Digital Marketing keya hai [full information] in Hindi 2023

Start a WordPress blog
The process is easy to follow whether you are 20 years old or 60 years old. However if you need help, our expert team will help you setup your blog for free. → Click Here to Get Your Free WordPress Blog Setup! ←

What do you need to start a WordPress blog?
There are three things you need to create a WordPress blogger
A web hosting account (this is where your website live on the internet)
Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.
Yes, you read it right. You can start a blog from scratch in less than 30 minutes, and we will walk you through the whole process, step by step.

In this tutorial, we will cover:

How to Register a Custom Domain Name for Free
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
How to Install and Setup WordPress Blog
How to Change Your Blog Design Template
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Customize WordPress Blog with Plugins
How to Add a Contact Form
How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO
How to Make Money From Your Blog
Resources to Learn and Master WordPress
Ready? Let’s get started.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Step 1. Pick Your Blog Name and Platform
The biggest mistake beginners make when building a blog is choosing the wrong blogging platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.

For 95% of users, it makes more sense to use WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress.

That’s because WordPress is open source which means it is 100% free to use. You can install plugins, customize your blog design, and most importantly make money from your blog without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org).

WordPress is also the number one website platform used by all successful blogs including our own. To put in perspective, 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress!

Now you might be wondering why is WordPress free? What’s the catch?

There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.

In other words, you will need a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is what people type to get to your website. It’s your blog’s address on the internet. Think google.com or wpbeginner.com

Web hosting is where your website files live. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every blog needs web hosting.

A new domain name typically costs around $14.99 / year, and web hosting plans normally costs $7.99 / month.

That’s a lot of money for beginners who are just starting out.

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

You can also use other popular WordPress hosting companies like SiteGround or Hostinger, and still be able to follow our blog setup tutorial.

We recommend Bluehost for beginners because it is one of the oldest web hosting companies on the internet. They are also the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting because they host millions of websites including many of our own.

On top of all this, Bluehost has been working with WordPress since 2005, and they are committed to giving back. That’s why they have promised us that if you cannot get your blog online within 30 minutes by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the process for you without any cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Contact us for free blog setup help.

NOTE: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting.

Open up Bluehost in a new window and follow along.

First thing you need to do is click on the green Get Started Now button to get started.

Get started with Bluehost
On the next screen, select the plan that you need (basic and plus are the most popular).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Select your domain name
Lastly, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package info to complete the process. We recommend going with the 12-month plan because that’s the best value.

On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing them right away. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you need them.

Hosting checkout for starting a blog
Once completed, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things. But most importantly, this is where you install WordPress.

Step 2. Install WordPress Blogging Software
When you signup with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you, so you can start building your blog right away.

Simply login to your Bluehost account, and then click the Login to WordPress button to get started.

Log in to your WordPress blog from Bluehost dashboards.

If you are using a different WordPress blog hosting service like SiteGround, Hostinger, WP Engine, etc, then you can see our comprehensive guide on how to install WordPress for step by step instructions for those providers.

Although most of the above blog hosting companies are now also automatically installing WordPress to help non-techy users kickstart their blogging journey.

Once WordPress is setup, you’re ready to create your blog pages, customize your blog’s design, and start blogging.

Step 3. Selecting Your WordPress Theme
The visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by blog themes. When you first visit your blog, it will look something like this:

Default WordPress theme
This is not very appealing to most people.

Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding part in the journey of creating your WordPress blog.

There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Some of them are free themes, while others are paid premium themes.

You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Appearance » Themes.

Add new WordPress theme
Go ahead and click on the Add New button.

On the next screen, you will able to search from 9,100+ free WordPress themes that are available in the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort by popular, latest, featured, as well as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).

Select a theme
You can take your mouse over to a new theme, and you will see a Preview button. Clicking on it will open the theme preview where you can see how the design would look on your website.

Preview theme
The preview of your theme may not look exactly as shown in the screenshot, which is normal as you will get to customize and set it up later. What you need to look for is design, colors, typography, and other elements.

The best tip to select the perfect WordPress theme is to strive for simplicity in design. It helps you keep things clean and clear while offering a good experience to your users.

If you need help selecting a theme, then please refer to our guide on 9 things you should consider when selecting a perfect WordPress theme.

