Wednesday, 12 March 2014

15 effective ways of driving traffic to your blog | website


1. YouTube videos


These days; people are clinging more to video tutorials than plain articles, because a video communicates 60% more easily than that discussed in written form. Audience are therefore browsing for more helpful videos and webinars. So, in order to drive new audience and traffic to your blog, post some videos in you tube and don't forget to put your website or blog's link at the end of the video discussion. 

Free giveaways in the form of videos, eBooks, PDF's are essential and I can say an important tool especially for the beginners to expand their presence in the web market. Just convert your blog posts in video formats and ensure it's simplicity in terms of easy explanations and understand-ability.


2. Guest blogging


Guest blogging is one of the important concern for SEO during late 2010's but slowly it lost it's importance in the recent years. Google webmaster guru 'Matt Cutt' said that Google no longer considers guest blogging as an essential tool for PageRanks and SEO, due to the growth of spammers. But to be precise, it does help you build traffic to your blog ! Even though we can't expect much back links or SEO, the reason why we should still care for guest blogging is that we get an all new audience from others website or blog. 

If you give very good explanations with appreciable facts about some topics in others blog as a guest (topic that is related to your blog's content), then readers of that blog comes to know about your expertise in that topic and so they will look for your similar posts. In this way you can attract them. While guest posting, ask the blog owners to include attributes to you and also preferably with a link to your blog. Also post only in those blogs, the content of which are more or less related to your's.

3. Social media exploring


a. Importance 

I have been discussing about social networks in almost all my posts (similar topics), what to do ? such is the importance of socializing and so I can't neglect it telling you repeatedly. Social media is like a protective armor to all web marketers and promoters. It works like a gem and helps in every aspects to build, grow and boost your business. Without proper social media exposure/presence, you are not gonna make reputation as a writer or an entrepreneur. 

Social media platforms like Twitter, Google+. Facebook, Pinterest etc are the key targeted zones to share your content and these are also the places where millions spend hours daily looking for new topics and trends. 

Do you think - a simple submission to search engines will help you grow traffic immediately ? Even if your blog gets indexed, it takes hell lot of time to get into the top pages of the search engines. People may not be finding your blog easily and so you will be left with frustration.

b. Use Google+


Google plus is an emerging network and are gaining importance these days for driving traffic to blogs. Share you content in Google plus. You may post same articles many times but with some gap.

C. Use LinkedIn & Triberr 

LinkedIn is the best professional platform to connect with similar minded professionals. Trust me by joining LinkedIn groups and being an active member you can drive huge number traffic to your blog or website. You will see new and professionals leaving comment in your blog. I really enjoyed being in LinkedIn and in just two days I received many new connections as well as blog readers. Be sure to join LinkedIn and keep active in all the discussions. Identify similar minded people and connect with them.

Triberr is the rocking blogging network that I found yesterday. It's soley dedicated to bloggers and we are allowed to connect with awesome bloggers out there. With the help of triberr, I received 30 followers in just an over night ! Trust me being a member of triberr is a huge benefit to drive traffic as well as get good number of followers, you will see that your blog links will be shared by many people, the people whom you never come across and don't know even their names !

c. Link back to your blog in all social media


Be an active member of some top social networks. Follow as many bloggers/influencer's as possible and get yourself introduced to people. They will recommend you for sure. Find people who are searching for your topics, drag them to your social networks and keep them engaged. Maintain a superb profile in all your networks and don't forget to leave your website/blog links in your profile "about me" page. For best results, include a link, the topic of which is most popular in your blog (instead of giving your blog's homepage address)

d. Groups, forums, discussion and chat rooms


Twitter and Facebook groups are great platforms to get introduced to new audience; whom are particularly interested in a specific topic. You can see and connect with like minded people. Explore for such groups and join them. Be an active participant in almost all discussions. Give your detailed views and suggestions to them for their queries. If you are a business and you don't find time, employ some one say your employee to specifically deal with social networks. 

Don't be simply like "check me...", "check my blog......", I mean just throwing your posts on their faces, machines does that not humans! you are required to get involved personally. The best attraction being raising questions or solving their questions. There are some interesting chat rooms in twitter, post your links to that; members will easily find you and your content. Some examples are #blogchatter #blogger #blogging. Also give a try to LinkedIn groups, they are doing well and are gaining prominence these days, because of being a professional network.

e. Email subscription, feeds, email signatures


Email subscription and feeds are the best way of spreading your latest release to the followers without your need. Include for sure; feed and email subscription links in your blog or website. Analysis says that 95% of the new visitor won't come back to see your articles. So, by enabling email subscriptions, you are sending your articles to the subscribers directly, and so there is no need for them to search for your blog again. 

