How I Grew My Blog To 13,000+ Pagviews A Month

Before we jump into this weeks post, I wanted to let you know that this blog post was actually shared with my mailing list earlier this year! I've edited and tweeked it for the purpose of today's post. I send at least one email a month, packed full of useful tips and tricks. So make sure you sign up to that if you want to receive more helpful content like this in future!

I shared recently that my blog/website had hit its highest ever pageviews - and yes, I'm thrilled! I did a little happy dance, and I'm planning on having a little browse of Amazon later for some new books as a treat. I want to celebrate the little wins! 

I was shocked to receive loads of Instagram messages within a few minutes from creatives all asking the same question: "How did you do it?"

There is one simple answer: sharing helpful content, regularly.

This didn't happen overnight! I've been growing my blog since the summer of 2015. At first, I was a bit all over the place, unsure about what I wanted to write and share with the world. But as time went on, and with a lot of trial and error, I've really found my jam! 

For almost 2 years, I've written two blog posts a week. With each post the aim is the same: provide value to my readers. I keep my ideal client in mind and ask myself: Would my ideal client find this post helpful? Or would they feel inspired by it? If the answer is yes, then I write the post and hit publish. If the answer is no, I pull back. 

A key ingredient to this success has definitely been the consistency at which I posted. My readers have begun to know that they can expect useful content from me weekly. More recently, I decided to stop posting twice a week, and instead only share one post per week. I wrote a whole post about why I'm changing my posting schedule, so go ahead and read that there if you'd like to. 

One big tip I can give you is to also check your Google Analytics (if you've not got your website linked up with Google Analytics, do it now!) and head to "Behaviour" and "Site Content" and click "All Pages" and you'll be able to see which pages/blog posts have been the most read on your blog. This should also guide you into what content is proving popular on your blog. If the content people are reading is in line with your business, and who you want your ideal client to be (which hopefully it is!) you can see exactly what they're responding well do, and continue to produce more content of that nature!

Another key ingredient to my blogs growth has been Pinterest. I get over 50% of all my traffic from Pinterest referrals! Click here read about how I use Pinterest to grow my blog and here to read about the tools I use to schedule Pins in advance.

Part of my growth was also to merge my website and blog into one site. For a long time I had a seperate blog and website, which meant that people were always having to go two different places! I realised quite quickly that this wasn't helpful, and merged my blog with my site. I still see a lot of businesses with two online spaces, and I would highly encourage you to merge them if you can! I use Squarespace, which I find extremely user friendly, and very affordable! 

My blog is not the biggest blog in the world. Many people receive a lot more traffic than me. But I know that if I continue to work the way that I am, my website will continue to grow... and so can yours! So don't be discouraged if you're just getting started and those numbers are small. With practice and consistency, you will soon start to see the numbers creeping up.