Hustle Pineapple

If you’re anything like me, you reach for your phone the second you wake up in the morning.

Not because you’re anxious to check out how many texts you’ve missed – but because you want to see if your blog’s social channels are growing.

Then, after spending way too much time on Twitter and Facebook, you make the 10-step commute to your home office.

The first thing you do when you open your laptop?

Check Google Analytics, of course. You want to see how much your traffic your latest posts are getting.

The problem?

Your blog traffic isn’t growing. At all.

In fact, the only person reading your blog consistently is your mom.

And that sucks.

I mean, you pour your heart into your blog and spend hours writing posts.

So, what gives? Why don’t you have any readers?

Here are 3 possible reasons (and how you can fix it):

1. Your blog has no niche

Let’s face it – a blog with posts about a billion unrelated topics probably isn’t going to attract a loyal following.

Why?

Because people want to follow bloggers who consistently create content that’s relevant to them.

Let me explain what I mean with an example.

Say you’re looking to throw yourself into learning about email marketing. You want to soak up all the information you need to build an engaged subscriber list.

While you’re researching email marketing, you land on 2 different blogs – both of them have published a similar post.

But here’s how the 2 blogs differ:

• Blog #1 is completely dedicated to email marketing strategy. You see tons of posts that interest you.
• Blog #2 has one post about email marketing, one post about vegan food, and one post about traveling to Europe. The rest of the post topics seem pretty random too.

Which one of these blogs would you likely visit again and/or subscribe to?

Obviously, you’d pick blog #1 – it has lots of information that’s specifically relevant to you. That’s because that blogger has chosen a niche: email marketing.

Your readers are no different. They’re only going to keep coming back if you’re consistently giving them relevant content.

So when you’re trying to grow your traffic, ask yourself this question:

Does all my content focus on one topic, industry, or niche?

If the answer is no, then it’s time to make some serious changes. Pick a niche and focus on creating the most in-depth, high-quality content in that niche.

You can get Ariel’s Free Niche Finding Workbook below.

That way, you can build a tribe of loyal readers as opposed to having blog visitors who show up once and never come back!

2. Your blog is just plain ugly

Pretty harsh, right?

But it’s true. If you don’t care about the way your blog looks – and especially how that relates to the user experience on your blog – people are going to take one glance at your blog and leave.

Ouch.

Fortunately, you can create a better-looking blog in a few easy steps.

Here’s what to do:

• Create brand guidelines and stick to them. Choose a set of colors and fonts, and use them every time you create new content or marketing materials. Doing this helps your content become more recognizable and memorable.
• Format your blog posts for easy readability. No one wants to read a giant wall of text, so break your posts up by using short paragraphs, bullet lists, graphics, and images when appropriate.
• Use a responsive design. In other words, your blog design should respond to the size of the device it’s being viewed on. That way, it looks good and is easy to use on any device.

Don’t get me wrong – you don’t have to have a gorgeous, professionally-designed blog right away. And you definitely shouldn’t hold yourself back from creating content just because your blog design isn’t “perfect.”

But you do have to care about the basics of blog design if you want to build an audience. So start with the tips above, and keep improving your blog design as your grow and learn.

3. You’re not using the right marketing methods

You can’t just put content out there and expect people to find/share it. No matter how awesome your content is – that’s not going to happen.

Instead, you need to share your blog posts (and your blog as a whole!) online.

But don’t just share anywhere and everywhere: focus on sharing in places where your target audience hangs out.

For example, if you blog about vegan food, you might join a few Facebook groups dedicated to the vegan diet and share your new posts there.

Or if you blog about B2B marketing, you could join some LinkedIn groups dedicated to B2B marketing and share your posts there.

See how that works?

Of course, you’ll want to use social media to market your blog too. Pinterest is my #1 source of blog traffic by far, so I definitely recommend sharing your posts there if your target audience is active on Pinterest.

Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of giving up on your blog too soon just because you aren’t getting hundreds of thousands of visitors right away.

Blogging can take a ton of time to pay off, so you have to play the long game.

Remember, the successful bloggers are the ones who keep putting out solid content ­– even when they aren’t getting any instant gratification from it.

Combine that kind of resilience with a solid strategy and work ethic, and you’ll be well on your way to getting tons of traffic.

Do you have any questions about increasing your blog traffic? Ask away in the comments section!

Bio:
Jorden Roper is a fuchsia-haired freelance writer for hire and founder of the Writing Revolt blog, where she writes no-BS advice for freelance writers and bloggers. Get your free copy of How to Turn Your Freelance Writer Website Into a Client-generating Machine today!