{"id":195,"date":"2020-12-18T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digitalmarketingpro.net\/?p=195"},"modified":"2021-06-27T20:00:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T17:00:20","slug":"how-to-increase-blog-traffic-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/how-to-increase-blog-traffic-for-free\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Increase Blog Traffic for Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"subtitle\">Is there a magic way to increase blog traffic? Everybody wants to get more and more traffic to their website or blog because this is the reason why these web properties exist, but how do you go from 0 to 1,000 visits per day and then from 1,000 to 10,000?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What I will explain below are some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/seo-strategy\/\"><strong>SEO strategies<\/strong><\/a> I have used to grow traffic to my websites (including the blog you are reading now) that are proven to work.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Get Free Blog Traffic<\/h2>\n<p>These are the best techniques you can follow and increase your blog traffic for free and without spending any money.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#method1\">Patience is the key<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method2\">Optimize your blog for SEO<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method3\">Publish Quality Content<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method4\">Publish Frequently<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method5\">Promote your Content in the Social World<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method6\">Do your Keyword Research<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method7\">Craft Titles That Can Get You Rankings And Traffic<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method8\">Do Some Guest Posting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method9\">Create An Email List And Send Out a Newsletter<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#method10\">Rinse and Repeat!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3 id=\"method1\">1. Patience is the key<\/h3>\n<p>While all the steps that you will read below are proven to work and if you follow them correctly you will be able to increase your blog traffic, it won\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n<p>It may not even happen in 5 or 6 months. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/how-long-does-it-take-for-seo-to-work\/\"><strong>How long it will take<\/strong><\/a> depends on a number of factors and what is important is to have patience so that you don&#8217;t give up too soon.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of anxiously waiting to see your blog posts on the first page of Google, you can concentrate on monitoring your progress (for the keywords you are targeting) and watch the improvement from month to month.<\/p>\n<p>Progress is much more important than anything else and while waiting, you can spend your energy in creating and publishing high-quality content on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">Patience, regular monitoring, and high-quality content are the top ingredients for search engine success.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method2\">2. Optimize your blog for SEO<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/what-is-search-engine-optimization-and-why-is-it-important\/\"><strong>SEO<\/strong><\/a> or Search Engine Optimization is the key to your blog\u2019s success. \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For starters, SEO will get you more traffic from Google and other search engines.<\/li>\n<li>It will get you more conversions (whether this is email signup or the sale of a product) because search engine traffic is converting.<\/li>\n<li>SEO will get you more links since people tend to link to pages found in the first positions of Google<\/li>\n<li>SEO will get you more social shares for the same reason as above i.e. if you are on the first positions of Google then it means that your website is good so people are more than willing to share it on their social media<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now that you are convinced that SEO is a must, how do you optimize your blog for SEO?<\/p>\n<p>Well, there is no one magic solution or technique you can follow but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/what-is-a-seo-friendly-website-and-why-do-you-need-one\"><b>understanding the basics of an SEO-friendly website<\/b><\/a> and going through our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/seo-checklist\"><b>SEO checklist<\/b><\/a> will certainly put you in the right direction.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">If you want more traffic for your website or blog then SEO should be your starting point.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method3\">3. Publish Quality Content<\/h3>\n<p>For most people, there is nothing new here but for beginners, it should be made clear that publishing content online is not enough.<\/p>\n<p>What you need is high-quality content that search engines will love and users will find interesting so that they share, comment, continue to the next step (make a purchase, sign up to an email, etc), and come back to your blog for more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is high-quality content?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the past this was like a \u2018million-dollar question\u2019 but over the years search engines have become more advanced and they are now able to spot high-quality content and differentiate pages that have high-quality content from the rest of the web.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, high-quality content is:<\/p>\n<p>Original and Unique &#8211; the exact same content is not published on any other website<\/p>\n<p>Descriptive &#8211; It gives a complete detailed view of a situation, covering all sides of a story (i.e. it\u2019s not biased)<\/p>\n<p>Has an author &#8211; Users can see who wrote the content, it is not written by admin or unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Sharable &#8211; People like the content and they show this by interacting with the content (reading it, commenting, sharing).