How To Grow Your Blog In 2023

The ultimate guide to growing your blog in 2023. 

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Blogging is increasingly popular. Many people write blogs as a hobby but for others, it’s a way of supplementing or boosting their income. Blogs also play an influential role in promoting businesses and enabling brands to engage with customers, connect with new audiences and create and convert more leads. Whether you blog for fun, you’re looking to increase reader numbers and revenues, or you’re hoping to utilise innovative digital marketing techniques to put your business on the map, you probably have ambitions to grow your blog. In this informative guide, we’ll share some top tips to help you reach your goals in 2023. 

How to grow your blog in 2023: 10 simple steps

Growing a blog isn’t always easy. Even if you have an established readership, it’s challenging to maintain reader interest and tap into new audiences. There are multiple benefits to creating and sharing blogs for individuals and companies. For businesses, blogging can boost customer engagement, generate leads, increase sales and raise brand awareness. For bloggers, blogging can be fun and it’s a great way to meet new people and make money. If you’re looking to grow your blog in 2023, here are 10 simple steps you can take today:

1. Create high-quality, interesting, original content

The golden rule of successful content marketing is to create high-quality, interesting content, which leaves readers wanting to stay on your site, read more articles and tell others about how great your blog is. Prioritise quality over quantity and try to be original. Tailor your content to suit the themes and focus of the blog and your target reader. It’s wise to be consistent. To optimise quality and encourage engagement, here are some tips and tricks to try:

• Vary content types: use a range of different content types, including text, images, video clips, tutorials, reviews, case studies, guides and stories. You can also add links to social media posts, webinars and podcasts.

• Make your articles look great: most of us respond positively to visual media. The brain processes visual content around 60,000 times faster than text. Make your blogs look great by adding good-quality images, infographics, lists, tables, charts and screenshots.

• Add facts and figures: facts and figures add gravitas and credibility to blog posts, particularly those that cover subjects such as business, finance, health, marketing and science.

• Get the tone right: the tone of your posts should complement the subject of the article and the target audience. Adopt a professional tone if you’re covering topics such as financial or legal advice and a conversational, friendly tone if you’re talking about lifestyle hacks, travel tips or sprucing up your wardrobe.

• Add a punchy, eye-catching title: 80% of readers won’t read an article if the title or headline doesn’t reel them in instantly (source). Add a punchy, captivating, intriguing title to leave readers wanting more. 

• Cater to your reader’s interests: learning about your readers’ interests is an excellent way to encourage interaction and engagement and grow your blog. Research keywords and use analytics to see which posts are most popular. It’s also a brilliant idea to encourage readers and subscribers to share opinions and ideas. 

2. Encourage engagement

When you create a blog post, you want to provoke reactions or emotions and encourage the reader to share their thoughts, join a discussion or talk to other people about what they’ve read. Engagement can help blogs to grow and it also enables bloggers and brands to build communities and networks. To boost engagement, follow these steps:

• Make sure your articles are easy to read by using short paragraphs, lists, bullet points and subheadings.

• Include a call to action: invite people to use a comments box, join a conversation or share suggestions and feedback.

• Add a share button or link: sharing posts is a fantastic way to reach new readers and encourage more people to get involved in discussions and conversations. Add a share button or a link to make it quick and easy for your readers to share posts with friends on social media. 

• Add visual media: visual media makes content more digestible. Images and video clips are also shared more frequently than text. Video clips generate around 1200% more shares on social apps than images and text combined (source). 

3. Include internal links

Including internal links in your posts is a simple, effective way to promote previous posts and provide access to articles that cover related subjects. Add links to content that is relevant to the topic and ensure that links work before publishing new posts. When readers view your blogs, they can move from one article to another seamlessly by clicking on the links rather than going back onto the homepage and trawling through catalogues or using a search function. 

4. Get social

Statistics show that social media is the most popular way to promote blogs and increase traffic. Figures suggest that 1.3% of articles generate around 75% of social media shares (source). If you’re not already using your blog to promote your social media feeds and vice-versa, now is the time to embrace integration and get social. Update and enhance your social media accounts and profiles, add follow buttons on your website to link seamlessly to social feeds and post frequently on your blog and your social accounts. Tweet, post or share stories about your latest article, encourage people to leave comments and share your posts with others and add a social feed to your website. 

To attract attention on social media, it’s beneficial to capitalise on the popularity and reach of video content. You can share clips, go live or create reels to advertise blog posts, your website, or the products or services you sell. 

5. Add subscribers via email marketing

Many bloggers and brands offer readers the opportunity to subscribe. Subscribing to a blog provides access to updates and it encourages readers to consume new content, get involved in discussions, forums and conversations and recommend the blog to others. To add subscribers, it’s wise to utilise effective email marketing techniques. You can use email marketing tools and platforms to boost subscriber numbers and encourage people who receive promotional emails to snap up offers and subscribe. To maximise your chances of success, here are some suggestions to take on board:

• Make it easy for readers to subscribe by adding a clear call to action and opt-in forms to every article.

• Use persuasive, original titles for opt-in forms

• Offer an incentive to subscribe, such as a freebie or a discount code

• Add subscriber links to your social media profiles

6. Team up with other bloggers and brands

Teaming up with other bloggers or brands is a brilliant way to expand your reach, interact with new viewers and readers and create networks. When you join forces with other brands or bloggers, you gain access to different audiences and you can capitalise on high-quality leads. If you choose bloggers or brands that have similar target audiences and cover similar topics, you should find that new readers are likely to have an interest in your business or website. Look for reputable brands or bloggers and build relationships that will help you enhance your image and reputation while reaching new people and growing your blog. There are lots of ways to work with partners, including reviewing products and services, including backlinks on both sites and featuring bloggers or brands in posts, social media videos or interviews. 

7. Optimise your posts for SEO

Almost 70% of web journeys begin with an online search (source). Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a digital marketing method, which harnesses the power and influence of search engines to promote businesses and the products and services they sell. The goal is to reach the top of page 1. Around 75% of web users will only view links on the first page of search results (source). Optimising blog posts is an effective way to drive online traffic and encourage readers to view your content. A good search ranking makes your content more visible and accessible and it can also help you to build credibility. 

To optimise blog posts, here are some good practice guidelines:

• Optimise your title and meta description using keywords
• Add keywords to subheadings
• Add internal links to your content
• Include high-quality external links
• Make sure your content is fresh and original
• Add an ALT tag to images

8. Freshen up old posts

The world we live in changes and evolves constantly. Trends come and go, new data is collected every second and time flies by. If you’ve been blogging for a while, you may have articles on your site that have been there for years. It’s understandable to archive old posts but often, they still have a lot of value to offer readers. Review content regularly and highlight popular posts that have gained a lot of attention and shares. Freshen up old content and breathe new life into posts by updating facts and figures, enhancing images and adding visual media and developing key points. 

9. Check your site speed

The functionality of your site can have a major impact on user experience. If your articles are slow to load, or it takes ages to move from one post or page to another, readers may lose patience. Even if your audience loves the content you produce, they may be put off by slow loading and cumbersome, time-consuming processes to locate articles or subscribe. Check your site speed and make sure that your blog is slick and easy to use. As well as affecting how readers feel about your blog, speed can also impact Google rankings. You can use online tools to test your speed. If your site is too slow, and you’ve identified the host as the problem, it’s worth considering switching to a different hosting platform. 

10. Make sure your website is easy to use

When people visit a website, they want to be able to achieve their objectives with minimal effort. Most of us lead hectic lives and we value speed and convenience. If a reader is looking for an article, or they want advice, for example, they should be able to find a specific article, get recommendations or search for relevant topics in an instant. If your site isn’t easy to use or navigate, people may leave without even reading a single post. If you’re keen to improve your site and make it as user-friendly as possible, follow these steps:

• Add a search box: adding a search box enables readers to look for articles or guides in an instant rather than scrolling through pages of content. It can also provide quick and easy access to specific topics and subjects.

• Categorise your posts: including category headings on your site is a great way to help users navigate your site and find content that is relevant to them.

• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly: in 2022, mobile devices generated almost 60% of Internet traffic (source). Making sure your site is mobile-friendly enables you to target different audiences and cater to reader preferences. 

• Use a simple layout: complex layouts make it difficult to find posts and they can put people off. Use a simple, clean layout that makes it easy for the reader to access posts, move from one article to another and find topics that interest them. It’s a good idea to put yourself in your reader’s shoes and analyse and evaluate your site and to test different layouts and themes. 

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Summary

Blogging is a highly effective way to promote brands, connect with audiences and use content to engage with people and make money. Whether you blog as a hobby, you use your website to generate extra cash, or you run a business and you’re looking to boost sales or customer engagement, it’s natural to want to grow your blog. There are multiple ways to draw attention to your blog and use content to expand your reach and achieve your goals. These 10 steps are designed to help you grow and develop your blog in 2023. Create high-quality, original, interesting content, encourage engagement, include internal links and join forces with other bloggers or brands. Optimise content for SEO purposes, get social and add subscribers. Make sure your website is fast and easy to use and freshen up old posts.