This blog is not only 12+ months old. It has also reached its first 10k monthly views!
This article will show how you can reach 10k monthly views.
Let's start.
1. Be Patient
This sounds boring, but it has to be said.
Patience is key to growing your blog.
During the first 5/6 months of my blogging journey, no one (absolutely no one) was reading my blog.
It started with a long, long, flat line.
If you want to see your blog growing, you need to push past the first 5/6 months (minimum). After that, you should start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
It took me just over a year to reach my first 10k visitors.
As you can see, blogging is a long game.
2. Do Keyword Research
Keyword research means understanding the words readers type when searching for a query on Google (or any other browser).
Why is keyword research important?
Because blogging is all about your readers, if you want to grow your blog's traffic, you have to write content your readers look for.
When you create content targeting the keywords users type in a Google search, your blog is more likely to rank higher on Google.
Related: How To Increase Your Blog's Traffic in 3 Easy Steps
3. Learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is one of the top skills any blogger should learn.
Why do you need SEO?
Using SEO allows people to find you organically.
To make it a bit simpler, search engine optimization means taking a piece of online content and optimizing it so search engines like Google show it towards the top of the page when someone searches for something.[Neil Patel]
You should always aim at gaining as much organic traffic as possible.
SEO is a broad topic. However, you need to know about on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO means embedding content (the blog post itself, the title and the URL) with the keywords you want to rank for.
Off-page SEO means instead is what happens outside of your blog. This means getting backlinks (links on other websites that refer back to your blog). Off-page SEO is tougher than on-page SEO because you'll have to cooperate and network with other creators.
Where can you learn SEO?
You can learn SEO completely for free. Or at least I've learned a lot for free by watching YouTube tutorials and applying what I was learning immediately.
Here are some YouTube channels which I highly recommend:
4. Publish Consistently
From my own experience, Google rewards blogs which update their content on a regular basis.
You don't have to publish content daily to see results because it will lead you to burnout and give up blogging.
Find a schedule that works for you. Whether it's once a week or once every two weeks, find your schedule and stick with it.
Prioritize quality over quantity. Quality content gets shared; ultimately, Google rewards content written for humans rather than machines.
5. Add Value
Your content should always add some form of value to your readers.
How can you add value?
There are different ways you can write valuable content:
- Share a useful process.
- Share what helped you get from A to B.
- Share any tips.
- Share your mistakes and be vulnerable.
- Share a motivational story.
- Suggest resources and/or tools.
Don't underestimate the help you can give, even if you're a complete beginner.
Related: Five Great Ways To Find Content Ideas For Your Dev Blog
6. Use Guest Posts
What is a guest post?
A guest post is someone writing content on another blog.
You can welcome bloggers to publish guest posts on your blog, or you can publish content on other blogs.
Why is guest posting useful?
According to Neil Patel, guest blogging allows you to:
- Positioning yourself as an authority and well-known name in the industry.
- Getting exposure (traffic) back to your website.
- Building backlinks to your website (though this should never be the main focus, as Google frowns on this).
Guest posting is one way to accomplish off-page SEO.
CONCLUSION
In this article, you've learned some techniques, you can apply to your blog to reach your first 10k monthly visitors.
The journey is challenging, but I can guarantee you that if you don't give up, you'll see success and you'll be proud you didn't give up.
Until next time!
🙋🏾♀️