If 37% of marketers say blogs are the most valuable type of content marketing, and B2B marketers say blogs generate them 67% MORE leads, you shouldn’t have to question whether to blog, or not to blog.
I have been posting blog content on my Warren Knight website for the last 10 years, and have written more than 2,000 pieces of content both for my website, and for other websites. I have truly understood the importance of blogging for my business, and have generated thousands of pounds, and hundreds of thousands of website hits based on blog traffic.
Whilst you may be blogging; are you generating the results you would like to see? Here are 12 ways to improve blog traffic, that have been tried and tested (with great success) over the last 5 years. I was inspired to write this based on an infographic Red Website Design created.
1. Social Media Link Sharing
Everytime I write a new blog, it doesn’t just sit on my website, hoping for traffic; I share it across all of my Social Media accounts. I will schedule it to go out to myTwitter audience, once a day for first five days of it going live (using Hootsuite, of course).
2. Ask The Experts
When I write a piece of content, I always welcome feedback from those in my industry which are thought leaders and you should do the same. If you have a good relationship with these thought leaders, ASK for their feedback, and to share with their audience.
3. LinkedIn Pulse
I get SO much blog traffic from LinkedIn Pulse. My blogs on LinkedIn Pulse have generated revenue for me, and just one of my articles has received closed to 11,000 views, 1,400 likes and close to 100 comments.
4. Email Marketing
As a small business, you should be sending out a monthly newsletter to your audience via your email marketing tool. Make sure you include one of your latest blogs in your newsletter to improve your blog traffic.
5. Share On Your Guest-Contributing Websites
Every single blog I write gets submitted to both Social Media Today, and Business2Community which helps me drive a lot of traffic both to my social media accounts, and to the original content. Whilst I have to upload the content to their system, and it gets posted on their website, this increases my social sharing dramatically, and ultimately leads back to my website.
6. Groups & Forums
There are millions of social media groups and internet forums looking for the blog content you are creating; all you have to do is find them. Share your content, ask for feedback and get involved in a conversation with your audience online.
7. Link Building
I find that a lot of my audience don’t just “bounce” when they reach a blog of mine. They read, click on a link inside of a blog (which links to another piece of content) and continue reading.
8. Know What Your Audience Wants
I previously wrote an article on the types of content my audience likes to read. I know from my research that they like reading “how-to’s”, tips, tools and tricks as well as step-by-step and numbered articles.
9. Write More
If you are only writing a blog once a month, consider writing more. I’m not saying you have to write three blogs a week, just challenge yourself, and give your business MORE content to share online.
10. Offer Something For Free
I will write pieces of content with the end goal being a give-away that YOU can download completely free of charge. Doing this does improve my blog traffic.
11. Make Your Content Easy To Read
It’s great to have traffic coming to your blog, but you want to make sure that the people who are reading your content, will continue to read your content. Help your audience spend more of their reading time with you by writing content that is easy to read, and digest.
11. Repurpose
I will always continue to share my content with my audience, regardless of whether it’s a day old, or 6 months old. It’s crucial that you do keep repurposing your content to share with your audience.
You can see the infographic that inspired this blog here.
If improving your website traffic as a small business is important to you, I have a FREE download called “50 Ways To Market Your Small Business Effectively” that covers the following;
- The importance of taking your brand online
- WHY your website may not be converting + solution
- How-to turn a website visitor into a PAYING customer
- The importance of feedback from your audience, and how to get it
- How-to give away content for FREE, and get hundreds of leads in return
- A FREE Google Tool to help you define your keywords online
- Why your website appearance, onsite SEO and testimonials are KEY
- How-to avoid shopping cart abandonment
- Increasing lead generation through two different types of content
- And MUCH, MUCH MORE!
To get your hands on a copy of the above download, click here.
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