How To Increase Blog Traffic In 7 Steps

Every blogger wants more traffic, it’s a fact. But most bloggers don’t know how to truly generate it.

It’s actually very simple and once you fully understand it, you can create traffic at will. There isn’t just 1 way of driving traffic, there are over 100.

Now because there are so many traffic generation strategies it’s become difficult to know what’s most effective.

For increasing blog traffic, you should be focusing on many different strategies, here are:

1. Write More Content

This is the most obvious one; just write more content. Many bloggers argue over how often you should be posting. The truth is there’s no right number. Some popular blogs post every day while others once a month.

“But I thought the more you post, the more traffic you’ll get?”

Nope, that lie has been floating around the blogosphere for years. There is some truth in it though. The fact is that it all depends on your marketing. If you’re targeting keywords and doing SEO then yes – the more you post the more traffic you’ll get.

However if you’re relying on social media and your tribe to share your posts, posting every day might not be a good idea. In that case, your tribe (followers) should wait a while before they get their hands on your precious content.

As if you want lots of social sharing, your content needs to be excellent and you need to keep your subscribers waiting eagerly for more. The more you make them wait for your stuff the more likely they are to read it and share.

On the other end, if you’re posting every day your content will be “standard” and won’t get many shares, BUT – it will get search engine traffic. So if you want to quickly grow your blog and get a crap load of traffic – start posting daily & target keywords!

2. Do Keyword Research While Writing

A great thing about SEO is that you can rank for lots of different search terms by simply mentioning them in your blog posts. Before you begin writing a new blog post, you absolutely must find a keyword to target. Use the Google Keyword tool and find 1 main keyword to craft your blog post around.

Targeting a main keyword and eventually ranking for it will ensure long term search engine traffic (just as long as you optimize your content + build backlinks). On top of your main keyword, you should be constantly doing keyword research whilst writing so you can find other related keywords to incorporate into your blog post.

When you incorporate lots of long tail keywords (more than 3 word keywords that are usually low competition) you increase your chances of ranking high on Google for them and receiving more search engine traffic.

3. Make Your Posts SEO Friendly

Just make your posts more SEO friendly. This means incorporating your keyword/s into your post title, description and header tags. Also using image alt tags and making sure your keyword density is above 3%.

4. Always Reference Your Blog Posts And Posts Of Others

This is a no brainer when it comes to increasing blog traffic. So simple, just link to your other blog posts throughout your posts and reference posts of other blogs. By linking to your own posts internally, you’re going to increase your avg. page views/visit and by linking to other people’s stuff you usually get a thank you link back.

Even if you don’t, you might get a nice email from them, a blog comment (all the time) or develop a new relationship that helps you in the long run.

5. Guest Post

To be very honest with you I’m starting to get sick of teaching this one. Guest blogging is one of the most powerful ways if not the most powerful for increasing blog traffic. You simply find other blogs in your niche and guest post for them. Many popular blogs will have pages that say “guest post” or “write for us”.

The key is to write great content and only ever write for the top blogs in your niche. When guest blogging, you can’t immediately start writing for the biggest blogs in your niche. You have to start with the less established blogs and work your way up to the top.

You’re generally allowed an author resource box with a few links back to your blog (this is where you get a free backlink and steal lots of traffic).

6. Comment On Other Blogs

Blog commenting is a stupid simple strategy, no explanation is needed. Start commenting on the posts of the most popular blog’s in your niche.

7. Use Your RSS Feed And Promote It

Most blogs don’t pay attention to their RSS feed, instead they focus on their email list. I always say build your list first, then get your subs hooked on your RSS feed and following you on your favorite social network.

Using Feedburner (a free service provided by Google) you can quickly set up an RSS feed for your blog. They are really simple. When subscribed to a blog’s RSS feed, you get instantly notified about their new blog posts.

So it’s just another channel to leverage to drive more traffic to your new blog posts. You can enable email subscriptions in Feedburner so your subscribers will receive instant email notifications about your new posts.

Why? The more times someone sees or hears about your blog post, the more likely they are to check it out. If you’ve got an opt-in email list you mail about your new posts, your subscribers might check it out.

However, if they’re subscribed to your email list, RSS feed and are following you on both Facebook + Google Plus. They’re going to be 5 times more likely to read your post.

8. Target Sharing Audiences

The more times your blog content gets shared, the more traffic it will receive. The trouble is most readers just won’t bother sharing your stuff. Solution?

Target sharing audiences. When someone told me this, I thought how the heck am I going to attract the people who are most likely to share? Then it hit me…

Find the people who are already sharing, the best way of doing this is by finding communities. Many popular blogs have their own communities. Little communities of people who read, like and share all of their blog posts.

So how do you get your blog in front of these communities? Blog commenting, guest posting and participating in forums!

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below!

MicheleGalas, February 10, 2012, 10:15

This was extremely helpful. Filled with lots of fantastic information.

arif.tora, February 10, 2012, 10:20

great post

Dave Schlueter, February 10, 2012, 10:25

Thanks as always Dave for opening up the top of my head and pouring fresh ideas into it for greater success.

Jennifer Smith, February 10, 2012, 10:30

David, this post is fantastic! Your insights always help me push my blog to new heights. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

Emma Garcia, February 10, 2012, 10:40

David, could you elaborate more on how to effectively use Feedburner for RSS feed promotion? I’m curious about the best practices.

Liam Johnson, February 10, 2012, 10:45

While I found the post informative, I think it would be helpful to include some case studies or real-life examples of these strategies in action.

Olivia Davis, February 10, 2012, 10:50

Hey David! Long time no see. How have you been? We should catch up sometime soon. Maybe discuss some of these blogging strategies in person?

William Martinez, February 10, 2012, 10:55

I struggled with driving traffic to my blog for a long time. Implementing some of the tips you mentioned, especially guest posting, made a huge difference. Thanks for sharing!

Sophia Wilson, February 10, 2012, 11:00

I’ve been using Ubersuggest for keyword research and it’s been incredibly helpful. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

James Lee, February 10, 2012, 11:05

David, this sounds too good to be true. Do you have any evidence or case studies to back up these claims? I’d love to see some proof.