Traffic, traffic, traffic : we always want more!
As a blogger, you like to read any suggestion to receive more traffic to your website.
Building a blog seems easy, but getting a lot of visitors and readers is not so obvious.
There are several ways to bring traffic to your blog, and a lot of them really work.
Here you find a list of eight tips on how to get more visitors to your site.
Table of Contents
1. Satisfy Your Audience Needs
It’s not just “writing quality content”, but understanding your audience and satisfying their needs is the most effective way to increase traffic to your website.
Give to people exactly what they are looking for.
Seems easy?
Well, it’s not.
If you are able to get to know your readers and write just useful content, they will reward you with many visits, also sharing your content around the web.
Tip : be sure to make your content easily shareable on the major social networks. I use “Genesis Optimized Social Share” plugin, specially crafted for Genesis Framework.
2. Use SEO Techniques
I am sure you have a fantastic blog with amazing content, but if people do not find you on Google, what are your efforts for ?
I know. Once again, this is easier said than done.
But using SEO techniques (the right way) allows you to be visible on search engines and to receive direct organic traffic to your blog.
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most effective way to get more visits. But there are actually several advices that can be given.
A very practical tip : before you write a new post, choose your primary keyword to optimize in the content. Use Google keyword tool to see how many queries are associated with the selected keyword.
3. Use the Social Power
Being active and engaging with your audience on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or Pinterest is a powerful way to increase traffic to your blog.
Do not just share your content there, be more social!
Commenting and sharing other people posts, liking, retweeting, pinning or recommending those articles on Google+.
Tip : try to get more Facebook fans on your page or followers on Google+, while sharing funny media, from time to time.
Tip n.2 : are you on Tsu? It’s a new social network, that shares the revenue with its users. It’s under invitation. To register, go here.
4. Install and Use Google Analytics
It is essential that you install Google Analytics on your blog and that you start studying your data.
With the observation of its details, you will understand what are the things that work on your blog ( and that you can replicate ) and what are the things that do not work ( and you need to correct).
Tip : here the Moz blog shares 11 Google Analytics Tricks to Use for Your Website
5. Enter the Right Media in Your Content
Another way to increase traffic to your blog is to insert graphics in your posts, like photos and images.
Also, if you optimize them carefully, they will be indexed well in Google Images and may represent an interesting source of web traffic.
Be sure to put your keywords in the description and in the alt text.
Also check the weight of the picture, as it must be as low as possible, without losing its quality.
Your site must be fast to load, as Google like it this way.
Tip : do not just share pictures, add also some interesting videos, relevant to your content.
6. Comment in Blogs of Your Niche
An authoritative comment in one of the posts written by popular bloggers is a great way to direct traffic to your blog.
But do not just visit the big websites, it’s good to connect also with new bloggers within your niche.
Tip : I recommend that your comment should be relevant, intelligent and interesting. In this way you will intrigue the readers, that may want to pay a visit to your blog.
7 . Insert Your Blog Link in Your Social Media Profiles
We all like social media and we all have personal pages on one or more social networks.
In order to increase visitors to your blog, you can do something very simple : add a link of your site in all your social profiles.
Tip : there are many powerful social media networks, be sure to choose wisely.
8 . Enter Your Blog Link in Your Email Signature
A very simple system : put in the signature of your e-mail the link to your website.
More generally, post your blog link in any type of document that you write and publish around the web.
Tip : WiseStamp is a free resource to add an email signature.
Do Not Give Up !
Building a popular blog is possible, but it takes patience and dedication.
So do not give up: you should work a lot for this purpose.
But sooner or later, you will realize that the internet will repay you for the efforts made!
Do you have any other suggestions on how to get more traffic?
Please share them within the comments below, thanks!
Nirmala says
Hi Erik sir,
Even though there are so many bloggers writing the traffic generation ways, we would like to read all of them to get more visitors to our blog. I’m following most of the ways which you’ve listed here to get audience for my blog and SEO matters a lot. Doing keyword research helps to drive organic traffic and yes, it is upright to give importance for social media traffic too. I’m missing good traffic from Yahoo answers, will try to be active over there. Thanks for sharing this good post for us 🙂
Enstine Muki says
Hi Erik,
This post is a typical sample of point #1 -satisfying your audience need. Everything else revolves around this point.
Your audience has the great need for traffic and that’s what you are providing in this post. No content is great until readers are satisfied with it. Once they are satisfied, they will help you bring more traffic.
SEO of course a the most converting source of traffic I have ever witnessed. Well, I know traffic from your targeted listed can be very great but this comes only after a mail is sent.
If we optimize for SEO, yes there is going to be great traffic.
Of course I can’t end this comment without confirming the fact the blog commenting is a great traffic tool. It does help in SEO and networking, which are all important components of online expansion.
