How To Increase Blog Traffic-6 Things I Did To Reach 20,000 Visitors

First of all, I cannot believe I’m writing this post right now!

It still feels unreal.

But here we are.

This is a post on how I grew my blog traffic to over 20k pageviews in 6 months.

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Back in January, I shared my 2019 income report where I said how I hit 10k pageviews.

I was planning on writing a post on how I increased my traffic to 10k but that same month, I hit 20k pageviews!!

Just take a look at the screenshot below.

In January, I had a total of 24k pageviews.

blog traffic for january 2020 from google analytics, learn how to increase your blog traffic

That’s an increase of 117%.

blog traffic increase from december to january from google analytics

Now that I’ve expressed my excitement, let’s get to work.

6 Things I did to increase my blog traffic

These are the 6 things that had the biggest impact on my traffic and they are THE reason why I was able to increase my traffic and reach 20k pageviews so fast.

A lot of other things helped me to get here but I wanted to make this post about the ones that made the biggest difference.

At the end of each of these things, you can find some action steps for YOU to take so you can increase your traffic as well.

1. I wrote posts FOR my readers

The number one thing that helped me grow my traffic to over 20k monthly blog views was creating content for my readers, not for me.

I think a big mistake new bloggers make when they just start their blogs is writing for themselves.

When planning content they think about themselves, what they want to write about and what they think people would be interested in.

But that’s not how it goes.. ( at least not if you are serious about blogging and want to make money)

Your blog is for your readers.

You write your posts for them.

And that’s why it’s so important to write about the things they want to read.

What YOU can do

1. Figure out WHO your readers are

To be able to write for your readers, you need to know who you are writing for exactly.

What their interest are, what their problems are and how you can help them.

You need to figure that out before you even think about writing your content.

Once you know who you are talking to, it’s so much easier to plan your content and actually write posts.

If you need help figuring out who your target audience is you can check out this helpful post.

2. identify their problems

Once you know exactly who you’re writing for, you can start planning your content and writing posts that will interest them and help them.

2. I wrote helpful and long content

I didn’t just write some random posts for the sake of writing, I wrote posts that were long and helpful.

All of my posts are at least 1,000 words and have lots of valuable information.

Writing one post takes me a minimum of 3 hours because I want my posts to be great, I want my posts to be helpful for new bloggers and teach them something.

As a result, I only publish new posts once a week or once every two weeks.

I wish I was able to post more but I’m a uni student alongside this blog so my time is limited.

I would much rather write one long and helpful post than 3 short ones that don’t actually contain any real value.

I’d choose quality over quantity any time!

And I think that shows.

My readers (aka you) see how much work I put into my posts.

What you can do

Here are some actionable steps for you to take so you can write posts your readers will love.

1. Research your target audience

Once you identified your readers it’s time to do some research to learn what they need help with, what they are struggling with.

Here are some places where you can find ideas to write about.

Pinterest
Google
Social media (especially Facebook groups that are related to your niche! )
Quora
Your comment section (pay attention to comments and questions you get on your posts, you can use them as an opportunity to write posts about them)

2. Write content that will answer their questions and solve their problems

Now that you’ve done some research and know exactly what your readers’ problems are you can write posts that will answer those questions.

Tips for writing your posts

make your posts detailed and helpful-don’t assume they “know it already”
have your ideal reader in mind the whole time you’re writing a post, don’t forget who you are writing for
only include relevant and helpful information, don’t make your posts full of “fluff”
use headings and subheadings to make your posts easier to read
break up the text into smaller paragraphs

3. I used Pinterest from day one

Writing good content is only one part of getting traffic to your blog.

A big part of it is sharing and promoting that content.

And that’s where Pinterest comes.

Pinterest is responsible for the majority of my traffic. (over 90% )

What I love the most about Pinterest is that it doesn’t matter how old or “popular” your blog is, if you optimize your profile with keywords and create beautiful pins you can rank high in search and get a lot of traffic even as a beginner.

Unlike Google where it’s hard to rank high in search as a beginner, even for low competition keywords.

As my blog is still new I don’t get much traffic from Google (but I’m working on it!) I focus a lot on Pinterest.

Because I know how much potential there is for traffic on Pinterest.

And that work has paid off as I’m currently getting over 20k pageviews from Pinterest.

What YOU can do

1. Create a Pinterest business account

If you’re still not on Pinterest this is your wake-up call!

You can easily create a Pinterest business account by clicking here (if you have a personal account log out before clicking) and follow all the steps and fill in all your information.

2. Optimize your profile for Pinterest SEO

Once you’ve created your account it’s time to optimize your profile with keywords.

Keywords are very important as they help Pinterest know what your profile is about.

It’s so important to optimize your entire profile with keywords so when you start sharing content from your blog Pinterest will take all those signals (aka keywords) from your profile to read what your pins are about.

Where to use keywords on Pinterest

your name
your bio
board titles
board descriptions

I have a FREE Pinterest course for beginners that goes into detail about setting up your business account and optimizing your profile.

I show you exactly how to find keywords and optimize your boards, step by step.

So if you’re new to Pinterest, I would highly recommend enrolling as setting up your profile properly is SO important and crucial for SEO.

Just enter your name and email below and you’re in!

4. I created new pins regularly

An important part of my Pinterest strategy is creating fresh pins often.

Pinterest loves fresh content, it doesn’t matter if it’s a completely new post or just a new pin for an old post.

Pinterest loves new pins.

And that’s why it’s incredibly important to regularly create new pins.

