Directing Web Traffic to Your Blog

Do you want more visitors to your blogsite? Your most probable answer would be yes. It is unlikely that you created your blogsite to simply let it stagnate or left it unread and unappreciated. It is safe to assume that you created your blogsite to communicate your thoughts to other people – not unless you are too introverted that you simply want yourself to be the sole reader of your blogs. Well, this is quite possible. Some people simply want to have a private online journal much similar to a paper-based diary that is kept under lock and key. On the other hand, when it comes to blogging, most people want to be noticed. Nonetheless, it is not as easy as it may seem. There are literary billions of web pages existing on the internet, including your own blogsite. The internet is pretty much a crowded place. It is hard to get noticed if your blogsite is simply idling by.

There are several ways whereby you can generate traffic to your blogsite. These methods are collectively known as web optimization. Sometimes, it is also generically called search engine optimization or SEO. SEO is an industry of its own. In fact, there are many companies that specialize on SEO as a primary web marketing tool. For the sake of simplicity and brevity, I will only discuss five basic ways whereby you can improve web traffic for your blogsite.

Here is a brief list of the five basic methods of optimizing your site:

I. Join Blog Social Networking Sites
II. Use Search Engines
III. Register Your Site to Directories
IV. Visit Other Blogsites and Post Comments
V. Write Interesting Posts


I. Join Blog Social Networking Sites

By joining blog networking sites such as MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog, you can generate regular visitors for your sites. In this manner, you may also buil contacts with other blogers that share your interests. Hence, it is advisable that you specialize on a particular blog genre such as movie reviews. It is not a very good idea to have a blogsite that has widely diversified and unrelated topics. Well, that is if you intend to atract specific types of readers. For instance, I have this blogsite: Much Ado About Nothing that focuses on atheism. Specializing on a particular genre will make you well-versed on that particular genre.

Blog networking sites allow you to join web communities, add contacts, and join group discussions or forums. Blog Networking sites also feature useful widgets that you can embed on your site.


II. Use Search Engines

Another way of increasing web traffic for your site is to register your URL to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Yehey, and MSN. Most peole search the internet using search engines. However, you should be particular about keywords and tags that are related to your site. For instance, if your site discuss about, movies, you should always include tags and keywords that are related to movies. Greater volume of keywords and tags may increase your ranking on search engines. Registering to RSS feeds such as FeedBurner may also help in optimizing your site.


III. Register Your Site to Directories

By registering your site to blog directories such as found on this site (located under heading Blog Listing), you can optimize your blogsite. Basically, registering your site to online directories will create links to your site. This will enable search engine robot crawlers to easily find your site. To prove this point, click this link Philippine Affairs. As you can see, from my hit statistics, I already have several thousand of unique page views. This is fascinating for me simply beacause these hits were just recently generated (barely a month ago). Although my Philippine Afairs blog is more than one year old, I only had few hundreds of unique page views for the past one year. This was before I tried optimizing my Philippine Affairs blog.


IV. Visit Other Blogsites and Post Comments

By far, this method is the best method for generating high-quality, targeted traffic for your site. The other methods may generate page views and good page ranking but they do not directly atract the specific readers that you want for your site. However, this method requires more efort simply because this entails regular updating of your blog. It is advisable that you visit blogsites that share your interests. You may also ask the blog authors to exchange links with you. In this manner, your web presence will be boosted.


V. Write Interesting Posts

This method is the most enjoyable method simply because you would be writing about topics that are ineresting to you and to your readers. As I have mentioned before, you do not need to be an expert on certain fields to write interesting and informative articles. Writing blogs is also a learning process. However, if you want to maintain quality, post original contents. You can paraphrase from other sources but avoid copy-pasting contents. Search engines tend to ignore cloned contents.

Finally, optimizing your blogsite will give you more leverage to earn. If you want to learn how to monetize your blogs, read my post on this topic: Earn Through Blogging.