As I visit internet marketing forums and blogs around the web one of the most popular questions I see being asked, especially by folks new to blogging, is, “How do I get more traffic to my blog?“ This question is usually asked without any context to speak of and rarely is even the domain name of the blog in question supplied. There is generally no shortage of answers like get more inbound links, socially bookmark your domain, list your blog in various directories and blog carnivals, and a plethora of other answers that, like the original question, generally have no context.
From time to time I’ll answer these questions by first asking three specific questions about the persons website that every blogger should know about their blog. It never ceases to amaze me, however, the number of bloggers that can’t answer these three questions which are essential bits of information that will help you determine how to get more traffic to your blog…
Three things you should know before asking, “How do I get more traffic to my blog?”
- What is your primary keyword or keyword phrase? – What is the number one thing someone searching Google, Bing, Yahoo, or some other search engine would type in and find your blog in the results? To ask the question a different way, what is your blog about? You would be surprised at the number of bloggers that can’t really tell you what there blog is about. I am here to tell you that if your primary keyword phrase doesn’t just roll off your tongue if anyone asks you what it is, wondering how to get more traffic to your site is really the least of your concerns. (Knowing several of your secondary keywords is not a bad idea either)
- How much traffic does your primary keyword phrase get? – Before you should ever worry about how to get traffic to a blog, you should research how much potential search engine traffic said blog can actually get. I once consulted with a blog owner who was concerned that they weren’t getting enough traffic from search engines even though they ranked number one for their primary keyword on both Google and Bing. What this blogger didn’t know was that their primary keyword was only searched for about 15 times per day. They were getting traffic from 12 of those searches per day. The moral of this story was that this blogger built an entire website around a niche that simply no one was looking for.
- Where do you rank for your primary keyword? – A goal of most bloggers is to rank number one in the search engines for the keywords that they are trying to rank for. If you aren’t ranking number one, you need to know where you rank because your position in the SERPs will help you determine the types of things you can and should do to get more traffic. If you are no where to be found in the top 100, strategies to help your gain a higher ranking will ultimately bring in more traffic. If you already rank high up in the SERPS, a social networking strategy, or possibly building a list, may help to bring in more traffic and even increase the number of repeat visitors that you get.
These three things you should know before asking, “How do I get more traffic to my blog?” aren’t the only things that you should know, but, they are essential in helping your determine your course of action. Ideally, you would have researched these things before you write your first post. If you didn’t however, it would behoove you to take some time to figure them out before you write your next one as they will only make getting more traffic easier.
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Good insight and very helpful. Thanks!