Utilize some space in your blog to put email subscription links. Put your blog link as a signature along with your name, whenever you communicate through mails.

4. SEO strategies 


Ok, just now we saw how social networks boost blog traffic. But remember; social sharing is a temporary process (most of the times), your data will be lost soon and so you need to update it regularly to keep in track. Now we look towards search engines, they are the source where we get noted even with time ! So, it's really important to care for them as they are long term helpers unlike social networks. In order to get good results and get in top search pages, you must apply Search engine optimization tactics, the main concern being about 'Content'. Care for the following to get indexed and get more traffic

5. Use Backlinks, comment practices and link trade


Backlinks are masters for optimizing your site for search engines and also to get good PageRanks. Having numerous inbound links are an indication of your blog or website popularity as well as importance in the web world and so Google gives higher importance to such sites. Incorporate good practice of leaving backlinks. The best way being by leaving comments in others blog or trading for links. (Learn more about backlinks and good comment practice here)

6. Use Analytics and other stat tools 


It's very important to understand the behavior of your audience. Analyzing and understanding your audience helps to decide the following
  • what to write or post
  • when to post
  • where to post
  • Whom are the target audience (demographics)
  • Whether to elaborate any specific topics
  • Which topic is getting popular
  • Whats the audience needs

Delivering the needs of audience might help you grow your network. Audience loves to get their requirements fulfilled, and if you understand their's, then it's very easy to build traffic. Use Google Analytics tool to analyze their behavior. Also post only when your audience are active and not when you find time ! Remember we are writing for audience only and not for robots or self.

7. Re share your old content with people


Like I said above, you may re-share your content with some social networks like twitter, pinterest and even G+. Everyday some hundreds will be joining and so when you give the same topic, the newbies may find it useful, thus leading to greater exposure. So, it's no harm in re-sharing a content, but better maintain reasonable gap.

8. Use friends to promote 


This is also a best way of getting traffic. Ask your friends and family members to share your content with their friends and known people. People give more value to content that has been shared by their friends than a content shared by someone unknown.

9. Submit blogs to search engines, pinglers and directories 


Directories are great places for categorizing blogs under different headings. They might help in directing traffic to your blog (through backlinks) and hence got more credibility. Also submit your site or blog to free services like Google webmaster, Yahoo, Bing, MSN and other search engines as well as to pinglers. 

10. Social book marking sites


Use social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Delicious, Stumbleupon and more to share your content as well as get good traffic.

11. Include visual media (image and videos)


Well, here comes today's trend - visual media through images or info graphics. Visual media content is productive and attracts audience well (like videos). Images can communicate content in an interesting, easy and yet in entertaining manner. Remember, images will also appear in image search results and therefore you will get visitors this way too.

12. Keep posting frequently


Audience will only remember you, when you are active and post content frequently. Set a specific time frame say daily, once in two days and in worst case once in a week. This is to ensure that you are active. Audience will be waiting to see your articles !

13. Maintain a great blog layout, easily accessible


A very good and visual appealing blog layout attracts the visitors as well as search engines. Preferably don't include pop up ads, that will annoy users. Include HTML/user sitemap to give your audience an easy and good navigation experience. 

14. Content 


a. Offer original content


Content that is very rare to find in internet (not always possible) or at least; content that stands out of the crowd from others (regarding the same topic) are mostly loved by people. Show your passion and expertise in your content. I had also given a very detailed guide about Content marketing, you may check that for better understanding.

b. Do keyword research before posting


For better search results, select page titles and include most searched keywords in page titles, URL as well as in search description. (Learn how here)

c. Organize your content


Include appropriate page breaks, phrases or paragraphs. Write in a friendly tone and give facts. Don't stuff keywords or unnecessary words in your articles to make it lengthy. Be natural in writing, let the article be short. 

15. Don't give up - be consistent


Finally, driving traffic is a long process and there's nothing like 'shortcuts', you need to do a lot of research in the selected niche and keep writing/posting even if you don't enjoy much traffic in the beginning. It's a slow process but steadily your site receives good traffic as well as trust in people. This is a web world and there are thousands competing with you about the same topic and it's really hard to get noted soon. Be patient and maintain consistency. This way you grow soon and enjoy.

Hope this helps.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by posting a comment below. 

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