In this post, I will give you all my best blog SEO tips on creating content optimized to rank highly in search engine results. If SEO boggles your mind, strap in and get ready to learn everything that will take your blogging game to the next level.

This post builds upon SEO strategies spoken about previously, you may want to read about creating killer SEO content here as well.

Investing your time in SEO means you will finally start making money or getting tremendous search traffic if done properly each and every time you write a blog post.

Blogging is STILL one of the best ways to make a fulltime income online. Take my free course How to Start a Profitable Blog today to learn how to create a blog that makes money from the start. 

Good search engine optimization requires you to connect your blog to Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These tools are free and help you to understand your traffic and see what queries people are using to find your blog. You NEED these tools.

If you’re clueless about how to install these tools and what you should be looking for in them, join my free 5-day blog traffic challenge where I use video tutorials to show you exactly how to get everything set up.

What is SEO Friendly Content?

SEO means search engine optimization. Simply put, SEO is a few steps you take when creating content to try and get your piece of content to show up on search engine results, ideally in the number one spot.

Studies show that the first result on a search engine result page (SERP) gets 33% of researchers clicks. Number 2 gets 17%, number 3 gets 11% and everybody else below grapples for clicks in the single digits.

This is important to us as bloggers because while Pinterest can be our number one source of traffic, search engines send us a tremendous amount more targeted traffic if we are able to land in the top 3 for a popular search term.

When we optimize for search engines, we want to rank high on the SERP for a search term that gets thousands of searches every month. Imagine if you’re able to accomplish this for a great number of your posts!

Why SEO for Blogs Matter

Diversifying your traffic sources means you’re always ready for an algorithm change on one platform at any point in time.

Over time, your pin may lose steam but as long as your article remains relevant to a search term with high volume, you will benefit from SEO.

In a previous article, I showed how to use Google keyword planner to find keywords to use when creating your content. In still another article, I broke down a better tool I use to take my keyword research to the next level.

Use Keysearch coupon code KSDISC to get 20% off this amazing keyword research tool

In this post I give you the whole picture, highlighting all the basic steps necessary to give you a chance to rank high on Google.

Before You Write Your SEO Blog Post

The very first step to making your blog post SEO friendly is to identify your keyword. You’ll want to find a keyword that has a relatively good amount of search volume each month and has fairly low competition.

To identify this, you can install this free browser extension. It’s free and works in Chrome and Firefox. When you plug a keyword into Google, you’ll be able to see the monthly volume for that keyword and an estimation of the competition or difficulty of ranking high for that keyword.

In the image above you’re able to see that the estimated search volume for the keyword SEO for beginners is 1900 searches per month. That’s a pretty low search traffic volume for one post, bearing in mind that at position number 3 at least, you’re likely to get only 11% of that volume of traffic.

It’s important to note here that we will be trying to rank for more than one keyword per post. Gone are the days when you had to pick one keyword and stuff it all over your page. Now, the opportunity is available to rank for a handful of related keywords, adding up to good traffic on every single post.

With this information in mind, I throw out SEO for beginners as my main keyword since the volume is fairly low, and head off in search of higher rewards. (I will keep it in the list of related keywords to use however!)

At the bottom of the SERP, Google gives us some suggestions. These are also keywords that we can consider targeting. The browser extension will give you the volume information for these keywords as well.

Here, it has revealed that the keyword what is SEO and how it works has good volume and SEO tutorial has even better volume! But can I rank for these keywords? What’s the competition like?

Keyword Research SEO Tutorial

My post on Keysearch shows how I use the tool to evaluate competition quickly. To evaluate the competition manually, I run through these things:

• Search volume of the keyword
• The content of the posts that currently rank for that keyword
• The Domain Authority for the posts that rank (you can use Moz to help you here) 
• My ability to create more content around this topic to position my blog as an authority on the topic

If that all seems like lots of work, Keysearch makes this really easy. You can do it at a glance while getting lots of suggestions for keywords that are lower in competition.

In this video, I fire up Keysearch to help a member of my Facebook Group, Help a Blogger Out, find a good keyword for a post that was not properly SEO’d. Start at around the 23 minute mark if you’re in a hurry though the video also gives good tips on finding content on Pinterest.

