As you work on developing the popularity of your blog, you may find that you occasionally receive unexpected surges of traffic. This can be very encouraging the first time but very frustrating if it keeps happening but your daily traffic never comes up toward those levels. When you experience bursts of traffic, you’re probably correct to assume that you’re doing something right. You might just not be doing it right every time.
It’s particularly easy to see that you’re doing something right if you can trace the traffic boost to a particular source. Obviously, you have to connect with other bloggers in your niche, or writers who have commented on a subject that you’ve treated differently in your blog. If you get a surge of traffic thanks to a helpful link that you left on another site, you know you’ve made a valuable connection.
Keep at it. Follow that blogger and continue posting relevant, informative comments to encourage them to follow you. Connect with them through different forms of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to get further access to their readership. Use these sites, your comment threads and direct e-mails to share links and other information that could be relevant to the content both of you put out.
Stay in Your Niche
Keeping a narrow focus will help you to avoid chasing down a lot of false leads. Define yourself to other bloggers and other potential followers, and pursue readers who publish on the same kinds of topics, or who read them regularly.
If your surge in traffic came from a blog that published one article in your niche but doesn’t ordinarily do so, let it go. Get what you can out of it, but don’t expect regular traffic from this source. Use social media posts to direct people to the article that links to yours, especially if the link matches a search term that your SEO company has been working on for you—but don’t waste time on a blog that doesn’t share the readership you’re after.
Maintain a Personal Brand
At the same time that you are narrowly defining the sorts of blogs you’re trying to share traffic with, you should realize that other good bloggers will be doing the same with you. They’ll be more eager to connect with you if it’s clear from your content that you publish regularly on topics that connect to their own.
Make sure that all of your social media profiles state explicitly what you write about. Don’t be ambiguous. Portray yourself as an expert and look for people that are doing the same. One exceptional post might demonstrate your expertise and get you a surge of traffic. But if people have any doubt that you’re not sharing that expertise with every post you make, they won’t have much reason to follow you. Not every post has to be brilliant—though it helps—but every one of them has to be on a topic that clearly fits your personal brand.
Doing It Right
If you’re getting surges of traffic, you know you’re doing something right. But if the readers aren’t ever sticking around, there might be something in your approach that suggests you’re either not focused or not committed enough to be worth following closely. Consider the recommendations above and see if any of them might paint your blog in a better light.
Carl is an aspiring writer who currently works for an SEO company. He’s passionate about a variety of subjects including technology, marketing, and anything Internet-related. He’s constantly striving to strengthen his writing skills and is continuously grateful that the Internet allows him to share his thoughts with the world.
