5 Reasons Why Your Blog Gets No (or Low) Traffic

blog gets no traffic

Do you know the most sensational word in online marketing?

It’s traffic.

You must have heard a lot of gurus and pundits telling you various tricks and hacks for how to generate traffic to your blog.

But the problem occurs when none of those hacks work for you. There are no shortcuts! And your frustration goes up when you don’t know the reason why your blog isn’t generating traffic.

So in this post, I’ll tell you 5 common reasons why your blog gets no (or low) traffic.

Let’s see…

#1. You have just started

How many times have you seen a blog eventually come up and become popular everywhere?

Not even once. Right?

All the big blogs you religiously follow have taken years to reach the point where they are today.

Like all great things in life, your blog also needs time to grow. If you have just started a few weeks – or even months – ago, you can’t expect big spikes in your Google Analytics account. Not yet anyway.

Solution: Be consistent. Publish high-quality content regularly, and up your blogging game by implementing legit and proven growth techniques.

#2. You have no promotion strategy

Let me tell you the bitter truth.

Writing great articles won’t get you traffic. You also have to promote your content.

Even if you write the greatest article in history, it’ll go unread if you don’t put it in front of people.

Recall the last post you read and tell me how you found it?

You probably found it on your social media timeline, or you got an email, or maybe your friend sent you a link.

Now imagine if that writer would not have promoted his content. Would you have ever found it?

Solution: Create a blog post promotion checklist and do everything possible to get your article in front of as many people as possible. I used LinkedIn Groups to kick start my traffic.

#3. You’re writing for a small audience

Maybe you have been writing for a long time and you still don’t get any significant traffic. You’re publishing high-quality articles and extensively promoting them, but no one reads them (except your mom and a few unemployed friends).

Well if that’s the case, there’s a possibility that you have chosen the wrong niche. The people you are promoting to don’t want to read about the topic you’re writing about.

It’s not a coincidence that you wouldn’t see a popular blog about retirement or weddings, but a lot of famous blogs about marketing and social media.

Solution: Switch your topic. Or at least expand your niche coverage. For instance, if your blog is about weddings, write about topics like “relationships after marriage,” “family planning,” and more.

#4. You’re not building an email list

You must have noticed this. Every time a popular blog publishes a new post, it gets shared hundreds (or even thousands) of times on the internet in just a few hours.

So how does it happen? Do they have a magic wand?

Luckily not.

They shoot an email to all their subscribers about the new post. And since many of their subscribers read and share their articles, they get the initial traction easily.

If you have an email list, you don’t have to search for an audience for your new post every time from scratch. I recommend installing the app from Sumo. It’s free and works wonders.

Solution: Build up your email list. How do you build an email list? Offer something valuable to your readers for free in exchange for their email address. Install Sumo.

#5. You ignore SEO

Let me ask you a question.

What do you do when you need to find something on the Internet? You open a search engine – most probably Google – and type your query. You get results, you click a few of them and read.

Right?

Well, millions of others do the same thing every single day.

Now imagine if you could rank for a term that has a search volume of 1,000 per month and you stay there for a month.

That’s around 30,000 new visitors for you.

Most bloggers do not optimize their blog for search engines. They think it’s highly complicated and isn’t worth the effort. That’s a huge mistake.

Solution: Optimize your pages for search engines and earn quality back links as well. Check out SEO for beginners.

What Next?

If you’re not able to generate traffic to your blog, now is the time to investigate. Figure out what you’re doing wrong.

Are you not promoting your articles? Or have you chosen the wrong niche? Or maybe some other reason.

Whatever it is, let me know in the comment box.

What is On Page SEO and Off Page SEO?

Businesses can no longer rely on simply putting up a website. Rather, they have to put in the work to build a real web presence. This web presence depends on SEO and various measures in order to attract visitors and outrank competitors. That’s why both on page SEO and off page SEO are becoming a bigger and bigger deal each day for companies large and small.

What’s The Difference between On Page SEO and Off Page SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, utilizes multiple different tactics to help search engines like Google index a website and show it in relevant search engine result pages (SERPs).

