Happy Saturday, everyone!
Today on my how to series, we’re talking about how to increase your blog traffic! Of course, statistics and traffic are not the end all, be all of blogging. But, it is a lot more fun to blog when you have people to talk to. Having discussions on posts is my favourite part of blogging. So here are some things I do to increase my interactions!
Quick disclaimer: I’m not trying to say that I’m an expert or the best at this, by any means. These are honestly just things I’ve found work for me, and that I wanted to know when I started my blog.
Weekly memes and link-ups!!!!! I cannot stress how useful these are for getting more traffic. Top Ten Tuesday, Top Five Wednesday, and Top Five Tuesday all have link-ups (and are super fun!!!), so you can easily find others’ posts and they can find yours. You can also search for them in the search bar on WordPress and find others who may not have linked up. It’s also great when everyone posts about the same topic. There’s something common to discuss.
Comment on other people’s posts! Especially the weekly memes. It’s a good way to get people to talk to you. Some tips for commenting:
- Try not to comment something too generic. Try to comment something specific about the post. If it’s a tag, say something like “I also enjoyed [book] and think it’s a perfect answer for that question!”. If it’s a review, say something like “I loved what you said about [the characters/plot/book], I totally agree.” It lets people know you’ve actually read their post.
- Obviously generic comments are fine too. Saying something like “this post was really sweet!” or “this was such an interesting idea for a post!” still comes across as sweet and genuine.
- Be yourself!! Use your favourite emojis! Use nine exclamation marks! Be genuinely you and ask excited as you want to be! Don’t be worried about being too excited or enthusiastic! We’re all excited and enthusiastic and honestly, if someone left an excited comment in all caps on my blog, I’d love it
In the same thread, reply to people’s comments! When someone comments on your blog, reply to them! Even just a “thank you!” will let them know that you appreciate the comment. I know some bloggers have rules about how much later they’ll respond to comments (i.e. they only respond to comments within two weeks after the post was posted), which is fine. But personally, I respond to all comments, no matter how old the post is. Ultimately, I posted those posts for discussions and conversations. I want people to talk to me!
Use social media! I have my posts to be shared on my Twitter automatically, and I think you can also set it up for Facebook and Tumblr, if you use them. Personally, I don’t interact a ton on social media. I love it, but I find it exhausting. But sharing your posts is still a good way to get traffic. I probably get two or three visits per tweet, which isn’t a ton but it’s better than nothing.
- You can also tag people in the tweets, which is great! All you do is put @[their username] in the tweet, and it’ll tag them when the tweet is posted. If someone’s tagged me in a tag, when I post the tag, I include them in the tweet. If I’m writing a glowing review, I tag the author.
- Don’t tag authors in anything less than a glowing review, though. Be nice.
So those are some of my tips for increasing blog traffic! Hopefully these were useful! What do you do to increase blog traffic? Do you have any tips for me? Let me know!
If there’s anything you want me to cover, let me know and I can do my best!
Thanks for reading! xx
This is really good advice! I definitely feel like the weekly memes and posts have a lot more interaction on my blog than some of my reviews, which is totally fine and I love hearing from those that come on to read what I wrote. I still consider myself to be an amateur blogger so any kind of feedback from someone makes my day. I’m still new to the Twitter world as well, but I just have it set to automatically post to Twitter and Facebook whenever my blog posts are live, so I don’t have to think about it.
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Thank you so much! 💖
And same!! Some of my most popular posts are weekly memes, and some of my least popular are reviews. But I agree, any feedback and comments are appreciated 😀
I’m pretty new to Twitter, too. It’s been useful though!
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I’m super new to Twitter too! I feel like I’m doing it wrong honestly. I think I’m just an awkward person so hopefully people can go easy on me lol.
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This is awesome! Thanks for the advice.
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Thank you! 💖💖 I’m glad it was useful 🙂
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Wow! What a fantastic post! You’re spot on with everything 🙂 And thanks for including Top 5 Tuesday 🙂
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Thank you, Shanah! 💖💖
And of course, it’s one of my favourites!
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These are really sound advices!!! I don’t set to answer comments two weeks later but I reckon that I comment back two days after as life has been hectic!
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Thank you! 💖
Same!!!! It usually takes me a couple of days to get back to comments (like this one, for example lol)
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Great post! Commenting on other posts and commenting back is so helpful in gaining blog traffic
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Thank you! 💖 yes, commenting is so important!!
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Great tips! Meme, commenting, and social media have all played a role in increasing my traffic.
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Thank you!!! I’m so glad you agree! 💖
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Good advice! I also find that posting every 1 or 2 days helps, and also having some ‘in case you missed it’ tweets to bring traffic to previous posts.
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Thank you! And yes, those are both such great tips!! Posting frequently definitely helps increase traffic (duh lol). Having ICYMI tweets are something I’m trying to work on, because I find that they definitely help, I just never use them lol
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Good advice! The commenting thing is HUGE, I find. I have stopped following blogs that I enjoyed because the blog author never bothered to reply to comments, even when left the same day the blog was posted. (But, that was quite a while ago, so I don’t even remember the type of blog, much less who it was. Still, it left a big impression on me.)
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Thank you! And SAME!! There are a couple of people who I liked their content, but they never interacted (or when they did, it was minimal), so I’ve stopped interacting with them as much.
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Exactly! There are some blogs that I’ll keep reading and just don’t comment on due to the lack of interaction, but I know there are others I gave up on entirely because I got so frustrated.
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Replying to comments would be my number one piece of advice as well – there’s nothing more frustrating than writing a paragraph-long comment and getting no response; it definitely makes me less interested in engaging with that person in the future (basically I’m needy, talk to me!)
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SAME I once wrote a really long, thought-out comment on someone’s post basically gushing and agreeing with everything they said, and five other people liked it, EXCEPT the person who wrote the post!!!!!!! They never liked or replied to it!!! which makes me feel needy and entitled but also there are people who will respond to my comments so I’d rather interact with them
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Thanks for the ideas! I don’t really want my posts on Facebook, but didn’t realize you could have them go on Twitter, so thanks for the new knowledge!
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You’re so welcome! I don’t post on Facebook either lol, but Twitter is really useful and a great way to share posts!
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These are great tips, Ally! I personally also enjoy participating in blogging memes, and discussion link ups!
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Thank you so much, Camillea! ❤
Same! I love the link-ups and reading what everyone else puts for the same topics!
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This is wonderful advice-thank you. I think I want to try the weekly memes. That’s is a great idea. Being new to blogging I am still stumbling around to find my footing and what to post.
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Ahhh I’m so glad it was useful! The weekly memes are really great for finding people to talk to and having consistent posts. If you stick around, I have a post coming in a couple of weeks about where to get ideas for blog posts + some blog post ideas!
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I will definitely stick around. Thank you.
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Lovely! It helped a lot! Thank you so much for the checklist.
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You’re very welcome, I’m glad it was useful!
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This post taught me about link ups, thanks!
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You’re very welcome! I’m glad it was useful 🙂
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