How To Bring Traffic To A Blog

So you created a blog or a website and now you are wondering"Why nobody is visiting after all I went through to create this?"

Don't worry, I am going to help you understand what professionals in the field are doing and I promise it will be easy for you to replicate this!

The first aspect you have to consider is that there is no escape, secret or trick when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google algorithm is constantly evolving year after year to gather the best contents we can find on line and ranking them based on aspects such as quality, sharing, interactions.

What I will share with you today is a strategy that worked in the past and will work in the future.

1. The Pillar Post Strategy

A pillar post is an article on your website talking about a topic you know very well (a topic you can talk about easily for hours). It has to be a topic that can be considered an evergreen (not something that lasts for a season, but something people will look for in the upcoming years). this post will contain some very strong target keywords (to promote a lot of searches toward your website). For this post, just to give you an example, the keywords I will use are going to bestrategies, traffic, website, blog to attract people interested in knowing more about traffic. These are very popular keywords, so I need to make sure the post I am writing will be very complete, relevant, well written and well presented. Believe me, I know it can be hard, but the benefit of curating well your content will produce amazing results for your website. You will start to see a lot of users are browsing your website (they will start with your pillar post… and if they like this, they will try to learn more from you by checking some other posts and pages… which means … traffic!) Another cool side effect will be having the same users browsing your pages in the next few days/months spending more and more time on your website (more time users spend on your time = better results on thesearch engine result page, or SERP, because the time users spend on your website is actually one of the most important aspects calculated by a search engine).

Give people the best you can give them and of course… give them what they are looking for and what they expect to find.

Here is how to implement this strategy. Identify a keyword or a set of keywords (in my case the keywords for this post will be "strategy, traffic, website, blog").

Think about the best way to present and talk about these keywords (for example… just check the title of this post: 6 of the best strategies to bring traffic to your website or blog… it's actually very complete as a title because it summarizes well the topic of my post and also is search-engine-friendly).

Here are some methods to use the keywords in a smart way:

A list of tips

For example "5 strategies for promoting diversity in the workplace", "8 strategies to quit smoking", "5 ways to rebuild your life" … and so on.

An affirmation

"Diabetes: what is it and how it affects the body" or "Flat belly: 10 foods to avoid"

A list of resources

"8 free resources for photoshop addicted", "5 eating rules for faster weight loss", "3 products to avoid oily skin"

How to… & step by step guides

"How to master a song", "How to learn Italian in 5 weeks", "How to become more assertive"

Once you defined what your article is going to talk about being sure to write the best possible article on that topic.

2. Create a Long-Tail Post

Now, without going too in depth with the concept (I didn't find it super-easy to understand honestly) the long-tail keywords are keywords that are less searched on the SERP. These keywords are also very important to create traffic on your web page…

Why?

Because they are longer and more specific phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they're closer to a point-of-purchase. Also, the long-tail keywords are less used/abused online and therefore it will be easier for your content to appear on search engines & shine among other results (check these report by Ahrefs if you want to know more). You can find long-tail keywords by using this tool by Wordstream (or Ubersuggest)

The post you are going to write need to have a certain quality too but it could be shorter and less complete (to give you an example… I created How to drive traffic to your portfolio. It's shorter and it targets a different niche than the post you are reading! Furthermore, the users searching a way to promote their portfolio are very qualified visitors specialized in creativity, which is exactly one of the two niches I am trying to engage with my project).

How to create a traffic on a website (generic)VSHow to drive traffic to your portfolio (specific target)

Another example…How to lose weight (generic) is a broader topic, but it will bring you fewer visitors thanHow to lose weight with the vegan diet (specific).

A cheap and dirty trick to understand what are the most interesting long-tail keywords you might use is simply checking the search engine result page by using the title of your post and scrolling down to visualize the 'searches related' to the topic you want to talk about.

This is the one I saw by checking this post.

