Six Legitimate Ways to Boost Your Traffic (Without Getting Beaten Down by Google) - DailyBlogTips |
| Six Legitimate Ways to Boost Your Traffic (Without Getting Beaten Down by Google) Posted: 18 Mar 2014 07:07 AM PDT Back in our survey last year, one DailyBlogTips reader wrote, “I am struggling for traffic. Please help me so that I can increase the traffic of my site by legal methods.” First off, it's great to know this reader isn't thinking about using Black Hat methods. It's definitely not worth trying to cheat Google (and other search engines) — even if you have some limited short-term success, your site will get penalised before long. Instead, when you look at ways to get more traffic to your site, it's really important you go about it in the right way. Here, I'll share six straightforward and effective ways to get more readers to your website. While you don't have to do all of these, they build on one another, so the more you can put into practice, the better results you'll see. #1: Write the Best Content You CanI'm sure you've heard this before … but it bears repeating, because all too often I see that bloggers aren't really taking it to heart. You CANNOT succeed in blogging without good content. If you're churning out blog posts as fast as possible, without any real regard to how good they are, or if you're reprinting articles from Ezine Articles or similar — then your content is unlikely to be much good. Further reading: Six Simple Tricks That Will Improve Your Writing Straight Away, Ali Luke, DailyBlogTips #2: Include Your Blog in Your Email SignatureThis is a small step, but one that many bloggers don't think to take. Add a link to your blog in your email signature (text which appears at the bottom of every email). That way, anyone you email will see the link to your blog. Of course, not everyone will be interested enough to check it out … but many will. You can also add your URL to your forum profile on many forums, and to your Twitter profile and Facebook About section. Further reading: How to Use Your Email Signature To Drive Traffic To Your Blog With WiseStamp, Gigi Ross, KludgyMom #3: Build Relationships with Other BloggersThe blogosphere is built on relationships. After all, if you want to get links and tweets from other bloggers, they need to know you exist. This goes for your blogging peers — other bloggers at roughly the same level as you — as well as for the bigger names in your niche. A great place to start is by leaving comments. This isn't an SEO tactic (almost all blogs have "no-follow" on the link attached to your comment) but it is a good way to build up relationships both with bloggers and with their readers. Be cautious about contacting big-name bloggers by email — this can come across as intrusive and demanding. Twitter's often a better way to go. Further reading: Why You Should Pay More Attention to the "Little Guys" in the Blogosphere, Ali Luke, DailyBlogTips #4: Guest Post on Major BlogsA whole week in our Get Readers course is devoted to guest posting — with good reason. A guest post is a brilliant way to tap into someone else's audience. Done well, guest posts create a win/win/win situation. You benefit from the exposure and traffic; the host blogger benefits from a great piece of content that they didn't have to write; their readers benefit from your expertise and new perspective. Further reading: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your First Guest Post, Ali Luke, DailyBlogTips #5: Don't Just Think SEOWhen you're looking at ways to get more traffic to your blog, it's easy to focus on search engine traffic and on SEO techniques aimed at getting you more of that. But search engines aren't the only source of readers for your blog. In fact, some bloggers do just fine without doing much SEO at all — they concentrate instead on building a business and creating really great content. (Danny Iny from Firepole Marketing is a good example.) The slightly ironic thing about this is that these blogs may well rank very highly in Google and other search engines, because they're providing exactly what Google wants to promote — great content aimed at meeting readers' needs. Further reading: 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don't Have a Clue [infographic], Danny Iny and Brian Clark, Copyblogger #6: … But Do Learn the Basics of SEOWhile SEO isn't everything, it's certainly worth paying some attention to. If you're using WordPress, your blog's already in good shape — but there are plenty of plugins (like All in One SEO Pack) that can help you take things further. By understanding the basics of SEO — things like using keywords in your titles, and building plenty of links between your pages — you're in a better position to create great content that both readers and search engines love. Further reading: 6 SEO Tips from Google Itself, Daniel Scocco, DailyBlogTips
What have I missed? Let me know your best traffic-boosting tip in the comments…
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