So you’ve started a business along with a blog, You’ve worked on building an audience, but maybe you’ve reached a bit of a plateau, and you want to know how to get more people to read your blog.

Or you’re not getting the type of readership you’d expect given how much you’ve expanded your network. 

It seems that not so many people are reading your blogs these days, which may leave you wondering… 

Am I doing something wrong? 

Chances are you are doing everything well enough. But staying on top of Google’s ever-changing SEO trends is a challenge. 

Not to worry, though! Read on for a few tried and true tips to help you understand how to get people to read your blog! 

Track the Right Metrics 

If you’re posting blog posts just for the sake of “getting something out there,” you might want to stop and reconsider how you can craft content to support your key business goals.  

Given that Google’s algorithms are almost always moving towards supporting higher quality content, consider re-evaluating your content strategy based on questions like:   

• What is the value you’re offering to your readers?
• How well are the blogs working to engage and convert customers?
• Where in the sales funnel am I placing my content?

Step away from the actual numbers (for instance, how many “likes” a blog gets), and try to hone in on why they are how they are.  

Here are some tips on how to track blog performance. 

Use Relevant Social and Blogging Platforms 

Do you want “more” readers, or do you want to attract the right readers? 

If you want to know how to get people to read your blog, you have to look at the entire process of creating and sharing it. That means that there could be a flaw in your marketing process.  

For instance, if your business is B2B, you’ll likely want to be taking advantage of LinkedIn where you can easily share posts. 

Medium is a great platform for sharing posts in a personal or business account. You can also follow and submit to niche-specific publications — or even start your own. 

The main thing here is to not spread yourself too thin. Focus on channels where your target audience is most likely spending time. 

Create Great Headlines 

Headlines are key to attracting attention, and sometimes even changing a single word can make or break a person’s decision to click on an article. 

Check out our article 11 Insanely Powerful Words for Your Blog for headline inspiration. 

Focus on Value, not Going “Viral”

Of course, you want to know how to get people to read your blog and boost traffic to your website or landing page. 

But what’s happening after people find your blog? 

Checking your metrics is not just a numbers game. These numbers tell a story and they can help you figure out exactly what the content is doing for you — and them — in the long run. 

Are readers sticking around long enough to engage more with your brand? Are they clicking over from your call-to-action? 

Is your blog actually bringing the right target audience to your website or getting people on that mailing list?  

This is the kind of quality that google will “notice,” too. 

Oh yes, and this is very important: Don’t be boring! 

Count on Keywords

If you want to know more about how to get people to read your blog, you should definitely be on top of your keywords. You need to use the right ones strategically to ensure that Google “likes” your blogs. 

And the right ones should also be of interest to your readers! 

There are plenty of free tools out there, such as Google Adwords Keyword Planner, which can help you with this. 

Make sure to not over-optimize though! Search engines will see right through you if you put too many keywords in your blog. And make sure your language flows naturally. This will ensure that both crawlers and real readers will follow it clearly.

If you want help with SEO and keywords, contact us for a consultation! 

Write Longer Posts Less Often 

Niel Patel is constantly pushing the long-form blogs and recommends blogs of 2000-3000 words. We don’t always work at this level, but we definitely encourage you to build blogs that are around 1000 words rather than 500. 

And just to clarify: publishing consistently is key, but you want to have a balance between quality and consistency. This will vary from business to business. 

Longer form blogs have the potential to perform better SEO-wise and will be more useful to your readers.   

Strategic Planning for the Win   

If you plan and organize ahead of time, you can learn to create content that not only performs better traffic-wise but is actually more useful for readers. 

Consider creating a handful of blogs ahead of time and scheduling them out with an automated tool like HubSpot. 

But if you have too much on your plate, you can always hand the planning, strategizing and writing over to a professional. 

We can help you more people to read your blog with all these things, and more!

Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to help you:

21 clever ways to attract more readers and boost blog traffic this year
How to Leverage Video Content on Your Blog for SEO
How to start a blog post – 5 examples that really work!

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash