With so many websites on the Internet, it can feel like rising in the ranks, increasing traffic and building your brand is an uphill battle. Fortunately, you’re not alone. Others have been, and are going, through the same journey. We’ve got some advice to impart to you on yours. Every time you write a blog post, make sure you incorporate these methods.
# 1. Your Website Has to Work. Period.
Stay on top of broken links and images. Check to make sure plugins are compatible. Switch to cloud hosting from a provider like Rackspace to make sure your website loads fast and is always available for visitors.
# 2. Your Title Has To Grab Them
If your title doesn’t capture the reader’s attention, they’re not going to click the link and read anything else from your blog. Lists are especially popular, but you can attract readers to your blog by being witty or using something potentially controversial. If you’ve got the latest breaking news, your title should say so. Be clear, not cryptic, with your titles.
# 3. Your Content Has to Be Easy to Digest
Your posts might be long, but your paragraphs shouldn’t be. Lists, images and headings help break up your content, which is increasingly important as the attention span of visitors shrinks every year. Images can also help illustrate a point, provide comic relief or split up content to make it easier to navigate.
Social media is more important than ever. Your video might go viral on YouTube, or your blog post might see thousands of shares on Facebook in just a few days. Visitors want to share, like and tweet the content that strikes a chord with them, but they also want to do it easily. You have to provide ways to share via widgets, buttons and links. Placement is important, too. If you put social media buttons at the top or side of your posts, they’ll be easier to find than links hidden at the bottom. However, don’t go over the top, or you’ll slow down your site and overwhelm readers.
# 5. Keep Readers Up to Date
Weekly newsletter, email subscriptions and Facebook pages are all ways to let your readers know when you’ve produced new content. People are busy, and you can’t assume they’ll automatically come back. Some folks can even forget the name of websites they find, so offering these types of services ensures that people who like what you do come back to see more of it. Republish your most successful posts so people who’ve missed out on them have a chance to see them.
# 6. Talk About Your Site – Everywhere
If you’re on Twitter, active on LinkedIn or post in forums, then you’ve got places to mention your website. Add blog URLs to your business cards if applicable. Take advantage of all the opportunities to mention your blog in a natural way. Just don’t get carried away, or you’ll find yourself without friends or followers.
# 7. Make Sure to Interact
Traditional journalists didn’t personally respond to their readers, but this has all changed with the Internet. Reply to your followers on Facebook, retweet interactions on Twitter and stop by your blog’s own comment section. Visitors want to know that you’ve heard their voices, too.
As you incorporate these practices, you’ll find that your visibility – and traffic – grows.
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