More traffic is better traffic. At least no one has ever said to me, “Wow! I’ve got way too many readers.” You can increase your blog traffic without spending a lot of time and/or a fortune to master SEO arcania. Here are some things that work.
Reader-friendly is search engine friendly
Search engines want to deliver quality search results so they can keep searchers happy and sell more advertising. The big brains who put together search engine algorithms think that the best way to do that is to have the algorithm look for the things a human being would look for to figure out what’s important in a post. The fancy term for this is “Latent Semantic Indexing.”
For you, that means that the most important things you can do to get your blog posts found is to do a good job of highlighting what’s important in the post. Things at the beginning and end of the post are most often the most important. Headlines tell people (and search engines) what’s important. So do bulleted lists and boldfaced words.
Don’t read the above as a recommendation that you shouldn’t use SEO tools or hire an SEO firm to help you. Just remember that the most important things you can do to get your blog found by search engines are things that make a post helpful and easy to read for visitors.
Titles count
The most important thing you control is your title. Both people and search engines depend on your title to tell them what your post is about. The first three words of your title are especially important.
Use social media to promote your blog
Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn give you a way to promote your blog. Use them. Use them whenever you post.
Make it easy for people to subscribe
Make it easy for visitors to subscribe if they want to keep up with your posts. Both RSS feeds and email should be in your mix.
Remember that it takes time
There’s no magic wand here. There are no magic incantations, either. The fact is that it takes time to build readership. It won’t be quick but with discipline and conscientious effort, you can expect a steady increase.