Increase traffic to your Blog : Top Tips

Blog-more.
It's highly advised.
It does wonders.

We all know it brings traffic to your website, it keeps things current, it is a way to provide meaningful and helpful content that your viewers will appreciate - because pure sales content can be off-putting.
The problem is, too often there's no advice, direction or general planning involved to ensure that the blog content is both relevant and able to perform efficiently.

Whilst we set up our blog at Love & Humphries, we've gathered some of the best advice to help anyone new to the game.

How did you arrive here? The majority of readers will have simply googled something similar to ' Blog writing tips '.
This should highlight the first tip, know what people are searching for and answer their questions with insightful content.
If 1/100 people looking for blogging tips wants a bespoke printing job then it'll have been worth the blog alone.
(If not, hey we've hopefully helped someone - and increased our potential to advertise on our website through higher traffic)

Keep it simple, keep it accurate. A great example can be seen by all online newspapers ahead of big sporting fixtures, they know the common questions and address them with a long-winded title reflecting the questions:

' Time, Channel and location for the Reds V the Blues on May 21st '

Be sure to have a description that supports the title, this will help the SEO as search engines like Google want to ensure they're displaying relevant content.

Social media is important, and your content shouldn't be isolated to single platforms.
Be sure to share links to your blog posts in mailshots, on your facebook pages, via instagram uploads and wherever else may be relevant for your business. LinkedIn is a place for sharing wisdom and advice, so perhaps your business should benefit from being seen as helpful and knowledgeable.

The more you share, the more chance you have that others will share your content too. Word of mouth is arguably the most powerful marketing wave out there, so don't be afraid to ask people to share your content to anyone they think might benefit from it.

It might be tempting to jump on bandwagons, and churn out information on whatever hot potato has entered the trending news but keep it relevant!

Find ways to link your content to your sector, your expertise, your business and the daily life of your community. People engage more with authentic content and it's becoming increasingly easier to spot content that might be designed purely to honey-trap customers on your page.

Here are some examples of bad blog posts made good.

Pizza restaurant blogging about the new royal baby = random, odd, no.
What could they have done to make that news relevant to them? Maybe turn it jovial, tribute it with the 'birth' of a special pizza collection such as a princess Margarita!

Printing company blogging about blogging = eh?
Well, it didn't seem intuitive at first but any blog should have blogging as a interest. If you're going to do it, do it right. Address what you do, in all sectors. Anyone can talk about marketing, corporate social responsibility, their own communities, the tools they use, etc etc - don't feel constrained to a niche as even the niche-est niche will call on help from software, professions, and all sorts. It's interesting to hear the story behind the brand - and there are always people looking for help and inspiration on their own journeys.

Cricket company blogging about the UEFA Champions league = Pft.
Huge sporting events gather interest, but a football fan might distrust a cricket website claiming to be an expert. Find ways to link the two by offering similarities or interesting statistics - maybe it's just a short quote from someone in your industry/field that can link to the big event. A famous cricketer being a die-hard football team fan might have the hook into a general story that will attract high volumes.

And remember, if you've no idea what you're talking about then it'll become apparent.
It's better to have high quality content to 100 people, than poor quality content to 1000 people. Your writing will represent the brand, so it's vital to do it justice.

Many will feel listicles aren't 'premium content', and opt for a more traditionally professional presentation for their work.

Many miss huge audiences.

It's worth remembering that the online culture has conditioned millions to expect instant information. If you need an answer, you can perform a quick search and get a quick answer. If you want to find a recipe, you're unlikely to want to read a 3000 word story on the history of someone's Mac N Cheese journey, so make the information as easy for the reader as possible.

We could have written this blog post in an essay style, discussing various ideas and linking them smoothly. By choosing the listicle approach, our readers can quickly scan down and learn each tip in a short bite-sized section. Listicles hold short attention-spans for longer because of their easy format and lack of daunting HUGE text blocks. It's surprising how many people will see a big paragraph and instantly return back to their google search page in hope that the next result will be a quicker read. This links up with the next tip:

Use images, headers, spaces and videos to break up large text blocks.

The aim is to make your content as aesthetically inviting as possible.
Look how easy this is to read? Look how pleasantly organised it is.

The same information,
in an awkward format,
would put people off.

Play about with formatting, including the use of bold and italic styles, to keep the readers attention and engagement.

Images are always nice - above we used a photo of 'Space' because we're talking about spacing. We're risking confusing people with a non-related image for comedic effect, but mainly to make the point that relevant imagery is much more powerful and not to post photos just for the sake of it, unless you feel it'll help your content.

Proof reading should go without saying, but it's all to common for blogs to be rushed or never read back.
Grammar and spelling are important - do u want ur brand rmmbered for good reasons or badder ones ?

Once you're happy with your content try and grab a few friends to look over your work. It's even better if the people you ask meet these criteria:

1. Have an interest in what you wrote about.
No-brainer, you'll find out if it's good content for your market.

2. Are well educated.
They'll help you spot and fix mistakes.

3. Aren't well educated.
Don't tell them you think they aren't well educated - but it is useful to find out how universally readable your content is.
Lot's of interesting theories came out about the way Donald Trump spoke during his original presidential campaign, whilst many were belittling his simple and odd use of language - huge examples emerged pointing to the success of simple speech reaching wide audiences. Whilst we're not advocating to base yourself on any presidents, think about simplifying statements if you have a huge market to cover.

Any further tips for us? Let us know!

Found any of this useful? We'd love to hear your feedback!

Came for the article, stayed for the bespoke printing? You beauty, you're in good hands!