That’s a lie.<\/p>\n
Many entrepreneurs struggle to find ways to effectively and reliably generate traffic to their blogs, and wonder \u201cDoes this even work?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
And who can blame them?<\/p>\n
It took Michael Hyatt<\/a> more than four years to exceed an average of 1,000 monthly readers.\u00a0 The truth is that without traffic, your blog is just a glorified diary of self-reflection.<\/p>\n If you’re consistently releasing new content, yet for some inexplicable reason, you still <\/i>aren\u2019t seeing any results, then you’re not alone.<\/p>\n There is so much misinformation and ambiguity surrounding this topic that it is easy to get frustrated and just give up. <\/span><\/p>\n But I don’t want you to quit.<\/p>\n If you understand a few battle-proven strategies, you can quickly and easily <\/span>increase your traffic<\/span> by 100, 200, even 300% in as little as 60 days.<\/span><\/p>\n Best of all, you don’t need to come up with an out-of-the-box strategy. Just reverse engineer what other successful bloggers are doing and follow the leader.<\/p>\n Sound crazy?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Then keep reading.<\/span><\/p>\n Optinmonster<\/span><\/a> has one of the most successful online marketing blogs in the world, generating over 600,000 visits each and every month. <\/span><\/p>\n And while most people would probably assume that they have a multi-tiered, hyper-complicated traffic generation strategy, nothing could be further from the truth. <\/span><\/p>\n In fact, according to their team, nearly all of their success was generated from 5 simple steps.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Build Content Pillars that Drive Massive Amounts of Traffic<\/b><\/p>\n Most marketers and entrepreneurs have a tendency to focus on the <\/span>quantity<\/span><\/i> of content that they are producing on their blog. <\/span><\/p>\n With all of the \u201cOne Post a Day\u201d challenges going around, they often assume that the formula for blogging success is: <\/span><\/p>\n More = Better<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n However, most experts\u00a0and Optionmonster’s results\u00a0disagree. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead of creating dozens upon dozens of smaller blog posts on any given topic, they create a single piece of \u201cpillar\u201d content, sharing all of the most pertinent information in one breathtaking article. <\/span><\/p>\n And as such, search engines and readers love them. <\/span><\/p>\n Just look at how their article “16 Ridiculously Simple Ways to Get More Email Subscribers<\/a>” ranks #1 in Google for the keywords \u201c<\/span>How to Get More Email Subscribers<\/span><\/i>\u201d and \u201c<\/span>Get More Email Subscribers.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(and ranks on the first page for a few others too).<\/span><\/p>\n Because of their commitment to article quality, they are able to maintain a first-page ranking, years after their content is published.<\/p>\n 2. Refresh Pillar Content Regularly\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Unlike other blogs, Optinmonster doesn\u2019t just \u201cset it and forget it\u201d whenever they create badass content pillars. <\/span><\/p>\n Instead, they regularly return to that content and update it with new information. <\/span><\/p>\n If you look at the picture below, you will notice that their original post was published on September 28, 2015.<\/p>\n However, when you visit the site, you will notice something else.<\/p>\n Do you see how the publication date has changed to September 2,\u00a02016<\/em>?<\/p>\n One of the reasons that Optinmonster is not only able to get ahead, but\u00a0stay\u00a0<\/em>ahead in the traffic and SEO game is because of their commitment to providing the best\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>most up to date content on the web.<\/p>\n Whenever they publish pillar content, they regularly return to that content and update it.<\/p>\n Their process is pretty simple.<\/p>\n *I don’t have time to dive into LSI keywords in this article, but you can check out Optinmonster’s article “25 Proven Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic<\/a>” for more information*<\/em><\/p>\n They also noted that whenever they update their content, they manually update the old post and move the publication date forward so that they can keep their comments and social shares.<\/p>\n If you want to stay ahead of the competition and generate\u00a0tons\u00a0<\/em>of traffic to your blog, then regularly revisiting and updating your best content is an absolute must.<\/p>\n 3. Crosslink Pillar Content Throughout Your Blog\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Crosslinking\u00a0is a simple SEO tactic that you can use to easily boost the relevance and “findability” of your pillar content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It’s not like backlinking, which requires the consent of another blog owner or website manager.<\/p>\n All you have to do is regularly add links to your pillar content across the rest of your website.<\/p>\n Here is an example of a crosslink that I recently used in my exit popup article<\/a> to link back to one of my articles on lead generation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oh…<\/p>\n And those two links that I included above the screenshot?