So you want to increase traffic to your blog ?
This post will guide you through all the basic techniques that will help you increase traffic to your blog. If you want more traffic to your blog or you are new in blogosphere, this post will help you to start with building authority and get traffic for your blog.
1. Content and Design
Let’s start with basic design. First you want something that compliments the sort of blog you are writing, for instance if you are writing about flowers don’t use a death metal backdrop with skulls and pentagrams. Okay, that’s pretty simple. Next, you want to be sure the actual content is the highlight of your blog, that means don’t make your visuals too distracting. Your design should attract people, but it should do so subconsciously… unless of course it is a design blog but if so you already know what you’re doing.
The biggest problem bloggers run into as far as design is without a doubt too much stuff! Generally people go to a blog for information, 10 clever apps and Flash downloads on your site is going to take too long to load and new visitors are not that patient. Also, keep it quiet. Having a video is good, but give them the option to hit “play” – don’t have it automatically playing the second they go to your page. And get rid of the music… unless you’re a DJ.
Content is king, not everyone is Mark Twain though. Frankly the majority of bloggers aren’t that talented as far as the actual writing goes. That’s okay, keep it interesting, useful and to the point and visitors will still like what you’re writing about.
2. Connect with Other Bloggers
Most people who read blogs are bloggers. In fact it is in many cases a self-contained symbiotic ecosystem of bloggers visiting bloggers visiting bloggers all with the goal of having bloggers visit their blog. Take advantage of it to a point, but remember you want people who aren’t bloggers as well, so don’t spend too much time in this area. The main reason you want to connect with bloggers will be discussed in number 4.
3. On-Page SEO
Is there a blog about blogs that doesn’t mention SEO? Probably not so we’ll spare you a long description of what it is. The primary thing to remember is, keep it natural and do not spam keywords. Ruining the flow and creating odd syntax all to insert a specific word in a specific place does nothing to improve searchability, it actually hurts it. Get a keyword in the title and toward the end somewhere if possible and you should be covered. For longer posts 1 or 2 in the meat is good, but keep it natural and don’t overdo it. Yes, you will find “SEO gurus” who preach like every other word should be a keyword. They’re charlatans and likely thieves. Run away from them as fast as you can.
4. Guest Posting
This is where number 2, “connect with other bloggers,” comes in. Once you get to know other bloggers look for opportunities to add content to their blog with a link back to yours. Make sure it is a quality blog and give them quality content. Also consider letting others guest post on your blog if they have something interesting and useful to contribute. Don’t post on bad blogs though. You know the ones, with spammed keywords and random articles about anything for no purpose but to have more content, only befriend the good guys. Bad backlinks can damage your blog horribly once the search engines catch on to the “black hat” SEO and SEM tactics used there.
5. Follow Authoritative Bloggers in Your Niche
If you’re just starting a blog chances are someone out there has a blog discussing similar things, and they’ve been doing it a lot longer and have tons of followers. Become one of the sheep, it’s okay. Following them will both increase your knowledge base and give you opportunity to interact with an already vibrant community in this area as you build your own blog into an authority.