Effective points you brought up here Erik and thanks for taking care of us your readers
Do have a wonderful week bro
Norbert says
Hi Erik,
Awesome. Generating quality relevant traffic is one of the worries we always have as bloggers and internet marketers.
These practical tips will help a lot of us who are always on the look out for more ways to increase our traffic. I’m using several of these methods especially blog commenting and social media sites.
Recently I’ve been active on yahoo answers and I’ve started seeing some small traffic trickle in from there so I plan to scale up on this.
My search engine traffic is still low for my online marketing blog ( I think because of the age and competition) but it’s growing by the day as I continue ranking for more keyword phrases.
However, for my amazon niche sites, I get majority of the traffic from Google. I optimize these sites for low hanging product review keywords which are more profitable and easier to rank.
I’d wish to add blogging communities to your list. These are also great for growing traffic and building your own blog’s community.
Most importantly though, like you said in you first point, you have to satisfy your readers’ needs. If you do that, getting traffic will be much easier.
Harleena Singh says
Hi Erik,
Wonderful post indeed 🙂
Yes, who doesn’t love to get more traffic to their blogs, and you mentioned some great ways we can increase the traffic, in a very natural way, which again every blogger must do.
I would always vote for blog commenting foremost, having tried and tested that myself. Nothing works better than building relationships with fellow bloggers, which happens only through the comments we leave at each others blogs. This is one sure, natural, and safe way to increase one’s own blog traffic.
SEO does wonders, though I am glad everything has boiled down to working in moderation nowadays and keeping it all natural. Yes, one cannot deny the power of social media, and if used right, it can do wonders for your blog, again been there, done that, so one knows it does work!
I agree with Norbert about blog communities, especially the real ones like yours and a few others, and of course our very own ABC!
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Don Purdum says
Hi Erik,
Knowing audience well enough to know what they need is so critical to growing a blog. We’ve both seen a lot of blog articles where people write short, pithy articles that neither benefit or help their readers.
You bring up a really good point…. I have experiencing of late a number of blogs who make it hard to share their content on social media. I’ve been suprised of late at how many blogs don’t even have share buttons.
If someone doesn’t make it easy, I don’t have the time to share it.
Of late, I’ve been taking the time to connect with related niches and comment on various business blogs, business journals, etc., where I know my direct audience is hanging out.
It’s been a great experience to define the many different direct and niche audiences where there is an opportunity to network with influencers who have direct access to the small and medium sized business owners I’m trying to help.
Don’t give up! WOW, how many have stopped before they really even got started. It takes six months or a year to really gain the traction you need to grow. It’s hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun if you just push through and keep working, connecting, relating, and helping others.
Great post Erik!
I hope you have an awesome week ahead~
~ Don Purdum
sherman smith says
Hey Erik,
You are really right on point with this post! These are great ways to increase your traffic to your blog and if you stay consistent with it, you’ll see your blog flourish!
Points 1,2,3,4,6 are something I’m constantly doing. I noticed earlier this year when I implemented more SEO using a keyword within a couple of post that I started receiving a lot more traffic. Many of our visitors are constantly on Google doing research, so why not take advantage of making our post more SEO compliant to make it easier for our market to find us.
For a long time I ignored Google Analytics. Why? At first I didn’t think it was that important, and two, when I first saw it, I was intimidated by it LOL… Yes I admit it. But back then, it was pretty confusing and not as user friendly as it is now. But although it took me a couple of years, I finally figured it out. But yes, if you want to see how you can increase your traffic, Google Analytics is a great tool to see what part of your marketing you have to make those necessary changes in order to increase it. Especially when it comes to your sales funnel.
Being social on social media and commenting was and still is vital to me. I got a lot of my traffic through just commenting on different blogs and it was powerful when I first started in 2010 and still is today at the end of 2014. I really just started to become more social on social media this year and the mentions is a great indicator to search engines to send traffic your way. Search Engines, especially Google, are really being on being social now days!
Thanks for sharing Erik! I hope you’re having a great week so far!
donna merrill says
Hi Erik,
Who wouldn’t want more traffic to our blogs? You have outlined many ways to get traffic and they all work.
I am a fan of #6 because commenting is the backbone of my own blog. There always is someone coming to my blog telling me that they found me on a comment I left on so and so’s blog post.
It is so important when commenting to leave an intelligent response to the post. Address the writer by name, reflect something about the subject matter and let’s not forget to say thank you! It is pretty powerful!
I am paying more attention to SEO lately. My little green light goes on in my back office and I’m good to go!
What I didn’t know was Yahoo Answers. I do have to check that one out! Never been there before! So thanks for this special tip!
As usual, there is always something I learn when I visit you.
-Donna
James McAllister says
Hi Erik!
The thing I really loved about this post was the diversity of the methods you mentioned. Diversification is so important both in blogging and in life in general. You never want to put all of your eggs in one basket.
