10 Best Practices to Get More People to Read Your Blog

There is no single definite answer to such a question. That’s why today, we will share the ten best practices that are proven to increase traffic to your blog and get people to read your blog to the last paragraph. So, make sure to read each section in this article to learn how.

Here are the 10 Best Practices to Get More People to Read Your Blog

Publish High-Quality Content Consistently
Write a Compelling Headline
Don’t Forget to Target Long-Tail Keywords
Optimize Your Blog Posts for the Search Engines
Make Sure You Have a Fast Loading Blog
Embed Video Content in Your Posts
Encourage People to Subscribe
Respond to Comments on Your Posts & Take Time to Comment on Other People’s Blog Posts
Approach Relevant Websites for Guest Blogging
Leverage Social Media

You see, with the growing number of people publishing blog posts each day, readers are getting bombarded with so many options for sources of information. So, you have to stand out by following the best practices that will increase blog traffic and get people hooked to every blog post you publish. It’s time to stop feeling discouraged because you have little to no readers, no matter how hard you work on your blog, and it’s time to start tweaking your practices and approaches to come up with something better. So, let’s start breaking down each of the best practices!

1. Publish High-Quality Content Consistently

People love relevant and useful blog posts-information that will help them in their daily lives, whether at work, school, for business or personal growth, a product or service review, and a lot more. If you commit to writing topics that your various ideal readers will need for a long time, such as how-to blog posts, you can ensure an increase in blog traffic. So, identify the most frequent questions in your niche that people type into the search engines, and answer them comprehensively. You can scour these industry-relevant questions by using free online tools such as Answer The Public, and by leveraging Google’s “People Also Ask”:

Remember that once you establish the regularity of your in-depth and high-quality blog posts, people will treat your blog as a trusted source of information, it will serve as their go-to resource when they need to learn or get updates about your niche or their industry of interest. Ideally, publishing at least two blog posts a week is great to keep you ahead of the game. The more blog posts, the better.

2. Write a Compelling Headline

Stating the obvious, the headline or blog post title is arguably the most critical component to get people to read your blog-it is the first line that potential readers and the search engine “crawlers” will see. So, your headline must be catchy. It must summarize what the readers will get, especially if it is about something that they are researching about. In other words, your headline must be catchy enough to compel people to click and read your blog. Pro tip: over the years, people tend to get attracted to read a list post because they can quickly scan through the list. So, try to include a number in your headline, suggesting a list blog post, and expand it in your content. For example:

Others also tend to lean towards clicking on blog posts that answer questions, such as the following:

Or if you want to be a bit cheeky in your headline but creativity escapes you at the moment, you can try free online title generator tools like Portent’s Content Idea Generator.

3. Don’t Forget to Target Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that contain three to four words-these are the words or terms that your target audience is using to type into the search engines. Often, long-tail keywords are precise terms that can lead people to whatever you are selling or offering. So, it is essential to focus on using them as you write your content. For example, regular keywords may come as “SEO Services”, but long-tail keywords can be “effective link building SEO service”. Now, before writing your blog posts, it is essential to have focus keywords to target and use throughout your content. So, besides searching the most frequent questions that your target audience are typing, you can also use free online keyword research tools such as Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner to identify and list your target keywords strategically. Here’s how you do keyword research:

Use a “keyword seed” - the term that you think your target audience will most likely use when typing into the search engines
Select the keyword with the high monthly average search, but relatively low difficulty or competition, as your focus or primary keyword
Choose at least three related keywords as your secondary keywords - don’t forget the long-tail keywords

After doing your keyword research, make sure to use your target keywords throughout your content, BUT AVOID KEYWORD STUFFING. Otherwise, the search engines will penalize your blog post.

4. Optimize Your Blog Posts for the Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the biggest and best practices you should cultivate in your blog. Without leveraging SEO, your blog posts won’t gain online visibility, especially in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) of Google and other popular browsers. SEO can help you immensely increase blog traffic by putting your blog post on top of the SERPs, so you can get people to read your blog first. Remember that 71.33% of search clicks go to the top 10 results in the SERPs, and the number 1 position gets 33% of the search traffic. So, having an effective SEO strategy can really pay dividends. You see, SEO is an extensive process, and it often requires an experienced team of SEO specialists to help you rank higher in the SERPs. In the meantime, you can start tweaking your blog posts for SEO by doing the following:

Include your target keyword in your blog post URL
Add your target keywords in your primary and secondary headings only when it’s natural to do so (h1, h2, h3)
Spread your target keywords methodically throughout your content—avoid keyword stuffing
Make your content easy to read
Add keyword-driven alternative texts in your images
Link to your other blog posts

5. Make Sure You Have a Fast Loading Blog

One study revealed that 47% of website visitors expect your page to load within 2 seconds and 40% will leave your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. So, the slower your blog is, the lesser your readers. The faster it is, the easier it is for you to increase blog traffic. So, what can you do to make your blog load faster? Follow these steps:

Remove useless templates and plugins
Clear your blog trash
Update your old blog posts
Delete duplicate blog posts
Optimize images by resizing them
Set your video file in the fastest format possible
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) if your target audience are located around the globe
Test your loading speed regularly using PageSpeed Insight by Google and follow the tips given to improve your web page speed

6. Embed Video Content in Your Posts

Embedding a video into your blog post can help people stay longer on your web page, and it will also reduce the bounce rate-a high user-stay rate and a low bounce rate can signal the search engines that your website is worth visiting and that readers love your blog. So, you’ll get more chances of ranking higher in the SERPs and getting seen by your target audience-in essence; you’ll have a better chance to get people to read your blog. Not to mention that people love to consume video content first, especially if they don’t have time to read the entire blog yet. Also, trying live videos such as live streaming on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can be a great marketing tool to promote your new blog post. The best thing is, these live video broadcasts are free, and you can easily embed the recorded live stream in your blog post.

7. Encourage People to Subscribe

One of the ways that can easily increase blog traffic is through your subscribers. So, encourage people to subscribe to your blog and email newsletter, and make sure that the subscription process is easy. If people subscribe to your blog, they are more likely to remember your blog regularly. Plus, even if they don’t read all the posts you send their way, just seeing a notification about your new blog post or a new email about your newsletter will remind them effectively that your products or services exist. Once they are ready, they will jump right into your blog and even tell their family and friends about your helpful content occasionally. Now, while you’re at it, make sure to subscribe to our blog so you can get more amazing content!

8. Respond to Comments on Your Posts & Take Time to Comment on Other People’s Blog Posts

When you get comments in your blog posts, treat it as a good sign-people are starting to recognize your blog, not to mention that they took a few minutes from their precious time to comment on their opinions on your blog. So, it only fits that you respond to each comment. Your response will also signal others that your blog is active, and you are taking good care of it. On the other hand, do your best to leave interesting and helpful comments on other blogs because this is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website and get people to read your blog - if people find your comment useful, they will most likely click on your name and explore your blog. Now, make sure that you’re not just dropping links to your blog on other people’s blog posts. See to it that your comment adds value to whoever reads it.

9. Approach Relevant Websites for Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to increase blog traffic as you get new people to read your blog, especially if the blog that you wrote a guest post for has a substantial amount of readers and web pages that rank higher in the SERPs. So, placing your link from that engaging blog will surely increase traffic to your blog posts. Now, you have to make sure that your guest post is one of your highest quality works, and that it fits the audience of the blog you’re writing for, and that it relates to the blog you’re guest writing. Also, when you write your bio for your guest post, create an irresistible propositional offer or include a freebie (i.e., a how-to guide, a case study PDF, etc.) that will compel the readers to click on your blog and subscribe to your newsletter.

10. Leverage Social Media

Promoting on social media can help you get more people to read your blog. You see, social media users are growing by the hour. So, you shouldn’t miss using these free platforms to market your content freely and massively. Also, social media is one of the best avenues to connect to your potential readers and build trust as you grow and strengthen your online presence. Indeed, social media can easily increase traffic to your blog post fast.

Final Thoughts

There is no single formula or solution that can increase blog traffic and get people to read your blog - you have to be consistent in performing the best practices mentioned above that will help you increase traffic to your blog effectively, and compel people to read your posts and subscribe to your newsletter. So, make sure to publish high-quality content consistently and optimize them for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and use other content marketing strategies such as guest blogging and promoting your content on social media to build your readership. If you want to get ahead of your competitors in the blogging game, talk to the digital marketing experts.

10 Best Practices to Get More People to Read Your Blog

Here are the 10 Best Practices to Get More People to Read Your Blog