Increasing Organic Traffic to Your Blog

When you think about the traffic that comes into your blog are you typically thinking of paid searches or your rank on Google? However there are other ways to increase your traffic beyond paying for it.

Organic traffic is much better in the long term than any SEO gimmick or search engine trick. Best of all, you do not have to pay for organic traffic which means you are not eating into your profits with every visitor.

But how do you go about getting more organic traffic? Well, here are a few tips:

1.   Have a niche – The first thing you should do when thinking about increasing your organic blog traffic is to make sure your blog has a well-defined niche. Your blog’s niche is its overall topic. What you write on the most and what you focus on. Without a niche, readers will be lost and you will be without a target.

Your efforts in blogging should be organized and confident, not here and there and everywhere. Find out what your true blogging passion is and follow it. A blog’s niche should be specific enough to interest readers and general enough that you have lots of things to write about. Finding the balance may take some work, but it is well worth it.

2.   Know your target audience –Once you know what your blog’s niche is you can find out who your target audience is. A target audience can vary widely. If you have a blog on cows, for example, then I doubt your target audience is big city businessmen.

Make sure you know who your audience is and what they want to read about. There are many programs available online that will allow you to do some research before you get started targeting your writing.

3.   Use keywords naturally – Speaking of targeted writing, using keywords is a tried and true standby in promoting organic traffic. However, you have to know what keywords to use. Doing some research on your target audience should help you to see what words and phrases are commonly searched for in your blog’s nice. Use those words and phrases to come up with new blog posts.

If you keep the keywords in mind them they will come out naturally in your writing. Do not try to artificially pack your blog posts with keywords. Readers and search engines alike hate that. Instead, offer quality content with the keywords you need arising organically.

4.   Title well – Another aspect of drawing in both search engines and readers is titling. Titles are often the first thing a reader sees and determines whether or not they will click to read your blog pots.

A good title is revealing of the post content, offers some incentive or mystery, and gives an indication of the post’s length. A typical title should fall between three and ten words in length. If you can, try to include a keyword or phrase in the title itself. You can also use effective strategies like name recognition to lure in readers.

An example title,“6 Hats Sherlock Holmes Would Never Wear”. The number six gives readers an indication of the post’s length. The word ‘hats’ and the phrase ‘never wear’ are keywords and also give an indication of the post content. The name Sherlock Holmes gives name recognition, is often searched, and offers amusement and intrigue for the reader.

5.   Use multimedia – Once you have the blog post content down, you can move on to other issues. One often overlooked fact is that readers are visual. That means you need to pay attention to what your blog looks like. Lines and lines of text are boring to a reader. Break it up and add color with images, videos and more.

Interaction is also popular with readers and a video inserted in a blog post can cause many more people to stop and check it out. Images are often searched as well, so including an image that is tagged with appropriate keywords is often effective in getting new readers to your blog.

6.   Connect with social media – Social media is so big that you have no choice but to get involved in it. Thankfully, most blogging platforms allow you to easily connect your blog with Facebook, Twitter and more. On the blog itself you can have a Twitter feed and a Facebook like button. You can also set up your blog to automatically post new updates to Facebook and Twitter and there for keep your readers in contact in multiple ways. The chances of your post going viral are also increased with the use of social media.

7.   Comment on other blogs – One thing that I often find bloggers overlook is the importance of community in the blogging world. There is so much we can learn from each other and help each other out. One way to share traffic with other blogs and also contribute to their site is through commenting.

An insightful comment can induce readers to visit your blog. The blog you comment on also will commonly come check you out and could even share some of your posts with their readers. Commenting also gets you a link on that other blog, which can help to raise your search engine rankings.

8.   Write guest posts –Another great way to get exposure to new readers and get those high quality links that you want is to write guest posts.

Guest posts are a win-win for everyone involved because the other blogger gets free high quality content and you get a link. Not only that, but if you can match your blog’s topic with the other blog’s topic in your guest post you can intrigue readers and get them to come over to your site.

9.   Give something away –Another great way to really get reader’s attention is to give away a prize. It can be something small or even just free services, but if it is something people want then your offer could go viral.

When you get interaction for a prize, like leaving a comment or liking a post, then you get a sense of how many people are actually reading your blog and who they are. Those are your target audience. You should tailor your blog posts according to their interests.

10.   Do charity work – Another way to get great, high quality links is to do charity work. If you can help out a charity with your time, money or services they will often link to your blog.

This link is valuable because you then get access to their readers as well as getting a valid link on their site. This also works well during crisis, like natural disasters. If you offer some help even government websites and huge organizations can give you a link on their sites. This can be a great boon.

These are just a few of the ways that you can get more organic traffic to your blog. If you give readers quality content, pay attention to your target audience and know what your niche is you should do well.

Remember to cater to real people, not just search engines, and do not fall for the latest easy gimmick. For long term quality traffic, organic is the way to go.

Author Bio:

Ken Myers is the founder of  http://www.longhornleads.com/ & has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net