With the way the new algorithm works Pinterest is actually stopping pins from going viral.

Pinterest stops showing your pin to people after a while.

A few years ago you could get a viral pin that would bring you thousands of pageviews a day but nowadays that’s not so common.

That’s why it’s so important to constantly create new pins.

When I have some free time (usually once a week) I go on Canva and create 5-10 new pins and then save them in a folder on my computer.

Creating pins used to take me so long as I would try to make every detail “perfect” but with time and practice (lots of practice) I’ve gotten a lot faster.

Now it takes me less than 30 minutes to create 10 pins.

I already know what type of pins do well for me so I always just start with that “base” and then just change up some things. Change colors, switch up my fonts, etc.

Below you can see some pins I recently created.

As you can see they are all different but have some common elements.

I have some go-to fonts I use on most of my pins and some other little things that make them “mine”.

pinterest viral pin graphics ideas to help you increase your blog traffic

What I do is pin 1-2 new pins every day.

I upload a new pin straight to Pinterest, write a keyword-rich title and description and pin it to the most relevant board.

And from there, I schedule it with Tailwind to all my other boards with 1-2 day intervals.

What YOU can do

How to pin new pins to Pinterest

upload a pin directly to Pinterest or pin from your post
write an appealing title that contains your main keyword
write a short description (2-3 sentences) where you explain what your pin is about using a few keywords- make sure your description makes sense and DO NOT keyword stuff
look through your boards and see which one is the most relevant to the post and pin it there
schedule it to all your other boards with Tailwind-first schedule to second most relevant then the third, etc. and group boards last
repeat that process for every new pin

Speaking of pins, here are some basics of creating pins you should know

Pinterest says to make vertical pins, and they recommend using a 2:3 ratio
think bold and simple
don’t use more than 2-3 fonts
be careful with script fonts and avoid the ones that are harder to read
for your text, choose colours that stand out and that aren’t too bright-create contrast
brighter photos do better
don’t make your background too busy as you want the title to be in focus
remember that most Pinterest users are on mobile so make sure your text is big enough
use power words on your pin to make people click (words like cheap, easy, avoid, money, best etc.)

Some other important things about using Pinterest to increase your traffic

for every new post you write, make at least 2 graphics for Pinterest
find your top-performing posts (on Pinterest) by going to Google Analytics > acquisitions > social > landing pages and for your top 5-10 posts create fresh pins weekly
pay attention to your pin designs and which ones bring you the most clicks > create more similar pins (and figure out what it is about them that make people click-is it font you used, words, colours etc. )
try out video pins

5. I invested in paid stock photos

Another thing that helped me increase my blog traffic in January was investing in paid stock photos.

When I started blogging I used free stock photos because I didn’t have the money but also because I thought it was “a waste of money”

Why pay for photos when there are free ones you can use?

Oh, boy, was I wrong.

Even thinking about that statement makes me cringe now!

First of all, using free stock photos is quite dangerous and you could get sued.

Because not all of those photos are actually free.

You can’t be sure that those photos belong to the person who uploaded them.

They could easily have stolen them and then just uploaded them pretending they were theirs.

Lots of bloggers got sued because of this.

Because they thought the photos were free but they weren’t…

Another reason you shouldn’t use free stock photos is that they are over-used.

So many people already used them for lots of different things on Pinterest.

Why does that matter?

Well, because Pinterest can actually see your photos.

It can see what is on that photo.

And if you use a photo that many people used before it could get confused as to what your pin is about.

As you can imagine, that can be a big problem and can lead to your pin being “categorised” as something that it isn’t and can show it to the wrong people.

So when I learnt all these things and as I started making some money with my blog, it was time to invest in stock photos.

I decided to go with a stock photo subscription as that was the cheapest option.

I went with Haute Stock which is a styled stock photo subscription with a library of over 5,000 photos.

They have beautiful feminine styled stock photos across different categories like workspace, lifestyle, fashion and beauty, motherhood and so many more.

So no matter your niche you can find something for you.

>> Check out Haute Stock here! <<

You can also get FREE stock photos when you subscribe to their email list. (subscribe to their list HERE) And every month you get free stock photos to your inbox.

I actually found out about Haute Stock through their free stock photos.

I loved all the free photos I was getting so I decided to invest in their membership.

And I honestly think that was one of the best investments I made for my blog.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I doubled my traffic and reached 20k pageviews the same month I invested in stock photos.

If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend investing in Haute Stock membership.

And if you’re not able to do it right now, sign up for their email list and get some awesome free photos 🙂

>> Click here to check out Haute Stock and join the membership! <<

6. I joined Facebook Groups for bloggers

And the last thing that helped me increase my traffic was joining Facebook groups for bloggers.

Facebook groups are a great way to meet other bloggers and talk to them.

You can ask for help, give advice, share opinions and meet some great people.

Facebook groups are also a great way to help you grow your blog as a lot of them have daily share threads.

Share threads are Facebook posts where bloggers can follow and like each other’s posts.

There are threads where you leave a link to a blog post and other members of the group can share your post on social media or leave a comment (and you do the same for them).

Or social media like and follow threads.

Every group has its own threads and rules you need to read and follow.

Some of my favourite groups that do share threads are

Final thoughts on increasing your blog traffic in 2020

Now that I’ve shared some things that helped me increase my blog traffic, is your turn.

You can start implementing my tips and work on growing your traffic.

And remember, it all starts with your ideal reader.

Get blog traffic with Pinterest: