Increasing pageviews on your blog should definitely be on the top of your “to do” list.
Let’s face it. The one thing that our blogs depend on is our audience. The more people that come to our blogs and the longer that they STAY ON our blogs, the better the chance of our finding success in the blogging world. Readers equal pageviews.
Pageviews equal popularity, exposure, and ultimately a successful blog that you just might be able to make a living from.
If your goal isn’t to reap the benefits financially from your blog, then pageviews might not be important to you.
But for those who are striving to create a small business that brings in the bacon, then pageviews are what you are working for.
So how do you increase pageviews on your site?
1. Provide your readers with great content.
Whatever you write about should be interesting and helpful to those who visit your blog. Pinpoint what your reader wants, and give it to them.
Check out our blog post, How to Write a Killer Blog Post for tips on writing epic content.
Research, brainstorm, and come up with information that will help them solve a problem, answer a question or improve some area of their lives.
Become an authority in your niche. Become known for putting your readers and their wants before your own gains. Be a champion of giving back.
2. Create eye-catching images for your blog.
Putting in time and effort to create beautiful images for your blog will pay off tremendously. Not only do great pictures make your blog more attractive, but they make your posts easier to read by giving the reader a break from all the print.
How to Create Stunning Images for your Blog
Be selective in what you use for your images. Choose those that go with your branding and that make the right impression.
3. Make sure that your blog is easy to read.
Font size, style and color are all important. Font size should be large and easy to read and not too light in color.
If you are using WordPress, all of these things can be changed in the visual editor. We have the plugin “Fonts” installed on this site which gives us a great selection of fonts to use.
Spacing between lines is also important. Having plenty of white space throughout your posts makes everything easier to read.
4. Your blog should be easy to navigate.
Finding blog posts, reading about the author, searching for information should all be easy and convenient for the user. In other words, your site needs to be user-friendly.
If it’s not, then you can bet that your reader will go somewhere else to find information. You want the experience to be non-stressful and enjoyable for visitors.
You want them feel comfortable enough to stay on your site for as long as possible and to WANT TO come back again!
5. Don’t frustrate your readers.
Visiting your blog should be a pleasant experience for the reader. If you have too many distractions, too many pop-ups or your site takes too long to load, visitors will become frustrated and just click away.
Test your site and make sure that there are no problems with pages loading or that there aren’t too many ads blocking the view or pop-ups slapping people in the face.
I do know that pop-ups have been proven to convert, but there is a fine line between having the right number of pop-ups opening at the right time and being just downright annoying.
The most annoying thing is for a pop-up to pop up as soon as the first page loads. I don’t know about you, but I have actually physically jumped when a pop-up has unexpectedly flown up in my face. I hate that!
Scheduling your pop-up to open a few seconds later is a much better choice than having it open as the page loads.
Try to be objective when testing your blog. Put yourself in the place of a new visitor. Tweak until you create what you feel is an enjoyable experience for your reader.
6. It’s all about consistency.
You want all the elements of your blog to be seamless and to be in harmony with one another…your colors, your fonts, your images…your BRANDING.
When you choose your niche and decide on what topics you will write about, you stick to those few subjects.
It is the same with colors, fonts and images. Choose a few colors that look good together, 2 or 3 fonts, and choose the style of your images and stick with those choices throughout your blog.
A cohesive look on your blog shows the world that you know what you are doing. And if you look like you know what you are DOING, then just maybe you know what you are TALKING ABOUT and WRITING ABOUT as well.
7. Link your posts to other helpful posts.
The decision that you have to make is WHAT to link your post to…another post on your blog or a post on someone else’s blog.
Look for what is really going to help your reader and do what is best for them. Don’t link to your own post if there is related content somewhere else to link to that is better for them than your post is.
Always consider the needs of your audience first. This is what builds your readers’ trust and confidence in you. It shows that it’s not all about YOU, but about what you can do for THEM.
8. Update your older blog posts.
Read over your older blog posts and make corrections or changes to make them more relevant. Change up your opt-ins, if necessary. Check your links to see if they are still working. How to Update Old Blog Posts to Drive Traffic to your Blog
9. Use an editorial calendar to schedule blog posts and social media.
Getting focused and organized with your posting is essential for increasing readership and pageviews. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to try to keep up with when you posted what to which social media platform.
This is where your editorial calendar comes in. We have used the WordPress editorial calendar in the past, but now we use the CoSchedule calendar which helps so much in staying organized.
10. Promote your blog posts on social media.
The only way to attract readers to your site is by letting the world know that your site and your posts exist.
To do this, you have to grow your social media following.
Work on increasing your followers on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Stumbleupon and then strategically promote your articles on each platform.
Pinterest and Twitter both help tremendously with driving traffic to this blog. See our post, How to Explode Blog Growth with Twitter.
11. Promote your blog posts by joining Link Parties.
Link parties are a great way to expose your posts to the world. A link party, usually hosted by several bloggers, is where you link your post onto the hosting website with a photo and a link back to your blog.
Participating in link parties can bring new traffic to your blog and is also a great way to connect with fellow bloggers who share your passion.
