96 Tips And Ideas How To Make Your Blog More Popular

You hardly get any traffic and want to make your blog better known? Then it’s time to start promoting it! Because it’s not enough to write good blog posts to get readers. You need to actively promote your blog (at least at the beginning) to get regular visitors.

Below you’ll find several tips and tricks for different channels and areas of your blog that will help you get more visitors and increase your reach.

Know your audience

Maybe you’re now thinking: Huh? How does that relate in any way to getting the word out about my blog?

And I’m telling you: A whole lot.

Because only if you know exactly who you’re targeting with your blog articles in the first place, you can write helpful articles that will be shared often and reach many people.

My tips:

1. Think about which problems and goals your readers have. What are they afraid of? What do they want to accomplish? What keeps them up at night? Make yourself a list of at least 20 goals and 20 fears
2. Look at which blog articles are shared, linked, and commented on the most on other blogs in your niche. From this, you can draw conclusions about what types of blog articles would resonate well with your own readers. Helpful for this is a tool like BuzzSumo, which shows you the most shared articles on a topic or on a particular site
3. Stay on question sites such as Quora or reddit, forums, Facebook groups, and pay attention to what questions are frequently asked by members of those groups or forums
4. Do keyword research to find frequently asked questions and problems of your readers
5. Ask your readers directly, e.g. in your newsletter, in one of your own or other people’s Facebook groups or on your blog, what their biggest challenge is at the moment. And do it regularly!
6. Get to know your readers personally. Invite a reader for coffee from time to time or go to events in your niche
7. Subscribe to newsletters, Facebook pages, and other channels of blogs in your niche so you don’t miss trends

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very good way to make your blog more popular. Although it usually takes a little longer to achieve good rankings in Google, visitors from search engines are often more valuable than visitors from social networks.

Moreover, SEO can generate passive income and many of Google’s ranking factors are based on good content quality and user experience, things you should pay attention to as a blogger anyway.

My tips:

1. Do keyword research and optimize your blog articles for keywords that are actually searched for (the most important SEO measure of all!)
2. Improve your loading time (best under 1.5 seconds!)
3. Switch your blog to HTTPS!
4. Link your blog articles internally with the keywords you want to rank for (link blog articles to each other and, if it fits, your best articles from sidebar, menu or footer)
5. Use short and speaking permalinks (best without date and category)
6. Use descriptive file names and alt texts for images (best with keywords!)
7. Try to get backlinks for the blog articles you want to improve your Google ranking for
8. Sign up for Google Search Console and submit a sitemap to Google
9. Use a good keyword tool that shows the exact search volume, e.g. KWFinder
10. Include rich snippets in your blog articles to increase the click-through rate in the search results.
11. Use tables of contents for your blog articles
12. Write long and holistic texts (but keep in mind point 13, longer is not always better!)
13. Write texts that fulfill the search intention of your keywords 100%
14. Structure your blog articles with subheadings (h2, h3, h4…)
15. Use tables, lists, photos, videos or other elements to make your blog articles more descriptive
16. Write meta titles and descriptions that contain keywords and invite clicks
17. Optimize your content for other search engines as well (e.g. Bing)
18. Write evergreen content!
19. Eliminate 404 errors and dead outbound and internal links
20. Optimize your click depth (blog articles you want to rank for should be accessible in less than 3 clicks)
21. Create a favicon (will be displayed in mobile search)
22. Use FAQ markup for your blog articles (this will display small question toggles in search results)

Pinterest

Pinterest is now one of the most important social networks in the world. It has 450 million monthly active users. Especially in the creative field, sharing your own blog posts can pay off.

My tips:

1. Turn your account into a company profile (this will give you access to additional features, such as Pinterest Analytics)
2. The easiest way to create images for Pinterest is with Canva
3. Pin a lot (at least 5 pins per day)!
4. Tools like Tailwind or BoardBooster can help you a lot with pinning (but remember to log in manually from time to time and pin normally)
5. Link your Pinterest profile on your blog
6. Pin the hover button and the bookmark button on your website
7. Use Pinterest’s browser plugin to pin easier and faster
8. Create at least 5 pinboards, each containing at least 50 pins
9. Activate the Showcase in your profile
10. Enable Rich Pins for your blog
11. Optimize your pins, pinboards and profile with keywords
12. Own pins are rated higher than repins by Pinterest (new content is better!)
13. Best for pins are images that have a greater length than width

Facebook groups

By posting your own posts in Facebook groups, you reach other bloggers who share them or, if necessary, link to them, thereby gaining new readers. Online magazines looking for new content and cooperation partners are also represented in blogger groups.

There are now very many bloggers who use Facebook groups to promote their blog posts. Nevertheless, it can be worthwhile to always post the latest posts there regularly, especially since posting is very quick and costs almost nothing.

My tips:

1. Share your posts best on Monday, Thursday or Sunday between 7 to 8 am or 5 to 6 pm, that’s when most people are online (I still recommend to try other times and compare the reactions)
2. Test what kind of post is best received (image with link, link only etc.)
3. Make sure that you are really allowed to share your blog posts in the group (read group rules!)
4. You will reach even more readers by posting not only in blogger groups, but especially in the groups where your target audience is hanging out
5. Don’t post in too many groups at the same time, or you may get annoying to your Facebook friends

Facebook advertising

Due to the abundance of content on Facebook, the Facebook algorithm is very selective about which content is shown to whom. As a result, you sometimes don’t get as far as you’d like with organic reach. This can be solved by paid Facebook advertising, which can help you get more fans or clicks to your blog.

