Maybe you started your blog as a hobby, or maybe you launched it as a way to promote your business. Whatever your reason, there’s likely some passion behind your efforts (or else why would you spend time writing blog posts in the first place?).

If you have ideas and information you want to share with the world, knowing how to articulate those ideas in a way that appeals to wide audiences is the first step toward success.

But if no one knows about your blog or where they can find it, then it won’t matter how helpful your writing is. Having a strategy in place for promoting your blog is the key to reaching your target audiences and growing your platform.

How to Promote Your Blog and Increase Traffic

These 10 strategies will help you to create and promote outstanding blog content, so you’ll be able to reach more readers and build your authority within your niche.

1. Target Popular Search Terms

The first step to creating a successful blog post is thorough keyword research. If you want your posts to get traffic and get re-shared, you need to create content that people need and are actually looking for.

There are several strategies for doing keyword research. You can start by choosing a broad topic, running a Google search on it, and seeing what suggested or related terms come up. A set of frequently asked questions will usually show up in the results as well, which should give you some insight to what people need to know about that topic.

You should also use a keyword research tool, such as Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest, to find important data such as the search volume and competition for the keywords you’d like to target in your posts.

Once you’ve found the right keyword or phrase, start studying the posts that are ranking in the top 10 results for that phrase. See what kind of content they’ve included and how they’ve organized it. Then, figure out how you can add even more value to your post.

2. Create Share-worthy Content

Of course, if you want your post to get shared by hundreds or thousands of readers, you need to create content that’s share-worthy.

That means you’ll need to do plenty of research and become a virtual expert in the topic you’re covering. Write a post that’s so helpful and well-written that people won’t be able to resist clicking “Share”!

When possible, include elements like interactive content, infographics or images, downloadable PDF’s, or videos—whatever makes sense for the kind of content you’re producing and whatever you think will add value for your readers.

You can also encourage engagement by including cues at the bottom of your post, such as a question readers can answer in the comments, or “Share this post with a friend who loves [topic]!”

3. Study On-Page SEO

Improving your post’s on-page SEO (search engine optimization) will help ensure that your post is searchable, which means your audience will be able to find your post more easily.

You can use an optimization tool like PageOptimizer Pro, which will analyze your posts and tell you where you need to add or remove keywords, such as in your H2’s, anchor text, or meta description.

4. Create a Social Media Plan

Social media is a very efficient (and free) way to promote your blog and engage with your audience.

Share links to your posts with followers, but be sure to add context. For example, we have a post on where to find free ebooks for kids, which we linked to in a Facebook post that looks like this:

In this way, you’re adding value even to your social media posts, which will help your Tweet or Facebook post to get reshared or reposted, so even more people can find your blog post.

Quora is another free and excellent way to promote your blog and brand. You can use Quora as a marketing tool by browsing the questions that are asked within your area of expertise and providing the best, most helpful answers you can.

By doing so, you’ll establish yourself as an authority in your field, and you can also provide links to your blog posts as part of your answers. Give people the best information possible, and they’ll start to trust you and your blog as their primary source.

5. Promote Content Through Social Media Ads

You may also want to consider paid advertising for your blog via social media. Each platform has its own type of advertisement (video ads for Facebook, carousel ads on Instagram, promoted Tweets on Twitter, etc.).

You’ll need to consider the best platform for your campaign. If most of your audience hangs out on Instagram, you’ll want to invest more there than on LinkedIn. You should also have a budget in mind and stick to it.

6. Reach Out to Influencers

You should do all you can with your own social media profiles, but sometimes you’ve got to call in the experts.

Identify the major influencers in your market. Mention them in your blog posts, link to their sites, and tag them in your social media posts (when it makes sense to do so—don’t overdo it!).

If you write a high-quality blog post that links to them, you can share that post with them, letting them know they’ve been mentioned. They may just want to share it with their own followers, and since their audience is likely larger than yours, that could drive quite a few readers your way.

Another option is interviewing an influencer for your blog or other social media platforms. This will help you establish a personal relationship.

