The Essential Guide to Growing Blog Traffic
Learn what it takes to grow a passionate blog following with this essential guide.
Growing a blog following is like dunking a basketball, it only happens with practice, repetitions, and pushing yourself beyond your limits.
If you're reading this post, there's a good chance you are interested in what it takes to grow a following. Good for you!
There are few things more rewarding than serving a community through helpful and inspiring content.
However, growing traffic on your blog is no easy task.
It takes commitment, passion, and a little technical knowledge to create an engaged online audience, but I am happy to say that I am 100% confident that if you follow all of the techniques outlined in this article, you will grow a loyal and engaged following.
If you're ready to learn what it takes to grow your blog's traffic, you've come to the right place. Let’s get to it!
Download the Blog Growth Guide
All of the techniques outlined in this article can be a little overwhelming if you are new to blogging or growing website traffic. So we decided to create a FREE PDF guide so you can save the content for later.
Just click the button below to download your guide. You must be a Curious Refuge subscriber to claim your PDF, but don’t worry it’s free! Just hit the ‘Join’ button at the top of the page to create your account.
Setting Expectations: How Long Does it Take to Grow a Blog?
There's no way around it; if you are not currently a celebrity in your niche or using paid advertising, growing a blog following to 1000+ people a month will (likely) happen 2 months after you publish your 20th blog post of at least 500 words. (That was a lot of prepositions… I’m sorry.)
This growth estimate assumes that you are also:
Sharing Your Content on Social Media
Sending Your Posts to Industry Websites
Engaging with Your Niche around the Web
Unless you are bringing a world-class skill to the table that media publications will notice (video, podcast, ebooks, etc.), it is going to take some time to see results from blogging alone, and that's ok.
Search engines, social media sites, and (most importantly) people, love consistency. It's your goal to become a consistent creator in your niche.
You'll see the best results by simply sitting down and creating content on a regular cadence.
Pick your cadence and stick to it. I recommend posting at least three weekly articles that are at least 500 words, along with a weekly newsletter. The more helpful content you create, the better.
Make blogging a habit, not a one-off marketing tactic.
Focus on What Matters Most
Your blog's success entirely depends on how important your site feels to a specific group of people. This is done by unapologetically helping a specific niche that you empathize with.
The key is to create content that you are personally passionate about.
In short, create stuff that excites you.
Your success should be measured by the impact you have on people's lives. You'll see this through kind-hearted emails and comments on your blog posts, not website traffic.
In fact, if you’re looking for a number-based goal, count the number of grateful comments and fan mail you receive, not traffic.
You can have a huge email list a lots of traffic, but if you don’t connect with your audience it doesn’t matter.
Despite what professional marketers tell you, when traffic becomes your ultimate goal, you've already lost the content game.
Focus on helping people, not tricking them into finding your website.
In time, loyal fans will turn into loyal customers.
How Often Should I Post Blog Content?
Try to make content creation your habit. Try to post at least 3 times a week. No exceptions.
Focusing too heavily on quality is a HUGE mistake that every blogger must avoid.
Let me explain.
You may desire to have the iPhone version of a blog— full of great design, prefect language, and unrivaled quality.
But I have a little secret for you, it took hundreds of prototypes for Steve Jobs to land on the perfect iPhone design.
The same will be true for your blog.
It will be through creating a large quantity of blog posts that you will eventually create a high-quality posts on a regular cadence, not the other way around.
Focus on making each content piece 5% better than the last. In very little time you’ll be posting cranking out world-class blog posts. But it only happens if you put in the reps.
The Rule of 14
I always ask new content creators to follow the rule of 14 when launching and growing a blog. The rule (that I made up) is simply this— create 14 content pieces before you decide to give up.
Through my research and experience leading content teams, I've found that it typically takes about 14 content pieces before an author, video creator, or podcaster really finds their voice.
Play the ‘Blog for a Prize’ Game
Here's a quick way to stay motivated with your blogging goals.
Create 14 circles on a blank white page and write down something that you want, but haven’t bought because it seems frivolous. It might be a day at a theme park or a new pair of shoes.
Each time you publish a blog post scratch an ‘X’ through one of the circles.