Organic traffic is what results from good SEO. This is traffic that comes from visitors finding your website in a search result and end up clicking through to it. Both on-page and off-page SEO are important to garner organic traffic.

To put it simply, on page SEO includes manipulations made directly to your site’s web pages. That might mean producing quality content, structuring it in a specific way, and optimizing the site’s HTML code.

Off page SEO, on the other hand, includes backlink building, social signals, and link relevancy among countless other methods.

The main difference is that a business has full control over their on page SEO, but little control over their off page SEO. Off page SEO generally relies on the behavior of others. What blogs are choosing to link to your website? How many people are liking and sharing your business’ posts?

At the end of the day, influencing both on-page and off page SEO is critical to rank your website properly.

What is On Page SEO?

A search engine will consider multiple characteristics when ranking a web page.

Page Quality

Search engines will consider how users behave on a page when determining its ranking. Do they bounce (instantly click back)? Do they scroll? How long do they stay? Having engaging content will make search engines think of your content as being higher quality.

Keywords

Ultimately, a keyword is what’s going to help a search engine figure out what SERPs are appropriate to show your website in. Using keywords appropriately is therefore very important. However, “keyword stuffing” is no longer effective.

Relevant keywords should be incorporated very naturally into your content. It should also offer real value to readers (refer back to page quality).

Relevancy

You should always be monitoring your site for freshness and ensure that the content, pictures, and videos are still relevant and providing value. They should be relevant to the keywords you are looking to rank for and also the times. If it’s March and you’re still advertising a Christmas sale on your homepage, that’s bad news.

Page Structure

When it comes to on page SEO, HTML tags are the most frequently over-looked factor since they aren’t directly visible to a human who is viewing your website. However, search engines will detect them.

You’ll make the search engine crawler’s job easier if you include optimized HTML code on your pages that include keywords and information to indicate what the content is about. Alt text for images, title tags, and a meta description are among the most important. Header tags are also important.

Do bear in mind that your title tag and meta description will be seen by users on the search engine results page. So, keep it clear, concise, and compelling to rank well and get clicks.

URL Structure

It will be much easier for a search engine to crawl your website, moving from one page to another without skipping any, if you have an organized URL structure. On the other hand, a disorganized URL structure can cause the crawler to hit roadblocks or lead them in circles.

Your URLs should also be organized to make navigation more efficient for human visitors to your site. Your URLs should contain keywords and they should reflect what pages they lead to. URLs should be organized with human visitors in mind. These URLs that are clean and clear are also more inviting to visitors to click.

Internal Linking

Internal links are links going from one page on your site to another page on your site, and they do play a role in your on page SEO. It makes it easier for a crawler to navigate your site and index pages, and it also helps encourage human visitors to stick around and keep reading.

Page Performance

On top of paying close attention to the quality of the content you are producing, you also need to consider the performance of your web page.

Do your web pages take a long time to load? You probably need to optimize your images by shrinking files to the appropriate size. You should also be sure that your entire website is responsive because a slow website will lead to most visitors leaving quickly (bouncing). That’s a factor search engines will give a lot of weight to.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Several off-page SEO aspects will affect your site’s ranking.

Backlinks

Backlinks are, by far, the most important ranking factor when it comes to off page SEO. They have the biggest impact on your site’s ranking, and, luckily, they are somewhat under your control.

A backlink is what occurs where another website has linked to your website. When a trusted, top-ranking website links to your site, that gives your SEO a huge authority boost that search engines love. For instance, if you could get a Forbes article to link to your website, you’d see very positive results from that.

Basically, search engines see backlinks as a sort of endorsement of your website’s content. Oftentimes, smaller websites will end up backlinking your content organically (i.e., without you putting in any effort other than producing good content). Small, high-quality websites and blogs that link to your site can also have a good boost on your SEO.

