3 Definitive Ways to Grow Your Blog Audience in 2019

This is a guest post from one of our Guest Bloggers, Amanda.

Becoming a successful blogger takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It’s not as simple as creating a blog and writing a few articles.

Bloggers and influencers are more popular than ever, with over 4 million new blog posts going up every day. In order to be acknowledged, your blog must stack up against the competition and your growth strategies have to be as sophisticated as those of the most popular bloggers.

I’ve rounded up 3 of my proven, most lucrative ways to expand your audience and gain the following you’ve been looking for.

The 3 Definitive Ways to Grow Your Blog Audience

One big mistake that a lot of bloggers do is in focusing too much on technical aspects of building a blog and ignoring the very basics.

There is so much of information on the internet that it is easy to be overwhelmed and get lost in all of these information.

Content will always be king

We live in the age of information. Staying relevant in a time when there are 3.5 billion Google searches per day means continuously providing the internet with the information people are seeking.

There is a need for your expertise and people will be searching for it.

However, anyone can write a thin piece of content with a catchy title and throw it up online, but that doesn’t mean it will gain a following.

Your content must be valuable, informative and meaningful.

It’s not enough to simply post generic content and hope for readers. If you aren’t making a consistent effort to provide valuable information, people will ultimately click off your article without giving you or your blog a second thought.

Do your keyword research before writing and make sure you’re creating content that has a relatively large search volume.

Then, write the most extensive article on the subject. Rather than producing multiple 300-word pieces per week, try writing one long-form piece instead. Post less, but write more.

Make sure your content is shareable.

When you are writing meaningful posts, your followers will take notice. When they do, they’re going to want to share the pieces.

Providing the ability to do so is vital. Be sure each post has social share buttons and a section for readers to comment.

Even adding a call to action at the end of each post will boost engagement and prompt users to interact and share your work.

Pinterest is the underdog you need

When starting a new blog, one of the first and most important things you should do is create a Pinterest account to go alongside it.

Pinterest is an excellent platform for promoting your blog and specializes in bringing in passive traffic, or traffic from those who were not searching for your blog specifically, but found it anyway.

Plus, 80 percent of Pinterest activity can be scheduled and automated. This frees you up to work on creating an engaging content plan.

Pinterest is a search engine.

Pinterest is more than just a platform for sharing and organizing photos. Although seems like it’s just a grouping of pictures, each photo links back to a website and an article.

Pinterest is a search engine, and an underrated one at that. Adding keyword-rich descriptions to your pins will boost your posts and help people find them when they search.

Additionally, setting up a business account allows for rich pins, which emphasize and the title by making it bold. This will make your post stand out from the sea of pins surrounding it.

Nearly everything can be automated.

Scheduling and automation tools make promoting your blog on Pinterest almost effortless. You can employ an app like Tailwind that automatically pins and repins, interacts with group boards and tribes, and shares your content on a schedule.

You can spend a few hours on content for the entire month and let the program do the rest of the work, freeing yourself up to focus on other important tasks.

SEO best practices matter

One of the fastest ways to boost your blog’s rankings is to SEO-optimize your site. SEO best practices should be at the top of your to-do list.

The higher you rank, the more likely people are to find you and turn into avid followers. One of the first things you should do if you’re unfamiliar with SEO best practices is install an SEO plugin like Yoast.

Using optimization strategies in your blog is one of the most important ways to stand out from the rest of the blogosphere and will catch the attention of search engines, moving your site up in the search results.

Pay attention to keyword use.

Make sure you continue to check search volume and the most popular keywords to include in each post.

Once you’ve determined which keywords to focus on, use them in the right way throughout your blog articles.

Pay attention to H1 and H2 title tags – the title and headings within each post. They should include keywords and are crucial when Google crawls your page.

The more keyword-rich your work is, the more likely it is to rank.

Descriptions matter more than you think.

Meta descriptions are one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO and are also one of the most important.

A good meta description should include keywords and give an enticing reason to click into your article.

Likewise, image descriptions are also often neglected. Each image you use should be named and given a description, especially for WordPress-hosted sites. Without a description, search engines won’t be able to tell what the image is or even find it.

Over to You

Writing meaningful content, utilizing Pinterest and sticking to SEO best practices are three most advantageous ways to grow your blog audience, that I have practiced and benefited from.

These are low hanging fruits that can easily be addressed and fixed.

What other tips and tricks do you have for those looking for success in the blogging world?

About the Author

Amanda Peterson is a contributor to Enlightened Digital and software engineer from New York City. When she’s not trying to find the best record store in the city, you can find her curling up to watch some Netflix with her Puggle, Hendrix.