Today, I was approached by an acquaintance on Facebook wanting my help to increase traffic on their blog. The person has though has been writing for a while now, but the traffic was still very less and as they were looking to earn from it, barely anything came from the blog.
And I reviewed their blog
While I asked the person to share their URL (nope, am not sharing it here) to see the site, I did plainly ask them what kind of traffic they are expecting on the blog – ethical and organic?? Was relieved to know that they believed doing it the ethical way. And my findings were quite surprising, because the blogger had missed out on some basic blog strategies, sharing them here…
Get your Blog Working
1. Blog Design
Choose a minimal design. Avoid using too many colors or animated GIFs as it’s a sure-fire way of turning back your visitors. There are multiple free and paid themes out on the web. Pick the one that closely matches with your blog subject. (Am not going to talk about the free vs paid themes for now). Ensure that the buttons and links appear well. On the blog that I reviewed, there were 2 big arrows (annoying ones) to move on the next or previous post. Avoid, yes avoid all those kind of designs.
2. Pick Your Niche
As a reader, I would like to follow you for certain subjects. If I find a blogger writing too many different articles, as a reader I would get confused about their expertise. My advise is, stick to 2-3 niche subjects and write around that. This will ensure that you get quality traffic and also the readers will know what to look for on your blog.
3. RSS Feeds
It’s imperative that your blog needs to have an RSS feed. A regular reader would like to subscribe to it on Google Reader or similar apps and keep updated with your posts. Also, ensure that the RSS Feed link is visible and make it easy for the reader to subscribe. You might use the Feedburner service of Google to create RSS feeds of your blog.
4. Social Sharing
A blogger needs to leverage the power of social media. Every blog worth it’s salt SHOULD have an option to share the post of multiple social platforms. I use and recommend the Digg Digg plugin, which also gives out analytics of it’s usage. Keep the social sharing buttons visible.
AND, do not forget the G+ button. Make it easier for readers to +1 your post. It’s the single most easier way to get better rankings on Google.
5. Call to Actions
If you want reader to be engaged or stick to your blog, make sure you have great call to actions on your site. Asking pointed question or offering a little extra to the readers will ensure that they will come back. A ‘little extra’ can be either a ebook or even subscribing to your blog.
Bonus tip: Write Guest Posts
Yes, writing get posts on quality site (I recommend using myblogguest.com) will certainly help generating more traffic and also improve your writing skills.
Conclusion
Writing good will not always result in traffic, may be addressing the above basics can help you.
And if you have any more tips to share, hit the comment section below and share a thought or two.
