Tips To Getting Your WordPress Blog Some Traffic

Comments (11)   | del.icio.us | EMail Post | Print Post

Driving traffic to your blog is actually quite easy given a little time and effort. WordPress is my favorite blog software to use. It's fast, has a lot of plugins available for it, and easy to modify. By adding a few extra modifications to your blog you can have it user and search engine friendly in no time.

1. Comments Section
   • Comments are a very important part of a blog. It shows you have a small community, and Google will index all comments. Giving users the option to have the server email them if a reply comment has posted is always a good idea. It creates return users, which is always a good thing. The plugin I like to use is by Scriptygoddess. The instructions are very easy to follow on her page. The only thing I changed was to auto send the email reply unless they un-checked it. Just replace:

     <input type="checkbox" name="subscribe" id="subscribe" value="subscribe">

     With:

     <input type="checkbox" name="subscribe" id="subscribe" value="subscribe" checked="checked" />

     Have to keep it XHTML Transitional as well ;). Also with RSS being so popular you might want to add a link for the comment's RSS. Just simply modify your theme and add this:

     <? comments_rss_link('Comment RSS'); ?>

     where you'd like the link to go. Nobody wants to read a blog with spam on it, so please moderate the comments and filter out spam. If you're too lazy to do that you can use a wonderful plugin called Akismet. While on the topic of filtering things, it's not always a good idea to filter people who criticize your postings. Unless the person is vague and says something like "This sucks" then leave it. As long they explain why it sucks. This in return will create responses, and more conversation on the blog.

2. SEO
   • This is obviously a big one. Wordpress can be improved for search engines by modifying the theme files, and using ping services. Titles have a big role in how your website is indexed. The default Wordpress way of titling posts isn't the best way to do it. Open your header.php and add my little hack to it

     <title>
     <?
     if ( is_single() ) {

     wp_title(''); echo(' - CyberKnowledge Blog');

     } else {

     echo('CyberKnowledge Blog');

     }
     ?>
     </title>

     This will make the title of single posts be in the format of

     Title of post - CyberKnowledge Blog

     and the name of anything else CyberKnowledge Blog. Meta tags are another way to improve SEO. WordPress offers a great tutorial on this. Personally I use

     <meta name="description" content="<?php if ( is_single() ) {
     single_post_title('', true);
     } else {
     bloginfo('name'); echo " - "; bloginfo('description');
     }
     ?>" />

     So on a single post the content will be the post name. On a normal page view the content will be the description of your blog. The description can be found in your admin control panel > Options > General. Pinging services like Technorati also help bloggers. A ping lets a blog search engine know that your blog has been updated. People searching for blog posts can in return get the latest material. Wordpress offers a service so it auto pings specified servers when a new blog post is made. To add or remove servers go to your admin control panel > Options > Writing. Here is a small list of some servers to ping.

     http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
     http://1470.net/api/ping
     http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
     http://api.moreover.com/ping
     http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
     http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
     http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
     http://bblog.com/ping.php
     http://bitacoras.net/ping
     http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
     http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
     http://coreblog.org/ping/
     http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
     http://ping.amagle.com/
     http://ping.bitacoras.com
     http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
     http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
     http://ping.feedburner.com
     http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
     http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
     http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
     http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
     http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
     http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
     http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
     http://rpc.britblog.com/
     http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
     http://rpc.newsgator.com/
     http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
     http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
     http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
     http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
     http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
     http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
     http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
     http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
     http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
     http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
     http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
     http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
     http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
     http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
     http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
     http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
     http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
     http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
     http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
     http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
     http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
     http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
     http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
     http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
     http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api
     http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
     http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
     http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

     If you use too many saving posts might take a long time, or even time out. By default Wordpress uses a script.php?a=2 format to view posts. Google and other search engines tend to like a permalink structure. To enable this go to your admin control panel > Opitons > Permalinks. I happen to use "Date and name based" Depending on your WordPress version you might have to make some changes to the .htaccess file in order for this link structure to work properly.

3. Advertisements
   • Advertisements aren't really going to pay off until you have thousands of hits per months. You should really hold off on them until you have a few thousand RSS subscribers, and a steady stream of hits coming in from search engines. Don't worry it won't take that long if you write quality articles. I personally like regular text ads. Giant flash banners can be annoying. Mine are small not in the way, but still in a place where a user is likely to click them. The color for the most part matches the blog, and they are still XTHML Transitional. Google Adsensne so far is the king of contextual ads.
4. RSS
   • WordPress comes with RSS support, but if your blog software doesn't FeedBurner is a good tool to use for it. I still use Feedburner, because it allows you to track statistics about who has subscribed to your feed. It also supports every RSS reader you can think of.
5. Blog Layout
   • A good layout goes a long way. I like to make mine XHTML Transitional. At the time of posting this a hack I installed is causing errors but I'll fix those soon. The text should be easy to read, and a far different color from your background. A good web designer is going to pay off in readers in the end. Maybe you know someone who knows a lot of HTML and is good at making banners. Giving him 20 dollars to help improve the appearance of your blog is well worth it. Everything should also be easy to access, and not all cluttered up. You should test it with Opera, Firefox, IE6 +7 and Safari. I've found out of all those browsers they all render similar except IE6. IE6 holds most of the market, yet is the worst browser I've ever come across. Just when you think your blog looks perfect in your favorite browser IE6 will mess it up and require changes. To run IE7 as a standalone application see this blog post.
6. Random
   • Posting on your blog at least once a day is a good rule. Google will have a lot of content to index after just a couple of weeks. It will also keep users interested in your blog. However don't post if you have nothing to say. I like to submit sitemaps to Google, so they index my blog properly. You can submit a sitemap directly to google here. A good online site map generator can be found here. Social book marking can be a good way to get some traffic your way. There are some plugins to encourage users to book mark your website. If on the off chance you're on the front page of a social book marking website you're going to want to be there to moderate comments, and respond to questions people might have. With any luck you'll have a few extra RSS subscribers than normal. To keep them interested try and make your next post as high of quality as your last one. Also you're going to need a host that can handle all the hits. A good way to speed up your blog during these times is by using a cache plugin. This allows your blog to be turned into an HTML file instead of compiling the PHP file and querying an SQL database every time someone loads your blog. It can save a lot of system resources. I use this plugin anyways because it does have a small performance value. Make a catchy title in your post. You're more likely to lure the RSS subscribers in with a good title. Top 10 lists or similiar are very popular and easy to read. Also include some pictures in your post, nobody wants to read an essay. In this case there is no reason to put pictures if you're wondering ;).

Related posts: