I’d break your question into two parts: How to increase blog traffic, and how to do it in 2 months.
How to increase blog traffic:
It’s not enough to simply write or create content and expect that people will magically find it without any promotion. It’s the unspoken secret of internet marketing gurus everywhere who are looking to sell you their course: traffic is the lifeblood of any business and if you don’t have any, you aren’t going to make any money. Period.
There are a number of tactics and strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website (or blog) for free, some of which include creating viral content, building backlinks, optimizing for longtail keywords, guest posting, submitting your site to directories, leveraging social media channels, PPC marketing and more. The key is finding what works for you and doubling down on those activities.
But how do I do it in 2 months?
When you’re just starting your blog, traffic can be elusive. I struggled for months to get my first 1,000 visitors per month, but I broke through to 6-figures a month in traffic with a strategy that works, even if you only get a few visits each day. I’m sharing that strategy and the moves you can make to increase your blog traffic in the next 2 months.
The truth is that with enough time and effort anything is possible — even getting hundreds of thousands of visitors per month. But most people don’t have years to give their blog so they need a faster solution. The good news is that you can absolutely get a lot more traffic in a short space of time.
Here’s how to increase blog traffic in 2 months, even if you currently only get 1–2 visits per day:
1. Make your blog SEO-friendly.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.
Why Is SEO Important?
SEO is important because it helps you rank higher in search engines which means more traffic to your site and more traffic means more sales.
How Do You Get Started?
First of all, let me say that there is no magic bullet on how to increase blog traffic. It takes time, commitment, and consistency in your efforts.
The first step is to do some keyword research and find out what keywords you want to target with your blog posts. You can do this using a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs (both have free trials). You can also use Keywordtool.io or MozBar as well as Google’s Keyword Planner but these tools are usually less accurate than paid ones like SEMrush or Ahrefs so I wouldn’t recommend them unless you have a tight budget. Once you’ve found the keywords you want to target, the next step is to write an article around those keywords. The best way to do this is using Google’s keyword planner tool because it will show you what the top searches for those keywords are and then you can write content around those topics.
As stated already above, you need to craft amazing content around those keywords that contain high-quality images and videos. The content needs to be engaging, provide great value and also be easy to read. It also should be at least 2,000 words long (the longer the better).
After publishing the posts, make sure they are optimized for SEO by using an SEO plugin like Yoast (again, there’s a free version available). This will ensure that your content shows up in search results when someone searches for keywords related to your blog posts.
Now you will want to get some backlinks pointing back to your site so that when people search for your topic they see it right away on the results page. To do this:
You need to share your published post on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc so that it gets some initial traction. Also, try reaching out to other sites in your niche where they might be interested in sharing your content with their audience too. This will help build new links back to your site which will increase its authority in Google’s eyes and help move up the rankings for relevant keywords over time.
When it comes to SEO for your blog there are 2 main areas that you need to focus on:
On-page SEO — This refers to all the factors on your website (content, images, URLs etc) that you can optimise to help tell search engines what your page is about so they can show it in relevant searches. I have a free guide that covers everything you need to know about on-page SEO here.
Off-page SEO — This refers to the activities outside of your website that you can do to improve your SEO rankings. These include things like getting links from other websites and social media promotion.
The most important part of off-page SEO is link building which is also really time-consuming but if it’s done right will dramatically boost your traffic.
I would recommend focusing on off-page SEO first because this will help get people coming directly to your blog, which has a flow-on effect for the following reasons:
People will spend more time on your blog. The longer someone spends on your blog the more likely they are to comment and share or link back to it. Both of these activities get you more search traffic because:
Guest blogging — Guest blogging is a great way to build your brand and authority, as well as generate some traffic back to your site. It also helps you develop relationships with other bloggers which can come in handy down the line.
Content promotion — One thing a lot of people overlook is promoting their content. It’s important because if you don’t promote nobody will see it except for you, your mom, and your dog. There are no point spending hours on creating content and not doing anything to promote it to get more eyeballs on it.
There are 5 main ways that I’ve used to grow my blog traffic:
1. Write solid, well-researched blog posts – This is where it all starts. If you want to grow your blog traffic you have to make sure your posts stand up and deliver on what they promise.
One of the easiest ways to grow blog traffic is by writing popular content. People are always looking for content that answers their questions, entertains them, or solves a problem for them. People will find this content and share it with others. This is where I started when I first began my blog.
2. Publish long-form content – Long-form content tends to rank better in search engines than short posts (1,500 words or more), and people are more likely to share long-form content on social media because it provides substantial information that’s useful for their readers. That’s one reason why my blog posts tend to be on the longer side of things!
3. Guest posting – The guest posting has been a great way for me to get my name and my blog out there in front of thousands more people without a huge time investment. Find blogs that are related to yours and offer to write an article for them in exchange for a link back to your site at the end of the post.
When you guest post on a popular blog, you can get more exposure to new readers who may not have heard of your blog before. The more popular the blog is that you guest post on, the more traffic that you will receive from it as well as potential readers who may link back to your site or share your content with their social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc..
