Have you ever asked yourself , how can I Increase the Traffic to my Blog just by improving the SEO? To get visitors to actually stay for a while or click through to something you are offering?
This is the topic we will consider today, there is no short answer and definitely no magic bullet to make it happen for you. It will require effort and time on your part to get it right. But when you do the visitors will come and buy from you. There are several ways to improve your website traffic and we will cover those here.
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation. And Search Engines use a very complex algorithm to determine your webpage ranking. It is mostly unknown, but clearly includes things like Keywords, Structured Writing, HTML Links, existing traffic, topic popularity, and user analytics. And many more other factors all combine to determine where your specific webpage will occur.
You can of course pay sites like Google AdWords to place ads for you, but it can be done for free if you apply the following 10 steps. Even if you pay for advertising, you should still apply the following 10 steps as it will only improve your traffic.
1. Know Your Niche
You might know about a lot of different things like photography, food, football and unusual travel locations. If you write about ALL of these topics, you will confuse your visitors and get a lower SEO ranking – It does not flow. It needs to follow a clear theme and relate to the target audience you are aiming for.
Also, you should choose or create a related set of images to go with each article and use them. Studies show that photos can boost your readership. It makes the story more appealing as the reader can visualize the story and even connect with you through an image. Another feature is that you can include keywords in the ALT text for each image. Do not copy an image to use for yourself, that is copyright. Create your own or get Free images from a website like pixabay.com.
If you can create a video and add it to your blog, you will boost your SEO and increase even more traffic to your site. Videos are the latest fad for people who like to be entertained. Make sure they are short and to the point as well as entertaining. The Video above is VERY entertaining and make you just want to use Fiverr to create an amazing video for your website!
What ever way you decide to go, just remember to KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Stick to one Niche (for Now) and expand later or start a whole new Blog. For more information on understanding your niche, please refer to my article on designing and creating a niche. It’s free and comes with charts to make your goals easier to achieve.
2. Know you Audience
Build a profile on your target audience to understand them. Then you can optimize your blog to target these ones more thoroughly and increase your SEO traffic.
To know who your target audience is, ask yourself some questions and do your research. Try not to just guess.
- What problems are they facing that you can solve?
- What kind of content are they looking for?
- How would they ideally find the answer to their questions?
- How old are they? Where Are they? What education do they have?
Answering these questions will help you to get a clearer picture of your target audience and what they want from you.
Use this information to create a list of headlines you can blog about to help your target audience. Once you have enough data then you can update your SEO, write more blogs and create relevant keywords. All of which will increase your Blogs SEO traffic rating.
3. Search Engine Optimisation
A search engine like Google or Bing will automatically look through your website for listed pages and content that it will index and post in their search pages. BUT only if you make your pages visible and only if your page (or blog) is set up correctly! They want you to increase your traffic but only when you meet their rules.
So, your first action is to check your Settings and make sure that your site visible to all search engines. You can exclude specific pages that you do not want indexed – your T&Cs or a private landing page, etc. This is usually done during the page creation.
WordPress will set up some of your blog SEO automatically for best optimization and increase traffic, but you can also help by including your key words regularly through out each blog. Use the Heading and Paragraph settings during your writing. Keep your paragraphs short and make sure that the sentences flow. That is, the thought of each sentence relates to the next or previous.
These small things really make a big difference to improving your rankings. If you use WordPress, there is a popular free plugin called Yoast that really helps set up your SEO properly.
4. Write Great Headlines
Learn to write not just good, but Great headlines. Eye catching – engaging headlines. If it is catchy, it will get more views and click throughs.
Try to include your keywords within the title. Note my Title has the Keywords Increase, SEO, blog and Traffic in them. This will make your blog more searchable. Remember too that your audience will enter a variety of search terms to find answers to their problems. Make sure your title can address at least one of those search terms.
The main heading for this post got a Title Ranking of 84 which is excellent. Strive to get your title ranking above 60 for best search results. In WordPress there is a “Heading Analyzer”, use it to improve your SEO ranking.
Also include multiple smaller headings throughout your blog. Each heading should try to relate to one of the topics you think your audience will search for. In this way you improve your chance of being listed higher in the search engine.
Use Heading H6 for your main title and headings H2 to H5 for your other sub-Titles. Also ONLY use paragraphs (P) for your content material. If you use only paragraphs for everything, making the titles larger or bold; then a search engine cannot distinguish what your blog is about so will mostly ignore you.
You can start your own WordPress Blog below at Bluehost. An excellent hosting service for all things blogging.
5. Post Blogs Regularly
There are many theories on how to improve your visibility on the internet. The most obvious is to post regularly. The more you post, the more data you have for search engines to access and the more views you are likely to receive.
Also, there is a chance that you will write the right article at the right time and it will go viral. A dream of every blogger. The thing is – it does happen – and it happens every day. So, the more you post the higher your chances are that you will strike it lucky.
The point is, you post more, you get indexed more, more people see you in search results, the more visitors you get. This will increase the SEO traffic to your Blog. It is also a proven fact that the bloggers who post more often, have higher visitor counts than those who do not.
