5 Quick And Simple Tips For Driving More Blog Traffic

Posted on Mar 9th 2018 in Content Marketing

It happens to anyone who produces content regularly. You spend time and effort crafting what you think is the perfect blog post, carefully optimised with the right keywords to rank highly in the SERPs. You post on social media to promote your blog and alert guests on your mailing list about the new piece of content. But still, the traffic’s disappointing.

That’s when you start questioning if your content campaigns are even worth it.

There’s no doubt that blogging works. There are countless studies to prove that. But simply cranking out content on a weekly or monthly basis is not enough to attract huge traffic rates, even if you’re directing your social audience to it as part of your routine.

As more and more hotels are publishing an increasing amount of content everyday, if you want to attract more traffic, you’ll need to master the basics first. Happily, boosting traffic to your property’s blog can be done in as little as 30 minutes. Just take a look at these 5 tips below.

1. Go visual or go home

As humans we’re naturally attracted to engaging visuals. If you need proof, just take a look at the continuing wild popularity of Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Timeline and Pinterest.

The internet is oversaturated in words and none of us have enough time or energy to read every blog post out there. If high quality images, videos, infographics and even memes can help you capture and retain your guests’ attention, why not include at least one in each and every post?

2. Maximise blog loading speed

As you’re probably aware, Google analyses page loading time as part of its ranking algorithm. Your guests expect your website’s pages to load in 2 seconds or less – if your load times aren’t up to scratch you can expect to slip down the rankings and see your bounce rates soar.

Don’t let lagging load times let you down. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to test your website’s speed and performance and receive personalised recommendations to improve.

3. Facilitate quick and easy social sharing

Recent data reveals that including social sharing buttons on blog posts can generate up to 7 times more mentions. Don’t forget to ensure your posts have alluring headlines that are concise and to the point (this is particularly important for platforms like Twitter so you have space for shortened URLs).

4. Come up with the optimal blogging schedule, then stick to it

What’s the optimum number of blog posts? The jury’s still out. But generally speaking, the more your hotel blogs per month, the more traffic you can expect to attract.

Of course, there’s still such a thing as too much. One of the most effective ways to figure out your posting sweet spot is to keep a close on your subscriber activity. Do you notice a surge in “unsubscribe” requests after an increase in blog activity? If so, you may be turning off guests with too much content.

5. Take time to respond to comments

It may surprise you, but there’s increasing evidence that simply responding to the comments guests leave on your blog can boost your traffic. Not only does responding to each and every comment help SEO by increasing the number of words on the page, it also helps build your online community, show your guests that you’re interested in their opinions and inspire repeat traffic.

Adding a link in the comment URL box to other important pages on your hotel’s website is a great way to control your traffic and direct guests where you want them to go.

As the above tips show, boosting traffic to your property’s website needn’t take a lot of work, and it’s worth every second. What are you doing to maximise traffic to your hotel’s website? Let us know in the comments below!