I still remember the day that I decided to take a leap of faith and finally start blogging. I was so excited and started writing and publishing my blog posts right away, and I just kinda assumed that my blog will explode and somehow miraculously I will get consistent traffic right away. And boy was I wrong, no matter how good of a writer you are or how amazing your posts are if you will not promote and market your blog, then you will hear crickets just like I did.

If you are new to blogging and looking for ways to increase blog traffic, you’ve come to the right place. Every blogger knows that consistent traffic is the key to a successful blog. Sadly every time I searched for how to increase blog traffic, I would end up reading another sales pitch promoting a traffic course or Tailwind. So I began to dive deeper and research about blog traffic every chance I had. Once I started to implement blog traffic strategies I found and promote my blog, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The following are some of my tips that have helped me personally increase blog traffic. If you are thinking of starting a blog, I have a Step By Step Tutorial on Helping You Start Your Own Blog.

“This page contains affiliate links, some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that if you click through and make a purchase, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.”

1.Post Often.

• Consistency is the key, Google, and search engines like fresh content, focus on your readers and write high-quality blog posts that will keep your audience on your page.

2.Interlink Blog Posts.

• Try to incorporate relevant backlinks or Hyperlinks of your own blog in your posts, remember Google hates when people immediately leave a page. Interlinks help your readers navigate your blog and help with reducing your website’s bounce rate, therefore Hyperlinks plays a major role in increasing the number of page views, and its one of the best practices of SEO.

3.Pinterest.

Pinterest is a gold mine for bloggers, and the majority of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest, not only is Pinterest a social media a platform but a search engine just like google. There are over 250 million monthly Pinterest users, now that’s a lot of potential traffic to your blog, and what I love about Pinterest is that the lifespan of a pin is much longer than other social media platforms. If you want to drive more traffic to your blog with Pinterest, below are some of my Pinterest Marketing tips.

1. First set up your Pinterest for a business account, it’s free and you will appear more professional. also with a Business account, you will have access to Rich Pins(which is additional text pulled from your website and added to your pin) and Pinterest Analytics. ( Which will help you understand your audience and content engagement.)

2. Pinterest is a visual platform, and if you want to stand out and get more saves, create beautiful Pin Images so that your Pin will catch a pinner’s attention. I use  CANVA and Picmonkey to create my Pin Images. You only have a second to catch a pinner’s attention while they are scrolling through their feed, I would suggest using warm-toned images, and bright colors in your Text Overlay. (Pinks and Red seem to do very well on Pinterest.) Create multiple pins for each blog post for maximum reach, and watch how they perform. If you want an in-depth tutorial on how I create my Pins using Picmonkey, Read This Tutorial Here.

3. Include Keywords in Boards and Pins, Pinterest cannot read your Pin and does not know what it is about, so it’s your job to tell Pinterest what your Pin is all about. Make sure you add relevant keywords in both the title and description of the pin.

4. Join Pinterest Group Boards, especially if you are a new blogger, they are great for helping your pins get in front of more people. When you join a Pinterest Group Board there are collaborators and members of the board with thousands of followers, so when you pin to a group board your pin has a chance of showing up in the feed of anyone who followers the members of the group board. There are two different types of group boards, where all bloggers can pin any topic and there are niche-specific group boards. Of course, when you are starting out “All Topic” Group Boards are much easier to get accepted, but I would recommend focussing more on the board that is more relevant to your blog. But also do not neglect your own personal boards.

4.Facebook Group Boards

You can get so much valuable information and support from other bloggers for free from Facebook Groups. There are certain Facebook Groups that have daily threads where you can share your content and promote your blog. And what I love about Facebook Threads, is that there are certain rules to follow(see example below) and these rules help with engagement and an increase in page views to your blog.

5.Quora

Answer questions on Quora that are niche related to your blog and provide valuable information and redirect those readers to your site. Quora is a Q&A website/community where people come to get answers. You can drive traffic to your blog by linking your answers to applicable blog posts.

6.MIX.COM

Share your Blog Posts on MIX.COM formally known as Stumbleupon, it’s a  new platform that helps others discover new content similar to their interest. What’s wonderful about Mix.com is that the newsfeed is not focused on traditional real-time news, but recommended content matching to your interests.

7.Comment on other Blogs.

Another great way to increase blog traffic is to post lengthy comments on other Blogs, and a good chance of a click-thru to your blog by other readers. Also if you keep commenting you will get on the Bloggers radar and get free exposure.

8. Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of increasing the number of visitors to a website from Organic Search Results on Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Start with diligent keyword research and use those keywords in your blog posts where it’s applicable but don’t overstuff keywords make sure it sounds natural. I use free tools like  Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to search for targeted keywords to understand what people are actually searching for.

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool to use, but recently Google has made it a little difficult to access the keyword research tool.  They are prompting you to create an Ad Campaign first, but don’t be discouraged I had the same problem. I could not get around without creating an AD first to access the keyword planner, all you have to do is set up an Ad Campaign and Pause the Ads, and as long as you have the Ad on Pause you will not get charged. This is the only way to get around Google and use Keyword Planner for free.

Some other ways to optimize SEO are:

1. Add Keywords in the Alt Text of your Image.

2. Download YOAST Plugin, it’s one of the most valuable tools for SEO.

3. Provide Meta Description-is a summary of the content on your blog post, be sure to include keywords in your Meta Description.

9.OFFER A FREEBIE

Search what is trending on Pinterest in your niche and create a Freebie. For example, if you offer photography services, then offer Free Stock Photos or create Free Printables, and create Pin Images to Promote your Freebies in Pinterest. People love free stuff, and when they search on Pinterest for Free Stock Photos and your Pin is in their newsfeed, there is a pretty good chance of a click-thru to your blog.

10.Increase Blog Traffic with TAILWIND

Ok, I know what you are thinking, In the Beginning, I mentioned how I kept looking for ways to increase blog traffic and almost every other blog post was just another sales pitch promoting a course or a subscription service. And when I started blogging, I told myself that I want to be truthful and helpful to my audience, at first I debated if I should mention Tailwind, but the truth is Tailwind is a big part of my marketing strategy.

Tailwind is a  Scheduling Tool that lets you schedule Pins automatically to Pinterest and saves you time from manual pinning every day yourself. I mentioned above different ways you can drive traffic to your blog and you don’t necessarily need a subscription service, but Tailwind sure does make it much easier and faster for you to reach your goals.

I know as a new blogger especially if you are on a budget the thought of spending money when you haven’t made a dime sound terrifying. The good news is that you can try out Tailwind for FREE without paying a single dime.

Benefits of Tailwind:

• • Board Insights-helps you find your best performing boards and the quality of group boards.
  • Automated Pins, which runs your Pinning schedule on autopilot for you. Recently I went on a mini-vacation, and I loved the fact that I didn’t need to take time away to manually Pin Since I had Tailwind do the work for me. Tailwind saves you so much time and lets you focus more on your blog and spending time with your family.
  • Extended Pinterest Reach.
  • Tailwind Tribes-one of the most powerful features that Tailwind has to offer, and of my best kept blogging secret. Tailwind Tribes are similar to Pinterest Group Boards, but way more powerful. Usually, each Tribe Member has its own set of rules, for example for every pin you share to the Tailwind Tribes, you must share someone’s pin to one of your own boards. Tribe Owners keep their members accountable and they make sure that you follow the rules, and they can easily see which members of the tribe are not complying and they can hold you accountable, this helps keep the quality of the Tribe. Before you join a Tribe, its best to preview the tribe’s engagement and evaluate how active the members of the tribe are and share each other’s content.  The more bars the activity of the tribe has the better chance your pins will be reshared.

The awesome thing about Tailwind Tribes is, even if you don’t have a paid monthly Tailwind membership you can still have access to 5 Tribes for FREE!!! You will, however, need to create an account with Tailwind, and you can SIGN UP FOR FREE HERE. If you decide to keep your  Tailwind Membership its $15 a month, but if you don’t after your FREE TRIAL you still have access to 5 Tailwind Tribes.

Tailwind definitely helped me expand my Pinterest reach resulting in more traffic to my blog.

Final Words…
Keep working hard and Focus on your Primary source of traffic and master it first, before moving on to your next marketing strategy. Let me know in the comments, how you increase traffic to your site? And of course, if you have any additional questions I’ll be sure to reply!

-Mila