Netconcepts

Specialists in SEO, web dev, online marketing

Book A Free Strategy Call
  • About
    • Problems We Solve
    • Who We’re Not a fit for
  • Services
  • Results
  • Learn
    • Learning Center
    • Courses
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
  • Press
  • Contact

Increasing Your Blog Traffic

Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz has graciously shared 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic, and there are some gems in there. I’d like to piggyback on a few of Rand’s points:

  • 1. Choose the Right Blog Software (or Custom Build) — I’d say that over 95% of the time, WordPress will do the job and will be scalable for future needs. I have yet to come across a client blog project that necessitated a custom-built blog software.
  • 2. Host Your Blog Directly on Your Domain — Rand makes a bold statement: “Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make.” I disagree. I can think of numerous examples where the blog is more trusted, more buzzworthy, and/or more linkworthy because it’s at an arms length from the company’s site. Consider the hypothetical example of an insurance conglomerate authoring a blog about getting a healthier lifestyle, in order to attract prospects to sell insurance to. Such a blog at Gettinghealthy.com sounds helpful and unbiased, whereas having it at metlife.com/gettinghealthyblog (remember, hypothetical example… metlife is just used here to illustrate the point) comes off as salesy and self-serving.
  • 4. Participate at Related Forums & Blogs — I’d just like to make it clear that you’re not doing this for link juice (most links in blog comments and forum posts have “link condoms” (rel=nofollow tags) automatically added). Instead, you’re doing this to increase your visibility to, and credibility with, bloggers who read those blogs and forums.
  • 9. Invite Guest Bloggers — I really like this idea, and I’d like to add my suggestion that you also do phone or Skype interviews of guests and podcast those on your blog.
  • 15. Archive Effectively — Rand highlights a tough balancing act: “For search traffic (particularly long tail terms), it can be best to offer the full content of every post in a category on the archive pages, but from a usability standpoint, just linking to each post is far better (possibly with a very short snippet). ” I find the “Optional Excerpt” in WordPress to be invaluable for achieving this balance. The Optional Excerpt is one of the fields in the Write Post form that most bloggers ignore, but if you use it, you can code your non-permalink pages (like your category pages) to display the excerpt instead of the full post or instead of the paragraphs proceeding a “more” tag in your post copy. That’s exactly what we’ve done on my company’s corporate site, which runs on WordPress — for example, all the testimonials listed on our Testimonials tag page display excerpts. That gives you more flexibility to summarize and highlight particular sections or keywords from the full post.
  • 16. Implement Smart URLs — Rand says that “just re-writing a ?ID=450 to /450 has improved search traffic considerably on several blogs we’ve worked with.” I would definitely agree with that. We too have evidence that a blog or site with rewritten URLs flows PageRank more efficiently throughout the site. So don’t rest on your laurels if you have a blog with dynamic URLs, even if your blog is fully indexed by the engines. Your pages will rank better if you rewrite the URLs.
  • 19. Make Effective Use of High Traffic Days — What a great idea, to watch your traffic and increase your posting frequency and posting quality on days where your traffic is highest! It makes the best use of the traffic spikes. In fact, you might even want to hold back on publishing your very best posts and instead save them for high-traffic days.
talk dirty

Comments

  • David “Dsquared” Dalka - Creating Revenue and Retention - Chicago GSB » Increasing Your Blog Traffic says:
    December 14, 2006 at 2:41 am

    […] Stephan Spencer wrote this nice post a hile back on how to increase your blog traffic. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

    Reply
  • PixelHead(Adam) says:
    July 16, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    Great post Stephen and Rand. Your number two point answered a question I have had for more than a while. Thanks.
    Can you answer this for me? Is it better to have the blog on its own root say blog.site.com as opposed to site.com/blog/?

    Reply
  • The Art of SEO

    Chapter 7:
    Content Marketing

    From the fundamentals of link building to the nuances of natural linking patterns, virality, and authority.

    Get Free Chapter

    Related Posts

    Blog Images

    Your Ultimate Guide to Google Penalties

    When your website’s traffic suddenly takes a tumble and you don’t know why, it can be maddening. Why is this happening? It’s possible you’ve been hit with a Google penalty, or have come up against one of Google’s algorithm updates. If you’re wondering how Google penalties work and what you should do to avoid them, […]

    Read More
    Blog Images

    Using Psychology to Boost Your Conversion Rate Optimization

    Can a better understanding of the human brain help you get more conversions? Absolutely! Let’s look at how to incorporate some psychological concepts into your conversion rate strategy, along with some examples. Behavioral economics: humans are irrational What is behavioral economics and what does it have to do with conversion rates? Traditionally, economists believed that […]

    Read More
    Blog Images

    How to Master Social Selling on LinkedIn

    Social selling could be your key to securing new prospects and boosting your bottom line. When not done properly, however, social selling can also ruin your online presence and repel potential customers. So what is social selling, and why does your brand need it? More importantly, how do you master social selling? Let’s look at […]

    Read More
    As seen on
    NBC ABC CBS Fox CW Haryard adweek foundr cnet
    Capsule Bar Img
    Will your content marketing turn readers into customers?

    Download chapter 7 of The Art of SEO, Content Marketing

    Download Now
    netconcepts
    • submenu
      • About
      • Services
      • Problems We Solve
    • submenu
      • FAQ
      • Results
      • Who We’re Not a fit for
    • submenu
      • Case Studies
      • Testimonials
      • Learning Center
    • submenu
      • Courses
      • Blog
      • Podcasts
    • submenu
      • Press
      • Contact
    netconcepts
    © 2021-2022 Netconcepts. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Earnings Disclaimer Privacy Policy
    Book

    The Art of SEO

    Chapter 7: Content Marketing

    Yes, this is the book that Seth Godin referred to as “Hype-free, data-rich, and loaded with insight that’s essential reading for anyone who needs a deep understanding of SEO.”

    Want to sharpen your SEO chops?...
    start out with an appetizer before you dig into the main course!

    Get Free Chapter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube