounter occasional difficulties such as illness. However, if bloggers cannot stick to their schedules, then they should abandon them because frustrated expectations can quickly turn subscribers sour.
9. Promote the Blog
Attracting visitors to a blog involves both active and passive methods. Examples of passive techniques include posting good content, updating frequently, and using good blog design. In contrast, an active approach involves promoting the blog in the comments section of related blogs, signing up on social bookmarking sites, and making use of social networking sites. Be polite and be honest during promotions because deception can quickly backfire.
10. Search Engine Optimization
Since most people come upon blogs through search engine recommendations, it is important to optimize blogs to capture higher search engine rankings. Common factors considered in calculating search engine rankings include the loading speed of the website, the keywords included in the website’s content, the keywords included in the website’s meta-tags, and the credibility of links to the website. Almost all aspects of a blog can influence one of these factors. For example, the excess usage of images can penalize a website’s rankings by slowing down its loading times.
Guest Post by Jamie Cody :
Jamie Cody is a writer for centernetworks and often writes about technology and reviews on various products and services like hosting solutions. Check out their Inmotion web hosting review and other articles on technology and start-ups..