Trying to driving traffic to your blog as a starter can be a tedious task and can require a lot of hard work! Putting time and dedication into your blog is the most important thing. Blogging can be really daunting at first but don’t give up!
Mind you I’m working a full-time job while still managing to succeed as a blogger! So there’s no excuse for you not to be able to start your own blog too! If you are thinking that it might be too late in the game, nope is not true!
For those of you who have already begun your journey as a blogger, here are eight ways to increase your blog traffic according to blogging pros.
They are Self-Hosted
We recommend starting a self-hosted site using WordPress.org. Now, some people don’t know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org and that’s completely normal. When I was starting my blogging journey, I was also confused as to what the difference was. The biggest difference between them both lies on who is hosting the website.
WordPress.org offers more flexibility with their website and users can customize it to their liking. The benefits of using WordPress.org are that users can add ads to their website which you cannot do with WordPress.com. If users decide that they’ll like to open up stores and sell items WordPress.org users are able to add an e-commerce plugin. They can also accept payments through PayPal. WordPress.org lets you monitor your site progress with tools such as Google Analytics and other plugins available. Tracking your supporters and visitors is vital to creating future campaigns. I recommend starting out with WordPress.org just because later on you won’t have to deal with the steps to making the switch.
Setting up a Self-hosted Blog
The first thing you will need to set up your self-hosted blog on WordPress.org is to select your domain name and hosting package. We recommend getting set up with Hostgator. It’s just as little as $7.95 per year to register a new domain with Hostgator. The beginner plan is $2.95 per month, oh yeah, and did I mention it also includes SSL certificate.
Hostgator offers excellent hosting, customer service, affordable prices, including WordPress hosting. I highly recommend Hostgator, I haven’t had a problem with them and their customer service is excellent!
They Have an Appealing Unique Web Design
Designing your blog to have a unique design to stand out from other blogs will be the selling point. Doesn’t necessarily matter what type of website design you have, as long as is user-friendly and personal to you. Using a free theme will get you through the beginning stages of growing your blog. After that, you will want to invest in a design that will represent your brand and grow your blog. I started with a paid theme that wasn’t too expensive.
I purchased my theme from Creativemarket, I choose this website because their themes are beautiful, user-friendly, and affordable. My theme didn’t cost me more than $50, however, if you are flexible with your budget, I recommend hiring a designer and developer to create a unique design just for you.
They Write Content & Have Visible Share Buttons
Creating content that users will read, will get you more views. When you create content that users can relate to, it will be more likely that it will be shared throughout social media. Your readers will most likely share them on Pinterest, Facebook and bookmark it. Word of month is also a great tool that can bring a lot of traffic to your website. Make sure to make your share buttons visible so people can share your content.
They Create a Strong Social Media Presence
This is vital to get your name out there on social media since is not easy to get people to follow you and engage. Having a social media following will help grow your blog and help you by getting traffic organically.
Now, to answer people’s questions if there are sites that help you gain followers. Yes, there are many of those but I don’t recommend them, they won’t help you increase your organic traffic. Growing your following takes time and is not going to grow overnight. Being authentic and leaving the negativity aside, is the best way to gain genuine followers.
Many of us have full-time jobs and sometimes investing in a scheduler/organizer becomes useful. For instance, Tailwind (affiliate link) if you sign up with this link you get the first month for free. Twuffer (Twitter scheduler), Later (Instagram Scheduler) that can help you save time. These are worth it if you have a fulltime job, especially because it becomes overwhelming since there are so many social sites. I personally don’t post every day because is literally impossible to do so while having a fulltime job, however, I highly recommend investing in a scheduler of your choice.
They Use Pinterest SEO
If you aren’t yet using Pinterest, I suggest you do get on it! In the beginning, Pinterest will show you pins in chronological order but after it knows what topics you like, those topics will show up on the top.