However, you can also take backlinks into your own hands by:

● Linking your social media profiles to your website

● Writing guest blogs for industry-related websites

● Joining review and directory platforms

● Reaching out to bloggers and web influencers

Domain Authority

This off page SEO factor is less under your control, but it basically is how search engines decide how much to trust your site. The age of your domain name, the history of your domain name, and the amount of referring domains you have are big factors.

Summary

As you can see, there are many factors that affect on page SEO and the amount of organic traffic your website is receiving. Don’t post it and forget it! SEO requires constant monitoring of your traffic, rankings, competition, and keywords.

The 7 Best PPC Blogs that Every Search Marketer Should Read

As a search marketer, you find yourself in a constant cycle of discovering new ways to get the most traffic and visibility for your ads across all the major search engines. And, while PPC is an extremely effective way of doing so, it’s not as simple as throwing an ad together and waiting for results. Read on for the best PPC blogs to follow and learn from.

The Best PPC Blogs

Ranking algorithms and marketing tactics are always changing, and there’s always an improved way for you to be doing something. While trial-and-error can get you pretty far, the faster (and more cost effective) way to strengthen your search marketing efforts is by keeping up-to-date on the industry and reading about what other people are having success with.

Looking for a place to find good information? Try one of these blogs.

#1 PPC Hero

PPC Hero is definitely sought after as one of the best blogs out there on the subject. Operated by Hanapin marketing, this blog is the go-to source for just about everything you could want to learn about SEM. In addition to great blog posts, PPC Hero also plays host to countless webinars where you can get information from the top search marketing authorities.

PPC Hero Blog

In addition, you can find lots of risky experiments, interesting case studies, helpful tips and tricks, and valuable insights into the various strategies you can utilize as a search marketer. The materials are relevant to everyone, regardless of your expertise. And, their adventurous testing can help you avoid pitfalls with your own marketing money.

#2 Bing Ads Blog

You can’t keep pushing Bing aside as a non-worthy competitor. In fact, SEO Chat has announced that Bing now claims 21% share of the search engine market. In other words, it’s about time you came around to Bing if you haven’t already. Oftentimes, you can’t argue with the CPA and efficiency of a Bing campaign.

Bing Ads Blog

So, getting familiar with Bing will prove worthwhile. The Bing Ads Blog is a good place to go to start learning about what you can do to increase visibility and get better results with your Bing ads.

#3 AdWords Blog

The official AdWords blog gives you must-read info straight from the horse’s mouth. Google may not be the only frequently used search engine, but it is among the best out there, and that’s why you should keep a close eye on the information being published on the AdWords blog.

Google Adwords

Learn about new features and product news, but don’t expect to walk away with any in-depth information about running your individual campaigns. This is more of a top-level information site rather than one dedicated to the technical learning aspects. With that said, there are lots of blogs on this list that will teach you the latter and the AdWords blog still deserves a check-in every once in a while.

#4 Wordstream

Learn about PPC management and campaign strategies based on real-world data. The Wordstream blog covers a variety of different topics, including mobile advertising, content marketing, sales, search marketing, and affiliate marketing.

Wordstream Blog

Larry Kim, the sole author, is an absolute master when it comes to sharing content in an easy-to-digest way. From info graphics and white papers to guests posts and more. The posts you’ll find here are absolutely invaluable to your search marketing ventures. It also excels when it comes to giving advice specific to different industries, helping you target everything from hospitals to universities.

#5 iSpionage

Looking for unique insights? What about priceless strategies? iSpionage gives you all of that and more so that you can make the most of your PPC campaigns. Topics range from beginner-level guides to advanced digital marketing tactics that utilize dynamic number insertion. You’ll also get a balanced and fresh take on lots of common topics, making it a very useful blog to check out.

#6 Search Engine Watch, Land, and Journal

Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal are three websites that you absolutely have to give the chance. They are ideal for filling up that free time you have on your commute or throughout your day, and they offer a healthy dose of information about SEM and PPC along with SEO and general news that relates to the digital space.

These three sites also rely heavily on guest blog posts, but don’t worry, they are of extremely high quality. This also means you get to enjoy a full scope of varying opinions on all sorts of subjects. Guest posters include Frederick Vallaeys (ex. AdWords guy), Larry Kim from Wordstream fame, and Ginny Marvin.

