46 Tips To Boost Your Blog Traffic And Keep It There

There are so many blogs all over the internet about how to get more traffic to your blog, or how to grow your following – but I’ve decided to put together a takeaway from a few of my favourite posts I’ve read online and just outline what I think are some quick ways you can quickly boost your blog!

There are probably a few on here that you’ve forgotten about but need to be doing more of, and some of these you’ll be doing anyway, but at least you know that you’re on the right track! Hopefully you’ll learn something or it’ll spark some creativity. Please share your top tips in the comments below!

1. Write unique content – stealing sucks.

2. Tweet ALOT – I’ve seen my impressions increase 1,100% from posting more, and this has had a knock on effect on my social traffic to my blog as well!

3. Go self hosted – It’s not as difficult as you think and nowhere near as expensive either! Head over to GoDaddy and pick up a domain and hosting package, and they’ll even do it for you, if you don’t feel confident doing it yourself.

4. Comment on blogs – It’ll show your engaged in other peoples content, build nofollow backlinks and potentially drive more traffic to your blog.

5. Subscribe to other blogs – why wouldn’t you want to?! This leads me to my next tip…

6. Get on Bloglovin’ – Read, read and read! Research is so valuable. This is not only a hub of creativity, but it makes it super easy for anyone who wants to subscribe to your feed.

7. Pin pin pin – Pinning is such an easy way to make your content go viral, you can gain some great links and easily triple your traffic.

8. Send newsletters – I don’t like to do this TOO often, but depending on what kind of response you get, you can figure out what works for your audience. Remember, it’s super important that you gain these email addresses in an honest manner – no one likes a spammer.

9. Buy a DSLR – We’re visual creatures – get some engaging images on your blog and try to stay consistent. This is incredibly difficult for those that are deprived of time, but you’ll find your engagement and your returning visitors will increase when you put in the extra effort. This is right at the top of my list of things to improve.

10. Write what you love – This is obvious! Why wouldn’t you write what you love? It’ll show through your content, too.

11. Use basic HTML – Headings are so important, it’ll a) make your content digestible b) help Google understand what your content is about

12. Use hashtags religiously – I constantly scan and track hashtags to find new content that I think I’ll like on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Get involved, otherwise you’re likely to only be engaging with people that are already following you.

13. Do your research – What makes people tick? Do you know what keyphrases people are using to find your content? Do you know what content people spend reading the most?

14. Learn to use Google Analytics – it’s not as boring as it looks, I promise you! It’s actually pretty fun, and really exciting watching your blog flourish.

15. Remember keyphrases – How do you think Google knows what content to show in the search results? It scans your page and looks for keyphrases that are relevant to the users query. This is so important for the titles of your blog posts and in the body of the content. Give Google and your users a heads up of what they can expect.

16. Take part in a blog carnival – You can find heaps of these on communities..

17. Join blogging communities – Please don’t just seed your content through! Engage with the on forums and social media groups – learn about what people want to read about and what posts work for other people. It’s important to build relationships with other bloggers and to be active in the community.

18. Have a niche – This is the quickest and easiest way to build a loyal following. You know your audience will be engaged with your content if you consistently write about the same theme. I find this particularly hard since Strawberry Squeeze is a lifestyle blog, and I have so many different hobbies and interests – but I try and keep a theme where I can.

19. Link your content together – This is so important for SEO, and it helps your readers find more content when reading your posts, increasing your page views and ultimately the average time people spend on your website.

20. Seed content on Reddit – Try not to loose yourself in streams of the /aww feed and seed your content on there! Don’t be spammy though.

21. Use Stumbleupon – Turns out this is a great way to drive people to your content. I didn’t know people still used it either, but it works!

22. Write a guest post – This is one of the best way to expand your reach. Ask one of your friends if you can write a guest post on their blog and get a link back to your website. This will drive traffic to your website through referrals and it’ll also boost your organic traffic!

23. Don’t compare yourself to others – I’ve written a post about comparing yourself to others generally, you can read it here. This is so important in the blogging industry – it seems like everybody is fighting to be heard, trampling over one another and we’re against each other. Stop comparing yourself, and instead invest your time in bettering your blog.

24. Retweet other blogs – share the love!

25. Respond to comments – This is so important! I know it can be difficult to shiv through thousands of spam comments, but install a captcha to reduce the amount of rubbish you have coming through, and use that time to respond to people that are engaging with your blog so they come back again.

26. Create a blogroll – see mine here.

27. Use Instagram – It’ll not only keep your creativity flowing, but it’ll also build up your reputation socially.

28. Optimise your images – See that little box that says ‘alt tag’ when you upload an image to WordPress? Type in exactly what the image is, and you’ll come up in Google search – easy!

29. Cover taboo topics – This is likely to spark a conversation or debate on social media, and even result in some shares.

30. Link to external websites – This is a good way to connect with other bloggers, associate yourself with other websites and get found!

31. Optimise your content – You’ve written your content to be read, so why not ensure that it’s optimised for search engines so people can actually find it!? It’s easy when you know how; read my post on SEO here.

32. Schedule blog posts – this means you can actually take some time off, too! Sometimes I like to just write all day and schedule lots for post for the coming weeks. I feel like I can get into the groove and get shit done. Then when I realize that my blog post has been

33. Be patient – Rome wasn’t built in a day – your traffic will grow!

34. Know your audience – This requires a bit of Google Analytics and some basic marketing knowledge – know who you are connecting with!

35. Text overlay in social pictures – This is something I’ve trying right now and it’s working a treat for my engagement and click metrics! Give it a whirl.

36. Hold a giveaway – This is a great way to initially drive traffic to your blog and gain social followers or subscribers. Be aware of competition trolls though! Your traffic will just drop off again if you run a competition and don’t attract the right type of readers.

37. Feature other blogs – I did this recently, click here to read my blog post ‘UK Lifestyle Bloggers to Watch in 2016‘. It’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and offer value to your readers.

38. Make your blog accessible – this includes your social channels as well – is it easy to subscribe? Can people find your Twitter account?

39. Schedule social posts – Unless you have time to just sit on all your social media channels all day (which no one does, and if you do, you’re not blogging to your full potential!), then you should really schedule some posts. This doesn’t mean you can’t post in real time anymore, but it does mean that you can crack on with a task and know that social is looking after itself for a little while. Hootsuite makes life SO much easier!

40. Tweet more than just your blog – Okay, I’ve subscribed to your blog, I don’t REALLY want to be constantly reminded that you posted a new article last week – I KNOW! There is a line between promoting your blog and then just being spammy. Your Twitter account shouldn’t just be an extension of your blog, but it should engage users in it’s own right; you can then drive traffic from your loyal social following.

41. Run a paid social campaign – Choose your content wisely, set a strict budget and create some goals. After your campaign has ended, review the results and then see how you can do better!

42. PLEASE use tags on your blog correctly! I’ll be writing a post about this soon, so stay tuned.

43. Promote old content – just because it’s an old post, doesn’t mean that you should just forget about it! This works particularly well for seasonal posts such as Christmas gift ideas or recipes. Again, don’t just spam your content all the time – make it relevant!

44. Join Twitter chats – This is a sure fire way to make blogging friends and gain more followers. Don’t know when they are? You can read a list of the top Twitter chats to join in on, in this post on Poppy Loves blog here.

45. Have a subscribe button – Make it easy for people to follow you, and if your content is good, they will.

46. Be personal – That’s the beauty of blogs, they have that personal tone. This is your chance to be YOU!