The most successful businesses out there have a secret: they have a reliable website blog. Okay, maybe it’s not a secret, but according to Hubspot, companies that blog have 97% more inbound traffic than those that don’t blog. Blogging is vital to your website’s health and ultimately to your bottom line. Not only that, blogging also forces you to “know thy customer”. Feedback comes in many forms and learning what your users respond to, will inform how they respond to your sales as well!
Your business website blog offers you the opportunity to engage with your customers on a platform for years to come. It establishes an immediate sense of trust in new prospects that visit your website and places you in the “expert” chair. Without falling into the 
hamster wheel that is publishing three blog posts per week just for content’s sake, there are some solid ways to boost traffic to your site that also provide value to the users visiting your website blog. Here’s how to get started:
- Make your content SEO friendly. Determine the keywords and phrases that bring visitors to your website in the first place. Google Analytics has the tools you need to research which keywords bring people to you. For instance, if your business sells bicycles and you find that the main words searched are “bicycles” and “mountain bikes,” blog about different types of mountain bikes, different trails for biking in your area and more.
- Publish content consistently. This is of course, dependent on the size and nature of your business and how often you can update your posts with content relevant to your industry. Without falling into the hamster wheel that is publishing three blog posts a week just for content’s sake, the frequency at which you post can give your website blog the jumpstart it needs to boost your traffic.
- Invite guest bloggers to your site. Networking with other bloggers in your industry creates link-back opportunities that will increase your traffic because search engine algorithms will recognize a micro-influencer. It adds variety to your content, showing you are an active member of your industry. It also doesn’t hurt that they are likely to share with their large audience as well.
- Use share buttons on your blog posts. Depending on what blogging platform you use, share buttons will give your readers the opportunity to help others find you via email or social networking platforms. How will anyone know you have a website blog if you never tell them? Not every company has a highly engaged following, so it’s crucial to reach out to people who already follow you and share your content.
- Lastly–and high on the priority list–interact, interact, interact! Ask questions to your readers within your blog posts. Embed them throughout your content, giving your readers a chance to discuss the information you’ve shared. Respond, respond, respond to their questions so they remain active. By creating a community within your website blog, you’ve also created free word-of-mouth marketing which will gain the confidence of any new site visitors.
What’s really cool is that starting a website blog builds interest. It may be 10 people interested in a month but if you keep being consitent at it, those 10 people turn into 100, then 1,000 and so on. Here is cool YouTube video that shows how to start a blog and gives a realistic view of blogging.
So…now that you have the know-how, why wouldn’t you? Bottom line–know your audience, make your content SEO-friendly, engage with your visitors and fellow experts. You cannot simply write a blog post and cross your fingers, hoping to double your sales. It does take strategic planning to craft your content and engage future customers. But if you focus on the pointers above and apply them, you will begin to see a tremendous increase to your website blog’s traffic.
What do you think? What are some ways you use your blog to boost your website’s traffic? Have you noticed an uptick in your site traffic since you began blogging?
