Blogs have become one of the most fascinating and popular platforms upon  which individuals may sell their wares, offer advice or simply journal about  their daily lives.

But what is the point of having a blog if no one is going to read it?

There are many reasons why you’d would want to increase the traffic to your blog . It could be for  monetary reasons, to gain more public exposure or to show off your skills.  Bloggers want to see their sites develop, evolve and grow.

So, how can you get more visitors to your blog?

Here are 7 easy ways to increase traffic to your blog.

1. Optimize Your Content

The initial structuring of a blog should evolve around designing it to  attract maximum traffic. Pages on your blog can be optimized  to attract readers and potential consumers. This  can be done by organizing content by putting it into categories that will enable  readers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

This includes sub-titles,  bullet points and lists.

Search engines pick up on themes of related content, so include keywords and  keyword phrases. If you work a little on your blog’s SEO (Search Engine  Optimisation) in this kind of way, you’re likely to get more search engine  traffic.

2. Define Your Audience

The most important question a blogger can themselves is, Who is going to read  my blog? Focus your content on what your blog is based on. Then carefully  consider your target audience and address that audience directly. If you write  what they want to read it’s quite likely that they’ll recommend your content to  their peers.

You might already have a good idea of who reads your blog through a quick  look at your followers on Twitter, for example. But to get a better insight you  could sign up to Alexa.com or Quantcast.com  to see in depth information such as the gender or browsing location of your  blog’s visitors.

3. Ensure The Blog Works Properly

Regardless of how many readers hit on a blog, if the blog is not working, as  it should, visitors will not stay, and in most cases, will not return. It can be  frustrating and off putting for readers to visit your site and discover that the  page refuses to load.

One way to find a reliable web host is via a free service offered by WhoIsHostingThis.com. Find a high performance web host  that load your web pages fast and you’ll be on your way to impressing visitors  by having a consistently visible site.

It’s worth keeping in mind that Google will penalize your website  or  blog in its search rankings or blog if it takes longer than two seconds to  load.

4. Advertise! Advertise! Advertise!

It always helps to get the word out about your blog, and the best way to do  that is to advertise. There are two main types of advertising; paid and  free.

Free Advertising

There are ways to advertise  your blog without paying to do so. For instance, word of mouth through  social media. Obviously there are monetary benefits to doing this. If you don’t  already have one, get a profile set up on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ – these are all free.

Getting involved in various  groups that specialize in the topic that is being addressed on your blog is a  great way to get free advertising. If you share other people’s posts through a  few quick clicks on Twitter your own content may well be shared in  turn.

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