5 Ways to Increase Engagement and Growth on Your Blog
Are you focusing a lot of your efforts on Instagram or Pinterest into growing a following? Do you gauge your “success” by the number of followers you have?
I know, I know, it feels great to have a large number of followers, but that doesn’t necessarily make you any money!
So —
Instead of focusing on growing your following (whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) ‘just because’, I want you to focus on increasing engagement and growth on your blog!
By focusing on blog growth and engagement, you will have a better chance to grow long-term. Plus, Google will show your content to more people searching for what you have to offer and brands will be willing to pay more for engagement!
So how do you do this? Here’s 5 ways to increase engagement and growth on your blog:
#1 Don’t obscure your content.
Do you have ads on your blog? Email opt-in popups on your homepage all the time? If you have something that is getting in the way of your visitors consuming your content, then you have to ask yourself if blog engagement is truly your goal. If it is, you need to remove them or restructure them so that they do not interfere with your content.
The mobile site seems to be even worse – but that’s because visitors EXPECT their mobiles to load quickly. Some things don’t even load due to the number of ad servers the site needs to connect with.
Note: Ads not only obscure visitors content, but also kills the page load time, which means more visitors are abandoning your site than engaging with the content!
#2 Use keywords.
You should be using keywords on EVERY SINGLE BLOG POST. I actually advise using your keyword(s) up to 5 times in one blog post; the title, meta description, introductory paragraph, somewhere in the middle and in an outro (aka final post summary) paragraph. Some of your photos in the blog post should also contain your keywords.
Keywords allow your content to be discoverable by Google (and Pinterest). Not using keywords in your blog post makes you a guppy in the ocean — and no one is going to find you in all that space!!!
Unsure of how to use keywords to your advantage? I GOT YOU. Sign up for a 1-hour consultation and we can do an extensive Keyword/SEO training here.
#3 Have a CTA (Call To Action) in every blog post.
Your CTA doesn’t always have to be ‘click the link to learn more’. It could be ‘pin this’, ‘shop this’, or a question!
Questions are great because you’re asking to have a comment reply. For example, “Are you a sweet or salty food lover? Let me know in the comments below!” This CTA is a two-way conversation, plus you’re ASKing your followers to engage with you. A novel concept, right?!
By simply asking for comments, or inviting visitors to engage, you’ll give your blog the extra engagement boost it needs.
#4 Have ‘You might also like’ these other blog posts – at the bottom of every blog post.
Once a visitor finishes reading your current blog post, they are offered additional posts that could peek their interest. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post and you’ll see mine).
Not only does a ‘You might also like’ keep visitors longer on your site (which Google loves), it also provides another opportunity to fall in love with your blog and keep coming back.
#5 Make the first move/engage with others.
This one seems like a no-brainer, but oftentimes we forget this key step to building relationships and growing our blogs.
In Dale Carnegie’s book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, Dale tells you to become genuinely interested in other people.
“You can make more friends in two months by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you.” And… “The only way to make quality, lasting friendships is to learn to be genuinely interested in them and their interests.”
I’d suggest taking a few minutes each day commenting on others blogs to help open up the lines of communication. You’ll be surprised what happens when you leave an authentic comment on someone’s blog post, they tend to repay you with a visit to your blog to do the same.
In a nutshell, if you’re feeling like you have low engagement on your blog — get out there and do something about it. Just make sure you are targeting blogs and accounts that would actually be interested in what you have to offer. Remember, you want to attract quality followers who could potentially do business with you.
Now to practice what I preach, I’m going to do #3 now…
Which of my five ways to increase engagement and growth on your blog is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!
