It’s unfortunate but true that creating great content is only one part of running a successful blog. You can have the best content on the web, but you can’t get any traffic to your site if nobody knows about. With social media algorithms making it harder to promote your blog than ever before and search engines likely to change up their approach at any time, what’s the best way to get your blog in front of the right audience?
Content Still Matters
This is the first important principle to keep in mind. There’s no point in driving traffic to your site if no one sees any reason to hang around once they are there. While it can be frustrating to feel as though you’re creating great content in a void, that effort will pay off. Keep offering that value to your audience as you take steps to ensure your reader base grows. Be sure to stay focused on both the mission and the voice of the blog. For example, you might write a friendly, personable blog that offers advice on personal finance. A post about your experience in taking out a personal loan could be more useful for your readers than a dozen other dry pieces crammed with keywords they might find elsewhere. Taking out a personal loan could be an unfamiliar option for some readers, and your voice could reassure them about the process in how it offers a consolidation option with a more favorable interest rate that you can pay back over time. You could describe the advantages and disadvantages of various lenders and talk about why you ultimately settled on the one you chose.
Get Offline
It can be a mistake to think that cultivating your audience is all about what you do online. Attending conferences or other types of gatherings and doing public speaking, presentations and panels about your area of expertise can drive traffic to your site. Be sure to always have your URL listed in your email signature and your business cards so you’re still promoting the blog even when you’re engaging with people about something unrelated.
Ask for Technical Help
You might be a blogger because you love fly-fishing or travel or cooking or parenting or one of many other topics that can make for a successful blog. However, you may feel overwhelmed by keeping up with SEO requirements and understanding what you need to do to make sure you are ranked effectively within search engines and that your promotional strategies are getting an appropriate return on investment. You may want to consider hiring a consultant to help you with this aspect of your promotion. Keep in mind that there are people who specialize in just these areas, so even if you are somewhat conversant with the requirements, people who do it as their full-time job might be able to give you a boost. The advantage of working with consultants is that you can hire them for a defined period and a certain amount of money and then see how things work out. If you see a big jump in traffic and engagement, you may want to work with them regularly.