<\/p>\n Yea, those are crosslinks too \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n 4. Generate Backlinks to Your Pillar Content<\/b><\/p>\n Backlinking is the lifeblood<\/a> of ranking your content on search engines. <\/span><\/p>\n They are what Google uses to determine how relevant your article is to the keywords that you are targeting. <\/span><\/p>\n Google wants to know that your content is actually relevant to your audience and they want to see whether other authoritative sites are linking to your content or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Before I dive into the\u00a0exact\u00a0<\/em>trick that Optinmonster uses to quickly generate backlinks, I want to point out a\u00a0very\u00a0<\/em>important facet of backlinking that many of you may be unaware of.<\/p>\n Ever since Google’s Panda update<\/a>, backlink “spamming” has become a death sentence for SEO.<\/p>\n If you want to generate traffic and help your blog grow organically, then you need to focus on the quality of backlinks, and not the quantity.<\/p>\n With that in mind, the tactic used by the\u00a0team over at Optinmonster is actually a pretty simple one.<\/p>\n All they did was, find websites already mentioning their brand and then ask for a link back to their content.<\/p>\n There are two ways to go about this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first is to simply set up your Google alerts to notify you any time your brand is mentioned.<\/p>\n You can then manually review the article and see if the author has linked to any of your content.<\/p>\n Or you can use Buzzsumo<\/a> and set up an alert anytime your brand is mentioned without a backlink.<\/p>\n When you notice that a worthwhile company has mentioned your brand, simply email the author and politely ask them if they would be willing to link back to your content. <\/span><\/p>\n Even if they have a sufficiently established blog, the probability of getting a link back to your site is high since\u00a0<\/span> they mentioned <\/span>you <\/span><\/i>in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Use Paid Advertising to Boost Pillar Content\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Free traffic is fantastic. <\/span><\/p>\n We know it, we love it, and if you know how to use it, it can make you a lot of money. <\/span><\/p>\n However, if you want to <\/span>really <\/span><\/i>take your content marketing and blog traffic to the next level, you are going to need to take advantage of paid traffic. <\/span><\/p>\n The good news is that you do not need to rely<\/em> on paid advertising to generate tons of new traffic to your blog.<\/span><\/p>\n It simply serves as a secondary tactic to boost the success that you should already have with your content marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n I don’t have time to dive into all of the best practices and actionable strategies for generating traffic through PPC ads, but if you want to learn more, you can check out Neil Patel’s guide on\u00a0How to Use PPC to Diversify Your Traffic<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n If you are looking for a way to drastically and (almost)\u00a0immediately<\/em> increase blog traffic, then there are few better teachers than Smartblogger. <\/span><\/p>\n In their Canva case study, not only do they showcase how they were able to boost their traffic by 226%<\/a>, but how they were able to accomplish their traffic goals in only <\/span>60 days!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n How in the world did they pull this off?<\/p>\n With these six simple steps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Reverse Engineer The Competition’s Strategy<\/b><\/p>\n The first part of Smart Blogger\u2019s strategy was to reverse engineer their competitor\u2019s content to figure out<\/span> exactly <\/span><\/i>what was working and how they could fill in the holes in the marketplace. <\/span><\/p>\n They realized (as I alluded to earlier in this article) that quality trumps quantity every single time<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n So they\u00a0researched their competition’s content to find\u00a0topics and content where they could provide even more value to the marketplace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Just like the folks over at Optinmonster, they utilized Buzzsumo to research their competitors and compile a comprehensive list of potential content ideas.<\/p>\n For example, while I was researching this particular article, I used Buzzsumo and found that the following three articles lead the charge for the keyphrase “Generate More Traffic.”<\/p>\n But here’s the deal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You can’t just copy your competition’s content.<\/p>\n We have a word for that in the English language… I believe it’s “plagiarism”?<\/p>\n However, what you can do is use parts of your competitors content in conjunction with your own unique ideas and thoughts to create content that your audience will love.<\/p>\n One of the best ways to deepen your market research and find interesting new slants on traditional ideas is to use the online community Quora.<\/p>\n As Smartblogger put it, \u00a0you should “Use Quora to find interesting angles on popular topics.”<\/em><\/p>\n For example, look at some of the related questions that popped up when I searched “How can I increase traffic to my business blog?”