6 Ways To Drive More Traffic To Your Blog

Any creative who owns a website and has a blog has experienced the distress and discouragement of working hard on an article and not receiving the well deserved attention and engagement from their readers. It would be easier to give up, but not wise to do so. Your blog can have an immense impact on your business, help you build brand awareness and attract prospects.

It takes some time and hard work to build a readers’ community, so we decided to put together a list of 6 steps you can start taking today to increase your blog traffic and readership.

But before I get to the 6 things that can drive more traffic to your blog, let’s get rid of the elephant in the room – “I’m not a writer!”. Or even better “my ideas and experience aren’t good enough – there are far better and more credible experts out there who can write about this”. Of course there are, there will always be people out there who are more knowledgeable or have done more research on a certain topic – but their perspective, experience and writing style is different. Your voice and opinion is as important as theirs, so why not give it a shot.

Still not convinced?
Watch the following video:

Now, that we got the main bump out of the way, let’s move to those 6 things you can do to increase your blog traffic.

Mentions and Credits

The best and simplest thing you can do to push your visibility and brand awareness is to give credit to other people. When blogging about a new photo shoot, wedding or any other type of event, mention the people you have worked with – florists, make up artists, venues, brands or any type of vendors who contributed to this event. Chances are, they will gladly share this article with their network and recommend you to their clients in the future. It helps build long lasting connections, brings additional readers to your blog and adds bonus points to your Local SEO, as your name pops up in SERPs along with these vendors.

Be Genuine 

The easiest way to go about this is to imagine that your reader is sitting right in front of you, and you are having a real life conversation. If you tend to use a lot of humor, love bringing up stats that you’ve read or documentaries that you have watched – do that in your article too. Building an online following is like making new friends. Don’t expect to be liked by everyone, but those who share your vision and mindset will devotedly and enthusiastically follow your blog posts, share and engage with your ideas and inspire you for new articles.

Compelling Headlines

This is crucial. You can create the most interesting and entertaining articles, with brilliant photos and videos – but if your headline is weak, chances are your post won’t be seen. The headline and short snippet you share on your social media accounts should catch your readers’ attention and lure them into your blog. Get creative with the text, but avoid clickbait headlines at all times. There is nothing worse than a disappointed user who feels mislead or cheated on. Your headlines should promise value, while your bog post should deliver it.

Here are two examples of snippet messages you can use when promoting your new post. Which one you’d be more prone to click on?
a. “New wedding on the blog! Check out Hanna & Greg’s gorgeous lake ceremony!” 
b. “Think it’s impossible to organize the wedding of your dreams in just one month, on a budget of under 2k in the Caribbean? Check out how Hanna & Greg managed to pull this off and enjoy the most romantic beach ceremony!”

See where I’m going here? With the second example, even those users who have no clue who Hanna & Greg are will be tempted to read more about it, because this information may bring them value.
If you don’t know where to start, here are a few simple tricks to follow when writing your headlines and short snippets:

• Offer a solution ( i.e. If your reception is set up outside and it suddenly starts to rain, here is what you need to do..)
• Ask a question (the example with the wedding in the Caribbean described above)
• “How to” type of posts ( i.e. How to choose a catering company and venue)
• Numbers ( i.e. 5 steps to organize a reception on the beach)
• Ask them to imagine something (here I literally mean using the word “imagine” and describing something incredibly beautiful and amazing. Asking your readers to visualize a pleasant surrounding or event instantly creates a connection and triggers curiosity.)

Also, check out this article on How To Write Catchy Headlines that Attract More Readers.

Who Said Old Posts Are Irrelevant?

Share your old images wrapped in a new package. Create recommendation lists of your Top 10 favorites. Let’s say “My top 10 Groom sees the Bride for the first time Moments” or “Best Wedding venues in San Francisco in 2015”. You have all the materials, just need to shed some new light on it.

Curate What You Showcase

No doubt all those 900 photos you’ve taken at the last photo shoot or event are amazing, but this is not a good enough reason to upload ALL of them to your website, on your blog. Apart from those who were present at the event – nobody is going to look through all the 900 images. And imagine what a pain this is in terms of loading speed. An optimal number is 20-30 of your best images. This should be sufficient to describe the atmosphere, location, details and your subjects, as well as promote your unique style and creative eye. Don’t forget to use proper names for your photos – keywords by which you want to be found later on by search engines. We recommend including such details as venue and location, event type, theme and style, etc.

Social Media Has Rules

Promote your content on your social media platforms, and remember that each platform has its own personality, rules and audience. Take time to craft the right message for each social media account, use the proper image size and triggers (keywords and hashtags), monitor shares and mentions. All of these will help you get an idea on what works and what doesn’t.

Of course there are tons of other things you have to take into consideration to push your blog and site traffic up, especially keywords and SEO settings – but we will get into this in a different article. Meanwhile you can watch our video on Facebook about SEO Myths, Tips and Tricks, and read this handy guide on how to increase your organic traffic.

Try applying some of the steps described above and let us know how your readers respond and whether you see a difference in your engagement rate and traffic stats.

With Love,
Flothemes Team