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Let’s assume you have a very cool blog that you regularly update with interesting contents…yet, people don’t read you and you don’t have “enough” traffic to feel satisfied.

Why? Let me explain you…

This post is for those who have a blog with great graphics, chosen with great care after checking for the best color combinations, as well as those who have their plug-ins to share their contents on social networks in the very right position and, above all, for those who write well.

Everybody, along with those who bump into your blog just by chance, has long been telling you things like “hey cool, I like the way you write/I really liked your post” etc, yet you can’t reach the traffic thresholds you need to feel satisfied and/or to be contacted by web marketing agencies to possibly earn some money and/or become an influencer.

Many of us have been though this until the day we find out or someone who tells us that there’s a number of strictly related things we need to do in order to constantly bring organic traffic to our blogs.

Also read: Hot to increase your blog traffic NOW

 

Things that go beyond the simple frequency of writing and one’s good will, and that rely on a scientific and mathematical arrangement.

End of the day, the blog world is like the movie and publishing industry. Talent is useful but not all (besides, what the heck do we mean by this so-called talent?)

Well, now let’s try to understand why you don’t get the traffic you deserve (yet).

1 – Do you have a good SEO plug-in? 

Let’s settle the debt that every blog post dealing with traffic growth has with the magic word “SEO”, or Search Engine Oriented. Three words that must become an adjective for every article you write. How?

Download a good SEO plug-in.

Go to the plug-in area of your blog’s administration and download YOAST. There are many useful plug-ins for the search engine positioning, but this is particularly helpful for inexperienced users and not only for its ease of use; more importantly, it shows you which SEO settings are wrong in your article.

Once you’ve downloaded and activated the plug-in, write an article.

At the end of the page you’ll see a scheme to fill with the title and keyword of your article along with a few words of introduction to your post. On top of the article, a “traffic light” indicates if your article has a good SEO (i.e. if it will be easily found on search engines) with a green color. Yellow means your article is so and so, whereas the red color indicates your SEO settings are wrong.

You might also like reading: Things I didn’t know before I became a full time blogger

In all cases, a bullet list under the article will show you in details what needs to be improved.

Now that we’re done with the obvious SEO topic, let’s move on… there are actually other reasons why people don’t visit you when you’d like them to.

2 – Does your blog give readers what they want?

Regardless of SEO settings, writing an article about how much I love washing my hair will surely be pleasant but less useful for other people than writing about 10 ways to take care of your hair in a simple/efficient/natural way, don’t you think?

Think about it, there’s not much to laugh about…

I have a travel blog: if, instead of writing about “my Sarajevo” (that might interest me and my mom, to some extent), I choose to talk about “what to see and do in Sarajevo in two days“, I’ll probably be more helpful for the web community, for the travellers who buy a low cost ticket at the very last minute and don’t have a guide, as well as for those travelling to Mostar and decide to take the chance to visit Sarajevo etc.

To sum up: try to write your articles thinkg about the users you might help and the most probable words people your reference users will search on Google.

Let’s get back to the travel example: if you were in Bosnia for a weekend, what would you look for on Google search?

Probably phrases like:

restaurants in Sarajevo, where to eat a good ice-cream in Bosnia, what to eat/drink in Bosnia, typical Bosnian food and so on.

How much of this information is lacking on the web? Well, this is the info you want to give.

3 – Reading you is not easy 

Every blogger has to face the “bounce rate”. Basically, a user ends up on your blog while looking for something on the web, but then leaves it immediately, which is not a good thing and it won’t help with your positioning.

Why do users bounce?

Among the most frequent reasons there are:

• the information you provide is not clear, you get lost too much in your thoughts and don’t get straight to the point (which means you don’t show your readers where they will find the aswers to their questions);
• you don’t divide your posts into paragraphs with subtitles allowing readers to read just that or the parts they are most interested in, instead of reading everything (dont’ stick turn up your nose at this… even Pennac says that jumping pages/paragraphs or making a summary while reading are among the undeniable rights of a reader).
• You don’t use (nice) pictures to divide paragraphs. Even in this case, don’t turn up your nose. Images are important, and nice pictures help you relax and make reading more pleasant.
• Your fonts are difficult to read (I’ll tell you what, Times new roman looms quite nice on blogs!!)

4 – You don’t review your analytics and statistics

I know it’s boring and might seem pathetic to constantly examine one’s statistics, traffic levels and related origin.

But that’s part of the game, babe.

First of all, register on Google Analytics then let the thing take over and turn into a kind of addiction.

By following real time statistics, you can see which are the most read articles that consequently match the reader searches; you can then write similar articles, such as:

• variations in the post topic (from “What to know before leaving to Sofia” to “Street markets in Sofia” and “Veg food (and where) in Sofia”
• post with a similar layout (do your readers love your listicles? Well, write some more).

5 – It’s not easy to find you, damn it, you’re too shy. 

Opening a shop is not enough: you need to put up a sign, prepare flyers, be active on social networks and remind people every day that, among the many interesting things we all have to do, there might be the possibility for them to come visit your shop…or to read what’s on your blog.

If a good SEO is like having your shop address on the navigation systems for people to find it, the shop sign reflects how much you promote yourself on social networks.

Don’t be shy nor afraid of being seen as “the usual blogger”, and don’t fear people making fun of you (it’s inevitable, unless you are the first to make fun of what you do).

Stick your neck out, because everybody does it in one way or another.

Your blog is your way.