It is every online marketers goal to get more blog traffic, but where do we start? Here are a few tips regarding where and how you can drive more traffic to your website.
Looking for more ways to drive targeted traffic to your blog(s) or website(s)? Getting more blog traffic may be the sites you are not using or it may the ways you are not using the sites you are using.
Statistics can show you a few things, one is what is what is working and the other is what is not working. If you are looking for more blog traffic, here is where I would start.
There are several sites I do not use that could (and probably should) be on this list. Also, depending on the niche of your blog, you may want to research specific related article sites that you should be a part of. (For example, if you are in real estate, you would definitely want to be on ActiveRain.)
So I do not want to say that the sites below are the only ones you should use, but what I will share with you are some tips using the sites below that will get you more blog traffic, regardless of what niche you are in.
Below are the top 10 traffic sources for the SEO-Alien over the last 30 days (Jan 26, 2013 – Feb 26 2013) and below that I will share with you some tips that may help you get more traffic using those sites. (Don't let the percentages fool you either, though Twitter (#10) may be 0.26%, that still represents over 200 hits)
#1 – Google: If Google is not your #1 traffic source, in my opinion you are doing something wrong. If you are not being found on Google then the chances are you do not have a Blog or you are not submitting articles.
If you are submitting articles and/or looking for an advantage to Search Engine Optimization, I would suggest adding a SEO plugin to your WordPress site that will help you optimize your articles and get better results in the Search Engines.
Here are a 2 other things that are must do's that can help you with Google.
- Create a Google Analytics account and add your site! – www.google.com/analytics
- Create a XML Sitemap for your Blog and add your Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools – www.google.com/webmasters/tools
#2 – Direct: This can be from a variety of sources, but most will be from offline advertising that requires people to type in your domain name directly. If you do not have a large amount of direct traffic, look what you are doing offline to promote your business.
#3 seo-alien.com / referral: This is a result of having plenty of links that link to other locations within your site. Linking within your site will help reduce your bounce rate as well, which is one of many statistics that Google uses to evaluate your website.
A great plugin that will help keep people on your blog by having them click through to your other articles is the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. This will return a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds. You can use it as a widget and/or under your blog posts.
#4 Bing: Bing, for the most part will follow Google, but one thing you can do that will help get you indexed on Bing is to create and submit your XML sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools.
#5 LinkedIn: Having a LinkedIn account and using your LinkedIn account to drive traffic is another thing. If you have not joined groups in LinkedIn that are relative to your niche and sharing your articles and input you are missing a TON of traffic.
Though this was recorded a couple years ago with Dawn Jensen of Virtual Options and LinkedIn has changed a little since we recorded this, the premise remains that same. I am certain you will gain some valuable insights by watching this, "How to Market Yourself Using Social Media w/Dawn Jensen."
#6 Facebook: This traffic from Facebook for me personally is not from my personal profile but from our Facebook Page. Remember, your Facebook Page is indexed by Google whereas your personal page is not.
Similar to LinkedIn, you can also create and join groups that are relative to your niche and submit your articles.
#7 Yahoo: Your guess is as good as mine! I mean who uses Yahoo anymore? 🙂 Well, I guess some people are. As long as you have added your site to Bing, you will be found on Yahoo! "Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!."
#8 Scoop.it: Scoop.it is a great way to share articles and have your articles shared by hundreds of other bloggers and people that are interested in your topic. Join Scoop.it and start sharing! (Sign up and please follow the SEO-Alien from All Around Social Media Marketing)
#9 Google Plus: If you are not on Google+, like it or not, you are cutting your nose off despite your face. Google is using Google+ for virtually everything that is attached to you. Google Authorship is now probably more important than your Pagerank. Google+ Local will get your business on the top of the Search Engines. Don't question, just sign up.
#10 Twitter: Without any question, Twitter has been for me one of the best places that I have met several of the most influential people in my niche. Think about this, if one person who has 100,000 followers tweets or re-tweets one of your articles, it goes out to 100,000 of their followers…duh!!
Learn as much as you can about Twitter and how to use it. A great place to start is an interview I did with Shellie Blum who got over 160,000 Twitter followers in 8 months. You will get a wealth of information and useful tools by watching "How Shellie Got 162,913 Real Twitter Followers in Only 8 Months"
Do What Other Successful Bloggers are Doing! One of the things I learned along time ago was to do what other successful online marketers were doing. One of those tips is to create profiles on as many social networking and profile sites as you can. xeeme is not only a great place to keep track of your online profiles, but also an excellent resource to find them. See https://xeeme.com/mikejbarnes for an example and then sign up from https://xeeme.com
Hope this helps give you a little more insight into how you can get more blog traffic and encourages you to become a major influence in your niche.
Hi Mike you have done a grest post. As a conclusion, social media platfotms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin can more relavant traffic to your site.
No Doubt! The one thing that you can look at to tell what is driving the most relevant traffic is time on site. I should probably update my graphic because right now Google+ traffic time on site is almost 4x's as much as any other social media referral.