How to Optimize Blog Posts for SEO

Continuing on the topic of keywords, the suggested terms listed at the bottom of the Google SERPs are called latent semantic indexing keywords. These LSIs are keywords you will want to take note of.

In order to rank highly on the SERP, you should be covering most if not all of these topics in an effort to write an article that is as thorough and in-depth as you can.

Such an article is lengthy and indicates to Google that you have covered the topic completely and are worthy of a high ranking. 

Aim for over 1800 words as research shows that the average number one ranking blog post has over this amount of words.

Once you have identified your main keyword and all the related keywords that you will cover in your article, it’s time to write your post.

Struggling to monetize your blog and earn real money from your blogging efforts? You may need to work with a blogging coach. Instead of following a tedious course, a coach can show you the exact things YOU should focus on to build YOUR unique blog. Book a free discovery call with me here. Let’s work together on your blog strategy so you can finally start earning income from your blog!

On-Page SEO for Your Blog Post

Here’s where you begin to check off all the places where you want to plug your keywords. Ensuring that your keywords are scattered in all of these places signals to search engines that your article is indeed covering your topic of choice thoroughly.

• Place your main keyword in your blog post title (at the very front ideally) and in one subheading of the post.
• Ensure the URL of the post has the main keyword and little else. (Aim for yourblog.com/main-keyword-here)
• Place your main keyword in the alt text of your featured image in a readable sentence, not just keyword stuffing.
• Place the main keyword in the very first paragraph of your post so it’s clear immediately what the post is about.
• Place LSIs in other subheadings as relevant and natural as possible, as well as other image descriptions
• Use even more LSIs throughout the body of your article. There’s no need to use them more than once.
• Use your main keyword or a strongly related keyword in the meta description of your blog post (Install the Yoast SEO plugin to make this super easy to find and track)
• Link to authority sites as necessary, however not an article speaking about the same thing. (Link to an article on an authority site such as weather.com discussing weather conditions in Japan in July in your post about 10 things to do in Tokyo)
• Link internally to other posts of yours relating to the topic. If you’ve never written about the topic before, include a link that says something like: You May Also Like ___ or Other Posts to Check Out
• Make sure to have social share buttons installed so readers can pin, tweet, FB, and share your posts.

Need more traffic to your blog? Are you using Pinterest to get massive traffic for FREE from the platform? Learn how to use Pinterest the right way in my Pinterest for Blog Traffic course! This course is only $49 and will become your best tool to increase your blog traffic quickly!

Rank Brain: Understanding the Theory Behind Google’s Algorithm

While I was writing this post, I received an email from Brian Dean, who’s considered an authority on all things SEO. He doesn’t publish content on his blog very often but when he does, you can bet it’s a very thorough, well-researched piece with information coming straight out of Google itself.

In his new piece, he broke down Google’s Rank Brain, the machine that’s now responsible for whether your posts rank high or not. What does the machine use to determine this?

It’s paying very close attention to how you interact with the search results. Specifically, it’s looking at:

He has sections in the post that gives valuable direction for writing your headline and reducing your bounce time, and of course, he explains pogo-sticking. It’s a super-definitive SEO guide and well worth the read if you’re trying to learn all you can about SEO.

Off-Page SEO for Beginners: Sharing, Repurposing and Link-Building

When you’ve written your post and have published it, you want to move on to getting it out there in all the ways that work best for you. Backlinks are one of the best ways to get your content ranked high on Google if the backlink is coming from a blog or website with a higher domain authority than you.

Within your network of blogging friends, reach out and ask those more powerful to link to your content in a related post.

When your content has aged some, you may want to repurpose it into a video, podcast, Slideshare or republish it somewhere like Medium.com, breathing new life into your post and finding new traffic sources for it.

I speak more about getting traffic to your blog post in my post 21 Proven Ways to Get More Blog Traffic and I also share exactly how I do some of my SEOing in my free 5-day blog traffic course.

Related: How to Find The Best Keywords for Blog Traffic

I’d love to know if you found this post helpful! Please let me know in the comments and grab your free SEO checklist below, guaranteed to make your blog posts SEO friendly in a Google Rank Brain World.

