There are millions of blogs on the web, so how do you make yours stand out? In order to gain a following and make your site successful, it’s necessary to take deliberate steps to increase authority. You can go about this in a number of ways, some of which we’ll be discussing in the article. Let’s look at some of the most effective ways to build a loyal following for your blog.
Identify Your Audience
Before you can build a successful blog, you have to decide who your intended visitors are going to be. Some topics are more broad than others. For example, a site about online marketing or pets has an extremely broad topic. A site dedicated to training a specific breed of dog, such as miniature poodles is much more focused. It’s up to you how broad or narrow you want to get, but you do want to have a specific target audience in mind. This allows you to make your site as relevant and compelling as possible.
Quality Content
Your content refers to everything that you publish on your site, whether this be short posts, long articles, images, videos or other media. There is no substitute for publishing material that is compelling, relevant and timely. This is the main factor that makes people want to return to your site over and over again. The specific type of things you publish will depend on your main theme. Some sites focus on news, others on how-to type information, such as marketing tips. Still others are more geared towards entertainment. You must identify the needs and interests of your audience and publish material that will keep them interested. It’s good to diversify your content. A good percentage of what you publish should be original, but it’s also good to link to authority sites.
Make Your Site Responsive and Mobile Friendly
Since many people access the web today via smartphones and tablets, you want to make sure that everyone can view your site properly. Some bloggers build a separate mobile site. Another options is to use a responsive design that makes your site equally accessible to all kinds of devices.
Partner With Experts
One way to build authority in any niche is to align yourself with recognized experts. There are a number of ways to go about this. You could, for example, find a popular blogger in your niche and offer to write guest posts for the site. These posts, of course, will have links back to your own site. Other ideas include interviewing recognized authorities on your topic. These interviews could take the form of written content, podcasts or even videos. For the latter, you might consider filming a Google Hangout for the interview. This allows you to share valuable information with your visitors and increase your own status as someone who talks to leading experts.
Utilize Social Media
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and others have become so popular that you must incorporate these into your strategy to conquer the blogosphere. Otherwise you will be missing out on a huge amount of traffic. No matter what your topic is, you can be certain that most of your visitors will be using social sites. Whenever you create a new post, make sure you share it on social media. Have social media buttons on your site so that people can share your content on Facebook, Twitter, etc. This makes it possible for your posts, videos and images to go viral. If you find it daunting to maintain a strong presence on these sites, you might hire a service or use a software program that automates tasks like posting on Facebook and Twitter.
Employ Different Types of Media
It’s no longer sufficient to have an all-text blog. People now demand visual diversions, so you should make it a point to provide this. You can make your site more diverse and interesting by using videos, pictures, slideshows and infographics. How visual you want to get depends on your topic and preferences, but any subject can be made more interesting with some compelling graphics. Remember that people are more likely to share images and videos than text.
Be Interactive
It’s essential to interact with your visitors. Encourage people to discuss subjects by asking provocative questions. Always answer questions and comments. Other ways to make your site more interactive include polls, surveys and contests. This is one of the factors that will make people want to come back to your site frequently.