<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">If you cannot produce high-quality content your chances of succeeding online are minimum so either find a way to improve the quality of your content (by outsourcing for example) or stop wasting your time because this is not going to happen.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method4\">4. Publish Frequently<\/h3>\n<p>Once you figure out how to make good content, the next step is to be able to produce (publish) good content on a regular basis.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0Consistency is the most difficult but yet important part of being successful in blogging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Why is consistency important?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you have a well-defined publishing schedule (for example Mon, Wed, Fri), this gives another incentive for users to re-visit your page and also for search engines to come back and get the new content and learn more about your website.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t forget that search engines want to keep their users happy by showing up-to-date and accurate information in their search results so when you update your website regularly they will pick your content even faster.<\/p>\n<p>Create a realistic publishing schedule you can follow in the long term rather than a schedule that is too optimistic and you fail in following.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">To increase your chances of following a blogging schedule prepare blog posts for 2 weeks in advance and then start publishing. This will give you enough time to prepare new blog posts.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method5\">5. Promote your Content in the Social World<\/h3>\n<p>Don\u2019t just publish content but promote it as well. Your \u2018job\u2019 is not finished when you hit the publish button. Creating and publishing blogs is the first part of the blogging equation, the second part is to promote your content so that it gets the attention it deserves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do we mean by promoting your content?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Part of your \u2018job responsibilities\u2019 either as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/what-does-a-digital-marketing-manager-do\"><b>digital marketing manager<\/b><\/a> or solo blogger is to connect with other bloggers in your niche and the best way to do that is through the various social media channels.<\/p>\n<p>If you have done this task correctly, then most probably you will have at least a few thousand followers on Twitter, Facebook, etc.<\/p>\n<p>These are the people that are most likely to find your content interesting (provided that you connected with the \u2018right people\u2019) so you need to let them know that you have new content on your website or blog by informing them through your business and personal social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the benefit of promoting your content socially?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Simply put, the more people see your post the greater are the chances of visiting your website, sharing it, and linking to it. (See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/social-media-vs-seo-which-is-better\"><b>Social Media VS SEO<\/b><\/a>)<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">Promoting your content on social media has many direct and indirect benefits and it is the best way to quickly spread the word about your new content.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method6\">6. Do your Keyword Research<\/h3>\n<p>Doing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/keyword-research\/\"><strong>keyword research<\/strong><\/a> before creating content is a must for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, it will help you understand your niche better by learning what keywords and phrases are the most popular.<\/p>\n<p>Second, it will help you get a higher return from your blogging efforts since a blog post that is the result of keyword research has more chances of getting more organic and social traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Keyword research doesn\u2019t have to be a painful or time-consuming process. If you are a beginner, here are some tips to make your life easier:<\/p>\n<p>#1 &#8211; Start with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/how-to-use-google-keyword-planner\/\"><strong>Google keyword tool<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; This tool will give you an estimate of how many people per month search google for a particular keyword. I will explain in a different post how to use this tool but this is your starting point.<\/p>\n<p>#2 &#8211; Use BuzzSumo &#8211; <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/buzzsumo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buzzsumo<\/a> <\/strong>is like a search engine but the results are based on social media popularity. In other words, when you search for a term, buzzsumo will tell you which articles that have this term performed better in social media.<\/p>\n<p>#3 &#8211; Use Google &#8211; Start typing in google search and look carefully at the suggestions given to you by Google. Change the letters as you type to get more suggestions. After you hit search, scroll down to the bottom of the page and see which are the \u201crelated searches\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16918\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16918\" style=\"width: 1244px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-16918\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches.png\" alt=\"Google related searches\" width=\"1244\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches.png 1244w, https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches-300x80.png 300w, https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches-1024x274.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches-768x206.png 768w, https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches-400x107.png 400w, https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/related-searches-600x161.