After committing heart and soul to your blog, you’ll want to share your brilliant insights and word craft with the rest of the world. So how to increase traffic to your blog? Fortunately, it’s not rocket science. Some strategic thinking, compelling headlines, long-tail keywords, and a few jaw-dropping graphics will do the trick. Here’s the why and how:

Target Your Content to Your Audience

Content is King. It’s the aphorism many experts have been touting for years. But if you want your content to be read and loved, you’ll need to think more strategically. Doing that means taking a long hard look at your audience and what they want from your blog. Most content today is either hip and funny or handy and educational. If you have a sense of humor and a short pithy way of expressing yourself, opt for the former. If you’re highly experienced and knowledgeable about a topic, the latter may be best for your blog.

Add Style with Graphics, Videos

As far as style is concerned, try using eye-opening statistics that beg for readership. Don’t be shy about using the most compelling graphics. For hip and funny blogs, make your blog more impactful with videos that emotionally enhance what you have to say. Videos are also a huge help for handy or educational blogs.  You should remain focused on creating content that readers will be eager to link to and share with others.

Shoot for Timeless Content

If your blog is handy and educational, make sure it stands the test of time. What you share should not be obsoleted by current fads, styles or events. On the other hand, if your blog is hip and funny, it should reflect the people and times of today. Hip and funny blogs should be updated frequently. For example, celeb news is fleeting and can become stale in a matter of days or even hours. How to plant roses stands the test of time.

Headlines Make or Break a Blog

Advertising takes headlines very seriously. They have to, for they spend millions annually trying to get people to read what they have to say. In a “Mad Men” world, only 20 percent of people ever read beyond the headline. You should approach your blog the same way. You need to create a jaw-dropping headline that will force the rest of that other 80 percent to read your content. In most cases, it pays to have a visual or teaser graphic that draws in your reader. Since you don’t have big money to spend on research or focus groups (and you’re not burdened by spending thousands on media), you should try different headlines to see which “pull” best.

Kill it with Keywords 

One highly effective way to drive lots of traffic to your blog is with keywords. Here, you’ll need to fully exploit SEO’s power to pull readers with relevant words leveraged by search engines. Keywords ensure that you’ll get the kind of granular traffic from Google, which drives billions of searches a day. The caveat about using keywords is “less is more”. Don’t stuff your blog with so many keywords that your blog begins to sound like a radio ad, which repeats names and phone numbers endlessly to the point of boredom. Use links sparingly.

Use Long-Tail Keywords

Since everyone has discovered the concept of keywords, you can separate your blog from the pack by using long-tail keywords—search phrases composed of three or more keywords. These keywords are easier to target and less expensive in terms of PPC  (pay-per-click). Targeting long-tail keywords will give you a leg up when it comes to getting a top SERP (Search Engine Results Page) spot in Google.  To find long-tail keywords, type in a phrase and see what Google’s auto-complete suggestions pop up. And do jot down their “Eureka!” suggestions.