I’m going to be completely honest: Blogging is not fun. I’m sorry, it’s just not. Even if you are a writer by trade, blogging doesn’t fulfill your passion for writing. I speak from experience.
However, blogging is essential to growing your business, educating customers and potential customers, and building a strong online presence.
Blogging:
- Increases organic traffic
- Increase CTRs
- Increases leads
- Gives your brand a personality
- Supports social media efforts
- Produces fresh content for your website
- Builds authority
On the other hand, it can be:
- Time-consuming
- Tedious
- Stressful
- And depressing, especially when your grandmother is the only one who likes it on “Spacebook.”
FIND OUT HOW TO WRITE A BLOG IN JUST ONE HOUR HERE.
And basically the last thing you want to do when you have a million other things on your plate.
What if I were to tell you that you could boost your business’s website traffic without posting a single new blog post? And no, it doesn’t involve blood magic.
All it involves is a little strategy.
3 Ways To Boost Your Website Traffic Without Publishing A New Blog Post
HubSpot grew its organic traffic by 43% in just over three months without publishing a new blog post! I had to see for myself if this wizardry was too good to be true.
HubSpot focused on:
- Link building
- Guest blogging
- Social promotion
- Quora answers
- Updating existing content
Since ROI Online is a fraction of the size of HubSpot and we are limited to a two-woman team in the Content Dept., we just focused on updating existing content.
First, I used the HubSpot analytics tool to determine the most popular blogs, looking at views, CTA clicks and CTR.
1. Update Blog Titles
Next, I updated titles to better target our ideal audience and long-tail search queries. For example, I changed the title of an old, popular blog post from Company Culture Gone Wrong to 6 Warning Signs Of A Toxic Work Culture.
On the other hand, I changed the title of a great, but low-performing blog from Traditional Web Design Is Broken. Here's How To Fix It to What Is Growth-Driven Design [A Definitive Guide]. According to HubSpot, adding brackets to a blog title helps increase CTR on Google.
2. Update Blog Content
For older posts with less-than-current statistics and information, I leave an editor’s note at the bottom of the blog: Ex: Editor's note: This post was originally published in 2014. It has been updated for freshness and accuracy.
For example, I updated a popular blog post about how to make your office more fun by changing the title, updating the blog content and refreshing the design. It was originally published nearly three years ago and had gone stagnant. Even if a topic is still relevant, people are less likely to read a blog from 2014 than from a more recent time.
The same for a blog posted in October of 2015. The evergreen content’s relevance had most likely faded due to the old publish date.
By giving them both a simple, quick facelift, I was able to grow their views exponentially — not to mention save myself a ton of time trying to create, edit and post a new blog.
3. Update Blog CTAs
HubSpot also suggests updating your CTAs to better reflect what people are searching for.
HubSpot recommends using EXACT keywords in CTAs, changing the wording to what people were searching for on Google. They saw a huge boost in downloads after implementing this strategy.
HubSpot also recommends adding in-line CTAs to blogs. Not only does this break up the text but it also gives you another conversion opportunity.
FIND OUT HOW TO WRITE A CLICKWORTHY CTA HERE.
Overall Results
While I can’t claim our results are as impressive as HubSpot’s, I can truthfully report we have:
- Seen an increase in blog views and CTRs
- Saved time and energy
- Made publishing content easier on ourselves
By spending a few hours updating our existing, yet still popular evergreen content, I saved myself several hours. Instead of spending all of my time writing new content, I was able to dedicate myself to other important and time-sensitive projects. Plus, we saw an increase in traffic and CTRs. And to me, that's a HUGE win.
Put these three simple strategies to the test yourself and see what results you get!