4. Build Relationships With Other Bloggers.
Another way to grow your blog traffic is to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche. When you build relationships with other bloggers in your niche, you can share each other’s content and comment on each other’s blogs. You can also guest post for one another’s blogs. All of these strategies can get you more traffic from the blogs you work with and from the search engines too.
5. Promoting old posts – There is so much content on this blog that many of my newer readers will never see some of my older articles unless I share them occasionally! Think about how you can repurpose or re-share your old content in a way that’s valuable.
6. Another way to get traffic to your website is by participating in forums related to your topic. Look for popular forums where people are discussing topics that are related to what you write about and then participate in those discussions by providing helpful information and linking back to your blog when appropriate.
7. Submitting your blog to blogging directories, like Alltop, Technorati, and BlogCatalog. These sites have thousands of visitors who use these directories every day looking for new blogs to read, so getting listed there can be very effective for driving traffic as well as for search engine optimization.
Submitting your blog to blogging directories is an easy way to get backlinks and traffic to your website. The process is fairly straightforward, as well. You enter the URL of your blog and then the blogging directory adds it to their site.
There are hundreds of blogging directories to that you can submit your blog to. A lot of them are completely free, while some will charge a fee for submission. The paid submissions may offer more in return, such as improved SEO or a higher ranking in their search results.
Submitting your blog to these directories is pretty simple. You just need to fill out a form to add your website and wait for approval from the directory.
8. Using social media – Social media is a great way to bring new readers in, but you need to understand how each network works and the types of content that perform best there.
a. On Twitter, you can use hashtags and keywords to find people in your industry or who have an interest in your product, then follow them and engage with their content.
b. On Facebook and LinkedIn, you find related industry pages, join them and start engaging with the members of those pages. On LinkedIn, this also helps you get your updates shared to a wider audience.
c. On Pinterest, you want to research popular topics related to your business and pin relevant images from other blogs (and your own) with links back to the original source.
d. On Google+, you can search by keyword or hashtag through posts and comments or within communities to find interesting conversations that you can join with valuable information.
Social media is all about building relationships with your community and sharing quality content. Doing this will help you to increase your following, which in turn leads to more traffic.
I’ve seen the biggest growth from Twitter and Pinterest for this blog, but I also have accounts on Facebook and Instagram that bring me some traffic as well.
9. Blogging consistently. There are a lot of variables that determine how successful your blog is going to be. You can’t control your niche, you can’t control the ads that show up on your site or how many people click on them. But one thing you can control is how often you post new content. And posting consistently is one of the best things you can do for your site.
10. Pinterest. Pinterest has been a huge source of traffic for me since the beginning of my blogging career and still continues to be the main source of traffic for my blog today! It’s always changing and growing though, so it’s important to keep up with the updates and changes in order to stay ahead of the curve.
Use email marketing to improve your ranking in search results
One of the most underutilized techniques for optimizing search engine results is also one of the most effective: email marketing.
If you have a list of past or current customers, use it to boost your search engine rankings. Here’s how:
E-mail marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience. It’s also one of the most underused by businesses of all sizes. The main reason for this is that many business or blogger owners don’t know exactly how to use e-mail marketing effectively.
There are many ways in which an e-mail can benefit your business or blog and I’m going to list some of them below:
1. It helps you reach out to your audience in a way that is easy and convenient for them.
2. It allows you to communicate with your audience in a way that is personalized and targeted.
3.It can help you increase sales by driving traffic to your website or store.
4.It can help you build brand loyalty by helping customers remember who you are and what you offer.
5.It provides a platform for customer feedback, which can be invaluable.
6.It provides a way for you to stay in touch with customers who may not be able to visit your physical location.
7.It is cost-effective because it requires little or no overhead.
8.It provides a way for you to reach out to new customers.
Email marketing is a great way to keep your business top-of-mind with existing customers. But it can also help you improve search results.
When your existing customers visit your website after receiving an email, the search engines recognize this activity as “social proof.” Social proof means that your content (in this case, your website) is relevant and helpful. And it’s a key component of successful search engine optimization (SEO).
The number of visits to your site from people who received an email from you is called “direct traffic,” which provides social proof when it comes from a trusted source such as an email newsletter. Linking to your site from social media is also a form of direct traffic, as are links from blogs that you write for. The more direct traffic you have, the better your SEO will be.
However, the quality of the link matters more than the quantity of links. So sending out emails on a regular basis about relevant topics will help increase traffic to your site and boost SEO.
The correlation between email marketing and SEO is a two-way street. Email marketing boosts SEO by driving traffic to your website, especially if you include links to your website or blog in the email.
Email marketing improves SEO in other ways, too. When you send out emails containing text, links and images from your website or blog, they improve your ranking in search results because they’re considered valuable content by Google and other search engines. You can also include links to your landing pages and thank you pages in your email messages, and those will also help with improving your site’s ranking.
This is a great reason to start sending out a regular email newsletter. It’s an effective way to provide more value to your customers while improving your own ranking in search results.