How to: increase your blog traffic

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.

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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!

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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