If you are a new-to-be blogger or you are a more experienced blogger but you still can’t see traffic coming to your site, this article is for you.
I am blogging for nearly 7 years and I have experienced much success (and failure too) when it comes to blog traffic so I know what I am talking about.
You just need to know that you don’t have to be a marketing guru or SEO expert to get traffic on your blog. You just need to follow some basic rules and that’s it.
In this blog post, I will talk about how to get more traffic on a blog completely free and without b*llshit because you know, there are many bloggers out there who are talking about doing some complex things on your blog, like let’s say building backlinks. Forget it!
You just need to implement some basic things here and you will be fine.
Keep in mind that here I will focus on getting traffic to your blog for free, I will not talk about paid methods because why would you do that if you can get it for free? Just listen to me and use the information I will give you and be ready for your blog to rock!
Before getting to the topic I want first to discuss the most common mistakes people are making when they want to get more traffic to their blog. I know that because when I first started blogging I made those mistakes thinking that I will get more traffic pretty fast.
Most Common Mistakes With Getting Traffic On a Blog
1. Let’s Talk a Little About Backlinks (Do You Actually Need Them?)
I know you heard about how without backlinks your blog does not have a chance of getting ranked. You need to know that backlinks ARE a ranking factor but did you know that there are more than 200 factors confirmed by Google that affect rankings?
I see many new bloggers are running to get those backlinks as soon as possible. Those more experienced bloggers are doing the same when they see that their blog is not getting traffic after such a good amount of content.
It’s okay if you want to build backlinks but those backlinks MUST be QUALITY. They must come from authority sites and not some spammy sites that will only destroy your blog.
If Google sees that you are building those backlinks like crazy he will penalize your blog and you are finished. Why? Because Google does not care if you have 100 backlinks or you have 5.000. He wants to see your content quality!
So, if you are a beginner forget about building backlinks, it will not work that way. If you are a more experienced blogger again, don’t bother building backlinks!
I will talk about getting traffic to a blog soon! Keep reading!
2. Buying Software And Tools For Getting Traffic (Really?)
I am seeing this nearly every day. You are impatient I know but I can guarantee that no software will bring you traffic to your blog.
Most of the time that software is very expensive and you will just throw your hard-earned money. Don’t do that!
You can see on the internet thousands of ads that are promoting those kinds of ”systems” that will in a very short time bring you a thousand visitors in just one day.
Keep in mind that everything that sounds too good to be true usually is not true. For getting traffic to your blog you will need to work hard and be patient.
No software or tool can work for you, you are the one who must work!
Those are the 2 most common mistakes I am seeing that bloggers are doing and which are going to condemn their blogs to failure.
I can’t forget about Google. If Google sees that you are using some ”black hat techniques” for getting traffic your blog will be penalized for sure.
Now let’s see how can you get more traffic on your blog completely free and without any spammy methods.
10 Ways To Get More Traffic On Your Blog For Free
1. Write More Quality Content
There is no magic. Blogging is primarily just that, blogging. That means that you should constantly produce new content for your blog.
Very important thing is that it should not be any content but QUALITY content. Google is getting smarter with each passing day and its only mission is to give its customers IE searchers the most relevant answer they are looking for.
Those days passed when you could just write a 300-word article on your blog and you would start getting traffic even tomorrow. Today you need to have quality, in-depth articles which contain a minimum of 1000 words.
Those 1000 words are a minimum, ideal is between 1.500 and 2.000 words per article. It also depends on the niche you are using on your blog. If you are in a high competition niche like let’s say Fitness, you would need at least 3.000 words per article.
Suer, it is important to say that you should not write more words just to fulfill that minimum, you must give a quality answer on the topic you are writing about. In that way, when Google sees that you are offering an in-depth explanation on the topic you choose he will reward your site by boosting your traffic.
2. Optimize Your Titles
Titles are very important and I see that folks are not paying much attention to this. They just come up with an idea on the title and put it in the field and that’s it.
You need to attract your audience to click especially on your link in the search results. You will do that by captivating your titles.
Let’s say that the title of one of my articles is ”How To Lose Weight?’‘. Can you see how simple and boring it is? But let’s captivate it a little. ”How To Lose Weight – 7 Proven Ways!”
Based on these two above, which one would you rather click on? Which title will attract you more?
I am sure you would choose the second one. So make sure to optimize your titles, don’t do clickbait but just improve them a little.
By doing this you will significantly improve your CTR (click-through rate) and with that, you will see more traffic coming to your blog.
3. Do Keyword Research ( A Must!)
If you are a blogger I suppose you already know this but are you actually doing keyword research?
If you are not doing it you are very wrong and your blog will suffer. I must be honest and say that at beginning of my blogging career I was not doing keyword research. I taught it was boring and I would not invest time in doing it.
Later, I was asking myself why I am not receiving any traffic on my blog? Do you want to know why? Because I was targeting some low-volume keywords that no one is searching for.
