Top 9 Tips to getting More Blog Traffic

Let's be honest, we struggle to get, maintain and convert traffic to our blogs.

As content marketing has become so mainstream and with consumers spending more time in SMS and watching video, and less time on social and reading content, the entire ecosystem has changed during the last couple of years.

What worked in 2013, won't work in 2016, we're on mobile devices a lot more for starters. 

Blog Traffic & Content Engagement 

That's not to say it's not an important issue for startups, small businesses and even bigger brands to create valuable blog articles.

Providing ROI on our blogs means creating a connection. A little 'aha' moment that can elevate our brand, help acquire new customers, and even improve customer retention.

When I got approached by a growth hacker from London, Tamas Torok, who is writing a book on content promotion, I wanted to quickly revisit this topic.    

1- Interview Influencers

Interviewing industry experts and knowledge experts who have social proof and a great following on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc... is a great way to piggy-back on the audience of existing thought leaders to boost traffic to your article on your blog. 

While this strategy is great from a traffic viewpoint, it should not either be over-done and be the basis of how you blog. 

2- Develop a Unique Content Strategy 

What value can you offer that nobody else can, if there is a niche in your field that isn't filled? Become that niche to draw on big segment of an existing audience.

Providing readable content with top notch data and fresh insights requires some originality. What is the unique selling point and focus of your blog that makes readers want to come back?

3- Test your Content for Mobile & First Impressions

The value of your content is only as good as it getting read. Since increasingly a majority of viewers will view your blog on a mobile device and click on the article due to the title, image and strength of the brand impression spending more time on these makes sense to get the full ROI of your content strategy. 

• A strong headline 
• Readability 
• Attractive images and embedded video clips
• Scannable text (lists, bullets, short sentences). 

4- Blog about Trending News with Fresh Insights

There's still an added value to blog about new developments in your industry or related to your industry that could make you the "go-to" source for that audience.

If your readers begin to associate you with not just reporting on these development but making valuable added connections that blends industry news with insights that are actionable, you attract a broader audience. 

5- Create Engaging Long-Form Posts

When the majority of blog content are articles below 1000 words, differentiating and engaging make take some added effort. In most industries, storytelling cannot take place in articles that are 400-700 words, longer articles give context, narrative and relevant tips to the next level that have more long-tail SEO value. 

Long-form content is more shareable, since typically it demonstrates or is associated with higher value. Many studies validate this for SEO as well, with the publishing site Medium often quoting how the most engaging content takes 7 minutes to read. 

If 85% of content is under 1000 words, go big or go extremely small. Find a way to stand out. 

6- Create Viral Marketing Opportunities

While it's great to have valuable high SEO optimized content for your keywords, on occasion taking an article to the next level of public relations, that has the ability to go viral can be a worthwhile goal to growth-hack your audience and boost traffic.

For this reason, guest blogging for industry publications that already have traffic that link back to you, is one of the best ways to increase traffic to your native blog. PR and content distribution is then, more to equally as important as content production. 

Continually tweak content distribution and content quality to better reach, inspire, educate and entertain your target audience. 

7- Know Your Content Objective

In your industry after some testing on your blog, you will recognize the kind of articles that get a lot of shares, vs. those that get more links. Impressions are great, but engagement is usually better. Knowing your content objectives and aligning your content strategy with those that best provides value to your audience should always be your priority. 

Recruiting guest bloggers to help add different flavors to your blog can also be a good idea. While it's great to create a consistent brand experience in the tone and topics of your blog, having the same voice all the time will bore your readers to tears no matter how great that voice is. 

8- Op-Eds get More Links & Shares

When BuzzSumo and Moz teamed up to do their analysis they found that opinion articles, editorials and columnist type content got more links and shares. Think about content that you might read in the New York Times or TheAtlantic, right?

• Taking a stand
• Embracing controversy in current debates
• Writing on the collective pulse 
• Backing the articles with data

Finding the sweet spot of writing an op-ed that is backed by data, is then one of the magic formulas we can incorporate in our blogs. While this might not be possible in a B2B setting or in many industries, there is a way around this. Write about the future of your industry. 

Finally content format plays a huge role in linkability of content, with List post and Why post articles performing the best. While for shares, List post and videos do the best. 

9- Link Blog with Email and SMS campaigns 

Leveraging your Email list matching blog article topics with customer segments, re-targeting and integrating blog articles with SMS marketing, are all strategies that can help improve traffic to your blog. 

Sharing blog articles on social media and all relevant channels such as Email and SMS in as targeted a way as possible is certain to improve your brand.

At the end of the day, it's not just about traffic to your blog, it's about the quality of content and level of interaction and engagement you can elicit that converts visitors into customers and customers into engaged and loyal ones.  

What  are your marketing tips to get more traffic and engagement on your blog?