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1244px) 100vw, 1244px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16918\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Find new ideas using Google Related Searches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>#4 &#8211; Watch what your competitors are doing &#8211; monitor your competitor(s) website(s) closely and take note of what kind of posts they are publishing. Your goal is not to \u2018copy\u2019 them but get some ideas on where to concentrate your efforts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">Keyword research is an important tool for all your digital marketing efforts and it is the starting point of SEO, PPC marketing but also social media marketing.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method7\">7. Craft Titles That Can Get You Rankings And Traffic<\/h3>\n<p>This is related to the previous point and what you need to understand in addition to keyword research is the importance of choosing page titles that both search engines and people can understand.<\/p>\n<p>A title that is super human friendly is not necessarily an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/seo-friendly-titles\/\"><strong>SEO friendly title<\/strong><\/a> and for maximum exposure, you need to learn how to keep a balance between the two.<\/p>\n<p>The title of a page is also very important for SEO so you need to make sure that the title includes your keywords otherwise search engines will have a hard time understanding what your page is about.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">Good post titles will not only increase your organic traffic but also the email open rate (if you send a newsletter) and social media sharing.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method8\">8. Do Some Guest Posting<\/h3>\n<p>Guest posting is considered by many as a \u201csafe\u201d way to do link building but the real benefits of guest posting are far more than getting a link pointing to your website.<\/p>\n<p>Guest posting is a great way to promote your brand (either personal or business) and get traffic to your web site.<\/p>\n<p>To take advantage of these benefits you need to get your posts published on high-quality websites with lots of traffic and this is not always easy.<\/p>\n<p>First, you need to identify the websites that are good candidates to accept your posts and then create a plan on how to get published. The idea of just sending an email with your post will not work so you need to work harder and be more creative.<\/p>\n<p>When approaching big websites that accept articles from contributors (like Forbes, Inc, etc) you need to show them examples of your previous work so before attempting to contact them make sure that you have some nice examples of published work in your portfolio.<\/p>\n<p>When the Editor will review your application for becoming a contributor they will also view your social media profiles to ensure that you have a really strong profile in at least one of the networks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">Guest posting for traffic is hard work but it is definitely something that will set your website (or blog) apart from the rest and this is very good for SEO purposes as well.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method9\">9. Create An Email List And Send Out a Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>I cannot think of a niche that an email list is not useful. Many people believe that social media killed email lists but this is nowhere close to the truth.<\/p>\n<p>People still use email and they actually check email several times per day. In most cases, they also get a notification when a new email arrives on their mobiles, smartwatches, or tablets.<\/p>\n<p>Some consider email lists and newsletters as a kind of spam but this is not true. When people enter their email address to subscribe to your newsletter they do it because they like what they read and they need more.<\/p>\n<p>To have the most success in getting people to subscribe, use some type of lead magnet such as a downloadable PDF, cheat sheet, template, ebook, or even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onehourprofessor.com\/best-online-course-platforms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>create an online course<\/strong><\/a> that delivers a ton of value and is short\/digestible.<\/p>\n<p>So whatever your niche is, start collecting emails from your visitors and send out emails to inform them about new posts, new offers, new products, and anything else that may interest them without spamming and without overdoing it.<\/p>\n<p>Before sending out a newsletter think for a moment if it is useful for the recipients and if it something you would like to see in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>For blogs and websites that are not selling any products or services but are using AdSense or other ways to monetize their content, an email list registration can be considered as a conversion metric.<\/p>\n<div class=\"learnmore\">It is proven by various studies that traffic from a highly targeted email list converts better than any other source including search and PPC.<\/div>\n<h3 id=\"method10\">10. Rinse and Repeat!<\/h3>\n<p>If you are long enough in this business you should know by now that getting traffic to a website is not a once-off process but it is something that needs a lot of patience and hard work.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, a website (or blog) with a lot of traffic can make you money and create a number of business opportunities for meeting your goals (and dreams).<\/p>\n<p>To finish this post with a positive message, when you do everything correctly you will be able to grow your blog&#8217;s traffic naturally. Just be patient and keep working until you reach your desired traffic levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there a magic way to increase blog traffic? Everybody wants to get more and more traffic to their website or blog because this is the reason why these web properties exist, but how do you go from 0 to 1,000 visits per day and then from 1,000 to 10,000? What I will explain below [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[492],"tags":[120,397,398,13,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24176,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/24176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}