I see a lot of people (newbies in particular) believing that the only way to succeed online is to rank highly in Google. I can’t help but worry for them when I hear them make a statement like that, because it’s not true at all! There are so many different traffic methods (many are way better than Google!) and you’ve listed some great ones here.
Thanks for introducing me to Tsu by the way. I’ll have to check that out!
– James
Ryan Biddulph says
Hi Erik,
The last one rocks as do all of them. Never give up. Keep going. Know why you’re blogging to rock it out.
I like being free more than I fear persisting. So I keep at it. Publishing helpful, thorough posts and commenting on authority, relevant blogs endears you to targeted readers. Traffic flows to helpful blogs, run by connected bloggers.
Make friends with folks. Make GOOD friends with folks to grow your network. I enjoy making buddies because our bonds make our blogging lives easier. Don’t go the Lone Wolf route. Been there, done that and it doesn’t work. Meet friends through commenting, over deliver by publishing inspired posts with appealing titles and keep on keeping on.
In time, and with patience, you’ll learn what you need to do and you’ll do what you need to do, to become a prospering blogger who drives steady, targeted traffic to their blog. Just keep at it and you’ll get it 😉
Ryan
Larry Frank says
Hi Erik,
Every blogger aims at pulling a jaw dropping traffic to their sites, and what else makes a blog stand if not a huge audience. You’ve just given a hot 10 ways to increase traffic to our blog’s
I guess you were right when you talked about satisfying your audience need, that’s where most bloggers (newbies) fail, they write whatsoever they come across, not minding if it will be beneficial to their blog readers, and when they write a post that is off-point to their readers their blogs become a bored island to their readers.
You’ve said it all, thanks for sharing and do have a wonderful day ahead. 🙂
Rohan Bhardwaj says
Hi Erik,
The best tip is to never give up. If one is determined for something, and approaches the work with right attitude then the result will be positive.
One needs to believe.
Blogging is just like any other passion in life, if you truly love it, keep fighting and you will reach your goal. All the big blogs started small.
Nice list. Have a great week.
Dennis says
Hey Erik!
Great tips as always. For yahoo answers though, aside from banning spammers or obvious link droppers, even with high level accounts, answers can still not show up.
I’ve been testing it recently, with level 2 above accounts. So I would advice the people reading that part to build your profile a bit first by answering a lot of questions without links
Try to put the link in the resource area if your account is still new.
Once you get your “Best Answer” – Start linking to it. It will rank and give you another good position in the serps.
Manik says
Hello Erik,
Great tips as usual. All are really important to increase traffic and you mention here most of the latest SEO techniques.
Most of the people ignore the power of Yahoo Answer. But yahoo answer is really a great way to drive huge referral traffic if your blog niche is popular enough and it also help to get some quality no-follow backlinks.
Anyway, Thanks for the valuable post.
Mark says
Ten excellent tips Eric!
Thanks for sharing a proven ten point traffic generating blueprint. I’m really intrigued with your Yahoo answers strategy. Even though I’ve never actually used the Yahoo answers approach yet.
And let’s face it, without consistently creating the type of content that your target audience craves, you’re really compounding your problem!
And I also like your advice about using Google analytic s. It’s free and loaded with tons of useful information.
Thanks for sharing such a practical blueprint.
Tim Bonner says
Hey Erik
That’s some solid tips to gain more traffic and readers.
My favourite of all is #10. Never give up as a blogger. I’ve been doing it for 2 years and I’m only starting to get what I want from it now. People don’t realise how hard blogging actually is and when they do they give up way too easily!
I haven’t used Yahoo Answers as a strategy but it sounds like a good one. I started using Quora which is quite similar so I might give Yahoo a go as well. Thanks for the heads up!
Peter Kanayo says
Erik loved the concept you shared. Have used yahoo in the past and saw it did drive traffic to my site.
I love yahoo answers because the answers you provide are hyper targeted- hence the referral and traffic it brings.
As for Ryan that guy is commenting machine. And wonder how he does it. Sometimes I wonder if he has crack the code of automated unique comment. He is an awesome inspiration.
Adrienne says
Hey Erik,
Well I can definitely agree with all of these methods and of course I have my favorites.
Now you know that blog commenting is at the top of my list because to me when you leave genuine comments people notice that. Keep doing that and people can’t help but get curious about you. There will always be people coming and going so there is always room for more and more traffic that way.
Triberr is another great source for me which I know you love as well. It’s just a great place to make some awesome connections and you know that’s what I’m mostly about. That’s why I love these particular methods because of the connections that can be made. Social media too, same goes for those platforms.
I will say that I’ve never had much luck with Yahoo answers mainly because of my niche and there just aren’t as many questions over there about blogging. Quora is another one but I never seem to have a heck of a lot of luck with either.
