Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
The purpose of most blogs is to be read by others. Whether you’re sharing ideas, providing knowledge, or simply entertaining the masses, it’s all about visitation. So, how do we build a consistent growth of monthly traffic?
Actually, it’s not all as difficult as some might assume. It just might take a few months to get the momentum going. It’s not going to happen overnight.
And once you get that snowball rolling down the hill, the results start to become magnificent.
How to Grow Monthly Traffic for Free
Today, I’m going to break down the exact process I use to consistently break traffic records for WriterSanctuary.com. And none of these steps will cost you a single dime.
All it’ll take is a bit of your time and the motivation to see it through.
1. Put in the Work
Effort dictates success. The more work you put into anything, the better it becomes. This is true in just about anything in life, actually.
Putting in one hour per week is simply not going to cut it for building a successful site.
I know there are some “experts” out there who tout being able to do this. But consider two things: 1) are these people selling their “secrets”, and 2) the sheer popularity of the blog.
I’ve found that many experts who keep with a minimalist approach to blogging generate revenue by selling “guides” to show you how to do what they’re doing…which is essentially showing you how to sell guides.
Secondly, a blog that generates more than a million visits per month probably isn’t going to need constant care. So, some of these more popular bloggers probably don’t have to dedicate as much time to get monthly traffic.
At least, not anymore.
Whether you have a new or average performing website, you can bet that you’re going to put in a lot of hours to get it to that point.
2. Come Up with Topic Ideas Readers Want
It takes more than just slapping words together to get readers interested. You need to write something your audience wants to read. Otherwise, the post will garner no attention.
Keep in mind that you will write a lot of blog posts that just seem to miss the mark. Then again, you’ll also stumble across those topics that send your visitor rate soaring.
Try to deliver more of that type of content. Understand what your audience wants to read and come up with brilliant topic ideas that work great to engage them.
3. Focus on Search Intent
Search engine optimization has evolved a lot since the early days of 2002. Nowadays, it’s all about delivering information people are specifically looking for.
This is referred to as search intent.
Who would find the content interesting? Are you answering specific questions someone might ask Google, Siri, or Alexa? Are you providing the best answers possible for those topics?
Keywords, phrases, and latent semantic indexing only helps the content. It’s how you use those terms to deliver possibilities to a searcher is what really matters.
4. Stick to a Consistent Publishing Schedule
One of the most profound discoveries I’ve made for WriterSanctuary.com is the publishing schedule. Since dedicating to a specific time slot throughout the week, monthly traffic has exploded.
A consistent publishing schedule lets people know when to expect new content. It also lets Google know when to crawl your site to index a new page.
In fact, every time I’ve stuck with a publishing schedule, the entire site experienced more impressions during a search. This means an active domain is more likely to be suggested by Google for certain information.
It works similar to how YouTube prioritizes channels that publish once or more per week.
5. Rework Older Posts for Newer Traffic
Those older pieces of content you wrote two or three years ago can also experience traffic growth. You do this by revamping or rewriting older posts to address the concerns of today.
Sometimes, this means simply adding a paragraph to address a question related to the topic. At other times, you may simply only need to rework the header structure.
For the most part, though, you want to make sure the old articles adhere to current SEO standards by Google. And this includes rewriting segments to better address search intent.
The highest gain I’ve ever seen from a single article was more than an 8,000% increase in traffic from just spending 20 minutes rewriting a few sections of the post.
And these were thousands of visitors per day.
6. Be Active on Social Media
On WriterSanctuary.com, social media accounts for a very small percentage of visitors. However, most of these people usually spend more time exploring the site as opposed to organic searchers from Google.
This means that it’s worthwhile to be active on social media. You may not get a lot of monthly traffic. But the ones who do visit often wind up becoming dedicated fans of your work.
It also helps if you’ve branded social media accounts as they often appear in search. In fact, when you search my name, you’ll come across all of my social media profiles.
This works well if you’re trying to promote your blog, gain clients, or otherwise impress others that you’re a professional.
7. Market the Blog Well
The Internet is full of ways to market your blog post. Social media, email links, guest posts, or even paid advertisements can all help to boost the reputation of your website.
Get the URL in front of as many people as you can.
That’s part of why I maintain the YouTube channel for WriterSanctuary today. It was first a method to augment the blog, now it’s part of my marketing campaign.
8. Be Patient
And lastly, be patient. It’s extremely rare for any website to see massive growth in a matter of days. In reality, I’ve seen blog posts take anywhere from four to six months before monthly traffic boosts from Google.
Of course, this depends greatly on the topic and how well you deliver the content.
At any rate, don’t expect instant gratification. Successful blogging is all about playing the long game. And everything you do today will make a difference six months from now.
Don’t Forget About Basic SEO Practices, Though
The above is how I went from 1,959 page views in January 2020 to 6,583 just a year later. I started most of the work in July of 2020, so these results are actually the fruit of the past seven months.
However, you can’t forget about proper search engine optimization. This includes paying attention to Google updates and how they’re affecting other sites.
Site Speed Is Important
For one thing, site speed is vital. If your site is quick and easy to use on a mobile device, Google ranks you higher. And it’s not just search engines you have to worry about, either.
More than half of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. So, make sure you keep your site as fast as you can make it.
This is something I continually struggle with, mainly because of ad serving and JavaScript use. And yes, I’m constantly tweaking settings to make the site faster.
What About Backlinks?
Backlinks are essentially “votes” from one website for another in terms of search priority. The more backlinks your content receives, the better it looks to Google.
Essentially, people are telling search engines that your content is worthwhile with backlinks.
In fact, I have a couple of backlinks that send a great deal of monthly traffic to WriterSanctuary.
Usually, you can get these by doing a few guest posts for websites relevant to your own, or perhaps a collaboration between yourself and another site owner.
Consistent Monthly Traffic Is Yours to Gain or Lose
Motivation, dedication, and perseverance are key to virtually anything in life. And the more effort you put into the process of blogging, the better your website becomes.
Take it from someone who let the blog sit with little work done for seven years. If I would have put in this same level of effort back in 2012, the site would be much, much bigger than it is now.
Don’t put off working on the site. If you truly want to be a successful blogger, breaking monthly traffic goals is within your reach.
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