Did you know that 77% of people that use the internet read blogs? While there is plenty of demand for high-quality content, there also is a lot of competition. WordPress users publish more than 70 million blog posts every month.
If you are a blogger, you know that growing a blog is difficult. Most of the time, it takes years to grow a blog, and most bloggers give up before they reach that point. Whatever you do, don’t throw in the towel!
With all that competition, how can your blog stand out? How did the most popular blogs grow? Keep reading to learn about some of the best tips to help you improve your blog.
Identify Your Target Audience
If you want to increase your blog traffic, the first thing you need to work on is identifying your target audience. If you don’t already know your target audience, your blog isn’t going to grow.
When you write a new blog post, design a new product, or create a new course, you will need to do it with your audience in mind. If you don’t know your audience, you can’t create something that is appealing to them.
Here are some characteristics that you should know about your target audience:
- Age
- Income
- Demographics
- Career
- Goals
- Hobbies
- Lifestyle
Once you understand your target audience, you need to relate to them. What are their biggest problems, questions, and desires? Your blog content and products should focus on helping them out.
Write High-Quality Content
With so many different blog posts on the internet, how can your blog stand out? The best way to make sure your blog gets noticed is it create high-quality content that has a purpose.
While it may be fun to write about the cute thing your dog did this morning, are you readers interested in reading that? Are they searching for that information on the internet? The odds are good that they aren’t.
The most popular blogs write articles that can help their readers. For example, you can write how-to posts, listicles, or guides. This will give your readers a reason to read your blog posts and keep coming back for more.
When creating content, you should focus on creating long-form content. Search engines want to help internet users find the best information. They are less likely to rank short blog posts because they aren’t as helpful as long posts on the same topic.
Create a Brand
Do you have a brand for your blog or are you posting content on the internet and hoping that people will remember your name? If you want to grow your blog, you need to create a brand that people can recognize.
You can distinguish your brand by coming up with a catchy name, choosing appealing colors, and designing your own logo. If you stick to the same color combinations and fonts, people will begin to recognize your blog.
One of the best ways to grow your brand is to incorporate graphic design ideas into your blog.
Your readers are more likely to share pictures and infographics than they are a standard blog post. When they share those pictures, others see them and associate them with your website.
Create a User-Friendly Website
Is your website user-friendly, and does it have a beautiful design? If not, you should fix it. If readers show up to your website and it takes forever to load, is difficult to read, and the colors don’t make sense, they won’t return.
If you want your readers to come back and engage with your blog posts, you have to make it easy for them to do so. Make sure you choose a font that is easy to read, make it big enough to read on a phone, and don’t choose a bright-colored font.
You also should make sure your website loading speed is fast. If it’s not, readers will become impatient and leave your website before the page loads.
Creating a user-friendly website is not only beneficial for your website users, but it also is necessary to rank in search results. Google wants its users to have the best experience possible, so they won’t show a website with a poor user experience.
To improve your website’s design for search engines, make sure it is easy to navigate. You should have a menu, different blog pages, and categories for your blog posts.
Write Guest Posts
Another tip that the most popular blogs do is write guest posts. Guest posts are blog posts that you write for other people’s websites to get a backlink back to your blog. If the guest post is successful, you will increase your domain authority and referral traffic.
When search engines like Google rank websites, they consider their authority. Authority is how much of an expert you are in your industry. The more websites that link back to your blog, the higher your domain authority.
As Google realizes that your authority is increasing, they are more likely to rank your content. Remember, Google’s goal is to show readers the best content possible.
In addition to helping you rank higher, guest posts will also send you referral traffic. The best websites to guest post on are those with plenty of traffic and a similar audience to yours.
If the website traffic enjoys reading your guest post, they may click on the link to visit your website. From there, they may sign up for your email list, buy your products, or continue reading more content.
Are You Ready to Have One of the Most Popular Blogs?
Blogging is a fantastic way to make a full-time income, grow your business, and create a career that you love. With so many different blogs on the internet, it can be difficult to grow your blog. Follow these tips to help your website become one of the most popular blogs.
Did you enjoy reading this post on how to improve engagement and grow your blog? If so, check out the resources category for more help growing your website!