Need more in-depth SEO knowledge? My 14-Day SEO for Bloggers Challenge is for you! 

All courses on Udemy are currently $10.99 and so I thought I would share with you these courses that can benefit your blogging journey if you’re in this to make money.

These courses aren’t all about blogging. Some of them complement your business in some way, whether marketing the posts, converting social shares into customers or improving skills like photography and videography.

It definitely benefits you to always invest in your business, always learn and evolve. That’s how we grow as bloggers and business owners. I’ve selected courses from the best Udemy has to offer so let’s dive right in.

Writing Courses

I begin with writing courses since improving upon your writing is one of the best ways to improve your blog overall. Great content will convert readers into long-term fans of your blog and customers of any products you happen to put out.

The Four Levels of Writing Mastery

Writing Tools and Hacks for Blogging and Content Writing

Write Killer Web Content That Sells

Copywriting Secrets: Write copy that sells

Selling Courses

These courses are for bloggers who may also want to sell physical products online, whether your own products or reselling products from other suppliers (dropshipping) Maybe you’re interested in a t-shirt line or promotional items with your logo on them or maybe you want to sell items in your niche like clothes, art, cooking accessories etc. Dropshipping is a great way to sell products without having to carry loads of inventory in a physical store.

Build a Shopify Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping, the Complete Blueprint

Photography Courses

Stock photography is great but using our own photos will take your blogging efforts to the next level. Depending on your niche, you may rely heavily on your own photography and so I’ve included niche-specific photography courses on this list.

Complete Photography Course – Camera, Lighting, Portrait modes etc

Travel Photography Course

Food Photography Course

Easy DSLR Course for Beginners

iPhone Photography Course

Videography Courses

Video is the way to go! If you’re not including some aspect of video in your blogging efforts then you will be left behind in the evolution of earning income online through a blog. Whether it’s turning your blog posts into video for Youtube, capturing content that relates to your post or simply posting smaller snippets to social media, learning video mastery will help to elevate your blog in a crowd of bloggers.

Final Cut Pro Mastery Course

Make Explainer Videos in Powerpoint

Facebook Courses

Facebook is something we could all stand to learn more of. It’s a monster of complexity especially if you want to grow your Facebook page audience or try Facebook ads. Take away the mystery of Facebook success by picking up a course specifically relating to this social media network.

The Complete Facebook Marketing Masterclass 

Facebook Ads Mastery Guide

The complete Hands-On Training for Facebook Ads

Instagram Courses

One question I get asked all the time by bloggers is how to make Instagram work for us. It’s a wonderful social media channel that we all love to consume but getting it to convert into blog readers is tricky. Perhaps these courses can help you to figure it all out.

How to get Famous on Instagram

Master Instagram Stories

Instagram Marketing for Small Business

Youtube Courses

If you’re going to pick up video for your blog, mastering Youtube marketing then should be a natural next step. Learn the tricks and secrets to going viral on Youtube and getting your video seen by more people on this network.

Vlogging on Youtube Course

Youtube Marketing Course 

How to Become Famous on Youtube

Virtual Assistant Courses

Ever thought of adding VA services to your online business? A virtual assistant is a great way to pick up a side-hustle while building your blog and you may like it so much that you decide to make it a full-time hustle.

Learn How to Become a Virtual Assistant

Entrepreneurship Courses

Guy Kawasaki is one of those big names in the social media and entrepreneurship world. It would be awesome to pick up his secrets of getting to his level.

Guide to Entrepreneurship By Guy Kawasaki

Podcasting Courses

Do you want to start podcasting? It’s gained in popularity so much and we now all have our own favourite podcasts. Whether you want to add it to your blog as a way to repurpose your content or start up one on a separate topic all on its own, it would do you well to pick up a course in best practices first so you can shortcut your way to podcasting success.

Guide to Podcasting

Google Analytics

Ever dived really deep into the Google Analytics beast? Knowing the data on your blog is a surefire way to create content that brings in traffic and to know where, when and how to market your blog posts. This course also comes with Google certification just in case you wanted to add to your social media marketing service offerings online.

