For many small businesses with websites, it’s no secret that content-rich blogs are excellent for increased traffic and lead generation. Unfortunately, many small business take the wrong approach when marketing their blogs. In these situations, it doesn’t matter how good your content is. When it comes down to it, if it’s not visible, then it’s not valuable.
Blog Traffic Matters
The first thing businesses need to understand is that blog traffic is indeed valuable. Many business owners only have a blog because their competitors do, but they aren’t seeing any tangible results. Here are some facts that show blogging is beneficial:
● 57 percent of companies with blogs report at least one instance of acquiring a customer via their blog.
● B2B marketers using blogs generate 67 percent more leads per month than those who don’t blog.
● B2C marketers using blogs generate 88 percent more leads per month that those who don’t blog.
Tips for Increasing Visibility
Apart from creating high-quality content, your number one goal should be increasing visibility. While there are thousands of ways to do this, not all are equally effective. Let’s take a look at the techniques that actually work:
● Keep writing quality content. Your goal should be the same for every single visitor to your blog: get them to come back. The best way to do this is by consistently producing quality content over and over again. The only way visitors will return is if you’re producing more original content. They won’t return for the same thing they read last week.
● Submit your blog. A mistake many blog owners make is failing to submit their new posts to the search engines. If you want Google and other search engines to crawl your blog and include your pages in search results, you have to submit your blog’s URL. It’s simple, yet very effective.
● Cross-market. Do you have a page on your website that generates a lot of traffic, or perhaps a social media account with thousands of followers? Whatever it is for you, it’s important that you capitalize on its success. Use it to promote posts from your blog and generate additional traffic. For example, many companies have found success including a “From Our Blog” or “Recent Blog Posts” section on the side of static web pages – as is demonstrated on this landing page.
● Incorporate social influencers. Forbes.com contributor, Dorie Clark, suggests incorporating social influencers into blog posts as a way of increasing credibility and increasing your chances of external blog promotion. She claims it’s a “win-win” and believes it’s particularly advantageous in niche communities.
● Make posts shareable. One of the best things you can do is make your posts shareable on social media. If a post is written in a format that’s conducive to social media, it could potentially go viral and drive large amounts of traffic your way.
Boost your blog traffic this year by focusing on these effective tips and tricks. While it can take time to build a solid followership, your hard work will likely pay off in the months to come.