It seems like everybody has a blog now-a-days. From PR professionals to stay-at-home moms to college co-eds, everyone is sharing their thoughts and opinions with the world. But if you want to stand out amongst the static and build a flourishing community around your words, how do you go about marketing and growing your blog? Here are some insider tips on how to increase your blog traffic and market your site like a pro.

Clearly Define Your Goals

When it comes to digital marketing, it’s critical to have definite goals. Before you even start your venture, write down a list of things you’d like to accomplish with your blog. Do you want to build a successful online business? How quickly do you want to grow your readership? Having clear and concise goals in place will help you to formulate a effective blueprint for your marketing campaign.

Make Your Site User-Friendly

Having an easy-to-use, attractive, and intuitive blog is important. You don’t want a reader clicking on your site and then swiftly leaving because they don’t like its look and feel. One of the most important aspects of creating a site that caters to your audiences is picking a reliable web hosting company for WordPress. This ensures that your blog never goes down or never lags.

You should also create a simplistic layout that’s easy to understand. You want your readers to quickly and easily comprehend your content. This also means having a clear navigation bar where audiences can find other components of your blog easily. Never forget to include a search box as this helps folks find the content that they want the most.

Create Crave-Worthy Copy

A successful blog post relies heavily on one thing – engaging and informative content. If you’re providing consistent, high-quality content, your readers will surely return for more.

Creating great copy is much more than simply showcasing your talents – it’s about helping your audience grow, generating new leads, and spreading awareness about your blog. It’s also a way to relate to your readership, and help foster a community around your content.

Some ways that you can create something special for your readers are:

• • Telling a story from your life that they can relate to.
  • Always using a friendly and approachable conversational tone.
  • Providing a wide range of content, including case studies, interviews, stories, how-to posts, and more.
  • Cutting away the fat. Nobody likes fluff!
  • Catering to your audiences’ interests.

Building Engagement

Great content isn’t the only aspect of a thriving blog. It’s also about using social media to build engagement around your blog and posts.

To do this, create a Facebook and Twitter account for your blog. Anytime you post a new article, share it to your social media sites so that your friends and followers can stay up-to-date on new content.

You should also be promoting conversation amongst your community on your social sites. Ask them questions, share pictures of your life, or create polls to always keep the conversation going.

Optimize Your Content for Search Engines

You should learn about SEO to help more people find your blog. Optimizing your site and its content for search engines such as Google is what makes it more easily discovered by new users.

You can optimize your blog and posts in a number of different ways, including:

• • Always including a meta title and meta description in each post.
  • Using keywords in your title and subheadings.
  • Interlinking your posts.
  • Linking out to other credible sites.

Boosting Subscribers

If you’re serious about growing your readership, an email marketing list is critical. You can build powerful connections through emails ad market your blog effectively.

Firstly, find a good email marketing tool and include an opt-in (or sign up) form in multiple locations on your site. Entice people to sign up through exclusive offers and giveaways. You can also use your social media platforms to collect more subscribers.

Network

It’s all about who you know. If you want your blog readership to grow, you need to extend your social circle. This means getting seen and being heard. Share other blogger’s posts on your social media channels. Link out to relevant posts. Join blogger communities. Comment regularly on other sites.

If you want to grow your blog, it’s important to market it in the right way. It’s also vital to write content that appeals to your audiences and create an online community through social media platforms.