10 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Attracting Quality Traffic

Chances are, your blog is being seen, just not by those who can make a difference in your bottom line. For a blog to be a useful piece marketing collateral, it has to attract quality traffic that will convert.

Today, we’re delving into a few reasons why your current blogging approach might not be cutting it, and how you can create posts to bring in the valuable readers you need.

Ready to learn more? Let’s go!

1. You’re Keeping It to Yourself

Today, 67% of Americans report that they get at least some of their news from social media.

That means that roughly two-thirds of our population are hopping online and logging into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or myriad other social media platforms, to find the latest updates they need.

Are they checking in on your company too?

One of the biggest reasons why your blog isn’t attracting quality traffic could be because you’re not sharing it across your social media accounts.

Doing so is an easy fix that could make a huge difference. If you use WordPress, simply installing a widget is usually all it takes to automatically sync your posts up to your accounts.

What happens next? Followers visit your website, engage with your content, share it on their own accounts, and even make a purchase, building the community of quality traffic you need.

2. You’re Drowning in a Sea of Text

Take a look at your most recent blog posts. Are you staring at line after line of black text on a white screen?

If so, it may be time for a redesign. Studies reveal that content with visuals receives 94% more views than text-only data.

The reason? Our brains are hardwired to intake and remember visuals. In fact, we retain 80% of the information we see and only 20% of what we read.

If you can grab your quality traffic at the onset, chances are high those browsers will come back for more.

And how does science tell us we can do that? By including visuals, such as images and videos, in our content.

Take a second look and see if there is any key information in your blog that can be represented visually. Could you turn those statistics into a pie chart? Would that list of points work as an infographic?

These little changes can pack a powerful punch. Plus, you won’t have to write as much, making it a total win-win!

3. The Quality Is Low

Quality traffic is attracted to quality work. Are you creating posts that are irrelevant, inappropriate, or poorly written?

If so, you could be turning your valuable prospects away.

For instance, if you’re keyword stuffing in a misguided effort to build your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, your readers will pick up on it and could avoid your posts.

When that happens, the only thing that skyrockets is your bounce rate.

You’ll also lose them if you’re too promotional or self-centered with your posts, or if you introduce topics that don’t apply to your field.

To this end, review each post you create to ensure it either solves a problem, introduces a new angle on a timely topic, or helps answer a question.

You don’t become the voice of authority if you’re just jabbering. It’s worth the time to invest in quality writing that delivers.

4. Users Can’t Navigate It

Incorporating user experience design into your blog posts is critical.

To attract quality traffic, you should ensure that everyone who visits your site can easily navigate it.

Is the design responsive, meaning does it look the same on any device you view it on?

Are your social sharing buttons easy to find and use? Do you have a user-friendly commenting portal?

What about your font? Will readers have to squint to see it? Even your images should be optimized for usability.

Assess your blog from the point-of-view of an outsider. Or, better yet, find a non-biased third party to review it.

Do you see any navigational holes?

If so, address them immediately to encourage dwell time, ensuring that visitors spend less time figuring out your site and more time engaging with it.

5. You Aren’t Building a Community

While blogs are a great place to include snippets of promotion, they shouldn’t be all about you (see tip #3 above.)

One of the best uses of a blog is to build a community, finding those connections that can help your brand succeed.

A great way to do this? External, or outbound, links.

Incorporating external links into your blog posts helps grow your sphere of influence and boosts your SEO rankings.

However, this is only true if the sites you link to make sense in context (and obviously aren’t competitors).

Linking to authoritative sites is the only way to positively affect your SEO and draw quality traffic.

6. You’re Not Guest Posting

Just as it’s important to link to other spaces on the web, it’s equally vital to share your own voice as well.

Guest posts provide you a valuable opportunity to do just that.

By linking up with like-minded industry peers, you can create a cycle of guest posting that lets you write on their blogs and vice versa.

The result? You’ll both increase quality traffic and attract more readers to your respective websites.

You could also introduce yourself to an entirely new set of readers who may have otherwise never heard of your company.

On your own site, guest bloggers help spur on conversation. Introducing the opinions of an outside party is a great way to get your readers talking and thinking.

7. You’re Not Posting Frequently

Imagine if you had a friend that you only heard from briefly once a month if that. It would be difficult to build a solid relationship that way.

The same goes for your blog.

To keep readers hooked, establish a routine blogging schedule and stick to it.

The good news is you don’t have to post every day. You should, however, determine a frequency that’s doable for you and makes sense for your audience.

Consistency is key and if your faithful readers know they can expect a post from you on a weekly basis, they’ll be more likely to check in in the interim, and that’s the quality traffic you want.

8. You’re Not Hooking Them at the Onset

Studies show that only 41% of people read content past the headline. So, if yours is boring or too technical, you could easily lose them.

If you share your posts on social media, you’ll often only have a single-sentence headline that’s visible to your readers. The same is true if you link your blog to your homepage.

So are you grabbing their attention? Or, are you burying the lead?

Headline writing might not come easy but should be a top focus for building quality traffic. You want clicks from people who actually saw your content and were interested enough to pursue it.

A few tips? Be specific, be unique, and be useful. Check to see if anyone has used your prospective headline in the past, and if so, how you can introduce a new, creative angle.

9. You’re Not Creating a Conversation

Does your blog allow comments? Do you close your posts with a Call to Action (CTA) that encourages readers to reach out to you with any questions or comments?

If the answer is “no,” you could be missing out on a chance to create a brand community and spur conversation.

Blog posts are meant to spark interest and encourage readers to think more about your product or service.

As they do so, they may have a concern or two, or something to add.

Providing them with a forum to do so is critical. If they feel like their voice isn’t heard, they could easily take their interest (and their business) to the next blog over.

Once you receive those comments, respond back in a manner that’s most feasible for your company.

Quality traffic will build as you put a friendly voice to your company name and give your readers the power to help direct the dialogue.

10. You’re Looking for a Quick Fix

One of the pillars of attracting quality traffic is patience.

Blogging isn’t a quick sprint. You can’t expect to start creating posts and receive a positive and profitable response immediately.

Throughout the process, it’s important to remember that every detail counts and even if it takes a little longer, producing top-notch work is worth every extra minute.

So give yourself some space and time, focusing less on an immediate turnaround and more on slowly but steadily building your blog from the ground up.