There are also a few extra rules to this game:
The articles must be at least 500 words.
The articles must make you feel excited.
The article must be focused on helping other people.
You must share the articles on social media.
Once you’ve crossed off every circle, go buy the thing and start the game again. If you lead a content team you can encourage your team to play along and have the company buy them something nice or even give away a vacation day or two.
In fact, I'll up the ante... If you complete this challenge email me and I'll send you a surprise.
Depending on your familiarity with content creation, the exact number that it takes to find your voice might be lower than 14, but the principle behind the Rule of 14 remains the same.
Create consistent content and share your work. The audience will come, I promise.
Don't Hire an Editor
The grammar of your blog content doesn't have to be perfect. This is a blog, not a book.
Remove all obstacles that keep your content from going out into the world. This includes omitting an editor.
Instead of hiring an editor, simply read your article out loud to yourself a few times before publication. You will catch 90% of your grammar mistakes this way.
The grammar police might email you, but if you follow the strategies outlined in this post the fan mail will weigh far heavier in your inbox.
Organic Traffic Beats Social
There are essentially two main ways to get your content seen by an audience in the early stages of a blog.
Social Traffic - Traffic from social media sites and 'going viral'.
Organic Traffic - Traffic from search engines like Google.
Social traffic typically works in huge waves. You'll post a compelling blog post on a social media channel, it hits a nerve, and it goes 'viral'.
Many people will share the social-worthy content around, but pretty soon, that post will shrink in traffic to basically nothing.
You may see random upticks in traffic to social-driven pieces over time, but that isn't the norm. In many cases, content geared more to pleasing social media audiences through sensational prompts will skyrocket and then fizzle.
Social title examples:
5 Shocking Ways to Show Off Your Summer Style
Kitchen Finds: This New Blender is Blowing Our Minds
Why Didn’t Someone Tell Me About This Coffee Trick?
A content creator who focuses too much on social content is forced to constantly create sensational, social-worthy blog posts in a never ending hamster wheel of content creation.
This may help gain some initial excitement, but it’s best to not hang your hat on social-driven content creation.
Organic Traffic works a little differently. Once published, articles that focus on organic growth will see a slight initial spike in visitors to the article, traffic will go down, and then slowly, as if blessed by a magic internet fairy, the traffic to that article will increase over time.
After a little time, bloggers who have spent more time focusing on organic traffic (search and keyword-driven content) will have far more traffic than the ones who only focused solely on social content. The best part is, you’ll grow a following without lifting a finger.
This is the type of content I want to focus on.
Organic Article Examples:
10 Incredible Summer Style Techniques for Men
The Ninja 5000 Blender: Is it Worth the Price?
How to Make Coffee Cream at Home
The bulk of this article will look at what it takes to generate this organic traffic, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't post content with a more 'editorial' or 'social' focus to them.
In fact, I typically recommend the following formula for content strategy:
60% Sensational/Social/Editorial/News
30% Search Driven Content
5% Product-Related Articles
5% Freebie (Lead Magnet) Posts
Just because 60% of your posts are created to do well on 'social', doesn't mean you should spend the bulk of your time working on them, quite the opposite.
You should spend the majority of your time building out your search-related posts and freebies for your website. A decent social-focused article shouldn't take more than a few hours to create, a good SEO piece can take a couple days (if not longer).
Note: There are other sources that bring in traffic like referral traffic, but they will likely never drive as much traffic to your website as social or organic. We will not focus on them in this article.
How Search Ranking Works: The Simplified Version
Search rankings are one of those things that sound super complicated, but it's best to not overthink it.
In a nutshell, a blog post ranks in Google because a computer algorithm (that programs itself) has decided it should be there.
People spend their entire working hours trying to please this algorithm by offering it up blogs as sacrifices and performing various tasks like link building, keyword updates, and headline testing.
This isn't a dystopian religion of the future, it's the world we live in today.
But what are you, the aspiring blog writer, going to do in the face this mystical algorithm?
Well, the first thing to do is simply understand what the heck is going on.
In short, ranking works like this: Google's tests content to see if people like it.
If the search result in spot number 6 is doing better than the search result in spot number 5, they will switch. It's as simple as that.
For us mortals to wrap our heads around this subject, the marketing prophets have invented a few terms to help us understand how Google operates: Domain Authority, Article Quality, and Page Authority.
The success of an article or page in Google is a simple math problem that involves these three terms:
Domain Authority x Article Quality = Page Authority (aka Page Ranking in Google)
This is a very simple formula to help you understand what is going on… definitely not scientific.
But what do these weird terms mean? Let's define them.
What is Domain Authority?
Domain Authority is a pretend score on how relevant a website is for the given topic.
For example, H&M's domain authority for fashion related topics might be an 85 out of 100, but their domain authority for bread making is probably close to 0.
As you create more content for a specific subject you will generate larger domain authority for that topic.
Tips for Building Domain Authority:
Create Tons of Content on a Subject
Get Backlinks from Industry Websites to Your Site
Build a Large Following of Targeted Users
Google doesn't have your domain authority number written down, but there are services out there that try to help you understand your domain authority score like Ahrefs and Moz.
However, truth be told, most 'Domain Authority' tools aren't that accurate.
What is Article Quality?
Article quality is simply how good the article is at addressing the topic at hand.
Your article should be written for humans, address the question proposed in the title, and deliver on the goods.
As you grow your website, you should follow a simple article quality rule, make your post the best possible article for the topic at hand.
Tips for Increasing Article Quality:
Answer Questions Related to the Topic
Put Yourself in the Shoes of Your Readers
Write in Relatable Language
Follow Good SEO Practices (more on that below)
What is Page Authority?
Page Authority is what you get when you multiply Domain Authority by Article Quality.
Articles that rank #1 in Google for a specific topic have great Page Authority.
If you write a great article people will share your content and websites will link to your site. Assuming you are sharing the content out yourself.
Marketers often focus too heavily on trying to get people to link to their blog post, without delivering the goods. This is a mistake.
You should always create compelling content.
The "Taylor Swift" Effect
I'd like to share a little secret.
Major blogs don't have to try as hard as you to get their articles to rank in Google.
In fact, a big blog can typically write a post that's far worse than other 'indie' articles out there and the big blog’s post will likely rank better.
It's weird to say, but in many ways blog writing is a lot like the music industry.
Hear me out…
Every now and then, big record labels create awesome albums, but it's usually the independent artists that create the best and most heart-felt music.
However, you don't have to be a music executive to know that albums created by large record labels are usually the same ones that sell the most music and, in-turn, have the most listeners.
The same is true for blog writing.
You're a garage band competing with Taylor swift. You're starting at a disadvantage.
It may seem unfair that larger company blogs can more easily outrank your blog, but it's true. Here's why...
Larger blogs have more domain authority because they have likely written hundreds (if not thousands) of articles on a given subject. Each time a user visits one of those older blog posts, Google gives their website a pretend 'point' for that specific keyword and topic category.
Over time, those points have added up to boost new blog content in that category.
Let's say you wanted to write an article on 'The Most Fashionable Coats for Winter'. Assuming you've never written about that subject in the past, you would start with a Domain Authority score of 1 out of 100. It's sad... I know.
But what if Vogue Magazine wanted to write the same article? Well, because they have written hundreds of articles on the subject, they would start out with a pretend score of let's say 85.
Now let's remember the Google ranking formula:
Domain Authority x Article Quality = Page Authority
Assuming Vogue is starting with a domain authority score of 85 and they proceed to write a poor post that only has an article quality score of 25, they still have 2125 points! Darn...
The writer at Vogue could throw together an article in only a few minutes and it would probably rank better than the same article that took you a dozen hours to write.
In the same way, an album of Taylor Swift making jackal noises into a microphone would probably sell more albums than your garage band.
So what are you to do? Just give up? Quit before starting?
Nah, you can outrank Taylor Swift, er... I mean other blogs, no matter how big they are.
So whether you are trying to beat Vogue, Hubspot, or even the New York Times, this next strategy is a sure-fire way to get your content seen.
Fighting Content Battles: How Small Blogs Beat Large Blogs
I'm a big fan of an underdog story. We all want to picture ourselves as David, and other blogs as Goliath.
