HOW TO FIGHT THE DECLINE OF BLOGGING & INCREASE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC

THE RISE & FALL OF BLOGGING …

The blogging world has changed a lot in the last 4 years since I started, firstly with the huge rise to stardom it encountered a couple of years back, bloggers becoming legitimate content producers and credited fashion reporters, the commercialising of blogs and in turn bloggers becoming brands. But it didn’t stop there, in the last 12 or so months we’ve seen the social space rocket just like blogs themselves did. Social made ‘blogging’ and bloggers mass market, truly accessible to everyone, and those bloggers that jumped in at the right moment & grew a strong follower base will have already experienced the power of social in driving their business to the next level. The rise of instagram commercialised blogging to another level which i’m sure not many of us saw coming.

For a long time i’ve been wondering whether social (and the rise there of) has affected the blogging world itself, has the short snackable content (predominantly of a single image on mobile) replaced that of a beautifully curated story (traditionally read on a blog on desktop). Has the written word been replaced with a single shot. Has the traditional blog been replaced by snapchat & instagram alike?

Personally, i hope not. But it’s undeniable that it could be happening.

I haven’t really voiced these thoughts before, because they were simply that, passing thoughts. But this last week I’ve read a couple of posts online (i’m still an avid reader & writer of blogs) in which other bloggers (Anouk from Creators of Desire for example) have referenced the drop in traffic their online sites have had (despite still being hugely successful) and how their social channels may have moved from a secondary or supporting channel, to the lead part.

For me, my blog is far bigger than my social channels. It’s not that I don’t work hard on my instagram or Facebook strategies (trust me, I do), but they’ve just garnered less traction than my blog has over the years. I don’t have 100,000 instagram followers (woe me), maybe its because i’m not good enough, maybe it’s because i don’t have all day to spend engaging & building my brand on these platforms, or maybe it’s just because producing written & visual content for my blog is my priority. I don’t know. But regardless, I do have a blog which I pour my heart and soul into, and fortunately a blog that continues to grow. But it’s got a lot harder, every piece of content has to wow, every eyeball is harder to attract than the last, and getting support & shares is more valuable than ever.

But I suppose that leads me to todays post. I don’t believe (nor want to believe) that blogging is on the decline, I shan’t accept that a single image (probably from pinterest) could replace that of a beautifully written and uniquely created piece of editorial content online. I don’t believe the blogging industry is going anywhere. In fact I think it’s place in society will continue to grow due to the demand for real, honest & original creative content, and so the opportunity for your blog to continue to grow and your blogging business to continue to flourish (with or without social) is there … The challenge is getting your content noticed.

5 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR BLOG TRAFFIC

#1 Social

We can’t deny the strength of social, and as social continues to increase in popularity and scale, so does the opportunity to use your social channels to drive traffic to your blog. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, pinterest or instagram … there’s still a huge opportunity to redirect your social followers to your blog or youtube accounts and raise your traffic as a result. Make sure all your accounts link through to your blog, add links to features so people can ‘read more’, and cross promote as much as possible.

#2 Shares

To ensure you’re leveraging your social following as much as possible, be sure to share your blog content across all your channels to really drive the potential for traffic. But beyond sharing your own content, make sure it’s super easily sharable for your followers too. Whether that’s adding buttons to each post so you’re readers can easily share your posts (I have these on all of my features), encouraging readers to like your features on other channels like bloglovin or tagging brands who have been featured in the hope that they might even share your feature.

It’s this endorsement that really allows you to grow your reach beyond your own followers & readers. It’s not easy, but if you focus on producing great content and ensure you have all the tech in place to allow people to share, in time you might find you get some referrals. I’m always so grateful to people re-tweeting my posts, adding links to their own features referencing content i’ve written, brands sharing my imagery or content across their own sites and even my family who still like and share my editorials

#3 SEO

Making sure your content is not only great quality, but also well optimised for SEO is another great way to boost your traffic. Google gets billions of searches each and everyday, and so it’s an incredible platform to gain traffic and referrals from. Make sure you define key words for all your posts and maximise your content, URL & meta description to make your content as easily readable & identifiable as possible. Whether it’s someone searching how to wear a suede skirt, how to use google analytics or simply for a british lifestyle blog, you want to give yourself the best opportunity to be shown in those search listings, so spend some time learning and mastering your SEO.

#4 Links

It’s not only external links from brands, other bloggers, or social channels which can increase your traffic, internal back linking is another great way of boosting your daily traffic. More than that, it boosts your SEO AND it’s also helpful to readers to get links to other similar features that they might enjoy. Always think about internal linking as well as external linkings.

#5 Great Content

And last, but certainly not least, simply focus on creating great content that people will want to read. Use a blog title that’ll grab attention, create imagery that’s unique, beautiful and tells a story, write from your heart, and overall focus on inspiring or informing your readers. Content that adds value will bring you traffic.

I hope you enjoyed todays editorial? I’d love to know your thoughts on the topic of blogging & the rise of social media, and any tips you have for growing your blog traffic too?