Whether your blog traffic is low or it’s taking a little nose dive, you’re probably feeling frustrated. I feel you – we’ve all been there.
The first thing you should know is: there’s always a reason for stagnating blog traffic.
Hence, don’t panic. You can totally fix this!
So the question is: What can you do right now?
Let me walk you though the following proven techniques that have helped me increase my blog traffic throughout the years.
Make sure your blog has no error
The first thing you want to do is to check that your blog is working normally.
Because if you see a sudden dip in your traffic, that could mean that your visitors can’t access your blog at all.
If you are new to blogging, I know technical issues can feel like a nightmare. You already have a ton of stuff on your plate and an endless list of to-dos, and technical issues are the last thing you want to deal with right now.
But bear with me! Here is a quick checklist to make sure that the most essential parts of your blog are working OK:
- Check your homepage:
Navigate to your blog homepage by typing in your domain name into your browser’s URL field and hit Enter. Does the page load normally? Is your website online? - Check your menu bar links:
Can you open all the pages in your menu and navigation bars? - Check your blog posts:
Are your blog posts loading normally? Can you see images and other media? - Is your blog encrypted with an SSL certificate?
An SSL certificate encrypts your blog traffic. An active SSL certificate gives you that lovely little green padlock symbol in your browser. Make sure you’re using a legit blog hosting provider, such as Bluehost. They give you a free SSL certificate you can use to protect your website and your visitors. Double-check with your hosting provider that your SSL certificate is still valid.
Create up-to-date blog posts
If you’re wondering what to do when your blog traffic is low, this is the most important thing you should be doing: creating and writing new blog posts.
Both your readers and Google love fresh, new content. The more blog posts you publish, the better your chances are for building authority and increasing your blog traffic through Google’s search results.
So how often should you publish new blog posts?
There is no universal rule here. In general, the more the better, but you need to be realistic here.
Consistency is key. Thus, set yourself a publishing schedule that you can follow for several months and even years to come.
You don’t have to write a blog post every day. Not even every week if you can’t find the time to do that.
But you have to stay consistent. If you can only publish a new article once a month, that’s perfectly OK. That way, your readers know what to expect, and so does Google.
Update and freshen up old blog posts
It’s obvious that the best way to generate more blog traffic is to pump out top-notch blog posts as often as you can.
But I know you’re busy and writing fresh blog posts takes a lot of time.
Luckily, you can boost your blog traffic by updating and improving your existing blog posts, too.
Google loves up-to-date, super comprehensive content that covers all the relevant points for a specific topic.
Thus, you want to make sure to revisit older blog posts regularly to make them even more helpful and valuable for your readers.
Check your content strategy
Next, it’s time to check your content strategy and make sure it’s helping you achieve your blogging goals faster.
“Content strategy” is a fancy word, but it simply means one thing:
Your blog posts need to help your target audience by offering useful, valuable information.
After all, people use the Internet to find helpful answers and solutions to their problems and questions, right?
And when you launch your blog, you need to be mindful of who you are trying to help. That’s your blog target audience.
Those are the people who you want to target with your content. Hence, you need to figure out exactly what your target audience is struggling with and how you can help them by creating helpful blog posts.
I can’t stress this enough: all of your content needs to focus on that specific target audience.
If you start blogging about fashion, cooking, travel, beauty, and home decor on the same blog, your content strategy will be a huge mess.
Blogging about multiple topics on the same blog isn’t going to help you grow. Google will have a hard time understanding what your blog is about, your readers will be confused, and you will waste your time researching several topics at the same time.
Hence, if you’re trying to cover too many bases at the same time, you won’t become good at any of them.
Do your keyword research
Once you have a good overview of your content strategy, it’s time to figure out the exact keywords and search phrases to write about.
Because the truth is:
Each blog post should target a single problem or question your target audience is struggling with.
The easiest way to figure out your keywords is to head over to Google and do some quick searches for some of the problems your readers are facing.
If you followed my guide for finding your target audience, this step will be a lot easier.
You need to think like your readers:
- What do they type into Google?
- What questions are they asking?
- What problems are they struggling with?
- What type of content are they searching for exactly?
Submit your blog to Google Search Console
When you publish new blog posts, you want to make sure that Google knows about them.
Otherwise, it may take a long time for your blog posts to appear in their search results altogether.
So what should you do exactly?
You may be familiar with Google Analytics already. Analytics focusses on what your visitors do when they visit your website.
But what’s even more important is what your visitors do before they visit your website.
In other words, how your content ranks in Google’s search results and what keywords people use.
Be patient and stay consistent
Last but not least, let’s talk about getting in the right mindset for growing and monetizing your blog.
Whether you’re new to blogging or you’ve been doing this for a while, the truth is:
Becoming a successful blogger takes a lot of hard work.
Blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme, and you must have realistic expectations from day 1. Otherwise, you may feel disappointed when you don’t see the results you expect, feel frustrated, and quit blogging altogether.
Now, I’m not trying to say that you should give up on your dreams and become a pessimist.
What I’m saying is that you need to know what your long-term goal is, break it down into smaller milestones, and work your way through them one by one.
Because if you set a goal and try to work towards it without knowing your milestones, you will feel overwhelmed and confused about what to do next.
That’s why you want to follow a realistic, consistent blogging strategy that combines all of the points we discussed above.
Blogging is like a marathon, and everything you do is interconnected.