A successful blog is one that hooks in readers and keeps them coming back. But just how do you build a loyal readership? Below are a few ways to encourage readers to keep returning to your blog.
Set up social media pages for your blog
Social media pages can help alert readers whenever you post new content. On top of this, it can be used to remind readers of old content by sharing past posts. Sharing to social media also allows people to leave comments regarding your posts on those platforms. This interactivity can help build loyal readers.
Facebook and Twitter are two of the best social media sites for sharing blog content. Posting at specific times and using enticing descriptions with each post can help to increase engagements.
You can add social media buttons to your blog that allow readers to easily follow you with the click of a button (provided they are already signed in). Just make sure these social media buttons are clearly visible.
Allow readers to join a mailing list
A mailing list can be another way of keeping readers alerted whenever you publish new content. Using a bulk mailing program, you can send updates to all readers that have subscribed to your mailing list. There are many ways to encourage visitors to subscribe, such as adding buttons and pop-ups to your site and advertising your mailing list on social media.
One important thing to note: never add people to your mailing list without their permission!
On top of email marketing, you can also use SMS marketing to build a mailing list. This allows people to add their phone number and receive updates via text. SMS messages are often more likely to be read than emails, although it can be more difficult to get people to sign up to these lists.
Enable comments on your blog
Enabling comments on your blog can help to encourage interaction between you and your readers. By answering any questions or engaging in civil debates, you can keep them coming back to your blog.
Create the content your readers want
To keep readers coming back, the best thing you can do is provide content they have a genuine interest in.
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Every blog should have a target audience in mind — you should make sure your content is consistently crafted for them. This means narrowing your content down to a handful of topics and not writing about anything and everything.
You can find exactly which types of posts draw in readers by using analytics reports. Pay close attention to the posts people are visiting from social media and your mailing list — these are the posts your loyal readers are interested in and is the type of content that will keep them coming back. You can also consider which types of posts people are most engaging with on social media.
Prioritize SEO
You might think of SEO (search engine optimization) as the key ingredient for attracting new readers. While using best practices can push your posts to the top of search engine results, SEO can also decrease bounce rate and help you build a loyal readership.
Good SEO means the people visiting your site want to be there. They’ve searched for something specific, and they’ve found a page on your blog that will help them. They trust you, they see you as an authority, and so they are likely to return time and time again.
If you’ve got a large collection of posts, going back over old content to optimize for search engines can be a daunting task. Getting help from AdInfusion can ensure you rank highly for even the most competitive keywords while leaving you free to focus on the parts of blogging you love.