Become Certified in Google Analytics

Social Media Marketing

Do you want to get a handle on marketing your blog posts on all social media channels in one course? These social media marketing courses are for you. Become an expert in social media marketing and add it to your skills whether to grow traffic on your own blog or to offer SMM services to others.

Social Media Marketing Masterclass

Social Media Marketing Ads Guide

SEO Courses

The SEO monster many bloggers are afraid of has many facets and link building is one of them. This course promises to lay out the path to building strong links back to your blog which helps you to rank higher in Google for your chosen keywords.

Link Building for SEO

General Marketing Courses

Of course, general marketing courses are always a good idea to invest in as business owners. Stay up-to-date with the latest marketing trends and study things like buyer behaviour and how to influence others. This can only help you to stand out in your marketing efforts.

Marketing Psychology, Become a Master of Influence

Affiliate Marketing

This one is specific to making money on your blog. Master affiliate marketing with this course and take the mystery out of earning your next dollar through your blog.

Effective Affiliate Marketing Strategies

As time goes by I’m sure I’ll add to this list. Many of these blogging courses I have picked up for myself to go through at my leisure. I believe that investing in yourself and your business is one of the best ways to grow. We will never know all that there is to know and it’s always good to see what works for another blogger, especially one that is already successful so I can find more tips and tricks to incorporate into my own blog or tweak something I may already be doing to get better results.

Speaking of growth, you should take my free blog traffic growth challenge. It’s a 5-day intensive challenge meant to push your traffic to the next level.

Have you done any blogging courses recently? Which course on this list are you interested in?

Ever come across a list like 99 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Blog and roll your eyes? No? Just me?

The thing about list posts like these is that they stretch to the farthest corners of the WWW to get two clicks when your time could really be better spent on the actual proven ways that bring traffic to your blog. Like, real traffic.

So while there will always be a million tricks and tips to squeeze out more blog traffic or promote your blog, there’s only one of you. Spend your time on solid blog traffic generating techniques and multiply your traffic day-by-day in steady numbers.

Blogging is STILL one of the best ways to make a fulltime income online. Take my free course How to Start a Profitable Blog today to learn how to create a blog that makes money from the start. 

How to Grow Your Blog Traffic

The tips I’m about to share with you are all tips I’ve tried before and know they work. In fact, I share the top 5 tips with video tutorials in my free 5day traffic challenge which you’re welcomed to join! In that challenge I share my top keyword research tricks, my manual Pinterest strategy and my Facebook top tip.

Like you, I’m just one blogger juggling it all over here and I run multiple blogs. Who has the time!

So stick with these tips until you’re at the point where you’re blogging only a couple hours a week and can afford to try out those other 99 ways.

1. Write Great Content

It goes without saying that your content needs to knock it out the park. I’ve written extensively on how to write great content here so I won’t belabour this point too much.

I will say that your content needs to be helpful, thorough and engaging.

2. Write Long Content

A large percentage of blogs are still writing posts that are 300-500 words which means their opportunities for ranking high on Google are fewer than those of us who write over 2000 words often. The average number 1 ranking article on Google has 1890 words. Let that sink in.

The longer and more useful your content is, the more people stay and read your post without needing to click back to the search results in search of more information. You don’t want them to do that. Google notices.

3. Write More Content

I am not an advocate of writing every day just for the sake of writing. Again, who has the time! Especially if you’re writing long posts that are well researched, posting every day is simply not gonna happen. But you should have up content regularly, the more the merrier. The more posts, the fresher the content, the more Google has to work with.

The more posts, the more opportunities to rank for more and more keywords and get that traffic avalanche going. The trick here is to write posts based on what people are searching for. Give the people what they want!

This FREE blog traffic guide has three simple tricks to creating this type of content and it was gold for me! Simple ideas that I never thought of before that has exploded my traffic on my lifestyle blog.

4. Update Old Posts Regularly

When you get to the point where you have lots of posts, scale back on the amount of posts you write and instead focus on making your published content better.

This means going through and seeing what type of posts worked well, what keywords they’re ranking for and what content they’re missing.

Check to see what the top performing posts are for your chosen keyword and compare them with your own post. How can you make you post even better than the top ranking competitors?

When you’ve done updating your post, change the date to today’s date and hit publish again! Google loves fresh content and if you’ve significantly updated the post, it deserves a fresh promo schedule.

My blogging business exploded when I found a good Pinterest strategy. Ready to take your blog to the next level? My Everything Pinterest ebook will teach you everything you need to know to drive BIG traffic to your blog and MAKE MONEY ONLINE. Grab the book here and let’s make some money with your blog!

5. Use Better Headlines

Those posts that go viral? It’s because of their headlines. Don’t be afraid to use clickbait if your content backs it up. Use headlines that drive deep emotions like curiosity, anger, jealousy, gluttony or something equally outrageous.

Headlines like “See what’s on this insane 3000 calorie burger” appeals to both the curious and the glutton in us. It’s the jealousy reason why we all click through to the blog income reports showing off $20,000 incomes. Use emotions in your headlines as much as possible. When you can’t use facts. Here’s a free tool that analyses your headlines for you.

6. Do Keyword Research

You’re going to write a great piece of content, why not use some keywords that will get you ranked higher on Google to bring in long-term traffic while you’re at it? Use a keyword research tool like KeySearch to find keywords that are easier to rank for and use a combination of them throughout your long posts, giving you a better chance of ranking for more than one keyword.

I use Keysearch (I show you how I use Keysearch here) and it has made a world of a difference, I’m no longer shooting in the dark wondering what keywords to use.

7. Use Keywords in Alt Tags

This is a mistake I see so many bloggers make! You upload a picture and leave the alt tag section blank and the image name is something like IMG3452.JPG You’re leaving so much traffic on the table when you do that! Google reads the image name and alt tag description to determine what the image is and if it has anything to do with your blog post.

If you place keywords in these two places, you stand a better chance of ranking for the keywords you’ve chosen. I show you exactly how to do this in my free blog traffic challenge.

8. Use Keywords in Headlines

I wanted to just say use headlines because many bloggers aren’t using headlines any at all. If I click through to your post and one of the first things I’m greeted with is a block of text, I’m not sure I’m staying to read all of that. I like to skim first to see if the article will cover exactly what I am looking for and maybe shoot to the section I need.

Use headlines to help your reader do this. Headlines also help to tell Google that your blog post is truly talking about this keyword because look, you’ve even got a whole section dedicated to it.

9. Use Relevant Images

Let me backtrack and state the obvious but every post should have at least one image. It helps to break up the text, it helps to rank in Google image search as well as the regular search and it helps for social media sharing.

Make sure your images are sized for the various social channels you want it to be shared on and try to compress all your images (you can use a plugin to do this) so that it doesn’t slow down your site.

10. Create Video Content for Your Posts

Whether you’re creating new content or you’re updating an old post, it’s time to start considering adding video content to your blog.

Video is taking over as the way people consume content online more and more and you don’t want to miss out on all the available traffic.

If you’re not comfortable being on video yet, (start practicing this, get out of your comfort zone) then learn how to make simple explainer videos from Powerpoint slides. They’re super easy to do and will boost your blog traffic in a number of ways.

Video helps people to stay on your page longer which helps your bounce rate and time on page and it also gives you more avenues on which to share your blog post links.

When you upload your video to Youtube, you’ll add your link in the description box potentially driving more traffic to your blog.

11. Make Posts Shareable

Is it that free WordPress sites are not allowed to add other share plugins? The options on these sites are always so limited. I’m rarely able to share posts to Pinterest from these sites. One of the reasons I advocate for self-hosting because free sites are very limiting. Anyway it goes without saying that it should be stupidly easy to share your posts.

I should be able to click one button and share it to any platform I want with all the fields already populated for me. This will ensure all the information that you want shared is shared. If I choose to share your post to Pinterest and the description populates to IMG589.JPG instead of an intentionally keyworded description already filled out, this helps your traffic none at all.

12. Optimise Images for Sharing

Since we’re adding images to our posts, I’d also recommend sizing them for optimal sharing to the different social media channels. There should be one that’s sized for Pinterest and one that’s sized for Facebook at least. The FB one may work well for Twitter but by all means, go ahead and add one specific for Twitter as well.

