Wondering why you have no visitors on your blog?
Most blogs have this issue.
In fact, in a very recent survey (that even I was a part of), Ramsay Taplin shared how the number one issue of his readers (bloggers, in general) was struggling to get traffic to their blogs.
Lack of traffic means lack of sales.
And lack of sales means you’ll be out of business sooner or later. If you’re wondering about why your blog is not getting any traffic, here are 5 major reasons along with how you can fix each one of them.
Let’s get started without much ado.
5 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Getting Any Traffic [With Quick Fixes]
Here are 5 quick fixes to solve your blog traffic issue and make sure you get traffic:
Reason 1: You don’t have an SEO strategy
The #1 reason your website isn’t getting traffic it deserves is this: you don’t have an SEO strategy.
If you’re not focusing on SEO, how can you get more search traffic? If you’re not targeting the RIGHT keywords that your target audience are searching on Google to find your site, how can you bring more people from search engines like Google?
Search engine optimization is the best strategy to capture traffic with intent. This traffic converts well into leads and sales. You might have a social media strategy but unless you’re in the “viral niche” I don’t see any reason not to tap into the huge search traffic to grow your business.
Now, if you have this issue, let’s see how you can fix it.
How To Fix it?
#1. Install WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin
Hands down, this is one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress. This plugin helps you easily optimize your blog post for your targeted primary keywords. It allows you to insert your keywords in title, meta description, image alt tags, sub headings etc to easily optimize your content for better search engine rankings.
The best part?
It is free to use and downloaded millions of times by SEO enthusiasts all around the world to boost their search engine traffic. You can download WordPress SEO plugin here.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to optimize your blog for images, videos or local search, you can check out this extensive list of WordPress SEO plugins to see what matches your need. They key is don’t install all of them, just the one or two you need most are enough.
#2. Start doing keyword research
There’s no SEO without keyword research. If you’re someone who is struggling to get more traffic from search engines, you should start finding better keywords and use them within your blog posts to increase your organic traffic.
Here are few powerful keyword research tips if you’re just starting out.
- Get access to the right tools like SEMrush, Keyword Planner, Ahrefs etc. These tools not only save your time but also give you accurate search metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty score, backlink analysis etc.
- Focus on finding less competitive keywords with monthly search volume below 1000 searches so you can easily get first page rankings even if you don’t have a solid backlink profile or higher domain authority.
- Spy on your competitors best performing keywords. Find out all the best performing blog posts of your competitors and try to create better content around those topics to get more traffic from search engines to your sites.
Reason 2: You’re not building backlinks
Have a look at the following illustration from Moz.
99.2% of all top 50 results had at least one external link. That means, Google gives top rewards to the pages with more backlinks.
If you want to get first page results on Google for any keyword, you need quality links. Even if you want 100% natural links, you need your page to be visible in at least the top 10 for someone to find you and link to. And if you’re in a competitive niche, you need links to get to that position. So the only way is to give your article some initial link love.
I’ve written about getting backlinks, do’s and don’ts on backlinks and utilizing expert roundups to earn backlinks and below are some more nuggets that actually work.
How to fix it?
Here are some of the ways you can attract quality backlinks to your sites.
- Start writing guest posts for others: Guest posting is still one of the most effective ways to build quality links to your site without getting penalized by Google. The key here is to use guest posting for building relationships with other bloggers instead of solely focusing on building links. The better relationships you build with other bloggers, the higher chances you’ll have to get links from them naturally.
- Use the Skyscraper technique: This technique is coined by Brian Dean from Backlinko and works like a charm if you want to attract backlinks to your content naturally. So how does it work? Find top performing content ideas using tools like Buzzsumo, create 10x content around them and promote it like crazy.
- Do smart blogger outreach: While outreach doesn’t have a high success rates (thanks to all the spamming in the industry) you can still use it to build white-hat backlinks to your site in no time. Just make sure you’re pitch is more humble and believable. Here are some smart tips to do outreach right, and one mistake to avoid while outreaching someone for links.
