This article is from the Declare blog archives written by our friend Amanda White. Amanda spoke at the Declare Conference in 2014. Here, she shares some timeless tips on driving traffic to your blog and keeping readers there by creating “sticky” content. It’s really good advice- even 6 years later! 🙂 Â
When you first start blogging you think you need to do ALL THE THINGS. You need pinnable images, beautiful photography, printable PDFs, link-up parties and fabulous graphics or your blog won’t make it! Right?
I remember sitting at a blogging conference thinking the same thing.
How in the world can my blog ever be as great as all these other people?
How can I get people to my blog and keep them there?
Do people really make money on their blogs?!
In that workshop, my friend made a comment that rocked my bloggy world. She wasn’t a workshop leader or a conference speaker. Just a smart blogger who was willing to share. (Yet another reason to attend the Declare Conference!) Wanna know what she said?
Optimize your top posts. Look through your stats, find your most-viewed posts and make them the most awesome posts on your blog.Â
Your top posts are essentially a beautiful welcome mat to the hundreds, thousands (or even tens) of people who have found your blog via Pinterest or Google.
Someone might not be Googling, “What is ohAmanda doing today and what wise words does she want to give me?” But they might be Googling “creative guest books” and they will come to my blog because of a creative wedding guest book post I wrote years ago for my sister-in-law’s wedding and is the NUMBER ONE most visited post on my blog!
Now, how can I woo and keep those wedding folks at my blog instead of them simply clicking away? Well, lemme show you what I’ve done… http://youtu.be/ymGjWp6WXos (if reading via email, click here to see the video explanation.)
See how easy that is? I’ve seen a lot of success with optimizing my top posts. This has also inspired me to optimize some of my other posts that I want more interaction and engagement on—holiday posts, series or other evergreen content that I think people will love!
You belong here! Our heart is to equip you to be an effective Christian communicator.