We all know by now that content is king and that a good business blog can demonstrate your company’s expertise and get more leads. Inbound marketing has huge potential for businesses of every size, whether you’re blogging, podcasting or sending out newsletters. But no matter how good your blog content is, it’s no use if no one sees it!
How can you generate more traffic to your blog and your site?

1. Make sure your blog is optimised

Using SEO keywords in your blog is a crucial first step in getting more traffic. We won’t get into the details of it, but search engines such as Google scan web content for certain phrases and rank the results according to how helpful and relevant they think the content will be for the user. To get on that first page of Google search results, your content has to be high quality, and has to be exactly what the user is searching for.

Thinking about what sort of key phrases and search terms potential customers might use and adding them naturally to the text is a great example of lead nurturing; you’re thinking about the needs of the customer and providing the answers and information they need.

2. It’s a two-way relationship

Your customers might love your company, but they’re unlikely to check for a new blog post every Wednesday. You have to start the conversation and genuinely engage with them; a good social media marketing strategy can do wonders for getting more customers, and it can also help generate brand loyalty and keep current customers interested. Content works best when it is shared and engaged with, and social media allows your customers to ask questions, share with friends, or sing your praises. Leverage social chat and trending hashtags to get new visitors – you never know, really good content might go viral. Email marketing is another way to stay in touch with your customers and let them know you have a new blog post up, but be careful not to clutter their inbox!

3. Consider investing a little

The appeal of content marketing is that it’s mostly free, but don’t ignore the potential for paid advertising. Whether a paid promotion on Twitter or pay-per-click on Google AdWords, targeted advertisements (or contextual marketing) can help you get more traffic and new leads, and can be well worth it. Even small businesses can target ads locally, so just a little can go a long way.

The most crucial lesson in all of this, however, is to make sure your blog post is worth reading. The best business blogs give genuine advice, information or entertainment with an authentic voice. Capture that, and the traffic will come.