Attracting traffic to your blog can be challenging. But if you practice a few basic blogging principles you can build your readership and make your visitors feel it’s worthwhile to stick around. There are a number of ways you can help them to do just that.
Publish Blog Posts Regularly and Consistently
As your readers become familiar with the frequency of your posts, it will influence how often they visit. If your readers know that you post fresh content every day, they will probably come every day to read it. If they know you post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, that’s when they will come. So to disappoint them!
Stay on Topic
Stick to your area of expertise. Today’s blog audiences are often pressed for time and they’re looking for specific information. If you have no focus and just post about anything, then your readers are less likely to become fans of your blog and will probably move on to somewhere else.
Use Meaningful Titles in Blog Posts
This not only announces clearly what the post is about, but it will help people navigate your blog and also influence your ranking with search engines. Sensational headlines are often misleading and the public has been come desensitized and suspicious of the hype so just avoid it. The Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule is an excellent tool to help you write effective titles for your posts.
Interact With Your Readers
Think of your blog like a conversation. You post. Readers comment. Be active and be positive as you interact and converse with your readers. This lets them know there is a real person behind the screen.
Highlight Your Best Posts
Don’t let your best posts get lost in your archives. You can link to your best posts from a ‘best posts’ category on the main page. You may also re-visit them from time to time to update and re-share.
Avoid Not Posting for Extended Periods. (See #1 – Consistency!)
If someone visits your blog and discovers that the last post was three weeks ago, they will probably be disappointed. If you don’t post, people may give you the benefit of the doubt and come back in a few days to check, but you better believe they will lose interest quickly if you fall out of your regular schedule and stop posting.
There you have it. Six little tips that will make a big difference to your blog’s readership. It’s not rocket science. It’s just using some common sense when posting and interacting with your readers.