5 Other Tactics to Increase the Flow of Traffic to Your Blog: Introduction

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Just because you have the most relevant blog for your audience ever, it doesn’t mean you can expect high volume traffic. It takes more than great relevant content to steadily increase traffic to your blog and boost your business. It helps to know your target audience, to post high quality and relevant content, to share your content via social media, to post regularly etc.

But what else can you do to increase blog traffic? I’ve compiled a list of 5 additional tactics to increase the flow of traffic to your blog. This post is an introduction to an in-depth discussion of each and every tactic you can expect from me in the next few weeks.

1. Reference your previous posts and posts by others
There’s been a short period of time when “experts” were discussing whether it is good to add links to other content in your posts. I think that discussion has slowly dissipated. A reason was that readers simply love links. When you reference your own material, as I did in this post’s introduction, you may draw visitors to your content. Just be careful and don’t manipulate or, even worse, exaggerate. Links also give search engines a signal about the linked-to posts.

Don’t just link to your previous posts, reference the content of others. You’ll earn links and social mentions by those you reference. Many bloggers are subscribed to Google Alerts service and regularly check to see who’s talking about them and what they’re saying.

2. Be active on others’ blogs
A couple of months ago I wrote: “I see comments the same way as I see posts: they continue/contribute to a conversation. This is how I define a quality comment. They’re really hard to come by, but when they come, grab them and join the conversation.” Moreover, you can leave relevant and useful comments on other blogs that are in your interest. Become someone to the point where everybody wants you to leave a comment on their blog. This is how you can increase the visibility of your own blog – simply by being active on other people’s blogs.

3. Guest Blogging
This one is a no brainer. Guest blogging is a great way to spread your brand to those who’ve never heard of you before. This will drive direct traffic to your blog that you may otherwise never get. Invite well-established bloggers to write a guest post for your blog. And do everything necessary to be invited to guest post on other blogs; as many times as possible. When you guest post on someone else’s blog, don’t forget to include tactic number one: include links back to your own blog. Always reply to each comment left on your guest post.

4. Attend events in your industry
Online tricks and promotion of your blog aren’t enough. The offline world still matters. F2F meetings are terribly useful for bloggers seeking to grow their traffic and influence. The people you meet and connect with in real-world settings are far more likely to lead to discussions about your blog and ways you can help each other. In addition, add your blog’s URL to your email signature and business cards.

5. Images are powerful
Images are great complements to blogs – this is how you can produce natural SEO for your content and can give off a great interpretation to an article. People often use the image search options offered by Google and other search engines.

What other tactics work for your blog? Please do share!