Getting More Views and Traffic
One of the most frequent questions our community members ask us — and themselves — is how to get more people to visit their site. There’s no magic formula, but there are ways to increase your website traffic with a few WordPress.com tools and best practices.
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Please continue reading the article below for some free tips.
Table of Contents
Help Search Engines Find your Site
Blog Regularly
Use Keywords on your Site
Use Appropriate Tags
Connect to the Community & Spread the Word
Read and Comment on Other Blogs
Link to Other Blogs
Share on Social Media
Bug your Real-life Friends
Let People Know About your Posts
Relax! It Takes Time
Additional Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Help Search Engines Find your Site
If you want your content to be indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing, set your privacy settings to make your site visible to all search engines.
While we take care of a lot of the Search Engine Optimization for you, you can also verify your site through several search engines.
Plus, if your business has a niche, you can tell the Google Search Console to help you position your site to be even more successful in search rankings. We’ll show you how using Webmaster Tools!
Blog Regularly
The internet is full of theories as to how you can raise your post’s visibility in search rankings: none will contest that original, high-quality content with a few well-chosen tags is the best way to get started.
Blogs that have more frequent and regular posting schedules tend to develop an audience quicker. If you need inspiration, check out resources like these how-tos on editorial calendars or serial posts.
Blogging isn’t just for hobbyists. Businesses, organizations, and professionals can blog to boost their site’s traffic and get noticed. In fact, blogging regularly is still the single most important thing you can do to increase your site’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
People with a WordPress.com Business or higher plan can also use Advanced SEO tools to customize the meta description with a summary that does a better job at captivating readers and potentially increase the post’s search page ranking.
Even if you have a website with mostly static content, add a “Blog” or “News” section that you regularly update so search engines can see that your site is active. All the SEO strategies in the world won’t help if you’re not adding content, so get to writing!
Use Keywords on your Site
Make sure your site is well indexed by search engines by using keywords in your site’s tagline, in your website content, and in tags. Keywords are terms that your target audience might use when searching for your site. To figure out what keywords to include on your site, think about what you would search for if you were trying to find that information. If you sell toys and games to play with toddlers, for example, it would be a good idea to use the term “games for toddlers” in your pages and blog posts.
Be careful about using too many keywords, though! If you repeat the same keywords multiple times, your content will read awkwardly — and worse, search engines like Google will consider that “keyword stuffing,” so doing this can actually hurt your site’s ranking.
Use Appropriate Tags
Attach appropriate categories and tags to your posts so people can find them in the WordPress.com Reader. But be careful not to use too many tags — less than 15 tags (or categories or both) is a good number. The more tags you use, the less likely your post will be featured in the Reader. Read more on tagging.
Connect to the Community & Spread the Word
Build your traffic in smart ways. SEO and traffic go hand-in-hand: the more people who visit your site, the higher your site will rank in search results. Luckily, WordPress.com is a community in addition to a website building platform, so we have lots of ways to increase your readership.
Read and Comment on Other Blogs
Check out Discover to find great blogs and websites on your interests. Then, subscribe to these sites and get to know them a bit. When you read a post that moves you in some way, leave a comment. Read more on comments and creating online conversations.
Link to Other Blogs
Blogging is all about engaging with others and interacting in online discussions. When you link to a blog post, the blogger will likely find your blog through their stats or a pingback, and come to see what you had to say. They may even subscribe to your site and leave a comment, as we suggested you do above!
Share on Social Media
Use features like Publicize to alert your various social networks to your new content. Set it up to automatically share your new blog posts to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, so your current customers and fans never miss an update.
If you have a Premium, Business or higher plan, you can also use the Publicize feature to re-share your content an unlimited number of times. You can find more ideas in our Social Tools support pages.
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Further reading: The Best Time to Post a Blog or Social Media Update.
Bug your Real-life Friends
Encourage friends and family to read your blog: send them reminder emails when you update and talk to them about it when you meet in person. Better still, encourage them to sign up for updates using the Follow Blog Widget. Having a small audience of people you care about is better than having a million visitors and not knowing any of them.
Let People Know About your Posts
If you’ve written a post with someone in mind, drop them a short email with a link to it.
This approach works if used very sparingly, maybe once a month per blogger. You don’t want to annoy anyone or seem like a spammer.
Relax! It Takes Time
Even if you do all of the above, you won’t develop a huge following overnight. Building a sizable audience of engaged and loyal readers takes time. Many of the bloggers you admire have likely been at it for years. Stick with it, and don’t get discouraged by a slow start.
If you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of blogging, take a free course at Blogging U. Blogging 201: Branding and Growth is a two-week course focused on growing your blog and online presence.
Additional Resources
- Webinar: How to Find and Grow an Audience for your Website (YouTube link)
- WordPress.com Business SEO: Detailed tutorial.
- Monetizing your site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I pay for more traffic?
Paying someone to push more traffic to your site or blog is risky. Unless you’re paying for ad space (like the sponsored options you see on different popular sites and search engines), you may be paying someone to use bots to increase your site traffic. Bots are programs designed to emulate human behavior and artificially increase site traffic. Increased bot traffic can get you penalized in search engines and advertising programs.
What plan do I need to increase traffic to my site?
Different plans will unlock additional tools you can use to optimize your site and drive more traffic to it. For example, with the Premium and higher plans, you can re-share content that has previously been posted. The Business and higher plans will give you the ability to use Search Engine Optimization plugins to optimize your pages and posts. But, just buying a plan will not guarantee more traffic to your website.
Versatile plans and pricing
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Free
Best for students
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Personal
Best for hobbyists
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Premium
Best for freelancers
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Business
Best for small businesses
Still confused?
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