Editors note: we at THE FIVE listen to everything Maciej has to say on this topic! <grin>
Years ago just launching a blog might have been enough to get traction and visibility but these days the idea of publishing a post and expecting success sounds a bit crazy. There are millions of active blogs online and the successful ones have a robust multi-pronged strategy in place to drive consistent traffic and influence. If you have a blog and for some reason your traffic just don’t seem right here are some reasons that could be causing a kink in your website traffic flow.
Here are 9 reasons why your blog might have its head stuck in the sand:
- Poor Web Development: There is such a thing as having a poorly built blog. If the navigation elements, internal links and other features don’t work well you are going to scare away your visitors. Get all your nuts and bolts working correctly.
- Zero Branding: Is your blog a stand-alone blog or an extension of your existing company? Whichever it is there should be an element of branding to your blog. Give your audience a reason to come back to your blog. Good solid branding will give your audience a connection to your voice.
- Poorly Written Content: Poorly written content can be a serious nightmare for blog visibility. I am not just talking about punctuation errors I am talking about concept and content flow. Do people want to read what you are saying? Make sure it is relevant to your audience in every way possible.
- No SEO: Search engine optimization is important for blog post visibility. Everything from using strategic keywords to proper URL structures is extremely important for inbound traffic. Make sure your blog posts are 100% efficient and optimized for search. You will be happy you did.
- No Social Sharing Options: Give readers a way to share your content. You should have buttons for Twitter & Facebook at the very least.
- Out of Date Design: Good blog design can go a long way. Unfortunately people do judge a book by its cover and if your cover is ripped and torn it will have an effect on blog traffic.
- Too Many Ads: Have you ever been to a blog that has so many Google AdSense ads your eyes start twitching? Or how about so many affiliate advertisements you simply change the channel and move onto the next blog? If your blog has no traffic don’t worry about ads just yet.
- Lack of Rich Media: Writing blog posts is wonderful but they usually need to be accompanied by some sort of rich media. An image is almost without a doubt required because so many areas online use a small image from the blog post which helps with click through rates. Accompanying a blog post with a video for support or even an infographic can really help with traffic retention.
- Non Self-Hosted Blogs: If you are serious about growing a business out of your blog you are going to want to use something other than one of the free blogging platforms. Using your own URL on a self-hosted server is really going to be important for traffic growth.
