6 Keys to Increased Blog Traffic and Top Search Rankings
Blogging is perhaps the easiest way to get traffic to your content, and the nature of blogging makes it easier to get top search engine rankings. As long as you follow these six key steps:
1) Post Often
Blogging can result in good search engine rankings for a number of keyword phrases. You’ll be surprised at the number of top ranking terms you get in search results which no keyword tracker will ever uncover.
The more you post to your blog, the more content is made available for search engines to include in their index. The rankings of each post improve as other webmasters and bloggers to link to them.
2) Mention Other Blogger’s Posts in Yours
Most bloggers are not scared to link out to interesting content, it improves the quality and professionalism of their posts.
But it’s a two way street. Don’t expect many links from other bloggers if you never link to other interesting posts.
Mentioning other posts within your blog content is worthwhile because you will receive a trackback link on the blog post you mention - usually in the comments section after the post. As other bloggers will when they mention your posts in their content. Trackbank links also send traffic, but nowhere near as much as being the first to leave a comment.
3) Be the First to Comment
Search out other blogs in the same niche as yours, and be the first to make sensible and constructive comments on a few of their posts, and you will get traffic. Do it often and you’ll be amazed at the increased traffic.
Some bloggers drop the “nofollow” attribute on comments so you also get a proper link back to your blog. The traffic you get from these comments is probably worth much more than the link value (I’m pretty certain the search engines devalue blog comment links because they are easy to automate).
When you start commenting on other blogs the owners often return the favor, but your content must be useful. This pays dividends because once bloggers are aware of your quality content, your better posts will often be mentioned within the posts of other bloggers. These are better quality back links in terms of SEO value.
4) Submit Your Blog and RSS Feeds
Submit your blog to blog directories, and your RSS feed to feed aggregators using software like RSS Bot and your content will start appearing all over the internet. Much of the time this will be on splogs, but most will link back to your individual blog posts.
These may not be the greatest of links in the eyes of search engines, so never approve a trackback from a splog which is using (stealing?) your RSS content.
5) Take it Easy with Social Bookmarking
Don’t go overboard with social bookmarking if your blog is new. If your newest post receives some traffic, submit it to a few of the bigger social bookmarking sites.
As your blog grows, start submitting to more social bookmarking sites. Provide social bookmarking buttons under each post and if your content is good enough, your readers will do that for you.
6) Maximize Your Optin Form Usage
Another way to increase traffic to your blog is to use an optin form to build a list. Not just a form in the sidebar, but also on your blog comments.
People who leave comments have to enter their email address before their comment will be displayed, so why not incorporate this with your normal list building activities?
Action Comments is a useful plugin which can be used with any autoresponder service. It works by placing a checkbox underneath the comment form. It’s already checked by default, so readers have to uncheck the box if they don’t want to opt into your list.
Once they submit their comment they will also be added to your optin list. You can make this a painless process by offering them something useful as a reward.
Chances are if they are taking the time to leave you a comment, they’re already interested in your information and won’t mind opting into your list.
All you need to do is send your list an email every time you publish a new post. Your traffic will grow dramatically over time.
Follow these six key steps and your blog traffic will increase dramatically. As more and more people start linking to your posts, your search rankings will improve resulting in even more traffic.