We want to hurl our article at the unsuspecting giant, who comes crashing down to the 2nd spot in Google... but most blogging giants aren't destroyed with a single article.
Instead, it takes a little strategy.
Let's pretend like you are tasked with fighting a 50 foot tall giant. If you had to fight him head on, he would probably just squash you under his foot.
But what if you had a team of 100 people on your side?… The giant wouldn't stand a chance.
In the same way, Small blogs beat big blogs by chipping away at a topic through hyper-specific blog posts. It's as simple as that.
The Problem with Large Blogs
Larger sites have larger overhead. They have more people on staff like writers, editors, graphic designers, content directors, sales people, developers, and more... The larger the staff the slower they will be at releasing content.
Larger sites also have to be more broad with their content. Because large blogs target a larger audience, they can't afford to get too specific in their topics. If they get too specific, their site will slowly lose traffic.
Releasing specific content at a high velocity is how you beat larger blogs.
Small Blog Advantages:
You Can Publish Posts Faster
You Can Be Flexible with Content Calendars
You Can Serve a Very Specific Niche
You Aren't Weighed Down by Branding
You Have Less Liability
You Don't Have to Worry About Partnerships or Competition
Speed is your superpower in the beginning. The faster you post, the more authority you will build for your site.
Over time, you will become such an authority on a subject that big blogs won't be able to ignore you.
In fact, most large blogs are so bloated with staff and processes that you will sail right past them.
Your Secret Weapon: Tree Toppers
Creating hyper-specific blog posts is all fine and dandy, but what if you want to rank for a broad term in your industry?
For example, Let's say you own an online sporting goods store and you want to rank for 'best shoes for runners'.
That's a very competitive term. What are you going to do?
Well my friend, you need a tree topper.
Tree Toppers, or Content Clusters, are large blog articles that are broken down into smaller blog posts.
To create a Tree Topper you must outline your ideal larger blog post on a broad and valuable subject. Over time you will write smaller articles on the topic related to your proposed outline for the larger article.
The best part is, because your blog will focus on hyper-specific topics, you will be able to slowly chip away at these smaller articles while building up your domain authority for the given topic.
This increases the likelihood that your future articles on the subject will rank well in Google.
Let me show you how it's done.
How to Create a Tree Topper Article
Here's how to create a tree topper or content cluster article.
Step 1: Outline the Target Article
Start with outlining your ideal article that you hope to rank in Google.
For our example, we'll use 'How to Bake a Pie'.
There’s a slim chance that you will be able to rank for a term like ‘How to Bake a Pie’ with a single one-off article. Instead, you'll need to build up some domain authority related to pie baking.
To do this, start with outlining your ideal epic article on how to make a pie. There should be at least 10 headings.
For example:
How to Bake a Pie
What is a Pie?
Pie vs Cake
The Science of Pie
The History of Pie
Pie in Popular Culture
Types of Pie
Fruit Pies
Meat Pies
Pre-Packaged Pies
How to Make a Pie Crust
Pie Crust Ingredients
The Best Butter for Pie Crust
The Best Flour for Pie Crust
White vs Wheat Flour in Pie Crust
The Best Eggs for Pie Crust
Is it Possible to Create a Keto Pie Crust?
Is it Possible to Create a Paleo Pie Crust?
How to Make Flakey Pie Crust
How to Make Firm Pie Crust
Lattice vs Flat-Top Techniques
Decorative Pie Techniques
Pie Decorating Trends
You get the idea... This pretend outline could be 100 headings long, that's ok.
I always find it helpful to have these planning sessions with a team or knowledgable friend.
Step 2: Create Smaller Articles from the Larger Outline
Now that you have a huge outline, it's time to break up the beast into manageable sections.
Take each one of your sub-points and create an entire article dedicated to each sub-point. I'm dead serious.
This might be 100 articles, it might just be 10. The more competitive the search term, the more articles you will need.
For our example above we might write an article on ‘How to Make Flakey Pie Crust’ and an article on ‘Pie Decorating Trends’. We would continue publishing and writing these articles until the entire outline has been written.
The best part is, because each one of the sub-points is very specific, you will likely rank for them in Google.
Step 3: Combine Smaller Articles
Once you've written, published, and shared all of your smaller articles individually, it's time to compile the bigger post. Copy and paste all of your previous articles into a single post.
The word count will likely be beyond 15,000+ words. That's totally ok. When it comes to highly-searched terms, the longer the better.
Step 4: Rewrite the Words
Now it's time to rewrite the words to create an original article. I like to simply open up two side-by-side panels on my computer, the one on the left is the post with all of my copied materials, the one on the right contains the new re-written words.
Pair this strategy up with the SEO checklist below and you have a recipe for ranking in Google for highly competitive topics.
The No-Nonsense SEO Checklist
There are lots of articles in the world about SEO. If you want a helpful introduction, I recommend checking out this post.
However, if you follow these quick tips below your posts will be 98% as good as any post created by 'professional' SEO experts.
Add Keywords in Titles - Every article should have a keyword in the title. The keyword for this article is 'grow blog traffic'.
Add Keywords in the URL - Add your keywords in the URL. Keep it simple and small. (example: curiousrefuge.com/blog/grow-blog-traffic)
Add Keywords Throughout Your Post - Add your specific keyword throughout your article. Don't get awkward with it! Just use the keyword as it makes sense.
Use Synonyms - In addition to the primary keyword, include synonyms for your article's focus. For example, an article with the keyword of 'How to Cook Fried Eggs' might also include 'Sunny Side Up Eggs' sprinkled throughout the article because people can easily swap those words when searching in Google..
Backlink to Other Sites - Include links to other industry sites throughout your article. This will help SEO and give credibility to your article.
Link Around Your Site - In addition to links around the web, include links around your website. This will help make your website feel like a cohesive content piece.
Keep Image Sizes Small - Try to keep the file sizes of your images as small as possible. Shoot for images that are below 1mb. Graphics should be PNGs and images should be JPEGs.
Name Your Images - Use your keywords to give your images appropriate names when uploading them to the web. For example, "How-to-cook-fried-eggs-skillet.jpg".
Include Alt Tags - Alt tags are short descriptions of your images that search engines use to identify the contents of the image. You should add alt tags to every image. This can be done on most major blogging platforms.
In addition to all of the SEO tips above, I also recommend doing an SEO audit for your website and address any larger search issues your site may have.
Time Delayers = Trust Developers
Google uses hundreds of data points to determine how to rank blog posts. However, one of the main things they look at when determining if an article is valuable to readers is how long a user stays on the page.
In the nerdy world of marketing analytics this is called 'time on page'.
While your primary goal should always be to help, connect, and empathize with your audience, a secondary goal should be to boost the things that Google finds important, and this includes time on page.
But how are you to increase time on page? It’s simple! Add things that take up time.
Examples include:
Videos
Podcast Embeds
Slide Decks
The best part is, it doesn't have to be a video, podcast, or slide deck that you created. You could simply embed one of these content elements from around the web.
Plus, as we've said before — Time = Trust = Sales.
The more time someone spends with your content, the more trust will be built between you and them.
Launching Blog Content: Do This in the First Two Hours
Every time you launch a blog post you need to do the following steps.
1. Share on All Social Channels
As soon as you launch a blog post, I recommend sharing it out on every social channel you have. Essentially the goal is to get as many people to the post as possible at the same time. This will give your post a little 'boost' in SEO and give it a higher chance of going viral.
Share it out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You should also figure out a way to share out the content on Instagram and Pinterest using imagery.
If you have the ability to do a 'story' post about the article I recommend doing that as well.
It also couldn't hurt to do a live stream on Facebook and Instagram where you talk about the subject.
I should also note that not every social channel is going to send the same amount of traffic to your website. Instagram is notorious for keeping people on their platform, while Facebook is pretty generous about sending people around the web.
Here's a quick breakdown of the best social platforms for sending traffic to your site (excluding YouTube):
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Instagram
TikTok
Also, if you've created a YouTube video I always recommend linking back to the article with the video embedded inside, instead of linking directly to the YouTube video itself.
You should also use relevant hashtags when you share out the content. Here's a quick guide to sharing hashtags with links to great hashtag research tools.
Instagram - Include 30 Hashtags in the description or in the first comment of your post.
