{Blogging 101} How to boost your blog traffic

When I was researching this post I was really hoping I would come across an article that said “load this plugin and your traffic will increase instantly”. Unfortunately not one of the articles I read had a single quick fix! All of them said that increasing traffic took time, hard work and consistency.

There are a few things you can do though to help the process along but don’t become despondent if it doesn’t happen overnight.

1. Create good content consistently. Once you have figured out your audience, create good content they want to read! Posting consistently also helps to build your audience, they know they can expect a post every day or a craft post on a Friday for example. People like consistency and they like to know what is coming. Unfortunately posting once a month isn’t likely to boost your numbers, so try to get posting at least once a week. Keep your content relevant and interesting, not just regular.
2. Build a social media presence. Managing social media channels can become time consuming but they are so important for sharing content and building a audience. It is so easy to retweet or share a Facebook post, so make sure you are present and active on the channels you have chosen. If being on all of them is too much, choose one or two and focus on those. Create hashtags relevant to you and your site. This is also a good way to share posts more than once. You can schedule blog posts to be shared on all platforms at different times of the day meaning you can reach a wider audience, use this. Encourage your readers to share your posts through buttons on your actual blog.
3. Make it easy to share. Following on from the previous point, make it easy to share your posts. There are plugins you can add to your individual posts where readers can easily share the posts once they have read them. Make them visible and easy to use and encourage your readers to share them.
4. Connect with other bloggers. This, for me, is probably the most important one. You can’t blog in isolation, your fellow bloggers are your biggest resource and your greatest support, use them, connect with them. Join groups, like SA Mom Blogs and SA Bloggers, meet other bloggers, engage with them, learn from them. Getting a shout out or a mention from a fellow blogger is a great way to drive traffic to your site and tap into a different audience.
5. COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT! Yes it is time consuming, no you don’t always have something relevant to say but this is something you have to spend some time doing! If you comment on a blog a few things happen – you give some love to the blogger, that blogger could discover your blog, your comment could spark the interest of another person who has commented who clicks through to you and most importantly you are creating engagement and connecting with other bloggers.
6. Guest posts are so helpful! Many of the SA Mom blogs are running some great series at the moment – Ella is doing the WAHM series, Maz is about to start her What I Wish You Knew About series, Heather is busy with the Mompreneur series, I have the Honest Mom one, Julie has the Meet the Mama series – to name a few. They are great ways to get your blog link out there and get you in front of a new audience. Get involved with as many of these that are relevant to you or run one on your own blog.
7. Link Ups. I am going to be starting these on SA Mom Blogs but they are pretty big in the overseas blogging space. Basically a blogger hosts them and they generally have a theme – like your best DIY post or favourite recipe – everyone then adds their link to the linky. There are rules, like you must comment on at least 2 other blogs etc. These are really really great for driving traffic but does require some reciprocation.
8. Determination. Traffic doesn’t increase overnight, it is a slow an steady process that you need to drive continuously.

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