In order to get your pins seen by “Smart feed” you will need to make sure to use Pinterest SEO. By using Pinterest SEO, even users that don’t follow you will be able to see your pins. Before anything, make sure that your website is verified, then signup for rich pins. When you have rich pins, which is highly recommended you get. Pinterest will automatically have your pin description under all of your images. If you add text to your image as I do on Canva, it helps your pin stand out more since Pinterest users will know what to expect when they on your post. Another way of using Pinterest SEO is by making sure your boards, image names, pin descriptions, and Pinterest profile have relevant keywords. It’s important to get your Pinterest optimized so you can bring a lot of traffic onto your blog.
They Re-pin old post + Share on Social Media
A huge mistake most new bloggers make is forgetting about their old posts and not mentioning it again. You should be posting constantly on your social media even if is an older post. Reviving old post is necessary and a great plugin is Revive Old Post. What the plugin does is help you with sending out automatic tweets linking to and promoting your old posts. Tailwind is an important scheduler for promoting your pins, depending on what plan you have with them it will show you analytics on your pins. Remember always report older posts as well, it might go viral later on who knows.
They Create Roundup Post + Interlink Posts
A good way to revive older posts is to create a post which has the top performing posts for all time. For instance, you can link up your top fashion post, top traveling post, and etc. This way your readers can get a glimpse at the older posts in one place if they haven’t yet.
They are Consistent
It all comes down to one thing when growing and gaining organic traffic being consistent is key! Many people sometimes give up on their blogs and social media accounts because they don’t see immediate results. It takes time and dedication for your organic reach to grow. Don’t give up you can do it!
Also, if you aren’t sure of what topics to base your niche on, it’s okay!
Hope these tips help you out as much as it does for me!
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Shay
These are all great tips! Looks like I’m already making a few great strides!
-shay
Nickie Rager
These are some really great tips! I’ll have to add the Instagram and twitter planners into the mix! Thanks!
Crystal Geran
Great article. So true that being consistent is key to blogging or anything really!
Nissa
Love this! Totally agree with each point! 🙂
Wendy Wallace
Hi Yolima,
I appreciate your tips and I will start implementing them more often. Anything we can do to get more visibility is awesome.
Yoli
Right! I love sharing tips that will help anyone get more views!
Kate Findley
I like the suggestion for the Revive Old Post plugin. I hadn’t thought of that. Often I’m so busy creating/sharing new content that I don’t bother to revise or reshare the old!
Yoli
& that is the mistake people make because I mean is normal to focus more on new content. But who knows if later on your old content becomes a hit!
Carlyn
These are great tips! I need to get setup on Twitter & Pinterest
Yoli
Yes! This is extremely important!
kerry robinson
Great advice. I’m just getting my head around pintrest and I’m contemplating self hosting so really helpful thanks x
Yoli
Pinterest with just you checking an article or two it will start to make sense! I will probably write a blog post about it since I understand it now.
Rachael
You have some great tips here! Being self hosted is for sure the number one. I don’t think newbie bloggers realise the importance of this when they just want to get going. Roundup posts is a good one too. I’m starting to thing with each new post I write, how I can connect them further down the line. Thanks for sharing your tips!
Yoli
Yes is super useful especially to get them to connect! And yes being self hosted is vital!
Amanda
Some good ideas here. I will implement a few of these.
Tren
Thank you for sharing such helpful information. I’ve been blogging for about 3 months and I went head in. After contemplating for about a year. So, I am always interested in learning all I can to be successful.
Brittany
Good tips! I’ve recently started reviving old posts. And realized I need to do that more often!
jane
Love all these recommendations! As a new blogger this is the kind of info that I’m looking for to help my growth!
Amanda Yorton
Great tips! Consistency is key!! And I LOVE pinterest for my blog!
Deb
Great tips girl, keep ‘em coming!
I’m going to go explore richpins for Pinterest right now.
<3
Kate
Such great idea!!!s
Sudipa
I have started taking SEO seriously and already getting better results.You have covered all the essential touchpoints so well
Angelica
Great blog post) love your tips , had no idea that bloggers have to keep posting old posts as well! Thanks girl .
Jennifer
These are such great tips! I try to do all of these!
Morgan
Thanks for sharing these tips! I’m still just starting out but my goal for the new year is to be more consistent for sure.