Canva has all the sizes preset so you can use them for free to create your post graphics. I’m pained when I go to share a post to Pinterest and no long pretty pins are found to share. Include at least one image that’s a minimum of 600×900 so that this will work well on Pinterest.

13. Share To Twitter Smarter

I have a plugin installed called Revive Old Post that sends out a random post from my archives every 4 hours on Twitter. Think that’s too much? Well the lifespan of a tweet is only around 18 minutes so it’s guaranteed that each time the tweet goes out, it finds a new audience. The only people who will even notice that the tweet is a repeat are people who are on Twitter all day long and those people are few and far between.

My followers and engagement climb each day on the platform with very little interaction from me because even though I love Twitter, I mainly use my personal profile manually and automate my business profile (the one for this blog) with this plugin and other automation methods (like Buffer and Hootsuite) entirely.

I get lots of feedback from clients whenever I do blog audits that they would rather concentrate on Facebook and Instagram than try to be everywhere. That is sound advice however Twitter, when set up properly, requires very little manual engagement from you and can bring in good traffic with the right hashtags and automation.

The misconception is that Twitter requires you to be on the platform all day every day to get any real traction from it. I get enough traffic from Twitter with this bare minimum method to recommend it to bloggers. Take a couple hours at the beginning of the month to schedule some “organic” tweets and then automate your blog posts on a recurring basis and that’s enough. (Revive Old Posts will also send out your posts to your Facebook page on a separate schedule!)

14. Share to Facebook Smarter

Facebook can be a huge time suck if you don’t monitor your time spent there. The method that has worked for me is to note blog share days, blog comment days and social media share/follow days on my Facebook Groups Spreadsheet and stick to engaging only on these days at these times.

For instance in my group Help a Blogger Out, I have social media Tuesdays and blog share on Fridays. Therefore if you’re a member of my group, you’ll be ready with your links on those days and be in and out quickly once you’ve reciprocated by sharing the posts of other members.

Threads fill up quickly on these days. On the other days we ask questions and share various resources found around the web but these posts are much more leisurely and you can feel the whole vibe of the group change. Find a schedule you can work with based around your favourite groups and be in and out quickly, back to things with greater returns.

15. Go Live

People have noticed that Facebook pages aren’t where it’s at anymore unless you’re willing to pay for ads because your reach is only around 2% of the likes on your page. One way to increase reach and engagement is to go live. Facebook is encouraging the use of live video more on their platform so they will actually notify more people on your page that you’re live,

The more your viewers engage with you during the video, the more they’re likely to see the page’s updates in their timeline in the future. Use these live videos to build awareness around your newest piece of content in engaging and interesting ways.

Tell people what it’s about and what they stand to gain from it if they check it out. Ask them thought-provoking questions so they’ll leave comments and interact with the video.

This works well for Instagram Live too. It gets your page at the front of the IG stories list and will help to boost your engagement which is a plus when working with brands.

16. Use Pinterest Keywords

Did you know that Pinterest is a search engine as well with its own algorithm and keyword optimization? When you go to Pinterest and begin to type anything in the search bar, it starts to suggest things to you similar to Google. These things are keywords that you can use to get your own pins to show up in the smart feed.

When you complete your search, there will be more keywords at the top of the results with suggestions to finetune your search even more. These are more keywords. Take note of them and use them in your pin descriptions to get more eyeballs on your pins. Here’s further reading on all the ways I get traffic from Pinterest.

If you’re serious about blog traffic, invest in a good Pinterest strategy like my Everything Pinterest ebook that will teach you Pinterest strategies to quickly grow your blog into an income earner. If you’re struggling with blog traffic, you NEED this book.

17. Use Google+

It’s easy to think that Google+ is dead and has no bearing on our traffic however we must remember that Google+ is owned by Google, the search-engine we’re trying so hard to rank on. I’m not ready to give up yet on the fact that my links shared to Google+ do that much better than others that aren’t.

I take comfort in the fact that the much bigger bloggers than myself who are all eyeballs deep into SEO and have multiple number 1 ranking posts are for the most part all still using Google+. I picked up this trick in the Traffic Transformation course I took to increase my blog’s traffic. The course breaks down how to get the most out of Google+ for blog traffic.