My tips:

1. Set your budget high. This usually results in a higher CTR (click-through rate) and thus a lower CPC (cost-per-click) or CPA (cost-per-action, e.g. per like)
2. Experiment with different ads, ad formats, and target audiences!
3. Plan some budget to use for testing (in the end, it’s cheaper to burn $100 for testing and thus find an ad that has a very low CPC, instead of having an ad with a high CTR that costs hundreds of dollars more in total runtime)
4. Never use the “promote post” feature. You’ll only burn money by doing so. Believe me!

Facebook fanpage

Having your own Facebook page is a must for every blog to become better known and keep regular readers up to date.

However, due to the fact that Facebook members are liking more and more throughout their lives and following more Facebook groups and pages, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve a high reach with your own content.

My tips:

1. Try out what kind of content (images, videos, blog posts) resonates best with your fans
2. Also share posts from other blogs to make them aware of you and to be shared yourself (keyword: reciprocity!)
3. Create a vanity URL for your Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/yourblog instead of https://www.facebook.com/yourblog-718913841478962/), so your readers can remember your page better

Write guest article

When you write a guest article, you benefit from the reach of another blogger or online magazine.

Under certain circumstances, you can get visitors to your own blog for days, weeks or even months with just one guest article. Moreover, you will get some fans, followers or newsletter subscribers. Additionally, you will usually be linked in the guest post, which will help with your Google ranking.

In return, the blog or online magazine where you post the guest article gets free content. So it’s win-win!

My tips:

1. Start with smaller blogs to get references and establish a name for yourself as a writer. Then use those references to get guest articles on larger blogs or online magazines
2. When writing your guest article, promote your own blog as little as possible (preferably only in the author profile). Instead, focus on adding as much value to the host blog as possible
3. Share the guest articles you write for others on your own channels as well

Offer guest article

Not only by writing, but also by offering guest articles you can make your blog better known. Because usually your blog is also linked by the guest author or shared on Facebook, Twitter and Co.

My tips:

1. There are several facebook groups where you can search for guest authors for your blog
2. Look for guest authors who have a high reach themselves (guest authors also like to share their post with you in their own channels)
3. Make sure that the articles of your guest authors fit one hundred percent to your blog

Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes require a bit of investment for prizes, but attract visitors. They attract likes, shares and links, helping you to promote your blog.

My tips:

1. Try to get the prizes from manufacturers for free
2. Submit your sweepstakes to blogs or portals that feature sweepstakes
3. Require an action from participants as a condition of entry (e.g., that they follow you on a social media channel, sign up for the newsletter, leave a blog comment, etc.)
4. Use a product-related blog article that you optimize for a specific keyword as the sweepstakes page (possible linking and sharing on social networks will increase the Google ranking for this article)

Forums and question boards

Even if classic Internet forums or question boards are slowly dying out in favor of social networks, they are still a good source of visitors. Especially if you post regularly in a certain forum or question site and achieve expert status there, you can also make your blog known.

My tips:

1. Pick a niche forum (not a large general forum) where your target audience spends time
2. If possible, include a link to your blog in your signature
3. Try to post regularly in the forum and write really helpful posts
4. Hold back on advertising your own blog, especially in the beginning

Blog comments

By commenting on other blogs, you can also generate a bit of traffic. But you should not expect too much from it: Because that’s mostly how other bloggers get to your blog. So you will hardly reach your target audience. However, blog comments can be a good way to start a cooperation with other bloggers, e.g. in the form of guest articles.

My tips:

1. Use comments on other blogs to start collaborations with other bloggers and build friendships
2. In each of your comments, focus on providing value for readers and for the author (e.g., by making meaningful additions to the article)
3. Always show appreciation in your comments. No comment should be exclusively critical
4. If you do criticize, always do so factually and constructively
5. Avoid short comments, make an effort and invest time in writing really good comments!
6. Read the article completely before commenting!
7. For the Google ranking, comment backlinks bring little or nothing. Never comment for this reason!

Aggregators and directories

Aggregators (i.e., websites that collect content from other websites in an automated fashion) and blog directories can also be great for promoting your content or blog.

My tips:

1. Start your own podcast and distribute it on podcast portals
2. Make your photos available for free in image databases
3. Create infographics and distribute them on infographic portals and on Pinterest
4. Submit your newsfeed to RSS aggregators and directories
5. Publish press releases if you have the money, preferably on paid portals and please do not submit the same press release to 150 portals!
6. Submit your blog to Google News (but only if you also write news articles!)
7. Subscribe to blog directories and link lists (preferably relevant to the topic!)

Offline-Marketing

Offline marketing can also be useful if you want to make your blog more popular and get more followers and readers!

My tips:

1. Attend blogger events or actively participate in an event (e.g. as a speaker)
2. Organize your own blogger events (regulars’ table, barcamp, conference, etc.)
3. Get a sticker with your logo printed for your laptop
4. Order business cards (with a link to your blog and social media channels)
5. Write guest articles or give interviews for print media

Other tips

There are many more ways to get more visitors to your blog. Below are all the methods that do not fit into the rest of the categories.

1. Actively recycle content (update an old blog article and post it again, in a new format if necessary)
2. Participate in a blog parade or host one yourself
3. Include your blog URL in your email signature
4. Include a blogroll on your blog and link each other to other bloggers
5. Publish sponsored posts on your blog (often shared by the advertised company)
6. Publish reviews on your blog and create a review seal, then write to the manufacturer of the product and draw their attention to the review and seal (linking is a condition for using the seal)
7. Write the types of blog articles that are well received and often shared (controversial articles, how-tos, studies, etc.)
8. Write interesting headlines that attract clicks
9. Link to and share other bloggers’ content (remember to tag bloggers when you share their articles on your social media channels)

Leave me a comment or if you want more tips like this, subscribe to our newsletter now!

All the best,
Fabian