#7 CPC Strategy

The CPC Strategy blog is all about online retail optimization, touching on the Amazon Sales Acceleration Program, Google Shopping Management, and Paid Search Management. Here, you’ll discover an actionable game plan that you can use to help grow your brand, increase your revenue, and enjoy increased visibility.

Put Your Knowledge To Work! The best thing about learning something new is implementing it into your strategy so that you can see real results. Don’t just consume the knowledge offered by these blogs, put it into action. Follow the best PPC blogs to continue learning and stay current with the latest in the PPC world.

3 SEO Tips for Small Businesses

SEO Tips for Small Businesses

With every passing year, SEO, or search engine optimization, becomes increasingly complex topic, and one that small businesses are often afraid to start talking about. However, while it does have some complexities to it, SEO is essential to the success of any small business looking to start attracting customers online. This short guide will introduce you to three easy SEO tips for small businesses.

Whether you want to scale your audience outside of your geographical borders or even if you’re just trying to reach the local market, SEO should be considered your best friend and most powerful tool.

These three easy key concepts will help you get started.

#1 Know Your Audience

Sounds simple, right? This is a piece of the puzzle that you have the least control over. And, if you want to drive traffic to your website, it’s a crucial component to figure out.

At the end of the day, Google doesn’t care about how many keywords you have stuffed into your articles. They want to know what your site is about so that they can send the right people over to it. Figure out who your audience is, and what they are looking for, so that you can write content tailored to them.

#2 Study the Competition

No matter who you are or what you’re doing, it’s always worthwhile to take a bit of time and look at what your competition is doing. What are they doing that’s getting them results? How can you implement those tactics in a sleeker and more effective way?

If you aren’t ranking well in a search engine, look at your competitors who rank for the keywords you are targeting. Take notes about their website, their content, their keyword density, and so on. They’ve already put in the effort to figure out what works, figure out how you can make those methods even better.

#3 Maintain A Blog

A blog is beneficial for multiple reasons. First and foremost, it gives you a place where you can post updates, announcements, and other important information that you want to share with your audience. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it’s crucial for improving your website’s rankings.

Blog posts are a fantastic source for high-quality keywords, and Google loves seeing websites with a blog that has a steady stream of new, relevant, and targeted content. Plus, blog posts can be made very shareable, which means social media can be used to get the word out about your blog and business.

Add a call-to-action to the end of each blog post and you’ll begin to build authority while also using your content as a subtle lead generation tool.

Here are some tried and tested examples that convert:

● Get newsletter signups: “If you liked these tips, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more!”

● Get leads calling in: “Want more advice? Call us today for a free consultation.”

● Get interested customers: “Looking for the best __________? Stop by our store or browse our inventory online to see what we have to offer.”

Get Going! Implement these SEO tips for small businesses. These SEO fundamentals aren’t that difficult to implement and they can make a substantial difference in your website’s rankings.

How to Create Bulk Google UTM URLs

Bulk Google UTM Generator in Excel

Add another level of amazing insight into your website traffic by tagging your website links with Google Analytics UTM parameters. This is a must for me when I send out newsletters and launch paid campaigns. Read more to learn how to easily create bulk Google UTM URLs and download my free bulk Google UTM generator in Excel.

What Does UTM Stand for?

UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. UTM parameters are tags that you add to your URL, so that Google Analytics can track when someone clicks on your link.

Without the UTM tags, you have no idea in Google Analytics that the visitor was driven to your site via an email campaign or paid social campaign or any other campaign you promoted on the web.

Manual Creation of Google UTM

In the past, I’d go to this campaign URL builder for Google Analytics. I’d paste in my URLs one-by-one and then paste the final Google UTM URL into my newsletter. Even for static links that never change such as my landing page, I’d continue to create the same UTM parameters over and over. Very manual!

This UTM generator site is great but very manual and slow. To save you and me some time, I created a spreadsheet that bulk creates the Google UTM URL. You can save this file and then just update as needed.