When you have found the theme that you like, simply bring your mouse on it, and it will show the Install button. Click on it and wait for the theme to be installed. After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. You need to click on it to Activate the theme.

Install and activate the WordPress theme
Once you have installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.

Depending on the theme you choose, there will be built-in widgets and customization options that lets you tweak your blog design.

You can get even more design control with a WordPress page builder like SeedProd or Divi which let you create a custom header, footer, sidebar, and more without writing any HTML code.

These plugins give you more design control than what you get with Wix or Squarespace, while giving you the full freedom of the powerful WordPress content management system.

SeedProd Page Builder
Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post.

Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post
To write your first blog post, click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.

Writing a blog post in WordPress
WordPress uses a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.

To familiarize yourself with the editor, see our WordPress block editor tutorial.

Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly available.

Publish blog post
On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections. We have a great writeup on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.

To utilize all the features on the posts screen, you should read our article on how to add a new post in WordPress (video included).

It covers how to embed videos, add blog images, headings, table of content, sub-headers, bullet lists, call-to-action buttons, social media posts, and all other shortcuts you need.

Often beginners are confused between posts and pages menu in the WordPress dashboard. That’s why we have also written a complete guide on the difference between posts vs pages in WordPress.

If you need help brainstorming new blog post ideas to write about, then here are some helpful resources:

103 blog post ideas that your readers will love
73 types of blog topics that are proven to work
How to write a good blog post (12 expert tips)
A lot of pro bloggers choose their specific topics strategically by doing keyword research. This helps their content rank higher in Google search and get more traffic.

We have a step by step guide on how to do keyword research for beginners using the exact same method that we use on WPBeginner.

Step 5. Plugins & Customizations
Once you have written your first blog post, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as contact page, galleries, sliders, email list, forums, etc.

To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins.

WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website (without writing any code).

There are over 59,000 WordPress plugins available in the free WordPress plugin directory alone. This means no matter what you want to accomplish, there is a plugin for it.

We have a step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to use plugins to add some essential features to your WordPress blog.

How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress
Every website needs a contact form. It allows your users to email you directly. Since WordPress doesn’t come with a built-in contact form, you will need a WordPress form builder plugin to add a contact form on your site.

We recommend using the WPForms Lite plugin. It is a free version of the popular WPForms plugin, which is #1 in our list of best contact form plugins for WordPress.

Over 5 million websites use WPForms!

You can install the plugin by going to Plugins » Add New page and typing WPForms in the search box. Next, you need to click “Install” and then “Activate”. Upon activation, you need to head over to WPForms » Add New page to create your first form.

Adding a new contact form in WordPress
This will open the WPForms builder interface.

First, you need to enter a name for your contact form and then click on ‘Simple Contact Form’ template.

Simple contact form
WPForms will now create a simple contact form for you with all the required fields. You can click on any field to change it, or add a new field from the left column.

Editing your contact form
Once you are done editing the form, click on the save button at the top right corner and then exit the form builder.

You can now create a new page in WordPress by going to Pages » Add New and call it ‘Contact’. On the edit screen, you need to enter the WPForms block into the editor.

Add WPForms block to the editor
After that, select the form you created earlier from the drop down menu and WPForms will load a live preview of the form in the editor.

Select your contact form
You can now save and publish the page and visit it in your browser to see your contact form in action.

It’s a best practice to test your form to make sure you’re receiving the notifications. If you don’t get the notification, then you should see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending emails.

If you need more detailed instructions, then see our step by step guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

As a blogger, the best part about WPForms is that it grows with you. Aside from simple contact forms, you can also use it to create reader surveys, polls, guest post submission forms, and more.

How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking
Google Analytics helps you see how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what are they doing on your website.

It is best to install Google Analytics when starting your blog, so you can see how much your blog has grown over time.

First, you need to visit Google Analytics website and sign in using your Gmail account.

Once you are logged in, you can go ahead and sign up for a free Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics sign up
You will be asked to provide your information and website URL. After that, you will be presented with your Google Analytics tracking code.

You can stop here because we will be using a plugin to automatically fetch and add this code to your blog (along with setting up proper WordPress tracking).

Switch to your WordPress admin area to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. It is the free version of the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and it is the easiest way to add Google Analytics on your site (trusted by over 3 million websites).

