Again, the goal of this list was to take a very high-level view of creating your side hustle blog, and this step also includes a high-level approach to promoting your blog to potential readers. So read along, and as we go along with future posts, we will discuss ways to increase your blog traffic in more detail.
I’m jumping right into Search Engine Optimization to promote your blog since face it, unless you have a lot of ad money, the early traffic to your site will be through search engine results.
Also, with time search engine traffic to your blog could grow faster than any other means of free/low-cost traffic sources.
Promote Your Blog Through Search Engine Optimization
Off-page Search Engine Optimization is where you can get into some real Black Hat SEO, and I do not recommend this. I mean that when it’s time to promote your blog, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways, and do not promote your blog in the wrong ways.
Appropriate ways to promote your blog are to all the natural actions getting word you have a great blog that readers would like to know about. This is done through ‘word-of-mouth,’ paid advertisements, and even networking with other blog creators.
Inappropriate ways(Black Hat SEO) are to try to hijack search engine results to direct people to your blog who have no reason to see your blog in the first place. “Gaming Google” is the term I hear.
Anytime you break Google’s rules for site owners to monopolize Google’s search results, this is called “Gaming Google” or Black Hat SEO. If Google finds out, you can suffer some manual penalties and lose all your search result positions in Google.
We’ll cover advice on how not to Game Google later in this post.
Search Engine Results Is Your Free Blog Promotion.
Yes, simply showing up in results for user search queries is a free way to get traffic to your site.
Since Google dominates the search engine market, site owners focus on tailoring their sites for Google search results.
The right way to get Google to direct traffic to your site is to, once again, make good quality content for your readers. Also, please set up your page so that Google understands your posts and can connect searchers to your site and turn them into readers.
Let’s say you got great content for reading; add a few things to ensure Google understands your post so it can recommend your post to its searches.
First, Keywords, sometimes called search queries, are essential. It’s what you feel a person would enter into the search bar on a search engine to get to your blog’s post.
Example (using my blog: GrowingPIGs.com) I believe if a person searches for “How To Promote Your Blog” or “Ways To Promote Your Blog,” they could be presented with this post. So using this search query, I will focus on “Promote Your Blog.”
It’s the topic of this post, and I’m providing content to meet the searcher’s needs, so it’s fair to focus on: Promote Your Blog.
Use The Search Query(Keyword) In the Post Title:
Include your target search query; in this case, I will put “Promote Your Blog” in my title.
Ideally, the search query should be early in the title so if the title is long and truncated by a search engine, the term a person was searching for is visible and catches their eye. Making it more likely the search result with your blog post is clicked on.
Use The Search Query(Keyword) In The Post URL:
If you look up the URL in your browser or this link: https://growingpigs.com/blogging-for-passive-income-step-9-promote-your-blog/, you will see the search query is used in the URL.
Again, ideally, it should be earlier in the URL for the same reason mentioned about the post title, but I’m OK with this for now.
Use The Search Query(Keyword) In The First Paragraph:
Look at the beginning of the post, “Promote Your Blog” is mentioned.
Use Related Search Queries(Keywords) In H2 Headers:
I used different versions and combinations of words around the blog and promotion.
Reason For On-Page SEO Blog Topic Promotion.
Are we trying to “Game Google” with the previous SEO tips?
No. We are still writing on-topic content and properly sectioning our content with paragraphs and headers. Making it easier for a search engine like Google to understand the material the post contains and if useful to their searchers, we gain readers through positioning in the search engine results.
Now that was on-page SEO methods to promote our site to the search engines, and more tips can be discussed and added later, but good quality-labeled content will be our focus.
Now Off-Page Blog Promotion Techniques.
Again, we can go into great detail about how to promote your blog to readers, but let’s keep this simple. We should be focusing on content, but I do off-page promotions for breaks since I do it in a way that I enjoy.
Help Others While Promoting Your Blog.
I join forums and groups related to my blog topic. My first successful blog was about motorcycles and a special kind. So I joined Facebook Groups and web forums.
In these groups and forums, I participate in conversations, discuss topics and offer my information where appropriate. I recommend blog posts that answer people’s questions if I have a response post to the question.
Also, I can add links to my blog’s home page in web forums if I want to promote my blog further.
Network With Other Blog Owners.
One of my blogs has an article that caught the attention of another blog owner. We are in similar topic fields. Again this blog’s other blog was about motorcycles.
The other blog owner was creating a list of maintenance and assembly posts and found one I did on a topic. Rather than write his own, he linked my post in one of his articles. Then wrote to compliment me about helping him create a good source online.
Wow, I didn’t ask.
Through networking and having good content, other blog owners might link to you. Starts with great content.
Paid Ways To Promote Your Blog.
I must admit I’ve used paid ads a long time ago. But Google Adwords is an excellent place to start, and costs are low for start-up blogs like ours. Just have a good supply of helpful content on your blog to make the advertisement costs worth it.
Promoting Your Blog Without Gaming Google/Search Engines
Think about how you can promote your blog posts while writing your blog. Good helpful content organized adequately for easy reading with specific headers to label ideas and concepts you plan to share.
Please leave a comment if you have any quick questions or easy SEO promotion methods that you can do early in your blogging journey. I appreciate your feedback. Thank you.
Back To Main Blogging Steps List: How Do I Create A Side Hustle Blog
Next Step: Analyze, Track Results, Continuously Improve Your Blog.
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| Step 8: Monetize Your Blog. | Step 10: Continuously Improve Your Blog. |
Your SEO and Other Blog Promotion Methods Feedback
Search Engine Optimization can be a slow process waiting for that coveted Search Engine Love. What techniques did you use for Search Engine Optimization, and did they work? What were your results?
Did you bypass waiting for SEO to work and leapfrog to other methods of promoting your blog? Did you use paid ads? Guest Posting?
Please comment below.
 Myself with an interesting Bull Sculpture. Notice: No Lambo’s. :/ | Hi I’m Tom, A Blogger And A PIG Farmer. PIG Farmer as in I grow Passive Income Generators(PIG’s). I’ve been playing with stocks, mutual funds, and options for decades, as well as always working on my side hustle stacks. Unlike what you read online, I’ve yet to find a way to get rich quickly. Get Rich Quick isn’t happening for me. My journey has been long and continues. I hope to have so many PIGs I can stop working at my current job and volunteer as a medical worker overseas. Still waiting, but getting there. I still am a family man, and while on this Journey of Growing PIGs. I wanted to share my adventures(ups and downs), hoping you will contribute with your feedback and comments. Fun Fact: In my spare time, I am a Band-Dad! |