UTM Parameters in Google Analytics

The following UTM parameters are available at the link above and in the Excel download below. Campaign source is required, and the remaining field are optional but recommended depending on the type of campaign.

Campaign Source – The referrer (i.e. google, newsletter)
Campaign Medium – Marketing medium (i.e. cpc, email, banner ad)
Campaign Name – Product, slogan, etc. (i.e. July Sale)
Campaign Term – Identify the paid keywords in your campaign
Campaign Content – Use to differentiate ads

Google Analytics Campaign Tracking

I don’t know about you, but I love tracking the effectiveness of my email campaigns. For example, how many visitors, the average session duration, or even goal conversions can be tracked back to the UTM tagged URL.

To learn more about email campaign tracking, please see my post on how to track email campaigns with Google Analytics.

So please update your campaign links with the Google UTM codes and download the bulk Google UTM creator below. The insight is addicting!

Download

Discover Lead Magnet Ideas from Site Search Tracking in Google Analytics

Discover lead magnet ideas from Site Search Tracking in Google Analytics

A hidden but insightful tool within Google Analytics is Site Search Tracking. Sounds complicated but that’s just the search box or bar that you see on most websites to help you find content.

You can set up Google Analytics to track search usage on your website. More importantly, it provides the exact terms that users were searching for on your website. Wow, this is great insight into the mind of your readers or users.

For example, are users searching for a topic that you have not covered in your blog? Or is there a popular search team that could be become a great opt-in pop up box? Or is your site navigation a bit confusing that users have to search for content that you thought was obvious?

We recommend the free WordPress Plugin from Sumo.com to offer lead magnets and sign up boxes.

How to Set Up Site Search on your Website

FIRST

First, login to Google Analytics and navigate to the property that you’d like to set up. You’ll find this under View Settings in the View section of the Admin panel.

Navigate to Admin >> View >> View Settings

SECOND

After you have clicked on View Settings, scroll down to the Site Search Settings area. Turn on Site Search

Tracking.

Then enter the query parameter or word that designates a search on your site. Mine is an “s” but I also entered “q” to be safe. It could also be search or query. To find your query parameter, do a search on your site and look in the URL.

For more on this, click on the following Google help article.

Make sure you click “save” when finished.

THIRD

Now that Site Search is set up, it’ll take some to build up your site search history. Assuming you have some history, you can now view reports to see how many searches are being performed and for what words or terms. Great insight!

Navigate to Behavior >> Site Search >> Overview

FOURTH

You can check out the number of searches on your site, search terms, and what pages on your website that users are performing searches.

Oh, by the way, you might as well check “on” the box to exclude bots and spiders from your stats.

Turn On Bot Filtering in Google Analytics

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization

What is SEO? A beginner’s guide to what that means for your website.

What is SEO, exactly? In this digital age, the success of your business largely depends on its positive online presence. How are you creating a word for your brand and what are you doing to reach out to your potential customers online? These are some serious questions to consider if you want your business to grow and flourish.

Most people turn to the internet to look for information that will inform their purchasing choices and on an average of 3.5 billion searches happen per day (Google search statistics). When so many people are out there looking for so many things, how will they find out about you? Where will they encounter your business? How will they hear you over the noise of your competition?

SEO Definition

The answer is SEO. SEO means Search Engine Optimization, and it is the practice of optimizing your website to reach a higher rank in search engines like Google or Yahoo. What that means is that you can curate your website in such a way that it receives a high quantity of quality traffic through organic search engine results.

1) Optimized Content:

The most important aspect of a good SEO rating is a good content strategy. Having high-quality content on your website that is both meaningful and relevant is the key to brand communication. You can explore different types of content and content formats to find what fits your brand message better. Blogs have become the most important form because they help you create fresh and frequent content that is both original and populated with relevant keywords.

After all, SEO is the game of keywords.