Upon activation, you need to visit Insights » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.

Connect Google Analytics using MonsterInsights
On the settings page, click on the ‘Connect MonsterInsights’ button to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site.

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup. Once done, you will be able to see your website analytics report straight from your WordPress dashboard under the MonsterInsights tab.

Website stats reports in MonsterInsights
For detailed instructions, see our article on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for SEO
Most beginners don’t optimize for SEO when creating a blog. SEO or search engine optimization helps users find your blog in search engines.

If you want more traffic, then it’s crucial that you optimize your blog for SEO right from the beginning.

To get started, first you need to install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. It is the complete WordPress SEO plugin that will help you optimize your blog.

AIOSEO
The plugin comes with a quick configuration wizard to help you walk through the set up. It will help you setup a WordPress sitemap, write proper keywords and meta description, add schema markup, and a whole lot more.

We also recommend you to follow our complete step by step WordPress SEO guide to set up your blog’s SEO.

Now there are other SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, RankMath, etc, but we recommend using AIOSEO because it offers the most beginner friendly interface for new bloggers.

Aside from a WordPress SEO plugin, you can further optimize your blog content by using a keyword research tool. These SEO tools help you come up with new content ideas that people are searching for around your topic.

You can even see the exact keywords your competitors are ranking for, so you can create better content and outrank them.

This helps you maximize the traffic on your new blog site right from the beginning. For more details, see our newbie’s guide on how to do keyword research for your own blog.

More WordPress Plugins and Customizations
There are a ton of others WordPress plugins that you can install. Often beginners find it a bit overwhelming to search for the plugins they need.

At WPBeginner, we often feature the best WordPress plugins to help you add the functionality that you need.

Here is our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins that you should check out.

Traffic & Subscribers – We strongly recommend using push notifications by PushEngage. This lets you connect with visitors after they leave your website. It’s our top 5 traffic source on WPBeginner. For more details, see how to add push notifications in WordPress.
Email Marketing – We recommend using Constant Contact or HubSpot as your email marketing service. To get more email subscribers, we recommend using OptinMonster free plugin to create high-converting popups, scroll boxes, and call to actions.
If you are curious about all the plugins and tools that we use on our website, then check out WPBeginner’s Blueprint. That list contains all the tools that we use to grow the WPBeginner blog.

Need more recommendations? See our expert-pick of the must have WordPress plugins and tools for all websites (hand-picked by our founder, Syed Balkhi).

Step 6. Making Money From Your Blog
Now that you’ve created your personal blog and customized it to your liking, you are probably wondering how can I actually make money blogging?

There are a lot of different ways to successfully monetize your blog. However there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme.

Don’t be fooled by the pictures of expensive cars and mansions because those are all fake.

Unlike other “make money online” articles, we have created the most comprehensive guide on how to make money from your blog using WordPress.

That’s a 4000+ word guide that everyone who want to make money with their blog needs to read. We have shared our 15+ years of online wisdom in that ultimate guide.

As long as you’re willing to put in the hard work and effort, you’ll reap the reward. Remember, there are no shortcuts.

Here are some of the best ways to make money from your blog.

1. Google AdSense

Google AdSense
Many bloggers make money by showing ads on their blog. If you make a blog with monetization in mind, then Google AdSense is the best way to do this.

It is the largest advertising platform for bloggers and publishers. Acting as a middleman between you and the advertiser, Google allow advertisers to bid for keywords matching your content. This allows you to get the best rates possible for the ads.

For more details, see our article on how to properly add Google AdSense to your WordPress blog.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the second most commonly used monetization strategy among bloggers. Basically, you recommend your favorite products / services to your readers, and when they make a purchase you get a referral commission.

The key in affiliate marketing is to recommend high-quality products and services that you already use and trust. There are plenty of affiliate marketing plugins and tools for WordPress that can help you make more money when promoting affiliate products. We recommend using PrettyLinks or ThirstyAffiliates as a must have.

We also have a complete step by step affiliate marketing guide for beginners, that will help you get started with choosing the right affiliate program and strategies to monetize your blog today.

3. Online Store

Add an online store to your WordPress blog
Many bloggers make money by selling things directly from their blog. This could be physical products, digital downloads like ebooks, artwork, music, and more. Some bloggers even offer consulting services.

