In 2020, there were over 30 million bloggers in the United States alone. A lot of people love to try their hand at it, but many don’t grow an audience — partially due to the vast competition out there.
Many of these people aren’t sure how to actually grow an audience and increase traffic to their blog. To be a successful blogger, you need to know some things.
These blogging tips will help you go from beginner to expert in a short amount of time!
1. Find a Niche
When creating a blog, you’ll want to think about the topic. Blogging about your life may be enjoyable, but if you span a wide range of topics, you aren’t really drawing in any one demographic which can harm your traffic.
They may not want to stick with you as much.
Pick something you’re passionate about and it’ll shine through. It doesn’t have to be the only thing on your blog, but it should be the main focus — whether that’s pets, beauty, food, or something else entirely.
2. Show Your Personality
The best blog posts will showcase your personality. It’s fine to inject some humor and a conversational tone into your pages — after all, people who read blogs want to feel like they’re talking to a friend, not like they’re being lectured!
Letting your personality shine through will let your audience feel engaged and entertained. No one can be you as well as you can, so let your unique quirks through.
3. Brighten the Page
A wall of text is likely to turn people off your blog. Break it up with pictures and even the occasional video demonstrating exactly what you’re talking about. The design itself is important, so don’t overlook it.
Do you run a vegan food blog? Show a video of you preparing the meal you’re talking about!
Writing a dog training blog? Show off your pup doing those awesome tricks!
The specific content will very much depend on the topic of your blog but can help immensely.
4. Utilize Social Media
There are over 4.5 billion active users on social media, so don’t forget to use that to your advantage.
Create some social media and use it to advertise. Jumping on audio trends on TikTok and using hashtags on Instagram can really help promote your blog.
Follow some people who create content similar to yours and comment on their posts. It’s important to be authentic (and not simply use people), but networking can be a huge help.
5. Learn Some Keywords
Learning some basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to blogging for beginners if you want to increase your organic traffic. The first place to start is learning what keywords are relevant.
Google matches search terms with words in posts to show and rank results. That means you should think about what potential readers of your blog might be searching for and use these phrases in your posts.
There are also many programs that can find related, trending keywords for you.
6. Utilize Links
Linking back to other parts of your blog can really help too. When thinking of blog post ideas, consider if other blogs you’ve already published are relevant and find a way to organically and seamlessly link back to them within the text.
It’s important not to duplicate content while doing this, however, as that will actually harm your organic traffic rather than help!
7. Create a Schedule
Blog readers want your schedule to be relatively consistent. It’s okay if something happens and it’s thrown off but, in general, you should be posting on a consistent basis — whether that’s once every two weeks, twice a week, or whatever suits and seems to work for you and your audience.
If you fail to meet this schedule without updating your audience too many times, you might find that you lose readers.
8. Engage With Comments
Engage with the people who take the time to comment on your post!
Answer questions. Respond to feedback. It can help your readers feel valued.
Of course, if you have extremely negative feedback on your posts, it’s okay to ignore and delete that. There will always be negative people on the internet. However, if the comments are constructive, consider replying and taking that feedback on board.
9. Research Competitors
Although you should never directly copy a competitor, researching them can be invaluable. It’ll let you see what they’re doing well and draw inspiration from those posts.
You can also use certain programs to find out what keywords a competitor is ranking for that you aren’t. As you get comfortable with SEO, this can be very useful.
10. Hook People With Headings
Picking out headings for your blog posts is crucial, as that’s what people will see on Google. Using a keyword and nothing else might be tempting to get it to rank, but there’s no point in ranking high if no one will click!
Although incorporating keywords is a good idea, you should also make sure your title is catchy and engaging.
11. Pick URLs Carefully
URLs are often overlooked, so make sure you pick them carefully too. It’s also a good idea to use your keyword in your URL, as Google definitely takes these into consideration.
You should also make sure you don’t change your URL after publishing, as this can confuse search engines.
These Blogging Tips Will Help
If you follow these blogging tips, you’ll be on your way to success in no time. Many people start blogs on the internet, but not all of them are successful.
It’s not a case of just writing and waiting for an audience — you have to work hard and smart to grow it!
Looking for someone to add content to your website that will help you grow? Contact us today and let’s see what we can achieve.
