25 Ways to Increase Blog Traffic and Reader Engagement

If you’re a frustrated blogger, you’re not alone! It takes time to build blog traffic, readership, and momentum. Following are effective ways to increase traffic, engage readers, and improve the overall effectiveness of your blog.

1. Share with Social Media – Each new blog post that you write should be shared across your social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. Be sure to share the blog title with a link to continue reading on your site.

2. Submit Your Blog to Directories – There are many directories where readers can find your blog. Here are some to get you started:

• http://blogcatalog.com
• http://mybloglog.com
• http://blogflux.com
• http://technorati.com
• http://blogarama.com
• http://blogexplosion.com
• http://bloghub.com
• http://globeofblogs.com
• http://networkedblogs.com
• http://bloghop.com

3. Promote in Your E-newsletter – Summarize your recent blog posts in your newsletter by including the title, first paragraph, and a link to keep reading.

4. Write Captivating Titles – The most important element of any blog post that you write is a captivating title. You want to hook potential readers so that they will click through to keep reading. Study blog titles on popular blogs to see how they make them more enticing.

5. Understand Your Audience – A big missing component for a lot of bloggers is a failure to understand their target audience. You need to first define who your audience is and then what their challenges are. Then you can write content that appeals to their needs, challenges, and interests.

6. Share Your Link – Make sure your blog link is listed in your online profiles, your bio on social media sites, and in your email signature.

7. Host Giveaways – Offer free items from your blog periodically. For example, you could give away a sample chapter from your book or a special report. You could also enlist others to donate items to give away to anyone who leaves a comment.

8. Hold a Contest – In addition to frequent giveaways, you can also hold contests where one or more winners are selected. Prizes can include a copy of a book, a brief consultation with you, attendance at an event you are hosting, a gift card, or anything else your audience would find valuable. You can also enlist other companies to donate prizes.

9. Increase Blog Frequency – Studies have shown that site traffic increases exponentially as you add more content to your blog on a consistent basis. Ideally you should be updating your blog at least two to three times per week, though remember that more content will lead to more traffic.

10. Retweet Past Content – If you have an archive of past blog posts, you can still tweet them out as long as they are still relevant. WordPress users can also install the Tweet Old Post plug-in, which will automatically tweet out your past blog content based on parameters you set.

11. Feature Guest Contributors – Invite others to contribute content to your blog, including industry experts and peers. Once their post is featured, ask them to share with their networks. To streamline the process, create submission forms on your site like the ones we have here at BusinessInfoGuide.com.

12. Develop Theme Days – Author Karl Palachuk features “SOP Fridays” on his blog at Small Biz Thoughts. His audience knows that each week Karl will share important Standard Operating Procedures for the IT industry (his target audience). This series has been wildly popular, bringing a tremendous amount of traffic each week.

13. Optimize Your Pages – Make sure that your blog posts and all pages on your website are optimized for the search engines. Identify a keyword phrase for each page of your site and incorporate it into the page title, page link, the header on the page, and then repeat it two or three times within the body text of the page. Google looks for keyword concentration to understand what a page is about so make this a habit when writing each new blog post.

14. Include Social Sharing Buttons – Make it easy for your readers to promote your blog posts by including social media sharing buttons. The major blog platforms each offer free plug-ins for these.

15. Ask for Comments – One of the biggest complaints from bloggers is that they don’t generate many comments. The vast majority of visitors won’t take time to leave a comment, but you can encourage them to do so by simply asking! At the bottom of each post, ask a question or simply invite readers to respond in the comment box below. It’s amazing how this simple request can yield results.

16. Respond to Comments – One of the big benefits of a blog is that you can engage with your audience. Respond to all comments and let your audience know you’re paying attention, even if you simply say, “Thank you for taking the time to post.”

17. Comment on Other Blogs – When you write a comment on another blog, you get the opportunity to include your photo, name, and a link back to your own site. Get known within your industry by being a power contributor to other industry blogs. And be sure to leave compelling comments. A good comment contributes to the conversation by adding another tip or expounding on something the blog author mentioned. Provide value and fellow blog readers will find you. (By the way, if you want your photo to appear when you comment on a blog, set up a free profile at Gravatar, which is where many sites collect this information.)

18. Link to Other Blogs and Websites – When writing blog posts, add relevant links to any resources that you mention. Not only will readers appreciate this, the companies you mention may also take notice. You might be surprised by how those same companies end up referring to your blog in one of their posts.

19. Include Photos and Graphics – Images make blog posts more visually appealing to readers, and will make your posts look more professional when shared on social media sites. Make sure to use royalty-free images though a site like Clipart.com. Also, be sure to add a keyword phrase to the alt tag and description within each image to boost search engine optimization.

20. Cross-Reference Past Content – When writing new posts, include links to related posts that you’ve written previously. Links keep readers engaged, and they are also good for search engine optimization across your site.

21. Feature Related Posts – At the end of each new blog post, it can be beneficial to mention other blog posts. You can summarize these yourself or WordPress users can install the Yet Another Related Posts plug-in, which will automatically serve up links to related content based on keyword tags.

22. Write Guest Blog Posts – Contributing to other blog sites, especially high-traffic sites, can help you build an audience of readers who want to know more about you. Make sure your bio features a link directly back to your blog.

23. Review Your Site Design – If you want your blog to be taken seriously, it should be professionally designed, formatted for easy reading, and visually appealing. Look at your blog objectively and compare it with others in your field. When in doubt, ask some professional contacts to give you constructive feedback. Often times a simple redesign can increase readership dramatically.

24. Build Your Social Media Audience – Simply having a presence on the major social media networks isn’t enough; you need to actively build your audience. That means importing your contacts into LinkedIn, following the people you want following you on Twitter, investing in Facebook ads to increase page likes, and adding people to your Google+ circles. Social media is not a passive marketing activity. If you want it to be effective, you need to take an active role in building your audience and engaging with them, while also sharing great content. Together these activities can drive plenty of traffic back to your blog.

25. Do More of What Works – Pay attention to the activity generated by each of your blog posts, noting which posts get the most comments, retweets, etc., and which ones fall flat. Do more of what works!

Stephanie Chandler is the author of LEAP! 101 Ways to Grow Your Business.
She is also CEO of http://AuthorityPublishing.com, a custom publisher of
nonfiction books, and http://BusinessInfoGuide.com, a directory of resources
for entrepreneurs. Also visit http://StephanieChandler.com