How To Get More Subscribers for Your Blog – An SEO Primer
A good blog can be a powerful SEO tool, but the value of your blog is only equal to the number of its regular visitors. Having a large subscriber base for your blog means more people are reading your content, but more importantly, it means there is a greater probability that your content will be shared with others across a variety of social media platforms. Whether that content is being shared via Twitter, Facebook, or Google+, the results are the same…a boost in SEO juice for you and your website. But how do you go about building a solid subscriber base, and what are some simple ways to increase the number of subscribers to your blog? The answers to both questions are really quite simple.
Quality Content
This can’t really be stressed enough. The quality of any blog’s content is its most important feature, and no amount of SEO trickery, social media signals can compensate for a website that offer low quality content for its visitors. Creating high quality content, that is both entertaining and informative, should be every bloggers first priority. It is also important to publish to a regular schedule. A steady flow of solid content keeps readers coming back for more, and demonstrates to Google and other search engines that your website is active and providing valuable online schedule on a regular basis.
Comments and Share Buttons
In order to get the most out of your blog posts, you need to enable comments and share options. This will help to keep your content active well after the publication date. Add share buttons for all of the major social media platforms, so regular readers can easily share your content with others and attract more potential subscribers to your website. It is also important to enable a comments section, and to monitor it regularly. Engage with your readership, and answer any questions they may have about your article. By involving yourself in the comments section, you keep your blog posts active, and create an interactive partnership with your readers. People are much more likely to subscribe to a blog if they feel like a part of a community.
Subscriber Links
Subscriber links should be placed in prominent positions on all of your website’s pages. Don’t be shy about this. Place subscription links where they are most likely to grab the readers attention, in the page header and at the bottom of every post. A simple call to action, such as “Stay Up To Date With Trending Articles – Become a Subscriber Today” will do quite nicely. Make subscribing as easy as possible, and don’t ask for too much personal information. A name and email address will suffice. People are much less likely to subscribe to a blog if they feel they are being asked to provide too much personal info. Keep it simple.
Subscriber Incentives
Everyone likes getting something for free, and offering subscriber incentives is a great way to increase your readership. A subscriber incentive can be anything from a special discount on a product or service to access to tutorials or other exclusive content. The perceived value of the incentive will entice people to sign up as subscribers to your blog. The most important thing to remember about subscriber incentives is that they should be of value to your readers, and they should be relevant to your website or blog content.
Many first time bloggers, and some experienced bloggers as well, struggle with building their subscriber base. But there are easy way to keep your subscription numbers climbing. It just takes a little know how. These few tips should help set bloggers on the right path to growing their subscriber base, and getting more SEO juice for their websites.
About the Author
Leslie writes about SEO on his blog at Cube Online Marketing, a SEO company based in Ireland.