Last Updated on May 4, 2020 by ellduclos

Let’s face it, starting a blog can feel complicated! It takes more effort and work than I ever imagined it would. I am still trying to figure out the best ways to drive traffic to my blog and social media. However, I have found that these tips and tricks have helped me out immensely!

---

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used, read my disclosure here.

---

---

How to increase your blog traffic

Facebook Groups 

When I first started my blog, Facebook book groups played a huge role in increasing my blog traffic. I have joined multiple facebook groups and I have seen a drastic shift in my blog traffic because of it. However, you can’t just join the groups and not say a word. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. Interact in these groups daily and promote your blog wherever you are allowed to. I also created a facebook group of my own. It is called “ Boss Girl Bloggers “. It has since turned into a thriving community of over 37,000 members! I love this community that I created and I love everyone that is a part of it. Read how to create and grow your own FB community here.

Spread The Love

Comment on other bloggers’ posts and show them that you support them. Supporting each other is a great way to build your blog traffic. If you take the time to read and comment on someone’s blog post, chances are they will share the love back.

Guest Posting

A strategy that is genius and helps grow your blog traffic is guest posting. Guest posting is when you create a blog post for someone else’s blog and they link back to your site. This is a great way to gain backlinks which is awesome for SEO, PLUS it will hopefully direct traffic from their site to yours.

Collaborate 

Work with other bloggers to create a group blog post. I did this with some awesome bloggers and you can check out that post here. This post really helped bring more traffic to my blog. It also helps those who were featured in my post to bring traffic to their blog as well. Not only does this tactic work, but it was also super fun to interact and collaborate with such awesome people!

Pinterest 

The world of pinterest is a bloggers dream! If you aren’t promoting your blog on pinterest, you need to right now! Every time I blog, I will post it on pinterest. I will also join as many “group boards” on pinterest as I can. Promoting my blog posts on group boards help to get my posts out there. I get a lot of feedback from those who were referred to my blog through pinterest. So, Join pinterest group boards and get to posting! *Also note that having a beautiful pinterest “pin” for your blog post that is eye catching really helps your pin stand out. I use canva to create my pins!

Learn my blog traffic strategy that brought my monthly views from 5k to over 20k in one month!! Via This E-Course.

I also can say that a huge Pinterest game changer for me was Tailwind which is a Pin scheduling tool that allows me to pin consistently daily!

---

Related: How to use Pinterest to grow your traffic

---

Post Your New Blog Post On Every Social Media Platform 

When you make your blog post you should be posting it to every single social media you have. This includes; facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, google plus, reddit, anything you are on! POST AWAY.

Have Share Icons Available 

Make sure that your social media share icons are available for your readers to use. I use social warefare for my share icons. I have found it to work just perfectly! For those wondering, sumo is a plugin that is available on wordpress!

Make The Transfer From wordpress .com to wordpress .org 

When I first started out I was using wordpress.com and it was not worth it. I was paying the extra premium fee for no reason. I was unable to install the plug ins I wanted and I was unable to build an email list. So in order to make the switch I went for a self hosted blog. I use siteground as my host and installed wordpress through them. Now I am able to use everything I need to continue to grow my blog and blog traffic. What I love most about siteground is that they did all the work for me! They made the transfer for me and it was no additional cost. They also have awesome staff available that you can chat with 24/7 ! So convenient.

---

Related: How to look like a professional blogger from the start

---

Build An Email List

In order to get subscribers and keep them coming back you really need to grow your email list. Some awesome wordpress plug ins to help build your email list are; sumo, mail munch, convert plug & theres many more. Check them out and give them a shot! I use Mailer Lite for my email list builder!

Have An Opt-In Freebie

Make your readers want to subscribe. Give them a freebie for subscribing. Whether it be a free e-course, printables, a how to guide, a monthly challenge. There are really many ideas that you can chose from.

Focus On Your SEO 

This can be tricky for many. SEO is search engine optimization. If you haven’t already installed the Yoast plug in, I highly recommend it! It is the perfect tool to help you with SEO. You want to try and focus on your keywords, utilize links, make sure your post is easy to read, etc. Yoast will help you to make sure your post gets noticed in search engines! This plug in tells you all the steps you need to hit in order to get that green light! This drives traffic to your blog as well.

---

HOW TO GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM

There is nothing more frustrating than continuously posting on your instagram trying to grow your following just to gain 1 follower who decides to unfollow the next day. Now, I started out with 0 instagram followers on my blog instagram and have grown to over 19,000 followers and on my Boss Girl Bloggers IG I started at 0 and grew to almost 12,000. This may not seem like a lot but, we all know how hard it can be to truly grow your following. Here are some of my tips.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are essential to growing your instagram. Use unique hashtags on each post and remember to switch them up. Some awesome tags I like to use are #bossbabe #girlboss #lifestyleblogger #beautyblogger #foodforthought. Have fun with your hashtags ! I also note that hashtags can be unattractive to a post so in order to hide them “sorta”, I will hit the return button a good amount of times and then do this

Ex: 

(my comment)

.

.

.

.

(hashtags)

Interact With Your Followers 

Take time out of your day to like and comment on your follower’s & those you follow’s posts. You will be surprised at how many will share the love back. When you interact with others, people will be more likely to follow you.

Post Your Instagram On Instagram Follow Threads In Facebook Groups

Whenever I see the opportunity to post my instagram in a facebook group, I post it. People do enjoy if you actually follow them back and don’t unfollow them the next day. I actually use an app (InsTrack) that will tell me who is following me back and who isn’t. It will also tell me who has unfollowed me. This app is awesome because then I can improve my following by unfollowing those who aren’t following back. It sounds “petty” but if you are trying to grow your instagram it’s important to have a fair amount of followers compared to the amount you are following. I also recommend only following accounts that really appeal to you. If you have accounts following you who have no real interest in what you post, chances are they won’t comment often. Find those who are similar to you and follow each other.

Create An Instagram Theme

This isn’t easy and I am still trying to work on this. Having an appealing instagram feed is essential to gaining followers. Try sticking to the same color scheme in your posts. The more appealing to the eye your photos are, the more following. I promise.

---

 

These are some of the ways that I helped myself to grow my Instagram and gain more traffic to my blog! I hope you find these ways helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have any other additional tips because I can always learn more!!!

Until next time,

xx

ELL