Increasing page views is not just about increasing the number of people who visit your site. It is about increasing the number of PAGES each person visits on that site.
Your goal is to make the reader WANT to stay on your site and want to come back to your site. The way to do that is to provide epic content and to make it an easy, no-stress experience for them.
If your site is attractive, convenient to use and your content is awesome, then your readers will enjoy the experience and they will come back again and again.
OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY READING:
25 TOP PLUGINS TO BOOST YOUR WORDPRESS SITE
HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR AMAZING BLOG POST
HOW TO QUICKLY HAVE MASSIVE GROWTH IN YOUR EMAIL LIST
BOOST BLOG GROWTH WITH THESE AWESOME TOOLS
Great tips. Hey Lucie, you won my Inspire Me Monday linky party. Yay! Congrats! You’ll be featured tomorrow.
Janice
Sometimes it is easy to know what to do, but difficult to consistently do them. I will keep plugging -away at it. Thanks for the refresher.
You are so right, Catherine…it is a full-time job!! Thanks for the comment.
So many great tips in post. Thanks for joining the #InspirationSpotlight party. Shared
Thanks, Theresa. We always enjoy sharing at #InspirationSpotlight! Thanks for hosting!
Excellent post! Great content is still the best way to connect with readers. It’s also a good idea to keep most of it “evergreen”, meaning the post can stay relevant and continue to attract new readers for months and even years down the road.
Agree on pop-up ads, it’s funny that they “convert” so well since everybody hates them. It’s definitely a good idea to be cautious and not overdo it.
Also, your point on making things easy to read is something that I think gets overlooked a lot. Bloggers need to think about the font type and size they use, because they want people to keep reading all that great content!
I agree with keeping your content “evergreen.” Very important! Thanks for your visit and for the comment!
Great tips! I’m always looking for ways to improve my site.
This is a great group of tips! I’ll be trying many of them to grow my blog. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks, Lisa! We’re so glad you found our tips to be helpful. Hope you’ll come back to visit soon!
Once again, great post, great tips. I totally agree about the popups. I have chosen not to use them. It may lessen the amount of people that I reach. But at least they know that I care more about them visiting then I care about getting something out of it. Maybe that will change in the future, but for now I do not use any pop ups. I agree with the colors, fonts, images. It’s really important to me to have a large, readable font. I am partially blind, so reading something with a really small font is almost impossible. I have to be so interested in what I’m reading to even stay at a Blog with small print. Otherwise I click away and find something else to read.
Thanks for the comment, Nikki. There are many things that we can do to make visiting our blogs more enjoyable for our readers. One thing that I did was to go into my post editor and change the color of the fonts from dark gray to black. I hope that it has made everything easier to read. And a larger font is definitely easier on the eyes. And you’re right…if we make things too stressful for our readers, they will just click away! Thanks for your insight. I always love hearing from you!
Great tips! You guys are my new blogging gurus! You ladies really know your stuff. Thanks for sharing this with us at the #happynowlinkup
These are some great tips. I especially appreciate the tips about having to many distractions and ease of use.. This is a big one for me. If your site makes me sign in and enter a number sequence just to comment it is a real turn off. It is also annoying when I can’t tell where the share buttons are on a site. Great post with really good information. Thanks for sharing.
As a new blogger, gaining more followers and getting more page views is always on my mind when I’m creating content. Thank you for sharing these tips with this newbie!
Great advice, thanks so much for sharing. I have to confess to being super nervous about linkys and put it off for a while, but now I am absolutely loving them. As well as helping out with pageviews I love getting to know other bloggers, it really is fabulous fun! Have a great week #happynowlinkup x
Hi, Lisa! I love participating in link parties. It is a great way to connect with fellow bloggers and to see what everybody is posting. Thanks for the visit!
such great tips and yes, this is something that is and should be at the top of my list for my blog, and yet, I wasn’t sure how to improve it. I think $’s 3, 8, & 9 are the ones I struggle with the most. Thanks so much for the great tips and sharing at #WayWow
Really helpful tips, thank you. I agree about pop ups, so annoying and sometimes really hard to close them when your navigating on a mobile device.
Good points. I know I could work on promoting other content on my site more consistently throughout new posts…
Hi, Andrea! Yes, I do think linking to other content definitely keeps readers on your site longer. You should test it and see what happens! Good luck with it! Thanks for the visit.
Great tips! I am new to blogging and I am already trying to do each one of your tips!
#TotallyTerrificTuesdayLinkParty
Sarah Bell
http://www.trendyandtidy.com
By the way – I love the overall feel of your blog! It’s beautiful, neat, and welcoming 🙂
Hi, Sarah! Thank you for your sweet comment. I’m so glad that you found our tips helpful. Good luck with your blog!
I really connected with the concept of not just aiming for more people viewing your site (although you need that too) but keeping people on your site longer. I need to work on interlinking!
Hi, Shandy! Yes, I think that sometimes we overlook that we need to keep them clicking! And, yes, those links are so important. Thanks for your visit and for your comment!