If you want to have more than, let’s say, 50 blog readers per month, you have to do everything in your power to get people to your website and make them click on your posts.
You need to promote your blog.
The good news is that there are over 100 blog promotion techniques. We would advise you to go through all of them and mark the ones that seem the most effective for your blog 一 depending on the industry you are in, you are going to use different promotion methods. For example, if you are a travel blogger, and if you noticed that your blog readers don’t consult Reddit for travel advice, you probably won’t promote your blog posts there.
In this guide, we are not going to cover all of these 100 techniques 一 it would be a bit much. Instead, we are going to mention 4 methods that can work for any blogger, any time. Here they are:
Your blog’s SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a process that consists of improvements you make on your blog to ensure you get traffic organically and get ranked higher on Google and other search engines. These improvements can be made on pages of your website (on-page SEO), and off-site (off-page SEO), or by going through the technical parts of your blog (making improvements in the code, site architecture, design, etc.).
The truth is, SEO is not something you can learn overnight. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of it. That’s why, for now, we just want to introduce you to the on-page SEO, as it is the easiest to comprehend.
So, what’s an on-page SEO? It’s an optimization process you do on each page of your blog, including blog posts. It consists of a few rules you need to follow to make the pages and posts optimized for Google. Here are those rules:
1. Avoid long URLs at any cost. For example, instead of writing a six-word-long slug (like yourblogsname.com/blog/10-must-have-mini-skirts-for-the-spring-2020), try to keep the number of words up to five (yourblogsname.com/mini-skirts-spring-2020 would be better).
2. Define your page/blog post keyword and write it in the title and throughout the page copy. If we go back to the mini-skirts example, the keyword would be “mini skirts” or “must have mini skirts”. When it comes to choosing the right keywords, we would suggest you select the long-tail ones 一 the ones that consist of more than one or two words. Long-tail keywords are easier to rank and more profitable to target. For most of them, you won’t face any significant competition, which is what you are aiming for.
3. Include the keyword in the first 100 words of your page and in the subheadings (H2, H3, as well).
4. Use images and videos throughout the pages to make the content easily digestible.
5. Optimize images by adding the Title of each image and the Alt Text.
6. When it comes to your blog posts, be sure to link to other sites and blogs, and include internal links, as well.
Note: If you feel like you need help with on-page SEO, be sure to check out Yoast SEO plugin. This tool is the prominent WordPress SEO plugin 一 it takes care of the technical optimization and the help you optimize all your content, as well.
Bonus tip: Be sure to check our article on 6 free SEO tools that can get visitors to your blog.
Quora
Quora is a website where experts answer questions related to their fields. The questions can be asked (and answered, for that matter) by anyone, and are organized into niches. Quora is one of the tried and true methods for blog post promotion.
We would advise you to create your account on Quora, if you haven’t already, and see the questions for yourself. If you feel like there is room for blog post promotion, hop on, and start writing the answers.
Now, as any platform or community, Quora also has “rules” (besides the Acceptable Use Policy). As a Quora user, you MUST NOT spam. On Quora, spammers are considered to be the users that write answers solely to promote their content. These answers are far from worth reading. So, if you want to use Quora to promote your posts, you need to write valid and well-founded answers that have the users’ best interests. This only means that you should write helpful answers, and, somewhere in the text, link to your posts (that are even more helpful). By writing compelling answers, you’ll position yourself as an “expert in the field”, as someone who knows what he/she is talking about, and genuinely wants to give a hand. Additionally, for every fantastic answer you write, you can get a reward 一 an upvote or upvotes.
If you need a bit more details on how Quora works, be sure to check out Buffer’s simple guide to Quora. Or this one on how to go viral on Quora.
Bonus tip: If you want to boost your credibility on Quora, a good idea is to optimize your account. Here’s how you can do so.
Generally speaking, here’s how Pinterest works: You create an account, add a few Boards, add Pins (images), link them, and wait for the Pinterest users to come to your blog.
However, what you have to remember about Pinterest is that it is a widely used platform by MANY bloggers, so promoting your content on Pinterest is probably not going to be a walk in the park. That’s why you need to be smart about using Pinterest. Here are some tips that can help your content reach Pinterest users:
1. Name the Boards according to your blog post categories. For example, if you are a beauty blogger, and the categories on your blog are Makeup, Skincare, and Selfcare, be sure to name the boards accordingly.
2. If you want people to click on your Pins, the images have to be lusciously enjoyable. Use a tool like Canva and spend time perfecting the Pins.
3. You have to be an active member of the Pinterest community. Post often, follow back your Followers and Repin other people’s content.
4. Optimize the Pins (the visuals) by adding using relevant keywords that describe your Pins to make sure Pinterest users find you quickly. We would also suggest you use keywords in your Pin image “alt” tags.
5. From time to time, add some engaging Pins. Create a Board and name it “Giveaways” or “Contests”. On that Board, add Pins that explain the rules of the contests you have on your blog.
And that’s how you win the Pinterest game.
Social media
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… these are all the platforms you should use to promote your posts.
How? By being an active part of the community. For a blogger like yourself, having an active social network presence means participating in conversations, joining groups, and following pages or profiles that are significant for your niche. This will grow your audience organically and help you build (and maintain) your credibility.
It goes without saying that you need to post social media updates 一 as soon as you publish an article, post it on social media, as well. Don’t spam your followers with simultaneous updates on multiple social networks, because some are sure to be following you on all of them. Try spacing them out a bit, and always make sure to have unique write-ups for each network – this adds value in your updates, which will be much appreciated by your most loyal audience.
And that’s pretty much it when it comes to blog post promotion on social media.
Bonus tip: Here’s an article on how you can drive traffic to your blog using Twitter. We’ll leave it there. Just in case you want to read it.