So I won’t go into the things most people say and that it’s one thing to get the traffic and another one to keep them on your blog because that’s a whole other post. The main thing is getting them there and it’s up to us to keep them coming back for more.
Thanks for sharing these with us Erik and I know others appreciate this as well.
~Adrienne
Ammar Zeb says
Amazing stuff Erick! The points you mentioned indeed are the most basic ones and can be adopted by even baby bloggers if they want some real traffic and real money.
Thanks and keep writing 🙂
Priyangshu says
Hey Erik,
This is one of the best traffic generation guides I’ve ever read. Pretty well explained. Well, for me, Google has always been the number one traffic source, my number one traffic generation method is writing more and more useful guides and content that are helpful to the readers, and this way, many other users mention our post links on forums and sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers etc. So, not only do I receive tons of organic traffic, but also I get a lot of referral visitors. Anyways, great post Erik, keep up the good work 🙂
Priyangshu
vino says
Hi Erik,
These are raelly necessary tips one should follow inorder to increase the traffic to his/her own blog or website. All your points are valid and need to be admitted.
Siva says
Hi Erik,
All points well stated and I’m using most of the points that you’ve described . I have doubt on
Yahoo Answers – I really don’t know how to make it useful OR by just simply answering to any of user Q will draw their attention to my blog ?
Today I read about the “top-7-online-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2015” posted in Forbes and came to know about the “Ello” which is an “Anti-Facebook”. and powerful social media network in 2015
If you’ve not heard here some thing about “Ello” – About ( “Ello doesn’t sell ads. Nor do we sell data about you to third parties.” )
Every post you share, every friend you make, and every link you follow is tracked, recorded, and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.
I hope this info could be use full for bloggers, so shared , Ps excuse me:)
Thanks,
Siva
Akash says
hii There,
I think Social Media and Content is Main factor. Great content means more Organic Traffic, and more share in Sicial Media. More share Social Media means Its goes Viral. And when it goes Viral then you got a lots of traffic and Subscribers… 🙂
Ashish says
Well I guess satisfying the audience needs is the most important thing which we gonna need to focus. Readers only come to our blog for what they need either its tutorial or its some product.
Thanks
Nikhil Ganotra says
Hey Erik,
Great Write Up Indeed!
In my blogging career, I have read many posts to increase traffic to your blog as it seems to be a very common topic nowadays but I am truly amazed by the tips you mentioned above.
I had never thought of using yahoo as the source of increasing traffic to my blog. I will go for it right away!
Thanks a lot for sharing buddy. I appreciate your hardwork! 🙂
Ashish Kumar says
As a new blogger, i know very well that how difficult is for me to increasing blog traffic but one thing i can say surely that this post provided me several helpful solution and i am going to apply it on my all blogs.
Thank you so much Erik sir for sharing these 10 different Ways to Increase blog Traffic. Superb article 🙂
Andy says
Hello Erik!
Good list, I love to read ideas on getting traffic.
Liked the email signature tip.
Thiago says
Hey Erik,
I am starting a blog about trending products around the world. I know it`s not very specific. But its in portuguese, and I am competing in Brazil ( I found very little competition for quality content here). So I think it`s niched enought to rank well.
The page rank average for first page in the keywords I want to compete are below 2. Do you think I should keep with this strategy?
And.. Do you have any tips for ranking in google besides backling and traffic. (technical stuff?)
Thank you.
Ashraf Kamal says
Although points are common but still working for a long term traffic potential. People usually create useful contents but always forget about marketing their ideas. So, its great suggestion to leverage traffic of a website.
Ravi Sahu says
I daily searching for how to increasing traffic to website by natural way without any types of spam. And your posts really helped me to know more
Rahul Choudhary says
Hello there Erik,
The last one rocks as do every one of them. Never surrender. Continue onward. Know why you’re blogging to shake it out.
I like being free more than I apprehension holding on. So I keep at it. Distributed supportive, exhaustive posts and remarking on power, pertinent web journals charms you to focused on perusers. Activity streams to accommodating sites, run by joined bloggers.
Make companions with people. Make GOOD companions with people to develop your system. I appreciate making mates on the grounds that our bonds make our blogging lives simpler. Don’t go the Lone Wolf course. Been there, done that and it doesn’t work. Meet companions through remarking, over convey by distributed propelled posts with engaging titles and fight the good fight.
In time, and with persistence, you’ll realize what you have to do and you’ll do what you have to do, to turn into a thriving blogger who drives enduring, focused on movement to their site. Simply keep at it and you’ll get it 😉
Rahul Yadav says
Great tips you have shared here, i will surely try this out to see if it will work for me. Thanks
Pawan says
I love to read ideas on getting traffic.
Tom says
A big thanks for telling us what techniques to use to gain blog traffic. The explanation was clear and precise. Keep it up.