Some bloggers also do business with influencers by offering payment in exchange for a full-length guest post by the influencer.

7. Write Guest Posts

Guest blogging is another important method of gaining exposure for your site. Pitch and write great content for other high-traffic blogs in your niche, and include at least one link in your guest post back to your site.

Make sure your guest post features an author bio, which also links to a landing page on your site. This will help establish you as an authority and recognizable voice in your field.

8. Build Backlinks

The highest ranking posts on Google also usually have the most backlinks (the number of external pages linking to that page).

While writing outstanding content is the first and most essential step toward getting more backlinks, you may want to also consider a more proactive approach.

One you’ve published a new post and made it the absolute best it can be, check out the best-performing posts for your target keyword.

Then, use a tool like Ahrefs to find all the sites that have linked to that post. Once you’ve located the appropriate contact information, you can reach out to those sites and briefly explain why your post is even better (more thorough, useful, valuable, etc.). Basically, you’re making a case for your post and why that’s the content that they should be sharing with their readers.

You might not get a 100% response rate, but if you’ve made a good argument in favor of your content, you’re bound to earn a few more backlinks, which can really make a difference in your traffic and rankings.

9. Use Your Email List

There are many tools that can help you run successful email marketing campaigns, including Aweber, SendGrid, and others.

Find one that works best for your needs, and decide how often you’d like to send out emails. For example, you could choose a relevant blog post to promote each week and send it out to your subscribers, with some context explaining why that information is important or helpful.

Once you’ve started sending out emails regularly, measure and analyze engagement levels (such as your open and click rates) to learn how you can adjust your strategy.

10. Repurpose Content for Different Platforms

For this to be really effective, you need to make sure you’ve taken care of #2: creating share-worthy content.

If you’ve created a knockout blog post, why let all that creativity and great content go to waste? You can turn those ideas into more than just words by repurposing your content across multiple platforms.

Let’s say you wrote a blog post on “How to Become an Audiobook Narrator.” You could then create a YouTube video around that same content, explaining each step and perhaps even featuring an interview with an expert.

Or, you could do the same with a podcast episode, which you could use to talk with industry experts for their advice, or create a fun infographic related to your post and share it on your Instagram account.

When it comes to repurposing your content, your options are virtually endless. Just make sure that whatever you do, you’re adding value for your audience and including a slightly different angle for each medium.

Where Can You Promote Your Blog?

Whenever you’re thinking about promoting your blog on a certain platform, you’ll need to consider which are the most relevant for your audience.

Below is a list of platforms you might use to promote your blog. It’s likely that not all will apply to you and your niche, and you’ll probably have to adjust your strategy for each different type of media.

• Facebook groups
• LinkedIn groups
• Google Plus groups
• Twitter
• Pinterest boards
• Subreddits on Reddit
• Instagram
• Quora
• Tumblr
• Medium
• BizSugar
• Google News

When using groups within these different platforms, you’ll also have to consider which ones are frequented the most by your target audience.

For example, let’s say you’re targeting university students who want to study abroad. You’ll want to find and join groups on Facebook and post your advice and links to your content there.

Doing your research first will help make your promotion efforts much more effective.

How Can You Promote Your Blog for Free?

Most of the tips mentioned above can be applied for free. It mostly depends on what your budget is for advertising, and whether or not you have free or premium accounts for things like email marketing and keyword research.

However, when it comes to creating and sharing amazing content—which is the most important step to gaining exposure—you can do that for free. It will just take skill and practice.

Promoting Your Content

Writing great content is the first step to running a successful blog. But if no one can find your content, all your hard work will be in vain!

Using the promotion strategies outlined above, you can make sure your blog actually reaches readers so you can make a difference in their lives.

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• 18 Online Email Marketing Courses
• How to Make Interactive Content: Tips and Techniques to Get You Started
• How to Get Publicity for Your Book: Tips, Tools, and Successful Strategies
• How to Write a Blog Post: A 12-Step Guide for Beginners