15 Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic

1. Follow your fellow bloggers on Twitter and Facebook and interact with them there, as well as on their blog. The more someone feels they “know” you, the more interested they will be in what you have to say over on your blog.

2. Comment on and share blog posts you have found interesting or engaging. Try to make your comment interesting; if you can, add something to the discussion. Many sites will have you login to leave a comment, which will usually mean a link to your blog will appear beneath your comment.

3. Join in linky parties and blog hops. They’re not just a good way to get new readers, but also to find new blogs to read, and to interact with new people. Check out the Linky Linky for a list of great places to link your blog!

4. Check out Brit Mums for loads of great chances to get your blog out to a wider audience. There are linkys for you to join in with, and a whole host of monthly round-ups on different topics. If you think your blog (or a specific post) falls into one of the categories, contact the editor and ask them to include you next month.

5. Auto-share your posts directly from your blog. With most platforms, there’s a way to automatically share your posts to various social media platforms as they publish. There are various arguments for and against doing this; personally, I’m likely to forget to do it for every single post so it suits me perfectly to have it happen automatically.

6. Don’t give up! So many people start a blog and if they’re not getting all sorts of offers within a couple of months, they give up. Or worse, they run out of things to post about and get fed up with scratching their head every day, trying to think of something to post. Success doesn’t come overnight. If you’re not passionate about your subject you will never succeed – but if you are, it should be a joy for you to write about without worrying about traffic and stats and sponsored posts.

7. Guest post on other sites. A lot of bloggers will put out tweets asking for guest posters while they’re on holiday or similar. I am currently running the  #DayInTheLife project where people write about a day in their life. When you guest post on someone’s blog, you usually include a little bio about yourself and a link to your blog. It’s a great way to reach a wider or different audience and if people like what they read, they might come and check out your blog!

8. Host guest posts. Having other bloggers write for your blog means they’re likely to promote their guest blog – meaning their followers will come to your blog to read their post, and hopefully stick around to read some of your content too.

9. Blog consistently. Even if you only post once a week, try to make it the same day and a similar sort of time. People won’t just stop following your blog if you update erratically, but they’re likely to visit more regularly if there’s new content regularly.

10. Make use of social media! It’s reallt not a case of “build it and they will come” – you need to shove your blog under people’s noses. Repeatedly! See this post about how to increase your blog traffic using Twitter, or perhaps this post about promoting your blog on Facebook. The best advice I can give you for any social media is to play with it and see what works for you.

11. Use an SEO plugin. But bear in mind the fact that SEO is really only relevant for the sort of topics people are likely to Google for. If you’re posting about your day with your toddler, or posting photos of your dog, that’s where social media comes in. Social media will bring you more traffic than SEO, but it’s handy to use it where you can. See this post about SEO.

12. Add a link to your blog to your email signature. Simple but effective.

13. Install Analytics and pay attention to what they tell you. I wrote a whole post about this here. If you see that more people are coming to you from a particular place, then focus on ensuring you are active there. Perhaps you get a lot of traffic from joining in with one particular linky; that’s handy to know, because you can make sure the posts you link there are excellent quality, and never miss a week. You can also see where people are going once they get to your site, how long they’re staying, and other useful information.

14. Include an image or graphic in your posts. Ensure it’s “pinnable” and clearly shows what the post is about.

15. Come up with a brilliant title.

Do you have any tips to add? I’d love to hear how you’ve increased your blog traffic!