Blogging Tips to Increase Website Traffic

by Susan U. Neal RN, MBA, MHS @SusanNealYoga

You’ve invested in a website and published a book. Now, how do you get people to visit your website? The following blogging tips are the answer. Many search engine optimization techniques can be performed through blogging to increase your website’s visitor rate. Last January, for example, my website (https://susanuneal.com/) had over 9000 website views because I consistently blogged weekly and used Pinterest pins at the bottom of each post to drive traffic to my website.

The Following Strategies Will Increase Your Website’s Views:

1. Create a theme for your blog by determining your blog’s 3–5 keywords that you would like to rank for on Google over time. Use these sites to choose keywords that have high search levels: Google Keyword Planner at https://ads.google.com/home/#!/ (free), UberSuggest at https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/ (3 free uses/day or paid), and Publisher Rocket (paid). 

For instance, for the Christian Indie Publishing Association blog (https://christianpublishers.net/blog/), the primary keywords are self-publishing, how to self-publish a book, Christian book, Christian authors, book marketing, and indie publishing. Secondary keywords include Christian publishers, Christian writers, indie authors, and independent authors. 

A second example is from the Healthy Living Series blog (https://susanuneal.com/healthy-living-blog). The primary keywords are low-sugar diet, low-carb diet, gluten-free, Candida, and food addiction. Secondary keywords include healthy diet, healthy lifestyle, and healthy eating.

2. Create blog guidelines and post weekly.

• Each article’s subject should apply to one of the blog’s keywords. 
• Use one of the keyword search engine platforms listed in #1 to determine the best keyword for your specific article. For example, blogging tips is the keyword for the post you are reading. 
• Include the keyword in the title and first sentence. Plus, repeat the keyword a couple more times. 
• The article should contain 90 percent new content. Use Grammarly or ProWritingAid to check for plagiarism. Google penalizes sites with repeated information.
• The length should range from 1000 to 2000 words.

3. Rewrite the blog’s meta description, if needed, and include keywords. A post’s meta description pops up when someone searches on Google. The first two sentences of the article become the meta description. Therefore, those sentences should tell you what the blog is about and how it will benefit the reader. If the first two sentences do not clearly define what the article is about, then either rewrite the first two sentences or write a better description and insert it in the meta description area when uploading your post on your website. 

4. Create an engaging blog title. Solve your customer’s problem in your title. Here are some examples: How to; 5 Ways to; Avoid these Mistakes; Client Success Story; etc. Use the Advanced Marketing Institute’s headline analyzer at https://aminstitute.com/headline/. This free tool analyzes your headline to see how someone might emotionally react to it. Reaching readers in a deep emotional way is key to successful copywriting. Try to get a score of 40 or more. Titles should be between 40 and 70 characters long. Use https://convertcase.net/ to determine your title’s character length. Make sure your title includes your keyword. 

5. Add an attractive photo at the top of the post or under the first paragraph. To find royalty-free photos, use Pixabay.com, Unsplash.com, or Canva.com. Do not upload large photos to your website because it will slow your site’s speed. Resize the photos so they have a maximum width of 1000px. Use Pixlr.com to optimize your photo size. The WordPress Plugin called Smush can decrease your photo size. Google bots can’t read photos, so title your photo with your blog’s keyword so the bots can read it. 

6. Open any links in your blog in a new window and make some links a “nofollow” link unless it is to a website you want to promote or give credit to (guest blogger, your own blogs—with these use “dofollow” links). 

To apply these two techniques, when uploading a post on a WordPress website, click on a link and a dropdown menu appears. Click on edit and link options. At this point, a box appears, and you can click on open link in a new tab and add nofollow. You want some of your links to be nofollow links, so Google bots think that your site is legitimate and not spamming dofollow links.

7. Use Pinterest pins to promote your blogs. Both of my blogs, Healthy Living Series and Christian Indie Publishing, have significantly benefited from using Pinterest. Writers and people looking for healthy living tips and recipes use Pinterest. So my audience is on Pinterest. Is yours? My website’s Google Analytics showed me that Pinterest is the #1 referral to both of my blogs. 

If you want to learn how to use Pinterest, check out the course, Grow Your Pinterest: Optimize Your Pinterest Account and Drive Traffic to Your Website. This course includes gorgeous Canva templates already created, so you can repurpose for your content. If you want to hire my Pinterest social media manager, check out her services at https://thebeautyoftraveling.com/services/. She increased my monthly Pinterest views from 6200 to 380,000 in three months.

Keeping up a weekly blog requires a significant amount of work. Therefore, I ask other writers for guest submissions. I’ve done this for the Healthy Living Series and Christian Indie Publishing Association blogs, and it worked well. I send an email with dates and the blog guidelines and asked individuals and professional group members (Christian Author Network, Advanced Writer & Speaker Association) to sign up. These guest spots can fill the unplanned weeks in your annual posting plan. If you apply these strategies, your website views will soar. For more blogging tips, take my blogging course, Drive Traffic to Your Website through Blogging, at CIPA.Podia.com.

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Susan U. Neal, RN, MBA, MHS: Susan’s mission is to improve the health of the body of Christ. She has her RN and MBA degrees, as well as a master’s in health science. She is a CERTIFIED HEALTH AND WELLNESS COACHwith the American Association of Christian Counselors. She published five books, the Selah award winner 7 STEPS TO GET OFF SUGAR AND CARBOHYDRATES, CHRISTIAN STUDY GUIDE FOR 7 STEPS TO GET OFF SUGAR AND CARBOHYDRATES, HEALTHY LIVING JOURNAL, SCRIPTURE YOGAa #1 Amazon best-selling yoga book, and YOGA FOR BEGINNERSwhich ranked #3. She published two sets of Christian Yoga Card Decks and two Christian Yoga DVDs that are available at CHRISTINAYOGA.COM. Her digital product HOW TO PREVENT, IMPROVE, AND REVERSE ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIAis a great resource. To learn more about Susan visit her website SUSANUNEAL.COM You can also connect with Susan on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and INSTAGRAM.

Featured Image Photo by Fikret tozak on Unsplash