<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0Validate Your New Topic for\u00a0Your\u00a0<\/em>Audience\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n With their list of potential topics created, Canva knew that their work was not done yet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead of just “spraying and praying” they knew that they needed to validate their ideas with\u00a0their specific audience<\/em> before they invested time and money into creating killer blog content around those ideas.<\/p>\n After all, nothing is worse than creating an epic content series only to find that your audience actually doesn\u2019t care about what you have to offer. <\/span><\/p>\n So, Canva\u00a0took the direct approach and simply asked their audience outright. <\/span><\/p>\n They took a simple poll over email and social media asking them which of their new topics they wanted to read about\u00a0most.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n But they didn\u2019t just stop there. <\/span><\/p>\n They knew that people have a tendency to lie to themselves about what is really important in order to look better and feel more secure in their own ego (meaning that poll results are nearly always skewed).<\/span><\/p>\n So they took things a step further. <\/span><\/p>\n Canva decided to analyze the reading and sharing habits of their audience<\/a> members. <\/span><\/p>\n They went to Buzzsumo (yes you are seeing a pattern with this tool) and searched one of their own\u00a0articles, clicking the “View Sharers” button.<\/p>\n From there, they could find out what\u00a0other\u00a0<\/em>content that audience member had shared by clicking “View Links Shared”<\/p>\n This is an incredibly powerful tactic that you can use starting today to figure out what your viewers really want.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Follow the Numbers<\/b><\/p>\n People lie, numbers do not. <\/span><\/p>\n One of the key points that Canva mentioned in their case study is that you must always “Follow the data and not your gu<\/a><\/em>t\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Just because you <\/span>think <\/span><\/i>that you know what your audience is looking for doesn\u2019t mean that you are correct. <\/span><\/p>\n Never assume you know what other people want. <\/span><\/p>\n Let the data and analytics be your guide and you will never go wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n Here is the quality checklist that Canva used to inform their content creation process.<\/p>\n According to Canva this checklist was markedly different from the “gut-based” process that they had been following (unsuccessfully).<\/p>\n 4. Find Killer Headlines<\/b><\/p>\n Now that you have the requisite data in place to write on a topic that your audience will love<\/em>, it is time to create a headline you think\u00a0will resonate with your audience.<\/p>\n But just like you need to rely on data to determine the best topic to write on, you need to make sure that your headlines are based on the numbers and\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>what sounds good to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The trick Canva used is to create a headline, run it for long enough to gather some serious data on it, then change the headline and repost on social media to determine which headline <\/span>really <\/span><\/i>performs the best. <\/span><\/p>\n For example, their article on the importance of long walks for creativity<\/a> was originally titled “Why Steve Jobs took Long Walks and So Should You.”<\/p>\n After running a couple of tests, they found that this title (which they originally thought was too long) actually performed best.<\/p>\n 5. Create Concrete and Credible Content<\/b><\/p>\n One of the most important parts of improving your blog traffic is to only post content that is concrete and credible. <\/span><\/p>\n Just think about the content that I post here on this blog<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n I am presenting <\/span>facts, figures, and hard evidence <\/span><\/i>to support the claims that I make. <\/span><\/p>\n Sure I <\/span>could <\/span><\/i>just talk for hours and hope that someone would listen, but my opinion is subjective and (often times) wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n Facts, however, are not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Neil DeGrasse Tyson said<\/a>, \u201cThe good thing about science <\/em>[in our case data] is that it is true whether\u00a0or not you believe in it.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n And when it comes to content creation, if you want to be taken in a world full of fakes and frauds, then you want to ensure that the content you are creating is backed up with substantial evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n 6. Use Images<\/b><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/michael-hyatt-blog-traffic-768x578.jpg\")
<\/p>\n1. The 5-step Content Process Optinmonster Used to Generate 600k+ Monthly Visits<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/google-traffic-768x449.png\")
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<\/p>\n2. How 6 Simple Steps Increased Canva’s Traffic by 226% in 60 Days <\/span><\/h2>\n
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