5 important reasons your blog isn’t growing
You might have been blogging for a while now, and yet you aren’t seeing the visitor numbers you had hoped for. Your blog isn’t growing as you had imagined it would. This can be really disheartening. Investing lots of time and effort into your blog and not see the return on this time, in terms of visitor numbers. Today, I’m going to walk through 5 of the top reasons which could be causing this lack of growth and explain how to get traffic to your blog.
It’s too much about you
In the most part, people want information. They want answers to their questions, they want information which will help them to improve their own lives or businesses. While internet ‘friends’ might be interested in personal posts, the rest of the internet community aren’t as interested in these topics. If you can write posts which provide content that focuses on the challenges/pain points experienced by your readers, your blog will grow much quicker. Sharing your expertise and produce highly valuable content is the key.
Your content is difficult to read/unattractive
As harsh as it seems, people will only read your posts if they are laid out, attractive and easy to read. Huge blocks of text are so off-putting to the reader. This will prevent people engaging with your content. You can improve your posts readability by keeping your paragraphs short and by using headings, bullet points and images to break the content into manageable chunks.
People can’t share it
I see so many people who aren’t maximising the potential of their great content. Mainly, because they don’t make it easy for people to share it with others. It’s vital to include social sharing buttons on your posts and make sure these work! Add in your Twitter handle to the Twitter sharing, so you’re tagged in the share. If you don’t, people will be MUCH less likely to share your post.
There’s no incentive for your readers to return
For most blogs the percentage of returning readers will be lower than the percentage of first time (new) readers. You need to try to encourage people to return and the best way to do that, is to get them to sign up to your email list. That way you have more chance for them to become familiar with you and for you to be able to develop the know, like and trust factor. This will help people to remember your site, value your content and return. Offering an opt-in freebie is a great way to capture these new readers. Then you have this second chance to hook them in to returning.
You are running too many ads
I realise that some bloggers make good money from ads. However, for me and many other readers, too many ads detracts from your content. They can interrupt a posts flow, if they are within the posts. They can also remove the white space which is there on the page to give your content room to breathe. Personally, I would rather keep people on my site for longer and have them more likely to return, than earn a few pounds from an advert. Obviously, discreet ads are preferable, but all ads should be placed on your blog with consideration as to how they will affect the reader who is trying to digest your content.
Do you think that your blog is suffering due to one of these factors? Knowing where the issues are is the first step in being able to fix them and boost your blog traffic.