Reason 3: Your blog is not appealing enough
As a blogger, you might be very passionate about your blog and have a vision on how it should look and feel. You’ve all the right to make your brand come out as you perceive it.
But if it doesn’t strike a chord with your visitors, they might never return (even if you manage to get new visitors from SEO, you can’t sustain them). You have to make sure your blog is optimized to the industry you’re blogging in.
If you’re a child blogger, you should have a playful tone and if you’re a business blogger, make things feel and look more professional.
Not only the looks, your lingo, the tone of your blog everything should be aligned to fit your buyer/reader persona.
How to fix it?
- Invest in a professional theme: I know this sounds like a generic advise but you’ll notice the difference it makes when you invest in a theme that is clutter-free, distraction free and optimized for conversions (here is a list of the best ones). You can even consider getting a custom designed theme that serves your purpose, has all the features you need and boosts your brand.
- Split test periodically: You always need to see how your audience is interacting with your content, with tools like Hotjar, you can easily check where your visitors are clicking and how they are interacting with your content.
- Focus on your writing: I’ve always said content is king, and you need to always write in-depth posts that solve your users’ problems. You can use these right content research tools to find great ideas, then convert them into SEO friendly blog posts and make sure your content is error-free by proofreading them with the help of these online proofreading tools.
Reason 4: You’re doing content marketing all wrong
Did you know that most bloggers spend 80% of their time on content creation and 20% on content promotion?
Let me tell you one thing: if you build it, they won’t come.
You’ve to hustle hard. Creating content is just one part. Promoting it is what brings more people to read your stuff. So do it the other way around and start spending 80% of your time on content promotion and 20% on content creation.
I’m not saying that you should create thin content but I’m suggesting you that spend quality time in promoting your content. If you spend 2 hours in writing a 1000 word article, spend 8 hours in promoting it.
How to fix it?
Here are some of the ways to promote your content to get wider reach online.
- Repurpose your content: Turn your blog posts into videos, podcasts, infographics, eBooks, slideshares etc. The more channels you use for promotion the more people you can attract. here is a detailed guide to content repurposing.
- Comment on other blogs: Blog commenting is one of the best ways to build and grow your audience especially when you are starting out. Create a list of all the informative blogs in your industry and start leaving at least 1 thoughtful comment every day. Here are some tips to maximize your ROI on comments.
- Harness the power of social media: Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc are great for promoting your content. Once you’re done with publishing part, you can do live videos about your content on Facebook, Instagram etc to engage with new people. here are some tools to help you in effective social media marketing.
Reason 5: You’re not consistent
I know, I know, I know… blogging consistently is NOT easy.
Coming up with new content ideas, churn out quality content regularly, promoting it to the right channels – all these things are not easy and take a lot of time.
Most people quit blogging due to lack of traffic. Why your blog gets pitiful of traffic? It’s because of you’re not consistent.
“If you want to build a high traffic blog, be consistent.” There are no shortcuts.
How to fix it?
Here are some of the tips that can help you blog consistently.
- Create an editorial calendar: Most bloggers post whenever they get free time. Instead of posting whenever you’re free, create a consistent blog posting frequency. Decide how many posts you want to publish each week and stick to it for at least 6 months to see good results from search engines. Your target audience will also appreciate your consistency. For that, you need an editorial calendar. If you’re a WordPress user, you can use this plugin to schedule your posts in advance by creating an editorial calendar.
- Blog on the go: If you’re using a smartphone, you can find and use WordPress app to create content or drafts on the go. I’m personally using WordPress on iPhone and it works flawlessly. Although I don’t write 500 words at one go but at least I’ll finish few quick drafts that I can later work on.
- Use social media automation tools: Tools like Buffer, HootSuite etc can help you automate all your social media posts in advance which not only saves your time but also brings you more visitors from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook etc.
Conclusion on why your blog isn’t getting enough traffic
Increasing your blog traffic is not a rocket science. You need to be persistent. You need a solid content marketing strategy to publish informative content regularly.
So what do you think? What reasons do you think are stopping your blog to get more traffic? Share your thoughts in the comments below.