I hope we have all realized how effective blogging can be for Inbound Marketing*. However, to quote a variation of a popular line from a movie—"if you write posts, readers will come"—that's not going to happen like bees attracted to honey. In fact, some initial legwork and strategic thinking needs to put in so that every article is optimally written to cultivate a following among readers. You have to make every quality article count. It's not a given that the number of published articles or blog posts is proportionate to the growth of readership.
So how do you attract visitors to your blog? Here are 5 simple tips with which you can use to drive traffic to it:
#1: Post Your Content On Social Media
The most efficient way to get more people to your blog is to submit your posts and links on platforms like forums, discovery engines, peer-sourced news feeds and social networking sites. This is a very natural way to create interest in your blog. Your current followers will start reading it and they may also share your content with their own personal networks. As we know that social media content can spread in a viral manner, so it's important to post your blog content on different social networks.
#2: Images Can Boost Sharing Likelihood
The arrival of Pinterest and the popularity of infographics and meme graphics have validated the idea that images are a valuable asset and if they add value, they deserve to be shared. By all means, add images into your blog posts. As the saying goes, "An image is worth a thousand words." Images add richness to your content. The relevancy of images can help emphasize key points and make readers more willing to read a long post. It also encourages readers to share posts on social media because social networks can feature the image in the post. In an e-commerce site, 67% of consumers say the quality of a product image is very important in selecting and purchasing a product.
#3: Create Interest With Engaging And Exciting Titles
We're all human. We‘re all curious. We judge books by their covers and we judge blog posts by their titles. Knowing that, it's important to spend some time crafting your title. When you start writing your post, a working title is fine. Get the general topic of the post down and write your content. But before you publish it, come back to the title and think about how you can take it up a notch, making it more engaging and truly pull your reader in.
#4: Create A Conversation
Have you noticed that I use the words “you” a lot within my blog posts? I do this because I am trying to create a conversation with you that is as personable and relatable as possible and I think essay posts were written to bring across a message without engaging readers and that would be boring. I know that because it would be boring for me as well. One thing I’m confident about when it comes to using a conversational style in blog posts: It helps with readability. By creating a conversation, you will see that your blog posts are read more and people are more likely to comment.
#5: Include Related Posts
A "related posts" section added at the end of a blog post is proven to increase pageviews and decrease bounce rate. Beyond that, as readers browse more articles, they become increasingly impressed by the depth of knowledge conveyed throughout the blog, and are more willing share the posts, thereby inadventently attract more new visitors. Refer to this page for 5 recommended WordPress plugins that do the job well. Or you can manually suggest related blog posts by adding links in the post you are writing.
Writing a blog post is easy; anyone can do it. However, whether or not you are able to get people to read your post is a separate issue. Use the above tips to drive traffic to your blog. If you would like to learn more about blogging productivity, you can read "4 Easy Ways To Churn Out Blog Content Consistently" for some creative ideas.
* Inbound marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves SEO, Social Media, blog and landing pages to generate sales leads.
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