No one is reading your blog. You’ve built “it”, and they’re not coming. But here’s the thing: the Internet is vast. The average website has a lifespan of 100 days, and the number of websites online fluctuates near the 1 billion mark, with the figure going up and down every minute.
The issue is trying to get people to your site.
Many people didn’t tell you when you read that story about that now-famous blogger with millions of visitors a month that you need to market your blog.
If you want to be successful with your blog, you need to market it. Period.
And you can outsource your marketing if you wish, but if you’re not selling anything, it’s often better to do the marketing yourself until you have some money to pay.
Let’s look at some of the many reasons – and there can be hundreds– no one is visiting your site.
1. You’ve Just Made Your First Post
You’ve spent a lot of time changing your theme and making your first big post. You expect comments to roll in and your social media followers to explode. The problem is that no one has seen your site yet.
And Google may not have even indexed your site.
Everything takes time, and if you don’t try to start promoting your site, you’ll find that getting traffic is hard. There is a reason a large portion of websites go abandoned: they take work to promote and nourish.
If you’re willing to continue posting, this is your first step to success.
Start with a goal. This goal can be anything from posting one blog post a week or even one post daily and amplifying your efforts. If you have passion for what you’re writing, you’ll find that this is much easier to accomplish.
Aside from strengthening your posting efforts, looking into your website design is as essential. Even if you have an engaging and informative blog, your target audience won’t notice it without an unappealing blog website.
Generally, people are attracted to good design, so you should invest in a well-designed website to get the desired traffic. In doing so, you need to consider some of these design elements to create a good website:
- User Experience and Navigation: You should ensure your site is user-friendly by making the website interface easy to navigate. Otherwise, your visitors may leave your site if they get confused when scanning through it.
- Professionalism: Ensure your web design looks professional to foster trust and build a good reputation with your target audience.
- Page Speed: Make your blog website’s speed as fast as possible to encourage your visitors to stay longer on your site. A slow loading speed can drive visitors away, so improving your site’s page speed is imperative to drive traffic.
With these things in mind, you can build a good blog website. However, if you’re doing this for the first time, working with professionals specializing in website design can be an excellent idea. They can provide you with the best design and strategy that can help make your website appealing to your target audience.
2. You Don’t Have a Plan
When most people start their blogs, they aren’t likely thinking about all of the technical aspects that will get in their way. Promotion is the one thing many overlook, and it revolves around a plan.
A plan can encompass a lot of things:
- Content Plan: A plan of what content will be produced. For example, what topics will your next 12 months of posting include?
- Social Media Plan: Which social media websites will you use to promote your content? Will you use video to promote your content, too?
Coaching is available to teach blog owners how to promote their content and business.
Marketing for business blogs or companies is different.
There will be capital available to spend money on:
- Search engine optimization
- Social media campaigns
- Pay-per-click campaigns
Money will help the marketing process, but learning the basics of SEO and social media is necessary to drive traffic to your website.
3. Your Content Isn’t Valuable
Valuable content is the essence of every blog. You want to write with a purpose, and if all you’re writing about is your products, accomplishments, and services, your blog will never take off.
Readers don’t want to be promoted to director.
There is a difference between a lawyer writing about protecting your assets during a divorce and then plugging their service at the end of a post and a lawyer writing just about their services without providing any information or education to the reader.
People want to be educated.
Quality writing helps, too. You want to:
- Spell check – really, ditch the slang
- Edit your content – every single piece
- Engage the reader and ask questions
When writing your next blog post, ask yourself: “what’s the purpose of this post?”
Did the post answer the user’s questions and provide answers?
If not, it’s time to begin editing the post to be valuable to the reader. The tone has a lot to do with it, too. Business writing can be bland – it lacks any sense of personality. Don’t be afraid to put a little personality into your post (readers hate generic writing).
You don’t have to write like Stephen King, but you want to practice writing and find the best tone for your audience.
Valuable content is a must-have if you plan to attract website traffic.