Keywords are basically words that your customers are most likely to use in their searches. With the right keywords, you can catch their pulse and that can bring up your ranking without any additional effort. However, populating your website and blogs with popular keywords isn’t the only way of driving your SEO and it’s certainly not the most intelligent way too.

Longer tail keywords or key phrases are slightly longer but are more specific in nature – of course, they translate into less traffic but usually leads to a higher chance of a conversion. These key phrases, when used smartly, gives context your content and gives you an edge over your competitions.

2) Optimized Design:

Just like SEO optimized content, the images on your website should also be optimized in terms of size, format and quality. It’s not just about adding good images, you also need to insert the relevant alt tags and description tags so the search engines can locate them easily.

In a way, your images and videos are also a type of content and contribute to the overall aesthetics of your website. A website that looks good in terms of design – from the logo to the color palette, offers a seamless experience for its audience. That’s what urges them to continue exploring the website and stay there long enough to begin an interaction with you.

3) Optimized Website:

Users these days are highly impatient and are least likely to spend more than 10 seconds on a website that won’t load instantly. It’s an important factor for Google rankings, as faster loading sites usually appear first in searches. Slow pages lead to a disappointing user experience and no level of good content can change it.

You can check the speed of your website with Google’s PageSpeed Insights which analyzes your web pages and offers free suggestions to make them faster. There are numerous other resources too that can help you with this or you can seek help from SEO experts who will be able to assist you better. Apart from site loading speed, another thing to keep in mind is that your website should be responsive, interactive, engaging and mobile friendly.

If you are investing time and money in creating and developing a website, it makes sense to dedicate some resources to your website SEO as well.

After all, what’s the point of it all if no one ever gets to read it?

How to Verify Google Search Console

Google Analytics provides amazing data, but combine that with Google Search Console data and you really boost your SEO and traffic insight. Follow this quick guide below to verify Google Search Console so that you can begin using this amazing data.

1 – To verify Google Search console, you first need to login to Google Search Console.

2 – Click on the red “Add a property” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Add A Property

3 – An “Add a property” pop-up box appears. Type or paste in the full URL of your website. Be sure to include HTTP or HTTPS.

Enter Property Name

4 – Verify ownership. In this case, it’s recommending that I verify with Google Analytics which is great since I have that set up. Click the “Verify” button. Of course, you can verify your site with alternate methods, but using Google Analytics seems to be the easiest.

Verify Ownership of Property

Screenshot of alternate verification method below.

Alternate Methods to Verify Property

You’re all set! After you click “Verify,” you should the see success message below. Google Search console will begin analyzing site and Google states that it may take 24 hours before you begin to see data.

How to Connect SeoHighLighter to Google Analytics

You’ve signed up and now you’re anxious to monitor and understand your website traffic. Follow the simple steps below to hookup your website. Remember, you can add as many sites as you wish!

1) Log in to your SeoHighLighter.com account and navigate to the Dashboard page.

2) On the Dashboard page, you will see the “Begin Setup” button in the middle of the page. Click on that.

3) When you click on the “Begin Setup” button, you will be redirected to Google to authorize the connection between SeoHighLighter and Google Analytics. I find it easier if I am already logged in to the Google Analytics account that I would like to connect.

Choose A Google Analytics Account

4) Once you have selected your Google account, we ask for your permission to connect SeoHighLighter to your Google Analytics and Google Search Console data.

Allow Access to Google Analytics

5) Click allow and you will be redirected back to Website set up page at SeoHighLighter. The default website category is “My Sites.” You can modify that later if you wish. Under “Website Name” type in a name that best describes your website. Under “Choose Analytics Profile,” there is a drop down menu where you can select the site that you’d like to connect. Click “Save” and you’re all set.

6) Repeat this process to add as many accounts as you’d like. If you have your Google Search Console account connected to your Analytics property, you’ll be able to use all features available in SeoHighLighter.com. Thank you for signing up!

Video Summary of New SEO Features

In this quick video, I walk you through the three new SEO features that we just launched. I’ll show you the Domain Summary, Page Summary, and Page Analysis. As you progress through each feature, you drill down into more detail on how your site and posts are performing.