We recommend using WooCommerce because it is the best eCommerce plugin for WordPress. It is also the most commonly used eCommerce platform in the world.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to easily create an online store using WordPress.

Some bloggers don’t want the hassle of creating a store to sell their own products, so they create an Amazon affiliate store which lets them sell other people’s products from Amazon and earn a commission.

On top of the 3 methods above, you can do so much more with your WordPress blog. You can make WordPress blogs specifically for reviews, fashion blogging, food blogging with recipes, and more. Each of these blog types brings you more unique opportunities to make money.

You can also turn your blog into a membership site to offer premium content and courses. We have a detailed guide on how to create and sell online courses with WordPress.

Step 7. Mastering WordPress
Business Learning and Support
WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide cutting-edge helpful WordPress tutorials that are easy to understand for small businesses, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress website owners (see more about us).

To expand your WordPress knowledge, you should check out:

WPBeginner Dictionary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress lingo
WPBeginner Videos – New to WordPress? Watch these 23 videos to master WordPress.
WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials.
For more discussions, you may want to join our free Facebook group WPBeginner Engage. With more than 85,000 members, the group is focused on helping beginners and non-techy users do more with WordPress.

You can also subscribe to WPBeginner’s YouTube Channel where we regularly share video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.

Lastly, you can use Google to type your question and add WPBeginner in front of it. Our users find this trick to be always helpful because it makes it easy for you to find the RIGHT answer for your WordPress questions.

In case you don’t find an answer to your question, don’t worry. Simply use our contact form to send us a message. Our always helpful, full time WPBeginner support team, will be happy to assist. We love helping users get started with WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Having helped thousands of people start a blog, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a blog.

Can I create a blog without WordPress?

Yes, there are several other blogging platforms available. We have compared them all, and WordPress is by far the best website builder solution in the market to make a blog with complete ownership and freedom.

Can I build a blog without hosting?

No, that’s not possible. Web hosting is where your website files are stored. All websites need web hosting. To start a blog, you will need your own domain and web hosting.

How do I come up with a good blog name for my site?

Most personal blog names are named after their creator. Other blogs are named after the topic or industry they are in. We have an AI powered business name generator that you can use to come up with blog name ideas.

What is the best blogging niche?

Choosing the right niche for your blog makes it easier to create engaging content and make more money online. Our experts have researched the 7 best blogging niches that you should consider when starting your blog.

We also created a list of the 18 most popular types of blogs to help you get inspiration.

How much does it cost to start a blog?

The cost depends on the add-ons that you buy. We have a complete guide on how much does a WordPress website cost as well as tips on how to save money.

Most blogging tools are either free or come with a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can try them risk-free.

Can I create a blog without my parents knowing about it?

Yes. You can make your WordPress blog private and hide it from the internet. Here is a step by step guide on how to make your WordPress blog completely private.

Can I start a WordPress blog and make money with Google Adsense?

Yes, you can use your WordPress blog to earn money from Google AdSense. We have a step by step guide on how to add Google AdSense in WordPress.

How can I create a blog and remain anonymous?

If you want to have a public-facing blog but want to remain anonymous, then you need to make sure that your domain has WHOIS privacy turned on. Often people use a pseudonym / nickname to write under. You should also create a unique email just for your blog. It goes without saying, don’t post your pictures or anything on the blog. For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to blog anonymously using WordPress.

How do I add a podcast to my WordPress blog?

WordPress makes it super easy to start a blog and add a podcast to it. We have a step by step guide on how to start a podcast with WordPress.

Can I build a blog in my own language?

Yes, you can use WordPress in other languages. You can select your language during installation or from Settings page in WordPress admin area. WordPress is fully translated in more than 56 languages and partially translated into dozens of other languages. Many top WordPress themes and plugins are also available in multiple languages. You can also translate a theme or a plugin that you want to use on your website.

How do I create a blog in multiple languages?

Want to start a blog in Hindi, Spanish, or multiple languages? Here’s a step by step guide on how to create a multilingual website in WordPress.

Can I design a blog with no coding skills?

Absolutely. You don’t need any programming, coding, or design skills to create a professional-looking WordPress blog.

WordPress themes are easy to customize and you can just point and click to set up your theme. There are WordPress themes like Astra which comes with ready-made starter websites that you can import with one-click.

There are other powerful themes like Divi which give you complete drag & drop design options for customizing your blog.

Then there are powerful drag and drop page builders like SeedProd and Divi builder that works with any WordPress theme. You can use it to just drag and drop items and design your own pages.

You can even create your own custom theme without writing any code.

Can I add a photography gallery to my blog?

Yes, WordPress comes with a built-in gallery feature that makes it easy for you to add photo galleries in your blog posts.

Professional photographers can also use premium WordPress gallery plugins to better showcase their photos and even sell photos to make money from their photography business.

How can I create a professional email address for my blog?

If you’re serious about your blog, then we highly recommend that you create a professional business email address (it’s free).

All successful bloggers use professional email address to stand out and make better partnership deals to grow their blog.

Can I switch blogging platforms later?

When creating a blog for the first time, often beginners make the mistake of choosing the wrong platform like Medium, Tumblr, Blogger, or others.

The good news is that yes you can easily switch to WordPress. We have detailed tutorials on how to switch from:

Medium to WordPress
Blogger to WordPress
WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Where do I find photos for my blog?

All great blogs use high quality photos in their blog posts and social media. We have created a beginner’s guide on how to find royalty-free stock photos for your blog, videos, and social media.

We hope that you found our tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog to be helpful. You may also want to check out our article on 27 actionable tips to drive traffic to your new WordPress site, and our checklist on 18 important things to do after installing WordPress.

Traffic Of Blogger

What Is Blogging ?

Well, there are three main reasons.

First, blogging can be a LOT of fun.

It’s a creative activity that allows you to express yourself and — done well — share your views with a large audience.

Second, blogging can help establish you (or your business) as an authority in your field.

And third, blogging has the potential to significantly increase the number of people visiting your site. 

Interesting fact: according to inbound marketing experts Hubspot, businesses that blog regularly tend to attract 55% more traffic than those that don’t.

So, if you write well and are blogging about a subject that a significant number of people are interested in, you can end up with a lot of traffic on your website.

And we all know what getting lots of traffic to your website means: increased sales opportunities and revenue.

But how do you go about creating a successful blog? As you might expect, the first step involves finding a good writer.

1. Find the right writer! (Hint: that might not be you)

At the heart of getting your blog noticed — and driving lots of traffic to it — is writing superb content.

And that content is going to be all the more ‘superb’ if the person writing it is both knowledgeable and passionate about what they are writing about.

Blog posts that are written from the heart – and not by a content farm or AI bot – are far more likely to be the posts that interest people, and crucially, get shared.

BUT: it might be the case that you personally are not the best person to write the posts for your site.

Perhaps you’re not a great writer.

Perhaps you don’t have time to devote to blogging.

If either of those statements sounds like it might apply to you, consider hiring a writer who is capable of creating truly exceptional blog posts and putting in the hours to do so.

But whoever ends up writing the posts on your website, their personality has to shine through. Readers identify with writers because there is much to like — or even dislike! — about their personality, mouthiness or tone of voice.

And readers who form this rapport with you (or your writer) may be more inclined to come back to your blog regularly — or share its content more willingly.

Now, once you’ve found your writer and a tone of voice, it’s time to think about what to write about.

2. Use keyword research to identify good topics to blog about

It’s really easy to sit down and write blog posts which cover, in considerable depth, topics that nobody is remotely interested in!

Similarly, it’s easy to write a blog post covering an area that people are really interested in, but to give it a title containing words and phrases that nobody ever searches for.

Keyword research is your friend here: it can help you generate good blog post ideas and ensure that there is a sizeable target audience for your content.

By using keyword research tools — like Semrush or Ahrefs — you can discover the number of monthly searches for various keywords — and find out how difficult it is to rank for particular phrases.

Keyword research resources

To help you find the best target keywords to use in your blog, you could do worse than check out Semrush’s guide to keyword research. For a limited time, you can also get an exclusive.

The trick with keyword research is to identify phrases that you can use in your blog that generate a reasonable amount of traffic — but for which there isn’t massive competition.

keyword research — a demonstration

Ahre you’ve done your keyword research, you should ensure that your keywords feature in all the right places in your post.

This means adding them to your post’s

title

meta description

headers

alt text

body copy.

More on all these in just a moment, but first let’s take a look at something that’s usually quite important to successful blog posts: length.

3. Focus on creating long-form content for your blog

Studies show that ‘long-form content’ perf
When it comes to SEO, size matters!

Long-from content refers to posts with high word counts that go into HUGE depth on a particular topic.

Now, there are a few reasons why long-form content can help generate higher positions in search results.

First, longer posts will naturally be more keyword-rich — and therefore more likely to crop up in search results for ‘long tail’ keywords (search queries involving combinations of several words).

Second (and perhaps more importantly), the in-depth nature of a long post is more likely to satisfy readers who come across it — it will be more likely to answer your visitor’s query, or solve their problem.

As a result, the post is more likely to get shared on social media or get linked to from other sites — with very positive implications for traffic.

And third, longer content can keep people reading longer, thus increasing ‘dwell time‘ on your content.

Dwell time is the amount of time between the moment a user clicks on a search result and the moment they return to the search engine results, and studies point to a correlation between longer dwell time and higher search rankings.

(The video below gives you some tips on how to increase it).

Video guide to dwell time

But…don’t overdo length!

Although long-form posts typically attract more readers than very short ones, it is important not to get too carried away with length.

If you are creating huge articles just for the sake of ticking a ‘long-form’ box — at the expense of producing useful content — it is unlikely that you will be rewarded by either readers or search engines for doing so.

Quality is key, as Google repeatedly makes clear in its advice on how to make content rank highly in search results. Although long-form content often outranks ‘thin’ posts, there is no ‘ideal’ length for a blog post.

4. Keep your content fresh by updating existing blog posts

If you do any research into blogging and search engine optimization, you’ll come across loads of articles which stress how vital it is to create ‘fresh’ content in order to generate good search results and traffic to your site.

However, I’d caution against interpreting this as an instruction to only produce new posts.

With my own content, I’ve found it much more useful to focus on quality over quantity — and rather than blogging every day just for the sake of it, I invest a lot of my time in keeping my existing content as strong (and as in-depth) as possible.

I do this by continuously reviewing older posts and enhancing them with the most up-to-date information available. This is particularly important when it comes to product reviews, but even ‘evergreen content’ (posts containing facts that don’t change often, if at all) can benefit from being spruced up from time to time.

Not only does this send the ‘freshness’ signals to Google that the search engine’s algorithms approve of, but it typically increases the length of posts and helps provide the ‘long-form’ content that often performs better in search results.

That said, there is definitely value in creating new posts periodically — the more content on your site, the more keywords you can theoretically rank for.

But again, only if the content is strong!

Download our free SEO toolkit

For a limited time we’re offering our readers some excellent free SEO tools and resources. Sign up now to immediately receive:

our downloadable cheatsheet containing the 20 key steps to ranking highly in search results

extended free trials and discounts for leading SEO tools

our downloadable cheatsheet on how to grow organic traffic to a blog

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5. Accompany your blog with great images

It’s REALLY important to use good images in any blog posts you publish.

There are four main reasons for this.

First, it helps readers get a sense of what you are writing about (this is particularly important if you are exploring difficult concepts – visual aids can really help simplify matters).

Second, the main picture accompanying your post will often show up whenever your visitors share one of your posts on social media — and if this is a dull picture, it’s less likely to generate clickthroughs to your site.

Sites like Unsplash, which give you access to a wide range of royalty free images, can help you source good pictures for your blog posts.

Third, as with text, images can be optimized to help your content appear in search results.

By adding suitable keywords to a picture’s ‘alternative text‘, file name and caption, you can help search engines gain a better understanding of what your post is about (which in turn can help your post appear more often in relevant search results).



And finally, good images help to make your content look authoritative. If you use a beautiful piece of photography instead of a cheap-looking piece of clip art in a blog post, that post is far more likely to be taken seriously — or read in the first place — by people who stumble across it.

Important things to remember about blog post images

When adding images to your blog posts…

Keep an eye on file size — large picture files can increase page load time, which can in turn affect how search engines treat your content in search (quick-loading pages are given priority over longer ones by search engines).

Only use images that you have the rights to — if you don’t have a license for an image, you can end up getting fined hundreds of dollars for breaching copyright. Thankfully there are lots of great royalty-free stock photo sites, like Pexels and Unsplash, that can help you avoid this problem.

