“I need more site traffic!” is the thought you had when you saw the title of this post. Am I right?
In 2016 ALONE there were 1.6 billion active mobile Social accounts globally.
and
On WordPress alone, 56 million blog posts are published every month (source).
When you look at both of statistics separately they are pretty staggering, if you look at them together, they’re pretty hopeful for WordPress bloggers.
In this post, I wanted to share the most important elements of your blog after stellar content. So, what are you waiting for?
Let’s Get More Site Traffic:
1.Beautiful Looking Blog Themes Are Key
With a simple layout. The easier your website is to navigate, the better it is for you and your reader.
Having more white space on your website gives it a clean look and makes your content much easier to read.
With whitespace around your content, it means that it’s much easier for users to focus on your posts and what you want them to focus on. Ensuring that your content is easily read, means that people are more likely to connect with you and refer more site traffic.
Cluttering your sidebar helps nobody. Trust me. I know. I made the mistakes so that you don’t have to.
Take the quiz – which theme is best for your business?
2. WordPress Navigation that’s easy to use
You will benefit when Google and other bots can crawl your website quickly. Another benefit you will receive is an increase in social shares ergo increasing site traffic.
The benefits for your reader is that they will be able to find what they want to find, easily.
Being able to find what they want to find, means that the user will stay on your site for longer (reducing the bounce rate) and will be more inclined to share your fabulous website.
3.Social Share Buttons are Non-Negotiable
You need them for site traffic.
Install Social Sharing Buttons that are easy to locate and that people want to click.
For StartACraftBlog I use SumoMe, and for Heart Handmade UK I use Social Warfare Pro with custom colours:
The buttons on the side are free and I think the custom colours look much better with the blog design.
There are certain themes that come with Social Sharing buttons included. However, there have been studies that show floating share buttons get more engagement from users.
People don’t tend to scroll down your content. If you have a blog already, sign up to SumoMe and activate the heat map setting. You can keep an eye on how users interact with your blog.
Take a look at the heat map for StartACraftBlog:
The higher up you make your share buttons, you increase your chances of getting your content shared.
The floating share buttons that you can get via SumoMe or Social Warfare stay on the side of the content and follow users wherever they scroll.
4. Choose colours that resonate with users
When I had a redesign of heart handmade UK, I chose pale pastel shades that I loved and didn’t think about colour psychology.
Bright, bold shades tend to get shared more.
Check out this excellent article about Colour Psychology and Marketing.
You should also read this post all about using Colour psychology to create incredible social media images that get shared.
5. Choose two fonts only and make sure they’re easily read.
If people struggle to read or can’t read your content, then they won’t share it. Full stop.
I know because I’ve been visiting blogs that had terrible fonts and I couldn’t read what was written. So of course, I didn’t share it.
Where’s the incentive?
6.super catchy headlines on your blog posts and CTA’s (calls to action)
I’ve been working very hard on updating headlines to make them appealing and attractive enough for someone to click on.
If your headline doesn’t compel anyone to read on, then your post was pointless.
Check out how I figure out my headlines in this post: 6 steps to super share-worthy content.
7.Be different
Easier said than done right? Go against the grain if you can.
What’s your purple cow? Referencing the Seth Godin Book called Purple Cow.
I hope people take the time to read my about page. The fact that I have a chronic illness, disability and very limited energy, yet I’ve:
built a successful craft blog that gets over 150,000 views a month and I’m reaching over 7.9 million pinterest profile views a month…
is my purple cow.
This blog is dedicated to showing you HOW to do it.
Get your free chapter from Craft Blog Kickstart, the ebook I wrote and published in 90 days thanks to Book boss. Book Boss is an excellent course that walks you through the ENTIRE process – from idea to inception and beyond! I highly recommend it.
8. Be consistent
You need to be consistent with your:
- Blog design
- Social images
- Photographs
- Colour palette
- Social sharing buttons
- Advertisements
Make it recognisable as a brand.
Check out how to brand yourself in this post: Learn How To Brand Yourself in 5 Simple Steps
Being consistent isn’t just related to blog design, it’s related to:
- Your post schedule
- Posting Topics
- Social media strategy
- Email Newsletters
- Online presence
- Language
9. Don’t be afraid to use a pattern
If you aren’t using a photo for social sharing images, use a design or solid colour instead along with your text.
Try to think:
“When I’m scrolling Pinterest on my mobile phone, would this image stop me in my tracks?”10. Make your website faster. Install WPSuper Cacher Plugin
A slow website has been one of the biggest freaking pain points of my Craft blog FOR YEARS! It has driven me insane so much that I now pay £48 a month for SiteGrounds Cloud hosting.
And you know what…
Before making the switch, we got a grade F and G for site speed and after, we got a C!
Two years ago we got a grade F, so I purchased the Genesis Framework which made us faster.
But not fast enough.
I’m so happy now. And I hope that the users will be happy too.
The reason the site is so much faster now is because I’m not using a shared hosting option.
My previous host claimed they had high uptime, but if that was true, I was experiencing their entire year’s worth of downtime every single week. Guaranteed it went down for 30 minutes a night. That’s why I made the move and then recently upgraded my account.
Special Offer
Siteground is offering their shared hosting plans with a 70% discount if you’re from the U.S for the fourth of July and 60% discount for everywhere else!I highly recommend these guys. The best bit is, they will install WordPress for you OR migrate your site from a free platform over to their hosting for free. Check out the video tutorial: How To Start A Blog The Easiest Way Possible and get your free ‘Starting A Blog’ checklist and planner.
You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check the speed of your website.
Are you ready to implement any of these tips on your site? I’m going to turn this into free Video training for the gorgeous gals in the Start A Craft Blog Facebook Group, so click to join!
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The post 10 Awesome Ways To Get You More Site Traffic appeared first on Start A Craft Blog.
This post first appeared on Start A Craft Blog - Blogging Tips & Advice, please read the originial post: here
