Driving more traffic to your blog can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! By focusing on proven strategies, you can steadily grow your blog’s reach year after year.
Let’s countdown the 10 best secrets to expand your audience and boost blog traffic in 2023:
10 Optimize Older Content
Don’t just focus on creating new content. Go back and update your existing popular posts to make them more useful. Improve SEO elements, add related resources, and refresh outdated details. This gives readers more value while keeping your content ranking high in search.
For example, financial blogger J. Money recently updated his popular “How to Invest $100” post to keep it relevant for 2023.
9 Run Retargeting Ads
Bring back visitors who left your site without taking action by running simple retargeting ads. For example, Tailwind offers cheap Instagram and Facebook ads that follow site visitors with related content. This gently reminds them about your brand while expanding reach.
8 Collaborate with Influencers
Partnering with influencers allows you to tap into their established audiences. Identify influencers in your niche and ask them to share your content or link to your posts from their own content. Or do co-hosted giveaways or videos to collaborate.
Health blogger Yuri Elkaim partnered with vegan influencer Kate Flowers to co-author an ebook. This combined their audiences while allowing both to grow.
7 Claim and Optimize Listings
Make sure your blog is easy to find locally on Google, Yelp, and other directories. Fully complete listings with good descriptions, photos, and optimized details. This surfaces your brand for local searches.
For example, food blogger A Cozy Kitchen maintains her Google My Business listing with menu items, photos, and more details to drive local LA traffic.
6 Start an Email Newsletter
Email subscribers are warm traffic since they already know you. Offer an incentive like a free downloadable resource to get signups. Send regular updates with unique content to nurture this loyal audience.
Photography blog Digital Photography School incentivizes newsletter signups with free guides for beginners.
5 Guest Post on Authority Sites
Reaching out to contribute content for an authoritative or widely-read site in your niche is a win-win. You get a valuable backlink while exposing your expertise to a new audience. Make sure you provide real value for their readers.
Travel blogger Nomadic Matt has contributed posts to news outlets like Business Insider to grow his audience.
4 Promote Content on Social Media
Share your new posts on all relevant social media platforms. Engage followers by asking questions, responding to comments, and participating in conversations. Post consistently, but avoid simply spamming links.
Fashion and lifestyle blogger Danielle Bernstein frequently shares outfit photos, life updates, and links on Instagram where she has 2.3 million followers.
3 Create Linkworthy Content
Craft content specifically designed to attract natural links and shares, like data-driven studies and trend reports. Influencers will be more likely to organically mention these posts, which raises authority.
Backlinko founder Brian Dean created the comprehensive Skyscraper Technique guide which earned hundreds of links from other bloggers.
2 Optimize for SEO
Use SEO plugins like Yoast to optimize blog posts. Include meta descriptions, alt text for images, keywords in titles/headers, and internal linking between relevant content. This improves search visibility.
Food blogger Sally Vargas optimized her recipe pages with SEO titles and organized her site into categories, boosting her search traffic.
1 Solve Problems with Useful Content
At its core, great content solves problems, answers questions, teaches skills, or entertains readers. Strive to create truly unique, helpful content tailored to what your audience needs. Consistently delivering value earns trust and loyalty.
Smart Blogger’s in-depth, step-by-step guides help bloggers master tactics like social media marketing, building email lists, and utilizing SEO. Their useful content built a huge audience.
There you have it – the top 10 tactics for driving more blog traffic in the new year! Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions.