10 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

You often hear that you just have to publish regular content to increase your blog traffic. While that’s part of the game, it can also be a massive waste of time (and money) if not done right.

Thinking about what content you need and why is key. Together with some other strategies, creating high-quality content is a crucial part of content marketing.

The following tactics can have a huge impact on your blog traffic. You don’t have to apply all of them, but the more, the better.

Just start with one or two and proceed from there.

1. Find topics that people are searching for

If your website is focused on a specific topic, you probably have many content ideas that you think must be interesting for your target readers.

The problem is that this is typically untrue. Just because you find something exciting, it doesn’t mean that this applies to other people. 

You also have to consider that you have a different viewpoint. You’re an expert in the field and have potentially dealt with the topic for many years. That means that many of the things you find interesting, your target readers don’t even know about.

If they don’t know about it, they won’t search for it.

However, you can easily discover what many people are searching for by using keyword research tools. Ahrefs, Moz, Google keyword planner, and Semrush are all useful for this purpose. We at Writing Studio prefer Ahrefs because it provides accurate data about search volume, keyword difficulty (KD), and some unique SEO tools.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. If you’re not familiar with SEO, I recommend our post on the topic. 

But let’s briefly discuss why blog SEO is so important.

Let’s assume you want to write a post about weed strains. For this popular topic, the Ahrefs keywords explorer shows that it has a search volume of 23K.

The downside is that it is also very competitive. With a KD of 64, it is incredibly hard to rank for it on Google. Having a post that many people are looking for is not worth much if no one can find it. 

But this is not a reason to give up on this topic. Many secondary keywords have a decent search volume and are much less competitive. 

Let’s take a look at different weed strains as secondary, long-tail keywords. Runtz is a popular weed strain that even has multiple substrains. For instance, “pink runtz strain” has a search volume of 4.7K and a low KD of 3.

For more information about finding keywords in a competitive field, check out our CBD-Keywords article.

2. Consider search intent

When you type keywords into Google, you are looking for specific information. This is called search intent.

It is crucial that the keywords you’re targeting and the content of the blog post match the reader’s search intent.

Your content can be the best in the world, but if it’s not what the reader is looking for, they don’t care.

One crucial distinction is between informational and commercial content.

Let’s come back to the weed strain example. 

An informational post would include a list of different weed strains, explaining their characteristics. 

A commercial post would recommend weed strain products from different suppliers and link to them.

But what is the reader looking for when typing “weed strains” into Google?

You can easily see for yourself by Googling this keyword. Google has an excellent idea about the search intent behind keywords.

You can see that the search results for “weed strains” are all informational content.

3. Write high-quality content

The best keyword optimization is useless if the content is poor quality. In the end, people, not machines, are reading your content. 

If they don’t like it, they will not continue reading, and they will not share your content. This affects your Google ranking. 

Viral content that gets shared widely is a traffic magnet. Such a piece of content can easily attract thousands of readers.

But how do you write great content?

The most successful posts cover one aspect of a particular topic in detail. Your goal should be to write the best piece of content about this particular aspect.

If you don’t want to create the content yourself, you can also outsource this process by finding content writers for hire.

If you struggle to find ideas for great content, check out our step-by-step guide about finding blog topics.

4. Create useful infographics

When you take time to write high-quality content, it’s also a good idea to invest in good images and infographics.

There is much truth in the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” 

Infographics are an excellent way to summarize the main points of your blog post. 

If you try to explain complex matters, an infographic makes it much easier to understand.

There is another bonus: people love to share good infographics. So, the chances are high that people will share your infographics, which will increase your blog traffic.

5. Generate backlinks

Backlinks are links from other people to your blog posts, and they are incredibly valuable. Google sees them as signals of trust and authority, especially when they come from high-authority websites. 

One efficient way to create backlinks is the skyscraper technique, which involves automated email outreach. You approach websites that currently link to content that is similar to yours and simply ask them to link to your content instead.

However, this approach is only successful if your content is high-quality. So, make sure that your blog post beats the top-ranking posts. 

6. Write guest posts

Guest blogging on a popular website with a lot of traffic is a great way to increase your publicity and drive traffic to your website.

Readers will become aware of you, and if the guest post is the best piece of content in this niche, they will likely check out your website.

Guest posts are also an excellent way to include backlinks to posts on your website. But keep in mind that writing guest posts is a lot of hard work. So, this isn’t an easy method.

7. Mention influencers on your blog

When you cite or mention experts in your blog posts, make sure to let them know.

This has several benefits. 

First, it’s a great way to build a relationship with influencers in your field. When you approach them next time, they will already know you and will be more likely to respond.

Second, they may share your post with their followers. This would be a big win for you!

But don’t push it, especially if you haven’t established a relationship yet. Just send a short message: “Hey, because I admire your work, I wrote a section about it in my post about xxx. I thought you might be interested in reading it.”

Even if you don’t get a response, the chances are high that this message is highly appreciated, which is an excellent first step in building a relationship.

8. Answer Quora questions

Quora is a platform where users ask questions, and people who feel qualified answer them.

Quora questions often contain high-volume keywords and tend to rank highly in Google. By answering these questions, you can quickly increase your visibility.

The easiest way to find questions that have the potential to increase your blog traffic is by using the Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Simply type in “Quora.com” and then click on “top pages.” You can then enter a keyword to filter for questions containing this keyword (intermittent fasting in our example) on the top left.

You get a list with the top-ranking questions with a direct link to them. If you feel like answering it, you can click on it and write your answer.

If you regularly write high-quality answers, the chances are high that people click on your profile. Make sure to include a link to your website there. When answering questions, you can also include links to your blog posts. 

However, only do this if the post is directly related to the question and helps answering it. Simply linking unrelated blog posts won’t get you any followers. 

9. Stay active in online communities

It’s always a good idea to join online communities that are related to your niche. 

It’s an easy way to keep up with new trends and get to know your target audience’s questions. 

Facebook and LinkedIn groups, Reddit, and other forums are great for this. (Reddit is also a very useful tool to find blog topic ideas.)

By being active in these communities, you can make valuable connections and increase your publicity. But be very careful with posting your content to these groups. Most rules explicitly say that self-promotion is not allowed. 

Your priority should be to provide value to the group. If you do this regularly, group members will become aware of you and check out your profile (which, of course, includes a link to your website).

It might be accepted to occasionally post your own content if it is of true value to the group, but do this only after you have established a relationship with the moderators. 

10. Interview experts in your niche

Interviewing experts in your niche is a great way to attract their followers to your website. You can turn the interview transcript into an article and imbed the interview itself as a YouTube video. 

As soon as the interview is online, send your interviewee a link. Most experts will then share the interview with their followers. 

If the expert is popular, many people may search for them. If you are lucky, the interview will even rank high and drive long-term traffic to your website. 

Before interviewing experts, you must establish a relationship with them. Remember tip 6 about reaching out? That’s an excellent way to do it.

The bottom line

A strategy to increase your blog traffic should always include multiple tactics. SEO helps your Google rank, which can create a steady stream of traffic over a long time if done correctly.

Other strategies require more consistent, regular work but can bring a boost of immediate traffic.

In combination, these strategies are powerful in increasing your traffic.