18. Create Opt-Ins for Blog Posts to Build Your Email List

Every blogger needs an email list. I’m always disheartened when I hear bloggers say it’s not bringing them any returns or they don’t know what to send to their list or they will start when they’re more established.

The email list you build is the only solid communication channel that you own between you and readers who liked your content enough to sign up for your list.

Every piece of content should have a relevant opt-in accompanying the post so people can decide if they want to opt-in to your email marketing. Make it compelling enough where the decision isn’t very hard but more like they’re clamouring to download your freebie or get whatever it is you’re offering.

I wrote extensively about why you need an email list and even have a free list-building course which you can sign up for here which will teach you how to build compelling opt-ins (and add you to my email list).

19. Schedule Regular Newsletters

Those people who signed up to be on your email list did it because they liked your content enough to opt-in for more. Give them what they want. Every time you publish a new blog post, send an email out to your list letting them know about what you wrote and WHY they should go check it out.

Unless you publish more than once per week, then send them a weekly newsletter that includes all the updates. Try not to totally bombard your list. Once a week is pretty good.

Don’t send them the blog post in an RSS style newsletter. Give a small personal update on why you wrote the post and how it will benefit them if they clicked through to check it out. Get that click through!

20. Guest Posting

Building solid backlinks to your blog shows Google that other bloggers trust your opinion so much that they decided to link to your blog from theirs. One way to build backlinks is to guest post on other blogs. The bigger the blog the better.

It doesn’t have to be blogs though, are there any local websites that you can write an article for on and ask them to link to your blog? Any authority sites, magazines, publications that you can submit an article for? Get creative here and build some backlinks to your blog.

21. Comment On Other Blogs

This is another way to build backlinks to your blog. Unfortunately most of these links will be nofollow links which aren’t as strong as getting a good dofollow link but it’s still worth the effort. (Nofollow links tell Google to not follow the link onward, meaning you technically get no link love from Google)

You don’t have to comment more than once so make an effort to comment on other blogs that are much bigger than yours at least once a week.

22.SEO Your Posts

Several of the methods mentioned so far are parts of your search engine optimization methods. If you’re a beginner blogger on WordPress then simply install the Yoast plugin and it will help you to optimize all your posts so you stand a chance of ranking on Google.

Pair this with your keyword research and you’re well on your way. I wrote about SEOing your blog posts here to help you to get your posts to rank in Google and enjoy search traffic.

23. Blogger Outreach

If you’re a new blog then it can be hard to get some of the bigger bloggers to accept guest posts from you. One of the ways you can do this is to reach out to them asking them to comment on a question you’re planning to post about and would like their expert opinion.

Then when you publish the post, let them know it’s live and they probably will at least share it with their social media channels. Do this in expert roundup type posts.

For example, if you’re a mommy blogger and wanted to know how other moms got their kids to eat healthily, ask 10 of the bigger bloggers this question and then put all of their responses in one post about getting kids to eat healthily and link back to their blogs.

They will probably share it with their thousands of followers, getting you loads of traffic. Make sure your email list is set up and ready to go to capture the influx of new traffic!

24. Tune Into Trending and Holiday Topics

There’s always a new trend, meme or hot topic you can use to generate traffic to your blog. There’s also an art to turning this type of content into evergreen content but for now I suggest simply jumping on the latest hot topic in a creative way on your blog. This can be a great way to get instant heavy traffic to your blog from people searching for the latest trend.

For instance, when I wrote about Usain Bolt’s last race on my lifestyle blog, I got a ton of traffic from sports fanatics on my blog. I connected the content to some helpful personal development takeaways that are relevant to everyday life and so that post lives on even though the event has long passed because it wa keyworded well.

I’m gonna pause here and publish this post because even though I said that posts with 99 ways to get traffic are a stretch, I can probably think of at least another 21 off the top of my head.

Up for a challenge? Join the 5-Day Blog Traffic Growth Challenge and put the best of these tips to the test on your blog. It’s an intensive week of blog growth where I show you HOW to do the best of these tips through a 5-day course with step-by-step instructions plus video to help clear up everything.