One of the questions I get all the time from bloggers is how to boost blog traffic.

Blog traffic is so important for a successful blog.  You’re spending time creating amazing content, right?  So, you want people to see it!

Having traffic is also crucial for monetizing your blog.  Once you gain a significant amount of traffic, not only do you increase your chances for monetizing, but you also open up your blog for sponsored posts and bigger ad networks.

As bloggers, we have to constantly work on building and maintaining our blog traffic.

That’s why I put together my top 10 tips for increasing your blog’s traffic.

Use Pinterest

Pinterest drives a ton of my blog’s traffic.  It’s been absolutely invaluable for boosting page visitors.

Pinterest is basically a search engine tool which means people are there to find content that appeals to them. This makes Pinterest an amazing platform on which to promote your brand and share content to targeted niches.

Pinterest helped me go from zero traffic to over 3,000 clicks per day on average.

That’s huge!  

You should be posting your content to Pinterest, building your boards, and targeting niches that your ideal audience is interested in.  

If you aren’t using Pinterest, you’re missing out on a huge traffic opportunity.

Keyword Research

Optimizing your posts for SEO and using keyword research can help your target audience find your content.

SEO improves the organic ranking of your content on search engines.  Proper use of SEO helps targeted traffic find your content, which is the whole point.

There are some great WordPress plugins that can help you check your SEO, like Yoast.

Do some keyword research.  See what’s popular, what you can compete for, and then start using them in your titles, body, and promotions for your posts.

We use KW Finder and Google Keyword Planner.

Don’t overkill it, but just insert them where they naturally fit in the text.  We regularly do keyword research when planning out what to write about and we make sure to insert them in our posts and titles.

Keywords are even important for when you pin your content on Pinterest.  Why?  Because Pinterest is actually a search engine tool and not just social media.

Using keywords on Pinterest help categorize your content and optimize it so that your target audience can easily find and gain exposure to it.

Place keywords in your pin description, board & profile descriptions to help target traffic.

Email List

Your email list is where you can really start building relationships with readers.  They subscribed for a reason.

We often email when there is a new post live on the blog.  You can also use your subscribers as an opportunity to learn more about your audience.

Survey them and find out what content they want to have more of.

When you build relationships with readers by popping up in their inbox multiple times a week and giving them the content they want, they’re more likely to share, make purchases, and actually visit the blog.

Your email list isn’t just for plugging content though.  Let subscribers get to know you.  They subscribed because they want your content.  Putting a face on it can help build loyalty and let them know you’re a real person that they should listen to.

Opt Ins

We use opt-ins on our blog to help build our newsletter.  We use Sumo to create opt in banners and pop ups.

We have opt ins for regular email sign ups and for freebies in exchange for an action.

You can offer a free product download, service, or something else of value in exchange for a newsletter subscription.

You could also offer something in exchange for a share or like on social media.  

Opt ins are great ways to entice visitors to either share your blog content or to join your newsletter.

Your newsletter is where you can really build relationships and a loyal subscriber base.

Post Consistently

Posting consistently is so important when increasing your blog’s traffic.

Consistent posting can help boost your organic ranking in search results because search engines like Google will recognize that your blog is being updated frequently and is likely relevant.

It also contributes to visitors wanting to explore your blog and return to it.

If you’re only posting new content once a month, or if you post on and off, there is no real incentive for visitors to return.

When you post consistently, you build up your blog’s value and lets visitors know that you’re engaged and actively posting new awesome content for them to consume.  

No one wants to share a blog that never has new content.

Facebook Ads

We use Facebook ads to help expose our content to new audiences.  Sometimes using paid traffic can be especially helpful for driving sales or traffic back to your blog.

It isn’t completely necessary to invest in Facebook ads or promoted pins on Pinterest to boost your traffic, but it can help expose your blog to new audiences who otherwise might not come into contact with your brand.

On Facebook, you can target by interests, purchase behavior, location and other demographics.  You can also promote to a lookalike audience which targets people who are likely to be interested in your business based on your current target audience.

It’s definitely a more advanced strategy, but when done correctly, it can be a helpful tool for increasing your blog’s traffic.

Analytics

Data will be your best friend.  I know numbers make some of us cringe on reflex, but paying attention to your data can help you optimize your blog.

Check out your Google analytics to see which content is driving the most traffic and from where.  

Perhaps there are certain blog topics that drive a lot of traffic.  Maybe you’ll see that a lot more traffic is coming from Pinterest than you originally thought.

These can help inform your future decisions.  If craft posts drive a lot of traffic from Pinterest or generate a lot of shares, maybe you’ll choose to include more of those in your weekly posting schedule.

Knowing what’s working and where the majority of your traffic is coming from can help you understand where you should double down your efforts.

Use Shareable Graphics

Graphics and photography are so important in blogging.  If you want people to share your content, you need to make it shareable in the first place.

This involves using high-quality photos and creating graphics specifically for social media sharing.

We make a special Pinterest graphic for each post.  If you’re going to share on Facebook and Twitter, make sure you choose the appropriate graphic size for each platform.

With Canva, you can easily resize your graphics for specific social media platforms.

Also include share icons on your pages so that visitors can easily share content to social media with the click of a button.

Write Longer Posts

Google loves long form content.  Longer posts can work hand in hand with SEO to help boost your ranking.

This doesn’t mean that longer posts are guaranteed better exposure and ranking, but data shows that long-form content can receive a boost.

Longer content also helps you look like more an expert in your field and gives you more opportunities to include links to other posts on your site.  Backlinking is a helpful tool for exposing readers to other content on your blog and, hopefully, hooking them.

Aim for posts over 1,000 words.  

If you think about it, there isn’t really that much you can share or say in 500 words about a topic.  If you want to provide really helpful, valuable content, you’ll probably benefit from longer content anyway.

You can still have some posts that are on the shorter end (think between 500 and 1,000 words) but aim for at least half of your posts to be longer form content.

Community

You should always be growing your blogging network.  Connecting with other bloggers on the regular is important.

A big aspect of blogging is community, and building relationships with other bloggers can open the doors for some cool collaboration opportunities.

You can guest blog, gain affiliates, and collaborate with bloggers you’ve built relationships with.  This can help expose you to their audience as well.

You can also join blogging Facebook groups and group board on Pinterest.  The bloggers you form relationships with may share your content on their own pages too.

There are my top 10 tips for increasing your blog’s traffic.