Keywords are the ROOT of your blog traffic, any traffic that you will receive will be through the keywords you targeted with your article.
I work with many folks on daily basis and I often see that the keywords they are using are a b*llshit. I do keyword research and I see that no one is looking for that term they are targeting.
You have paid keyword research tools out there but you also have some free, like Keyword Planner by Google.
The tool I am using for keyword research is called Jaaxy and I highly recommend that you check it out.
On the other hand, I see many folks are using high-competitive keywords on their blogs. No matter if you are a blogger beginner or a more experienced blogger, you always should target low-competition keywords.
I can’t forget when one guy messaged me to look on his blog and see why he is not receiving any traffic from Google. When I saw his articles I wanted to faint. These were the keywords he targeted ”How To Lose Weight”, ”How To Gain Muscles”, ”How To Start Dieting”, etc.
Man, do you think that you can really rank for those terms? Of course, you can’t because big brands have already won those terms. Long-tail keywords are a big win for you!
4. Start Using Long-Tail Keywords
That’s right, you have read it right. By using long-tail keywords you will 100% get free traffic from Google in a short period of time.
If you are not sure what are long-tail keywords let me explain to you.
Long tail keywords are words that contain 3+ words. Let’s give some examples: ”what is affiliate marketing how does it work”, ”how to find cheap food for dogs”, ”how to get more free traffic on a blog” (that’s the title of this blog post), etc.
You can see that those keywords are long and you should target such keywords on every blog post you plan to write.
Sure, you can’t just pop out keywords from your mind, you must do keyword research with the tools I mentioned above.
Just like I have said already if you don’t do proper keyword research you will not get any traffic on your blog, that’s for sure.
It is very common that people are targeting 2-word or 3-word phrases and that is not gonna work. Focus on targeting long-tail keywords and later you will say to me ”thank you”.
5. Promote Your Blog On Social Media
Social media is definitely one of the best places where you can get a free boost of traffic.
When we talk about social media we primarily mean Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. Those are great places where you can share your blog and articles.
The best thing with social media is that it is completely free, you just have to have a profile on these social platforms.
If you have a Facebook then make a Facebook page where you will link your blog and there you will regularly publish new articles, this will give a Google sign that you are also active on social media and you will get that boost in traffic.
The same thing is with Twitter, just link your blog to your Twitter account and post regularly.
Maybe the best and most popular today is Pinterest, folks are getting a huge amount of traffic with this platform. Just register for free and start making pins and you will see your traffic starting to ramp up.
6. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When it comes to getting free traffic from Google and other search engines I can’t forget to say how SEO is important.
Traffic from SEO is converting the best IE it is the most valuable traffic you can get on your blog. Yes, you have social media to get some free traffic but through SEO you can make serious money as a blogger.
When it comes to SEO, the most important thing is that you should write for people and for robots. Because Google is a robot, believe it or not. If your content matches the search query and user intent you will be perfectly fine.
SEO is not hard and you just need to know the basics although it is not enough to know it, you need to implement those tactics.
SEO basically means that you need to optimize your content for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
What does it mean? Take a look and implement these:
- Keyword in your permalink
- Keyword in your title
- Keyword in the first 100 words
- Keyword in the meta description
- H2 and H3 headings
- 1 internal link
- 1 external link
- 1-5 images
- Video embedded
- CTA (Call To Action) at the end of the post
If you implement this in all of your articles you will be fine to start receiving more traffic from search engines.
7. Make Your Content Easy To Read and Understand
Don’t write big blocks of text. Just use that Enter button to break those big blocks of text.
No one like to see and read an article that is not structured well. That is also important for SEO so make sure that your articles are easy to understand and read.
Use a simple font, black text is going on a white background. Never use some complex WordPress themes that are shining, you don’t need them. People are coming to your blog to read and take information and not to look at the design of your blog.
It is nice to have a clean blog and you should keep things as simple as possible. That will be also great for SEO.
Write like you are talking to your best friend, use simple words and avoid professional terms that people will not understand. That way your audience will love your blog and will be coming back whenever you post a new article which is a big plus.
8. Start Using Images, Visuals, and Infographics
Images are very important when it comes to user experience in blogging. People that are coming to your site don’t want to see only text but they are also expecting some visuals.
We human beings are visual by nature and we would rather watch images than read blocks of text. Whenever you can use images and infographics to explain what you are talking about. Your audience will be thankful to you.
Sure you don’t need to spend all day creating images and charts, you have some free platforms like pixabay.com where you can get free images for your blog.
Content is definitely a king so your focus should be on quality content first and then on visuals. Your traffic will come primarily from your keywords, I already talked about that above so don’t forget it.
9. Optimize Your Blog Speed (Very Important)
This is also a must! Did you know that website speed is a ranking factor? Sure it is, you have probably heard about it many times. That is why it is very important that your blog is very fast when it comes to loading.
If your site takes more than 2 seconds to load you will never get that traffic you dream about.
When it comes to speed it is important that you chose a good and fast hosting for your blog, that is primarily. Another thing that you can do is optimize the images you use on the blog, they can slow down your site pretty well.
Use Google Pagespeed Insights to check your website speed and if there is anything wrong you will get recommendations on what you should improve on your blog.
10. Don’t Ever Give Up
That’s right my fellow readers, don’t even dare to give up because you are not seeing the results you would like to see.
Blogging is a long-term investment and you should stick to it for months, even years. Now I don’t say that you should wait for years to see your traffic and sales ramp up but you must be patient! If you want to know how long does it take to start getting organic traffic click on that link!
I can guarantee you that if you follow the things I mention above you will see your traffic coming in 2-3 months, it will be not much but enough to give you the motivation to continue working.
It is hard I know, we all have been through it, we all start from zero and that is completely normal. Many folks give up just when success is around the corner and that is demotivating.
Make sure you keep publishing at least 2-3 times per week, do SEO properly and be consistent, without consistency there is no success, I know that because I was there already.
Wealthy Affiliate Can Help You – My Top Recommendation For Bloggers
If you are a blogger you probably heard about the Wealthy Affiliate platform. It is a hosting company but it also offers complete training on how to build a successful blog from scratch and earn from it by doing affiliate marketing.
If you don’t have a blog this platform is perfect for you and if you already have your own blog this platform is also perfect for you.
I am a full-time blogger for nearly 8 years, I started with Wealthy Affiliate and I am their member even today. You can easily find me on the platform when you join.
This platform and their training will teach you how to attract quality traffic to your blog through SEO, and how to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, one of the best methods to monetize a blog and earn a full-time passive income.
Click on the link below to read my full review on the Wealthy Affiliate platform. I am sure you will enjoy it because there I am also sharing how much I am making thanks to the Wealthy Affiliate!
Are You Ready To Become a More Than Profitable Blogger? – Join Me In Wealthy Affiliate!
Of course, if you have any questions be free to write me below in the comment section and I would be more than happy to help you out and answer your questions! Happy blogging!
Hey, I’m Daniel, a 28-year-old from Serbia who has been successfully doing affiliate marketing for almost 10 years. Through years of trial, error and continuous learning, I have perfected my skills and I am delighted to be able to share my knowledge and advice through this site where you can find absolutely everything you need to start your online business.
Excellent advice, without a doubt. I’ve created websites that I’ve already launched in the manner you’ve outlined. Yes, it functions, and it functions quite well. However, I just launched a new website. I cannot believe how many hours I have invested in producing this stuff! comparable to the volume of traffic I already experience. It is clear why individuals use these traffic-generating software solutions. I’m only focusing on producing user-friendly, beneficial, and high-quality content at this point. I’ve gone so far as to not include any affiliate links! It’s all done on time.
Thank you, Iou! That’s right. Only quality, user-friendly content will produce traffic on a blog. So keep doing that instead of some other things that will not work when it comes to the traffic.
Wow, brilliant! All the information I need in one place. I feel so encouraged by this article. Thank you for putting this together. I often get confused about what is long-tail keywords but it’s clear to me now and I agree with you because most of my ranking content has a long title. Sometimes I reduce the long title because the meta title turns red showing it’s too long.
Thanks, Bethel! I appreciate it!
Hey, thank you very much for this post!
I am glad I came across this site as I’m currently struggling to get traffic to my site, however, this has made me think about what I’m missing. It’s the quality or should I say word mistakes as well as the site speed which is probably holding my site’s potential. Going to check and implement these actually now! So thanks again!
I am glad you found it helpful. If you implement these things I mentioned above I can assure you that you will see results when it comes to traffic.
Thank you very much for this valuable post about website traffic. Actually, what I have been looking for these days is a way to increase traffic to my website. You have shown many best methods in your post. I must focus on getting traffic from backlinks. I have not taken the traffic that way. Many thanks for this valuable post. Keep posting like this.
You’re welcome. I would not recommend focusing on backlinks too much. Put a focus on quality content and do the SEO and you will be fine.
Hi Daniel
Excellent recommendations for sure. I have established sites that I have built exactly in the way you have described. Yes, it does work and it works very well.
I have however recently started a new website. Wow, the hours I have spent creating quality content are insane! Comparable to the traffic I am currently getting anyways. You can easily see why people opt for these traffic-generating software programs.
At this stage, I am merely concentrating on creating user-friendly, helpful, and quality content. To the point that I haven’t added any affiliate links! All in good time.
Shelley
The most common reason why people are not getting traffic is not doing keyword research properly. You need to target low competition keywords but those keywords also need to have a high volume of searches because if no one is searching for that topic you write about you will not receive any traffic.