So long-tail posts convert better and specific targets are more qualified leads that most likely will subscribe to your courses, buy your products and get in touch with you, simply because they are interested in knowing more about the topic you are talking on your website. The long tail post is easier to position on Google search result page because there are less competitors, and it's going to give you more visibility… remember also that you can connect via link two similar posts on your blog, in fact, it doesn't matter where your potential customer comes-in, the important thing is what the client is able to find on your website, and this fact will lead us to the third technique to get more traffic on a website.

3. Connect your contents: drive your reader towards new contents.

Nobody likes to wander alone on a new place, connect all your posts and similar contents to make sure the users that are visiting you will find the experience pleasant and rewarding. Just because you are a blogger or a content creator and not a multinational company it doesn't mean you don't need to deal with your customer satisfaction! Satisfied customers will add value to your project, talk about your products and create more traffic and revenues for you.

In this model, the Pillar post is talking generically about a topic and it's connected to additional contents on your website to keep the user inside your website. The long tail post, as we said before, will add value to your pillar post by adding that information, not even the users knew he needed.

This system/strategy is really valuable because it will create additional traffic on your website and build loyalty with your audience, furthermore, your visitors will spend more time on your website (we saw that this aspect is really important for the search engine optimization). You can create infinite links from a pillar post to the second-level-long-tail posts by simply finding what your audience might be interested in.

4. Use your homepage to link the most important articles on your website/blog.

Well, it might seem obvious, but not many websites are considering this fact. If you check my articles on the homepage ofsoyougrow.com, the contents are well organized in different categories and the user experience highlight the most important posts (I decide what is important and what is not and this is giving me the opportunity to create movement and innovation to the layout… also, I can decide to focus the attention of the users on certain topics every time I want).

There is another important aspect to consider. The home page is the most important page on your website, it's the page that is linked on every page of your website and it's the page receiving more incoming links from other websites or social.

5. UX-UI (User Experience, User Interface).

The user experience is the king if you want to create traffic. A cool and clean graphic design makes the difference, that's why this is a topic I really care about and it's one of the two main topic I am talking about on So You Grow… here we are really talking about the very popular 'design thinking' mentioned several times by Steve Jobs.

Check the Home page of So You Grow to understand what I am saying.

The design is divided into different design blocks to showcase every content in the best possible way. The user experience is comfy and colorful and the images are in high resolution and all the contents I like to share are presented in different levels. Make sure to consider the hierarchies of your contents when designing your website because this will make a difference for your project. A good design can really boost the conversions and the traffic on your website. Remember always, people love to see nice things, beauty is appealing.

If you notice that your website is not appealing or outdated consider investing on a new design that will better serve your project.

6. S.E.O.

Yes, it's hard sometimes, you just finished writing the most amazing post and now you have to stop and dedicate 3 to 5 minutes to take care of the SEO of the article you are going to publish. The SEO (search engine optimization) is going to make a true difference in the traffic that is going to enter on your website. As you might know there are two sources of traffic, the paid one, or paid traffic, and the organic traffic.

The first is generated by all the activities of advertising, sponsorships, banner/adwords, that you decided to activate to promote your project, the second is generated by all the well-written contents that you publish on your website. If you are not familiar with SEO spend sometime reading the best articles you can find online. If you are using a platform check what are the best practices for a good SEO on that specific platform. If you are using WordPress check the plugins I am talking about on this post.

7. Use your Social Media Channels

Yes, I am suggesting something very simple… Use your social networks to drive traffic towards your website. All those people that are following you on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook are potential leads that you should nurture and bring towards your project. Post a preview image on Instagram and invite your followers to read more about the topic on your website, publish an extract of your best post on facebook and drive the reader to your article, announce on your social networks that you created a new and interesting content. Maybe not everyone will be interested, but hey… never say never.

I think I wrote enough… if you want to know more get in touch and please share this post.

Credits © Davide Carpin: You can read this original content and subscribe to the newsletter @ http://soyougrow.com/7-of-the-best-strategies-to-bring-traffic-to-your-website-or-blog-fast/