I am amazed at how many bloggers and website owners have not set up simple things on their website which help with increasing site traffic and exposure. I’m not talking about doing an SEO overhaul here, but straightforward stuff like adding sharing buttons to your posts. If you have added a sharing button, have you ever clicked on it to see if it is working correctly? In this post, I take a look at some essential elements every website or blog should have to increase traffic.
Necessary Information and Ease of Navigation
The ease of getting around your website is the number one thing you should be analyzing. Remember people don’t always come to your site from your homepage. In fact, more often than not, people are searching for something particular and entering your site from a post they found in Google, a pin they saw on Pinterest or a social media post they read.
Look at your site homepage and one inside post and see if it has:
- Links to your social media channels
- Easy to find contact link to the contact page
- Clear about you information or a link to your about page
- Easy categories and menu navigation to get around your site
Putting these items in your main menus or in widgets on your sidebar are the best way to ensure that no matter which post or page people come to they can get around your site easily.
Social Media Sharing Buttons
Why You Need Them?
The number one reason is you want to encourage people to share your post on their social media channels. The more people that see the link to your post the more opportunities you have that they will click on that link and visit you.
Make Sure They Are Set Up Properly
It amazes me that when I go to share someone’s post on social media using one of their blog sharing buttons that they don’t have them set up properly. It is one thing to allow people to share your posts but if they don’t tag or mention you in that share well you lose the ability to show your reach on that social media channel.
The most common error I see is when I go to tweet something I read. It shares the tweet but it does not include a “via @yoursocialhandle” mention in the tweet. How will you know that someone tweeted your post? How will you engage that person on Twitter if you don’t get a notification they shared your post. This is a missed opportunity.
The second error is that the link does not shorten. Make sure that your social sharing buttons allow for using Bitly or another way to shorten your link. Otherwise, just your tweet e a long ugly URL to the post. Not something people will want to share.
If your social sharing plug-in or theme’s feature doesn’t allow you to add these two elements – find one that does so that you can ensure to act on a tweet or share if it happens.
Pin Images in Your Post
I have already talked about why you need to be using Pinterest for your blog or business in this post. Having a pinnable image in each post on your blog is paramount to using Pinterest to increase traffic. For one it will make you pin that image to your own boards and increase the chance that your Pin will be pinned by other people. The result is another opportunity to bring people back to your own website.
Adding a pin button to your horizontal images or a pin share button at the top and bottom of your post is not enough. You actually have to create a long vertical image with a 2:3 ratio or approximately 600 x 900 pixels. Don’t try to make them extra long as Pinterest is now cropping long images that go beyond the 2:3 ratio.
Ask Someone to Review Your Site
Sometimes we are blind to the most common things on our own websites. Ask a friend to take a look at your site, to share your posts and really dig deep into your site’s features. You can also hire people to do a detailed site review where they can help you see how a stranger interacts on your site. Site reviews don’t have to be expensive and can really help give your site a leg up on the competition. Contact me here if you are interested in a site review or audit for some graphic tips, feature suggestions or general feedback on your site.
Sharon Mendelaoui is a Lifestyle Writer and Graphic Designer. Founder and Publisher of Daily Dream 360 a Travel and Lifestyle Magazine, Sharon Mendelaoui combined her passions for creative design, photography, writing and travel to build an online travel and lifestyle site where readers can research their own travel dreams and find inspiration to make them a reality. In addition, Sharon runs her freelance graphic design company Desktop and Design where she offers her clients affordable graphic design solutions for their brand identity, web design, marketing and social media projects.
