Helpful Ways to Build Your Blog's Traffic

Here is the fourth installment from Taylor of The Prairie Patch:

If you’re blogging, chances are you’re doing so to get readers, i.e., traffic. If you’re blogging to get business for your handmade shop, then you definitely need traffic. So how do you get followers and, by extension, potential customers?

For SEO purposes, start at the beginning. When thinking of a domain name for your blog, use a keyword or two in the title. Additionally, as I mentioned in previous parts of this series, include keywords – when possible – in the titles of all of your blog’s posts and a couple times throughout your blog entries. (Of course, the latter depends upon how long your blog post is, which I went in to previously).

Once you’ve gotten noticed, make sure you keep those readers by posting regularly and engagingly. Regular posts will entice readers to return. If you have a habit of irregular posting, they may soon stop checking your blog out and perhaps even no longer being a follower. I’ve actually found myself un-following some blogs because they rarely update. Plus, since my computer is sooooo slow and takes sometimes several minutes for a page to load, it gets very frustrating seeing the most previous post is still the same one written a month, or months, ago!

Another way to build up readership is to write posts that your readers will find useful. For instance, if you have any craft tips, share them. If you want to write up tutorials, that’s always a big draw. Since we’re a creative and crafty bunch here, we love seeing what other artisans are creating and any tips they may want to share.

If giving tutorials isn’t your style, then how about writing posts that are uplifting. We all could use a smile in our day, and if your blog is usually filled with positive instead of negative, then they’ll want to return for their “feel good” read. Once in awhile we may want to vent on our blog about some frustrations in our lives, which is fine. We are human after all, and readers like to know that. But your blog does need to be filled with more positive posts instead of negative if you want people to return.

Encourage interaction with your followers by responding to any questions they may have posted, or simply join in the conversation of their comments. Another way of encouraging a dialog with your readers is to ask them for their opinion. (Oddly enough, I’m always doing this for the clients I write for, but I’ve forgotten to do that here)!

There are so many blogs nowadays, so if you want to build your blog’s traffic, you’re going to have to stand out from the rest. Some of the above will help you do so.
 
Stay tuned next week for part 5!!!