More is better.
That is true enough in most cases, especially when it comes to increasing blog traffic. More links, more content , more comments, more subscribers. These are all elements that define success in blogging.
However, you also need to consider the quality when you aspire to fill all these requirements. You may have thousands of links and hundreds of blog posts that thousands again of readers see, but it may come at the cost of long-term success.
Readers that do end up on your blog may never go back because you have bad quality content, or your links go to low-authority sites. Between the two, quality always wins over quantity. Hands down.
You don't really have to choose one or the other if you play your cards right, but you do need to prioritize quality over quantity for sustainable success. Here is how you can increase blog traffic by choosing quality over quantity for success.
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#1: Define the Trigger
Before sitting down to populate your blog, find out what your target audience wants to see or read.
Are they looking for basic information about a certain product, or are they advanced users looking for expert advice? Are they looking to buy a service, or seeking a way to cut costs by doing it themselves?
People have different triggers, and it is your job to find the ones that will keep them coming back for more, share your posts, or linking back to your blog. If you need to do deeper research to activate that trigger, then take the time to do it. Anything else would be a waste of time.
On the other hand, if a short and simple explanation is all your audience needs, dash them off as quickly and cover as many possible angles as you can for a particular topic. Going TMI on your audience is also a waste of time if they don't need or even want it.
You need to do market research to define your target audience and their triggers before you take another step. Use these tools to help you develop your reader persona.
Read More: Avoid 9 Beginner Mistakes That Affect Your Blogs Traffic
#2: Pay Attention To Details
Not all bloggers are good writers, and nothing ruins perfectly good content than bad form.
If this were the case for you, you will have to work extra hard to put all your great ideas, opinions, and experiences into well-written form. Many bloggers outsource the actual writing to professional writing services such as EduGeeksClub , or at least to edit and proofread the final article to make sure it is ready for public consumption.
Read More: 6 Ways to Drive Traffic and Build Audience for Your New Blog
#3: Share Your Content
You cannot afford to let your efforts go to waste because nobody knows it's there. Competition for ranking is intense, so even the most SEO of blog posts can get lost in the melee.
Set the ball rolling by distributing parts of your content or links to it on forums, social networks, and other blogs. Social networks are particularly useful because of the sheer volume of the interactions.
Facebook has more than 1.65 billion active users (as of April 2016), while Twitter has 332 million (as of January 2016). Imagine tapping into even a fraction of one percent of those numbers, and you can readily imagine why it is worth the effort.
Interact regularly with the online community to build your reputation and credibility, and to make anything you share worth checking out. You could also do no harm to your blog's success by fostering a good relationship with other bloggers, and pay special attention to influencers.
If you get influencers to follow your blog, you've got it made. Find influencers using online tools such as Buzzsumo . Follow them, mention them in your blog content, and share their posts.
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#4: Use Visuals That Speak Volumes
You can put in any number of images or videos in your blog post and call it good, but that doesn't mean it is.
Your images and videos should be able to stand alone and still deliver your message, so that if some shares or pins them, you still get your share of the attention. They are easy enough to make on your own with the right tools.
Create branded infographics using Visualize or Easel.ly to deliver statistics and graphs in an easy-to-understand format. Make videos that tell stories using Nutshell for your iOS smart phone or Magisto for other platforms.
#5: Have a Great Design for Your Blog
Last, but certainly not the least, make sure your blog looks spiffy, and loads quickly.
Many users will click away if your page takes longer than three seconds to load, and may still click away if your website looks amateurish. You can use free templates from sites like WordPress, but you will probably look identical to many other sites that used the same template.
Loosen up the purse strings a bit and spring for a custom design. You only have to pay once, and you can put in all the elements you think your audience will appreciate. You can try 99 Designs , where you can post the job specs as a contest, and participants will submit studies for your approval. You only have to pay for the winning entry.
Increasing blog traffic is easy if you don't care if it is sustainable. Throw in enough material and some are bound to stick. However, if you want your blog to be successful in the long term, you need to make sacrifices and choose quality over quantity, every time.