Are you tired of dedicating time to your blog but not meeting traffic goals? As someone who’s written over a thousand blog articles, I understand how frustrating this can be.
For considerable blog traffic, you must use SEO (search engine optimization) techniques and write unique content that helps your target audience.
In this article, I’ll share reasons your blog isn’t getting traffic and how to fix it. From meeting user intent and writing content people want to read to best SEO practices and marketing strategies, I’ll discuss how to increase your blog traffic and meet your blogging goals.
Of course, if you’re blog is new, none of these reasons may apply. It can take six months or more to start seeing traction with regular blogging. However, the information below can help you start seeing traffic sooner and more consistently.
1. You’re not meeting user intent
When a user searches Google, they’re looking for something specific. If your article doesn’t specifically cover your topic, you aren’t meeting user intent.
For example, if you search “best places to travel on a budget,” you want to find affordable destinations. If you click on a link that takes you to an article about saving money for your next vacation, your intent isn’t being met.
When you don’t meet user intent in your blog, one of two things is going to happen. Either Google catches onto this, doesn’t rank your article, and you don’t get blog traffic. Or readers do find your article but quickly leave to find more relevant information.
How to meet user intent
Choose your topic and SEO keyword, and stick to it. Address the search intent early in your article so the reader knows your article is helpful.
Every sentence of your article should serve a purpose in meeting user intent.
As you’re writing, ask yourself:
Is this applicable to the topic?
Am I sharing helpful information?
How can I give more details to help someone searching this keyword?
And gone are the days of focusing on word count. If you focus on quantity, you’ll likely include unnecessary fluff. If it’s not relevant, leave it out.
2. You're not writing with your audience in mind
If you speak to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when writing content is trying to speak to anyone who will read. When you do this, you can’t speak to a specific purpose, the content feels generic, and the reader isn’t engaged.
How to write with your audience in mind
Google’s ranking system focuses on relevant and helpful information for users. Prioritize helping your audience, and not so much on ranking on Google.
When you have a specific audience in mind and speak directly to them with helpful information, Google will naturally rank your content.
When you write any blog article, you need to identify who you’re writing for and how you can help them.
Then, write content that helps your readers feel like you’re speaking directly to them by:
Using “you” and “your”
Addressing specific problems and solutions
Being straightforward and leaving out unnecessary jargon
Sharing relevant examples
3. You’re not publishing enough articles
While quality is important, so is quantity (against popular opinion). The more high-traffic keywords and useful content your website has, the more opportunities for people to find and visit your site.
I’ve worked with many clients’ blogs and have my own. I find that you need to publish at least two monthly SEO-friendly blog articles for six months minimum to see an increase in website traffic. If your niche is saturated with SEO-optimized websites, it could take more.
How to publish enough articles
You need to consistently publish high-quality blog posts to increase organic website traffic, whether this be two, four, or ten articles per month.
These steps can help you follow a practical blog schedule:
Determine your blog goals - Do you want it to be a primary or supplementary marketing strategy?
Commit to a consistent schedule - How many blogs can you reasonably publish per month?
Prioritize blogging - Think of your blog as any other business priority and work on it regularly. I spend 30 minutes on my blog every workday, plus one to two hours one night per week.
Stick to your goals - Don’t put blogging on the backburner if getting blog traffic is important to you. Re-evaluate your goals and schedule every three to six months.
Get support with your blog schedule - In my SEO blogging course, get tips for being consistent with your blog (and other ways to boost traffic). I also share a customizable blog planning template to help you stay on track.
4. You’re not getting creative enough
There are more than six billion blog articles published every day. Blogging isn’t dead, after all.
With so much content out there and attention spans being shorter than ever, creativity is critical. Articles must be unique to stand out.
How to get creative
Blog writers don’t have to be innately creative, and this doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. Ask yourself how you can make your article different from another one on the same topic.
Here are my strategies for getting creative with your content:
Share personal experiences or specific examples
Expand on content with details that related articles don’t cover
Put myself in the readers' shoes to add FAQs
Include helpful infographics and screenshots
For example, in an article I wrote about the advantages of blogging, I shared this personal example and a screenshot of the result:
5. You don’t use visuals
While visuals help with engagement once a reader is on your blog, they also help you rank on Google for more visibility and traffic.
Visuals can add value to your content by providing additional information and clarity. They’re another indicator that shows Google your articles are helpful to its users.
How to use visuals
Include three or more relevant pictures, screenshots, and graphics in every blog article.
Use these tips to make visuals work for your content:
Embed short YouTube videos or clips
Use stock photo websites like Unsplash.com for high-quality pictures
Create graphics (charts, lists, etc.) on Canva.com
Take screenshots to include in articles that discuss online resources or products
Add alt text (descriptions) to all images and include your keyword if it makes sense
6. Your blog isn’t optimized well for SEO
Your articles must be optimized to rank on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Using specific SEO techniques to tell Google what your content is about helps you rank.
It’s important to understand that tactics like overstuffing keywords and writing a specific number of words aren’t proper SEO.
How to optimize well for SEO
To optimize well for SEO for organic traffic, you need to make sure Google understands what your content is about and that it’s helpful to readers.
Search engine optimization includes:
Doing keyword research to find high-traffic keywords your ideal audience is searching
Using your keywords naturally in your title and throughout your content
Including secondary keywords related to your topic
Focusing less on how often you use your keyword(s) and more on incorporating it where it makes sense
Using headers, lists, and short paragraphs for reader-friendliness
Linking other blog articles with anchor text that describes where the link is going
Including alt texts to describe images and include your keyword if it makes sense to
7. Your blog isn’t “clickable”
Do your blog titles make people want to click? You have a few seconds to get your audience’s attention, which means your blog title needs to be intriguing.
When people are searching Google and blog articles appear on the SERPs, they see three things:
The blog (meta) title
The meta description
The featured image
The meta description is often auto-generated by Google, based on a couple of sentences in your blog content it sees as the best fit for the search query. The featured image sometimes appears, but sometimes it doesn’t.
That said, the title you create will show on the SERPs or wherever you share your article like you see here:
How to make your blog “clickable”
Make your blog clickable with a title that grabs your audience’s attention and makes them want to get more information.
To do this, your title should
Tell the reader exactly what your article is about
Include your target keyword phrase (preferably at the beginning)
Have a power word that evokes emotion
Be ~150 characters
You can Sharethrough Headline Analyzer to test how engaging your blog title is. It’s free, takes just a few seconds, and I use it for every article I write.
8. Your website doesn’t offer a good user experience
Have you ever landed on a website, excited to browse, then found that it’s slow and difficult to navigate? You likely got out so fast and moved on to another website.
Prioritizing user experience (UX) is a non-negotiable for creating a good website that drives and keeps traffic.
Not only do 90% of website visitors not return if they have a poor experience, but Google won’t rank websites with bad UX.
How to create a good user experience
Create an excellent user experience by making your website easy to use for everyone, including those with visual impairments.
A good UX includes:
A 3-second or less loading time - Check this on PageSpeed Insights.
Easy navigation - Include a page menu at the top of your website, call-to-action buttons, and links that open in a new tab.
Legible font - Use a readable font style, 12 pt or larger, with contrasting colors.
Accessible design and content - Keep it simple with white spaces and easy-to-read content.
Mobile-friendly - Test your website to ensure the appearance and navigation work well for mobile devices.
9. You’re not using Google Search Console
If you’re not using Google Search Console, I recommend connecting your site to it.
Google Search Console is a free tool that tells you how your blog performs. It shows information about your traffic, website issues, and indexing status.
How to use Google Search Console
There are so many ways to use Google Search Console, so I recommend taking time to explore it.
A few ways you can use Google Search Console to improve your blog traffic are:
Request indexing - “Inspect any URL” (at the top of the main page) after you publish or update an article.
Review search results performance - Use this to determine which blogs are performing well and which ones may need updating.
Use the queries list - Learn what people search before your website shows in the SERPs to guide future content.
Look at your page indexing report - See which pages are or aren’t indexed by Google and why.
10. You’re not marketing your blog
SEO is known as one of the most cost-effective, evergreen marketing strategies. However, it takes time to see results from SEO. Even when your SEO strategy is working well, you can boost your traffic with other marketing techniques.
How to market your blog
In addition to SEO, there are effective ways to get people to find and read your blog posts.
Social media - Share blogs with your audience who want to learn more about a topic.
Pinterest - Create graphics (pins) with links to your articles. You can share multiple pins per day for the same or different blogs.
Email - Send emails to your email list with snippets of a blog article, then share the link to the entire article. I use Flodesk for simple email marketing.
Guest blogs - Offer to write articles for blogs with a similar audience. Backlink your blog in the article with permission.
Think of marketing like planting tiny seeds. You usually don’t see significant blog traffic fast, but over time, various marketing strategies can lead to big outcomes, like significant blog traffic for years to come.
Multiple marketing strategies can feel overwhelming. Finding motivation can also be difficult when you don’t see immediate results. I recommend choosing two to three practices and prioritizing time each day or week to focus on these.
Over time, the outcomes will motivate you to keep up. You may also start earning enough from blog efforts to hire help with blogging and marketing tasks.
Why isn’t my blog getting traffic? FAQs
Let’s explore a few common questions about blog traffic.
Why do most blogs fail?
Most people I talk to about blogging or clients I’ve worked with fail because they don’t commit to the long game. Blogging doesn’t offer quick results, whether that be reaching traffic, sales, or ad revenue goals.
You need a handful of valuable SEO-friendly articles before Google starts ranking your blog. Once people discover your blog, they must find reader-friendly, useful content.
Getting to this point takes practice and time, so if you want to succeed, you must commit for the long term.
Is blogging worth it?
Although it takes time and effort to reach blogging success, it’s worth it if you want to grow your audience and generate leads. Not only do 80% of bloggers say blogging drives results, but 44% of buyers also report consuming 3-5 pieces of content before buying.
How do I get more traffic to my blog?
To drive traffic to your blog, you must write SEO-friendly articles with valuable content that answers the search query. Your blogs also need to be easy to skim and read, with headers, short paragraphs, and visuals. Try other marketing strategies like guest blogging, social media, and email newsletters to boost your blog traffic.
Why isn’t my blog getting traffic? Conclusion
Many factors affect blog traffic. Focus on writing unique content that helps your audience, learning effective blogging techniques, and keeping up with Google trends.
Remember, blogging is a long game. It can take six months to a year of consistent blogging to see significant traffic increases, so stay the course.
If you want to become a confident blogger and learn how to write articles that reach your target audience and drive results that help you grow your business, check out my SEO blogging course.
