The simple way to increase website traffic

Psst. Want to know the simple way to increase website traffic? Of course you do. Ready? Here it is:

Comment on other people’s blogs.

I know. It doesn’t sound like much, but hear me out. Reading and commenting on the blogs of others in your industry is a great way to garner attention, build relationships, set yourself up as an industry thought leader and, of course, drive traffic.

But first things first: How do you find these blogs to comment on? Social media. If you’re on Twitter, use hashtags or the search function to look for others who are Tweeting out keywords pertinent to your business (if you’re not yet on Twitter, check out this post on how to set up an account). If you’re on Facebook or LinkedIn, join groups that have to do with your industry or business.

Once you find a couple of blogs you like that have fairly active commenting going on, start adding your own voice to the conversations, following these important guidelines:

Make sure you have something worthwhile to say.

If all of your comments are some variation of “Great post!”, you’re not really going to attract much attention, are you? If you really dig a post, and want to give the author a virtual high-five, go for it. But try to aim for something truly intelligent to contribute to the conversation.

Reply not only to the author of the post, but to other commenters as well.

This is part of that “building relationships” thing I mentioned earlier. Eventually, you’ll get to know who in your industry is contributing to the conversation and that can lead to cool things like social media link-sharing and even guest-posting on other blogs. When you find a commenter whose opinion you really value, click through to find out if he or she has a blog worth commenting on, and add that one to your reading list, as well.

Bee tee dubs, some blogs have alert systems that will email you when someone has responded to a comment you’ve left. If you see this feature, take advantage — it definitely beats randomly checking back on blogs to see if someone has replied to something you’ve said.

Make sure to link back to your blog/website.

This is super-duper important. If you don’t link back to your blog, then people won’t click through to your website and all this commenting won’t have done you much good. Capisce? Good.

Comment consistently.

Here’s what I’m not saying: Reply to every post and every commenter on every blog you read. But do make the effort to be a regular contributor to a number of blogs. Eventually bloggers and other readers will begin to recognize you as a source for thoughtful, insightful contributions, and will click through to your website and/or blog to see what else you’ve written.

Don't get discouraged if a flood of traffic doesn't happen right away.

Look, all good things take some time, right? And that includes building up a blog following.

Again, the key here is consistency, so set aside a small amount of time during your day to read and comment on blog posts. Eventually you’ll make a name for yourself, and your traffic will climb.