Use original images if you can, especially if reviewing products on your blog (Google is on record as saying it prefers original images to widely-used ones in that context).

Tip: web-based graphic design tools like Canva can help you produce quality infographics for your blog, and give you access to royalty-free photo libraries.

6. Optimize your blog posts for search engines



There are a series of technical steps — collectively known as ‘on-page SEO‘ — that you should take to give your blog posts the best chance of performing well in search.

You should always:

create blog post titles that reflect your keyword research, and accurately describe what you are writing about

include keywords in each post’s URL that reflect the content

use keyword-rich headings (H1, H2, H3, H4 etc.) to break up content

use keyword-rich alt text and file names for your images.

For a few more tips on this area, you might like to check out our post on how to make your content visible in Google search results, or watch the video below.

Increasing site visibility: a video guide



Ahrefs vs Semrush | Free SEO toolkit | Subscribe on YouTube

There are also a few ‘technical SEO‘ steps you can take too. Google prefers content that loads really quickly — a few things that can help in this area include:

registering your site with Google Search Console and Microsoft Bing and submitting sitemaps to these services

ensuring all image files are as small as possible (without being too pixelated)

avoiding use of unnecessary scripts on the page

ensuring that loading of necessary scripts is ‘deferred’ until after the main content of your page has loaded (Google Analytics scripts, Facebook pixels etc.).

getting your site to conform to Google’s new ‘Core Web Vitals‘ standards

 on speed and stability.

Important: optimize your blog posts for ‘real’ readers too!

It’s easy to focus on all the things you can do to make a search algorithm like your blog posts — and totally forget that it’s actually humans that you’re trying to impress!

There are a few things you can do to make your blog post more appealing to ‘real’ readers:

Avoid jargon or complex language — a large proportion of the the people reading your blog posts will be entirely new to the topic you’re discussing, so use plain language wherever possible and explain concepts clearly.

Use relatively large, easy-to-read fonts on your blog.

Ensure that your blog uses a ‘responsive’ design — i.e., one that displays your content appropriately for the device it’s being viewed on (mobile, tablet, laptop etc.).

Make sure your blog loads fast — a slow-loading post put people off reading it.



7. Capture email addresses



Once you’ve attracted visitors to your blog, you should always do your best to capture their email addresses.

This allows you to notify visitors via e-newsletter about new blog posts; this can result in significantly more traffic to them, along with more social shares.

How to create a newsletter — video guide



E-newsletter apps with free plans: GetResponse | AWeber

To capture email addresses effectively, you need to ensure that there is a email list sign-up form on every blog post.

You can do this using a sidebar, pop-up box or a simple text call-to-action to encourage people to join your mailing list.*

When creating this sign-up form, remember to spell out the benefits of joining the list — the value that your a site visitor will get out of becoming a subscriber.

For example, rather than using a boring ‘join our mailing list’ call to action, highlight the sort of amazing resources a subscriber can expect to receive, the skills they’ll learn etc.

Capturing email addresses on a blog – a very important tactic you can use to increase blog traffic.

If you use an email marketing tool (like GetResponse, AWeber, Mailchimp or Mad Mimi) you can use your RSS feed to power your e-newsletters — meaning that every time you add a new blog post, your subscribers will automatically receive an e-newsletter with a notification about the new content.

* Be careful with pop-ups (or ‘interstitials’ as Google likes to call them). They can dramatically increase the number of leads you generate, but they can also have a negative impact on search traffic, particularly if over-used on mobile versions of your site. Learn more about Google’s approach to pop-ups here.



8. Encourage social sharing



Actively encourage your readers to share your blog posts — be explicit with your requests for people to post your content on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

If your readers follow these encouragements, not only should you see a rise in traffic to your posts, but you may also be sending subtle ‘signals’ to search engines regarding the popularity and quality of your posts.

(The jury is out on whether social sharing has a direct impact on search results, but there does seem to be a correlation of sorts).

Using a tool like Sumo or Addthis – which allow you to add a lot of clever social sharing icons to various parts of your website, as well as data capture forms — can help in this regard.

Using tools like Sumo or Addthis to add social sharing features to your blog posts can help increase traffic to them.

Does the blogging platform matter?

A lot of people wonder if blogging is best done on a particular platform.

Well, there is absolutely nothing to stop you running a successful blog on popular website / online store builders like Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce or Wix— and following the tips in this post can help you increase traffic to (and sales from) sites built on those platforms.

Blogging using a hosted ecommerce solution, Shopify

However, if you want to create a full-blown publication, or blog professionally, then there’s a lot to be said for using self-hosted WordPress.

WordPress started life as a blogging tool and provides a host of blogging features that you won’t typically find on hosted website building solutions like Wix or Shopify (for example, advanced content versioning, SEO tools and advanced categorization options).

9. Encourage comments and user engagement



Encourage people to add their own views at the bottom of your posts. There are three reasons why this is beneficial:

It creates more keyword-rich content on your website

 (content that can be indexed, and ranked highly, by Google).

It can help encourage return visits to your blog, as discussions take hold in your comments section

.

Some search engine optimization experts believe that Google treats blog posts which generate a lot of community discussion preferentially to those without any comments — possibly because it increases ‘dwell time’ on the post

 (see the section above on long-form content for more details on what this this).

However, always make sure you moderate these comments carefully — search engines can frown upon posts containing low-quality or spammy comments or user-generated content.

10. Build quality backlinks to your posts



At the very simplest level, there are two key ingredients to ensuring a blog post ranks in search:

First, your post has to contain quality content.

Second, it has to have a decent number of quality backlinks — links from other reputable websites — pointing to it.

We’ve covered the ‘quality content’ bit earlier — you need to focus on producing long-form posts which cover the topic you’re writing about clearly, and in considerable depth. Always aim to satisfy a reader’s query; to solve their problem.

Getting backlinks is usually a much harder task, because it involves reaching out to lots of bloggers and website owners, asking them to include a link to your content on their posts, or letting you publish guest posts.

(It’s like an online PR campaign of sorts.)

This sort of outreach is a time consuming affair, but it’s important, and if you take a thorough approach to it, it can prove very fruitful.

Tip: don’t forget to add internal links

If you have an existing blog post that has a lot of backlinks pointing to it, you can leverage the power of these by creating links on it that point to other posts on your site. Internal links pass some of a page’s ‘link juice’ onto other pieces of content, and can help them climb up the search rankings.

Another option with regard to backlink generation is to hire an agency to do perform link building on your behalf — but you have to be careful here, as hiring an agency or consultant who then goes onto place (or worse, buy) links on low-quality sites can often do more harm than good.



When building links,

focus on websites that have a good reputation (you can use the ‘domain authority scores’ provided by SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find out which ones do or don’t)

always ensure that the links you’re building make sense in context (for example, if you’re building a link to a site about shoes, don’t build links on posts about ice cream).

You’ll find a really helpful list of link building suggestions over on the Backlinko website. Or sign up to our mailing list using the form below to get our latest SEO tips! Good luck with getting more blog traffic, and if you have any questions about the topic, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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Blogging effectively — FAQ

What’s the best blogging platform?

Most modern website builders and ecommerce solutions come with perfectly good blogging tools. However, if your aim is to start blogging professionally, or create a magazine-style publication, self-hosted WordPress is usually a good option.

How do I make money from blogging?

The main ways to generate income from a blog usually involve either affiliate advertising (where you get a commission if one of your readers clicks a link on your page and then buys a product from the website they arrive at) or display advertising (where you show banner adverts on your site, for example Google Adsense ads). Another way to generate income is to build a mailing list via signups on your blog, and sell products to the subscribers on it.

Can I blog for free?

You can blog for free on quite a few platforms — Blogger is probably the best known one. Some paid-for platforms like Wix and WordPress also let you blog for free, with ads displayed alongside your blog content.

Over to you: any questions on how to increase blog traffic?

We hope you’ve enjoyed our tips on how to increase your blog’s traffic! If you have any questions about the topic, we’d love to hear them — just leave your query in the comments below (we read all comments and try to respond to all of them).

And if you enjoyed this post, do feel free to share it, either on social media or by creating a link to it on your own website or blog

Related reading on search engine optimization and blogging

You may find some of these other posts about website traffic generation and blogging helpful:

Six ways to increase your visibility on Google

10 free and useful SEO tools

Google core update recovery guide

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