I’ve come to find this is an extremely common question businesses have after they’ve published a post.  They put forth a lot of time and energy into publishing a great article and wonder why its not receiving the traffic they were told it would.  In this article I want to cover a few simple acts and mindsets you should have that will propel traffic on your site.

If you’re asking how do I drive traffic to my website, you’ve come to the right place!

Part 1 – “Finally, I’m Done. Now What?”

After you publish your very polished article (with a picture, more on that here), its time to promote your post. This means alerting everyone in your social networks about your post, or scheduling a time to notify them. People like to read content what is current, and they especially like to read it if its fresh off the presses. I often see blogger’s specifically mention the “freshness” of the blog post when they promote it for the first time on Twitter.

Part 2 – “How Are Search Engines Like My Facebook Home Feed?”

Now that your post has been promoted you hope and wait for someone to comment on it. I’m teasing when I say this, but having a proper call to action, which encourages engagement within your community, is vital.  You want people to respond to what you’ve written.  Sometimes asking a simple question helps get things rolling.

“Why Is My Call To Action Important?”

1. 1. Comments mean conversation. That means your reading was insightful enough to stir more question and discussion.
   2. Google loves articles getting a lot of response. They place your content higher up in search results.  Its also important to note that if your website doesn’t show up as one of the first three results it is highly unlikely you’ll receive any traffic to your site via that specific search phrasing.

Your Mindset: “Search engines really like popular articles–the same way Facebook likes a popular Facebook status.”

The more likes, comments and clicks a status gets, the higher up on your home feed it appears. Suddenly people whom you haven’t heard from in a long time are showing up in your news feed because they have content that people are interacting with, and keeping them logged into Facebook longer.

The friends you have with consistent interaction with are the friends who consistently show up in your home feed.  More interaction = higher search ranking.

Search engines and your blog work the same way. The more people who interact in conversation with your writing, the more intrigue is created; more traffic to your blog is manifested.

Part 3 – “Wait, So My Blog Can Bring Me Traffic And Sales?”

From a non-member of your community just finishing reading your article, if there is interaction and conversation already started it gives the reader more lee-way for re-sharing your article in their own social networks. It gives the reader the sense that “everyone else thinks this is worth discussion, I bet my network would appreciate reading this too.”  Like magic your article is being shared by new members in your community and said community manifests.

Reader: “This was a great article, I wonder what else he/she has written?”

When more and more people find and read your posts, your backlinks (and other recent blog posts) have an awesome opportunity of being read and interacted with.

A single blog post could eventually result in several leads and sales.

Its up to you to treat each post with the giving and helpful intention you set out for the moment you started writing the article.

Part 4 – “Ok, so from my blog’s comments how should I interact with my online community? What is my mindset?”

One other tip I want to share is how you’re interacting with your community in the comments of your blog.

The idea is to be as absolutely over-the-top helpful as you possibly can.

If someone wants clarification on something give it to him or her, and deploy it in as fully and complete of an answer as you possibly can. This reflects strongly on you. Not only that, it gives your actively-engaged community on that post an opportunity to be further educated by your re-clarified points. Your community appreciates this and that’s what makes them come back again and again. This is how you build consistent traffic.