Twitter - Include 5-10 Hashtags
Facebook - Include 1 Hashtag
LinkedIn - Include 4-5 Hashtags
2. Tag Mentioned Companies and Brands in the Post
When you do share out your content on social media, it is essential that you tag any companies mentioned in your article. This will obviously take a little more work, but it is a great way to get on the radar of other companies and get their audience to your article.
When you share out blog content that tags other people or companies, you are building your blog’s credibility.
Fun Fact: This is also a sure-fire way to get a free drink at your next industry event.
3. Send an Email to Your Subscribers
If you create a super awesome piece of content I definitely recommend you send it out via email to your subscribers. You don't have to create something super long, just re-write an excerpt from your article in the email and include a link for them to read more.
We’ve just got a letter, we’ve just got a letter, we’ve just got a letter… I wonder who it’s from?!
4. Link to Your Post in the Comments of Keyword Searches
Every blog article that you create will have a keyword or search term that people will use to find your post. However, there's a really good chance that other people have already created content for that specific search term as well.
Think about all of the different search terms that people would use to find your post.
Now, go to Google and post a comment in the comments section of those blog posts that link back to your article.
Don't get spammy with it.
Add value and compliment their article while giving serious insights. The goal is to be the most upvoted comment on that article.
5. Email PR Contacts if the Content is Super Good.
If the content you created is SUPER good and share-worthy, I recommend reaching out to any contacts you have in the publication industry for your specific niche. This could include:
Online Magazines
Key Influencers
Industry Publications
Niche-Specific Company Blogs
Don't be afraid to share your work with these folks. I know it can be intimidating to share your articles with high-profile individuals, but they have the power to really give your article traction.
Grow Your Email List
One of the best ways to ensure that targeted readers find your content is to simply grow your email list and send a weekly newsletter.
Very few people sign up for email lists to ‘subscribe’ to a newsletter. Instead, most email lists are grown by offering a freebie in exchange for an email address.
But what kind of freebie should you create? Well, the easiest freebie to give away is a checklist.
It should only take you about 30 minutes to put together a decent checklist.
Develop the checklist via Google Docs and offer it as a free PDF to anyone who signs up for your email list. Embed the checklist at the bottom of every post and place a popup on your site.
This is a good way to quickly grow an email list.
In time, the email list will become your most powerful marketing channel.
Other Blogging Tips:
Write Compelling Titles - Make sure your titles include power words, a goal, and odd-numbers. Study other successful sites to see how they name their content. The title is your most important part of your blog post. Here’s a good post on creating good blog titles.
Use a Professional Blogging Platform - You don't need to code your own website. Just use a professional blogging platform like Squarespace or Wordpress.
Use Lots of Imagery - People love seeing images of other people. Include lots of imagery in your articles to make them feel more relatable. You’ve probably noticed all of the incredibly silly images in this post already. That’s not by accident.
Keep a List of Blog Topic Ideas - Keep a list of blog topic ideas on your phone. When you think of a good topic, write it down. This is where you will get your best content ideas.
Regularly Engage with Your Community - Don't ever rest on our laurels. Continually engage with your community by going to in-person events, watching online courses/videos, and reading the latest news in your industry. Become a champion for your niche.
Make Writing a Habit - Try to set aside time every day to do a little writing. My goal is to create a new article every single weekday. Note: This article actually took 2 days, but you get the idea. :)
Learn More About Getting Your Blog Posts Seen
Want to learn more about what it takes to get your blog posts seen around the web? Here are a few great resources:
We also have written a post on how to write a great blog articles here on Curious Refuge. I definitely recommend it if you are looking to sharpen up your blogging skills.
Turn Your Hobby Into a Business
Sure, you may enjoy blogging, but wouldn't it be awesome if you could turn your love of blogging into a thriving online business? If that sounds interesting to you, I recommend that you check out The Curious Millionaire.
Our online adventure is loaded with interactive stories, fun exercises, and unlockable tools.
Check it out if you’re interested!
It's Time to Beef Up Your Blog!
Ok friend, it's time to go out and get your blog seen by happy readers around the world! Remember, it takes reps to hit your goals!
What do you think?
Did I leave any tips off this list? Have any questions? Share your thoughts in the comments below.