One great way to Post regularly is to have a plan. If you visit my SHOP right here on this website, you can download a copy of the CSF Blog Planner that will help you organize your blog and post constantly.
Remember to that you started your blog for a reason, not a casual hobby, but to make a difference or to make money. It is a fact, that blogging regularly is still the single most important thing to improve your website SEO.
Even if you have a simple webpage, you can add a News update section that you can regularly update. This shows visitors that you are active and gives Search Engines something new to add for you. It can be simple; it just needs to be regular.
6. Make use of Keywords
As touched on above, make sure you add keywords to your website posts, pages and static pages. Not just once, but as often as you can fit them in. The more times you reference your main keywords, the more Google will index you. (or Bing, or others).
Not just in your web content, also include the keywords in your taglines, your headings, your Meta Data and even the Tags you use to identify the article. Don’t forget the Alt areas for your images too. These keywords should relate to your target audience and how they might search for topics similar to your current blog.
One way to identify the words they might search for is to decide what you would search for if you wanted to know about that information. For example, if you wrote a recipe for the Lemon Detox Diet Drink, what would you likely search for to find that recipe. Probably something in the line of “Detox Diet Recipe” So make sure you include those words in that order in your blog.
Do Your Research
Do your research, actually search for Keywords you plan to use and see what comes up. Look for ways to increase the traffic to your blog using similar SEO terms that others have used. What other keywords did those results show? Was the Meta Data in the results similar to your description? Testing is the best way to prove it can work for you.
A word of caution when adding keywords to your blogs. IF you add to many or the same one over and over, it will make the “flow” seem forced and disjointed. Search Engines might love it BUT your readers will notice and will leave sooner than expected. Make sure your post still reads naturally as if those keywords were part of the blog itself.
Another reason to be modest, is that Search Engines are not stupid. If they detect that you have used the same keyword to many times, they will actually penalise your ranking. So be modest, do not over use keywords and do use them in a naturally flowing sentence.
7. Using Tags in your Blog
Tags are a great way to link similar blogs together and allow readers to find similar articles to the current one on your webpage.
Tags also allow search engines to index your blog a little better for higher rankings.
Just like above though, too may tags will restrict how your page is reviewed and selected. Never use more than 13 tags for one post. This also includes categories that you may choose to include to identify this blog. Only use tags that are relevant to the story you are writing or the main theme of your website.
8. Comment on Other Peoples Blogs
Search for your keywords and view some of the related blogs that come up. If you like what you read, leave a comment. Also subscribe to their blog and get to know them and the site a little bit. Send them a message that you have similar interests and start a conversation.
Another thing you can do is to include a link to another person’s blog (if you liked what you read). This is engaging with the other blogger, so that you can interact with them online.
When you link to a blog post, the other blogger will probably find your blog through their stats, and come to see what you had to say. They may even subscribe to your site and leave a comment, as we suggested you do above!
The best part is they may return the favour and include a link on their next post back to your website. This opens your blog site up to all of their regular visitors. Bonus!
Another bonus is that search engines love external links that point to your website. It means you are more popular and they will increase your ranking.
A side bonus is that in time you may be able to use them as a Guest Blogger on your site or offer to be theirs. Either way it means increased traffic from their blog to you.
9. Social Media
Use your social media to advertise new posts or content that you have added. Set up an App to automatically share your new blogs to each of your social networks. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. This way they will always receive the latest releases and any new followers will see what they have missed.
You will find that most people view social media at different times and sometimes they skip over chunks of data to catch up to the latest posts or comments. You should Re-Tweet (or Re-post) past content so that everyone has a chance to review it. Readers do not care when it was written as long as it is still relevant.
10. Let people know in person – email – text about your posts
Speak to your friends or family about your posts, they might know someone they could direct to your website. They might want to read it themselves, and if you post regularly (like we mentioned earlier) then eventually there will be a topic that catches their interest. Encourage them to sign up for updates or emails too.
If you have written a post with someone in mind, send them a message and a link, encouraging them to read it.
Check out your competitors blog on the same topics as yours. You will find that some of them have guest contributors (often people who are already successful influencers in your chosen niche). Learn all you can about the contributor and track them down.
Invite them to contribute to your post. This is more content that you do not have to write (with more external links) and they usually share your link or content on their network, which means more visitors.
This works both ways of course, and they may invite you to write a blog for them or others that they can connect you with. This opens up new readers to both yours and their networks. Win for everyone.
Add an email to your list that highlights the first sentence of past blogs you have written along with a heading and a link. Many readers do not have time to keep up with all your posts, so providing a summary of them allows your viewers to select one that appeals to them and read it. You get more views as a result including to your older blogs.
Remember to include a link to your blog page in every email signature you send, in your bio, and other forms of media.
Remember, It Takes Time
No matter how much detail you put into preparing your blog, it won’t change things over night. It takes time. It could take 6 months to get going properly for it to become natural to you, or years to become fully successful (unless you hit that viral post everyone dreams about). If you remain persistent, it will certainly happen, just have patience.
