If you Google any thought or question that pops into your head, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be met with a seemingly endless number of blog posts in your search results. This is the environment that we’re operating in; it’s oversaturated and filled with the white noise of not-actionable, inaccurate, and boring content. And somehow, we need to not only compete with the great content that’s already out there, but claw our way through the bad stuff, too.
That’s a pretty big task. And it explains why it takes even amazing businesses with great blogs a little while to get things going.
Unfortunately, having great content isn’t enough to generate traffic. We need to put just as much effort into finding readers as we do writing the actual posts. There’s a lot of ways to get more traffic to your site; some methods are more effective—and cost-efficient—than others. I recommend starting with these 7 free ways to increase blog traffic that work regardless of industry.
1. Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs
This is one of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your blog, period— and you don’t have to pay for it. Writing guest posts for other blogs can increase the visibility of your own site significantly. You can showcase your expertise to an interested audience. It can also give your blog a back link from another great site, providing an SEO boost.
When you’re choosing blogs to submit to, there are a few things to consider. The first is the blog’s audience; you must choose a blog that will share your exact audience members. If you write for a site that’s only kind of a good fit when audience is concerned, you’ve wasted your time—and some content.
If, for example, you sell social contest software, you’d want to submit to sites like Social Media Examiner or Social Media Today instead of Kissmetrics. Even though Kissmetrics does cover social content and has an enormous readership, they focus more on metrics and SEO.
Guest posting should give you exposure. Many sites will let you place at least one link in the guest post, and you can link back to your site if you’re given a bio. Always make sure you’ll get at least one link back to your site so you can actually send that free traffic where you want it; some sites may have different rules.
You should choose a site with an engaged readership. It won’t do you much good to guest post for a site with 50 monthly readers. It won’t be much of a benefit for the backlink, either; try to get your content on a site with a higher web authority so that you’ll get more traffic and your in-content link will carry more weight.
2. Share Posts on Social Media
Social media is free (in general) to participate on. While you can get results more quickly with paid campaigns through platforms like Facebook Ads or Promoted Pins, you can send a solid chunk of traffic to your blog with regular, organic posts. This is why utilizing social media is one of the most popular free ways to increase blog traffic.
3. Utilize Forum Marketing
In many cases, the biggest struggle with getting blog traffic is being able to find where exactly our target audience is. Forum marketing is a great solution that’s extremely effective, allowing you to engage in conversations and answer questions, linking to your content whenever appropriate. You can build relationships with members of your target audience and professional peers alike.
Many industries have some sort of forums you can engage in; if you join the ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors), for example, you have access to their extremely valuable discussion forums. You can head to the Warrior Forums or Inbound.org for any marketing question you have. Almost every industry has some sort of forums to participate in—even dentistry forums!
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