You’ve been blogging for a few years and you think you’ve found your calling. You like running a website, you love creating the content, and you think you are good at what you do.
And yet, your blog growth isn’t as good as you want it to be. And there might be other, similar blogs that are more authoritative than yours.
Figuring out how to grow a blog and how to become an expert blogger go hand in hand. The more readers that trust your opinion, the more your blog will grow.
Ready to level up your blog-building skills? This is your step-by-step guide on how to skyrocket your blog traffic and become the go-to expert blogger in your field.
Step 1: Hone Your Niche
What is your blog’s niche? If you can’t answer that question using three words or less (one of them can’t be “and”), then you have not narrowed down your niche enough.
For example, the travel blogger Nomadic Matt is an expert on budget travel. And the travel blogger Adventurous Kate is an expert on solo female travel. They have stronger niches than “travel” but are more focused than “cruising and adventure travel as a couple”, for example.
Choose a topic that you are passionate about that you are also an actual expert in. You need to be able to talk and write about this topic for years and years. And, you also need the relevant qualifications and experience to be an expert blogger in that field.
Once you’ve got your niche, look at the content on your blog. Are more than 80% of your posts related to your niche? If not, you should think about removing or adjusting the posts that don’t fit.
It will be difficult to grow a blog that specializes in marathon running if you have a few unrelated book reviews on your site, too.
Step 2: Identify Your Target Keywords
Now you’ve refocused your niche, it’s time to fill in any gaps that you have in your blog content. Because if you want to be an expert, you need to provide all the relevant information on your topic.
You don’t want potential readers abandoning your site to visit a competing blog because you don’t provide the information they need.
Let’s use the marathon running blog niche as an example. Ask yourself, what would you expect a blog in this niche to cover? Here are some examples:
- Training programs
- Nutrition and diet information
- Motivational posts
- List of great marathons
- Injury prevention tips
- Gear recommendations
Come up with a list of 100 blog post ideas that you still need to write. Yes, 100! Some ideas snowball into others and if you are a true expert in your blog’s niche, you will be able to think of 100.
Don’t be afraid to look at your competitor’s sites for initial inspiration.
Every blog post idea you have has the potential to be a great target keyword. Use a keyword research tool like Keysearch to check the volume and competition of those keywords to see which will do well for you.
Step 3: Write Informative, Longform Content
The secret of how to grow a blog? Keep creating great content. Stick to a consistent posting schedule and make your content the best out there on the internet.
Use your expertise, and your research skills to make your posts far better than your competitors. If they write a post titled “Top 11 Things to do in Chicago”, then you write the top 13.
Longer content is better but write whatever length works best for your topic. Use eye-catching images and break up your content into different headings to make it easy to digest.
Step 4: Promote Your Blog Posts Far and Wide
Blog building is 50% content creating and 50% hustling. Yes, harnessing SEO techniques like using good keywords will help readers find your site through search. But, there are plenty of other ways to promote your blog so that important people and news outlets find out about your blog, too.
Create social media accounts to let your followers there know whenever you publish a new post. If you have an exciting story to tell, consider writing press releases to news sites or contacting podcasters to be on their shows.
Step 5: Write Guest Posts on Other Sites
Another way you can boost authority and market your blog is to write guest blog posts for other websites. This is a great idea for two reasons. First, it allows you to tap into another (relevant) site’s reader base so that more people learn about your blog’s existence.
And second, it helps you build your backlink profile which is essential for building authority in the eyes of search engines like Google. Backlinks are a vote of confidence from other, high-authority websites to yours.
So, you could write guest posts for other blogs in exchange for an author bio and a link back to your website. If you want to learn more about backlinks, you can read this page.
Step 6: Never Stop Learning
Professors, scientists, and teachers don’t become an expert in their field and call it a day. They are always experimenting, reading new information, and expanding their knowledge.
If you want to remain an expert blogger and continue being an authoritative, trusted source on one topic then you need to keep learning about it. Create Google alerts on certain keywords so you can stay on top of new updates and the latest industry trends.
How To Grow a Blog in Six Simple Steps
Figuring out how to grow a blog and become an authority is not an exact science. But as long as you are an expert and write great content, you are giving yourself the best chance of success possible.
As they say, the cream always rises to the top.
Do you want to learn more about digital marketing or want to level up your blogging tech and want expert advice? Browse our website for tons of helpful guides and useful tech tips!
