Have you been working nonstop at your food blog, but people are still not reading your content? Do you spend hours perfecting engaging content but still fall short in keeping people engaged? Fret not, that’s the story of most food bloggers.
Getting traffic on blogs was easier back in the golden days, but with millions of food blogs out there, it’s not easy to stand out anymore. Bringing the audience to your blog is tricky, but not impossible. Consistency and hard work with a little dash of creativity are all you need to make your mark.
If you are learning how to get people to visit your blog and stand out from the crowd, you are in for a treat because this article might just help you increase your blog traffic more than you think. Continue reading to find out!
1. Sign Up On Pinterest
Did you know the most pinned category on Pinterest is food and drink? Need we say more? If you are a food blogger, you HAVE to be active on Pinterest, no questions asked. Having a presence on Pinterest increases your blog’s traffic; people interested in food and drink are more likely to view your food blog if it’s Pinterest.
Pinterest is all about having excellent pins and not followers. To increase your pin’s reach, you can join Pinterest group boards with more than 20000 visitors to boost your traffic. Tailwind is a great tool to use to schedule your pins.
Experts recommend that you should pin at least 25-45 pins a day. Don’t stress over it; with Tailwind, you can sit down once a week and schedule all your pins. It is also the only third-party scheduler approved by Pinterest, so no worries about that as well.
2. Use Canva for Images
Images increase the probability of post engagement; statistics show that users are more likely to click on a post with aesthetically pleasing and relevant images. All these gorgeous images you see on Pinterest and Instagram are mostly courtesy of Canva.
Who needs a professional designer to make your posts aesthetically pleasing when you have Canva? Canva has several templates to choose from, and you can play around to see which one is better to use.
3. Use Submission Sites
Appealing food websites such as TasteSpotting and Foodgawker can be an excellent source for traffic for your blog. The best part about these websites is that the traffic that comes to your blog from these websites will be genuinely looking for what your blog is all about and not just surfing casually. These people could be the returning traffic for your blog, so it is essential to retain them by providing useful content.
4. Master your Photography Skills
If there is anything that separates average blogs from the popular ones, it’s photography. If your food does not look tempting, it is game over for you. Better pictures can lead to more traffic and help you take your blog to the next level.
You won’t believe it, but some of the best pictures you see on blogs are phone photos. So, if not having a professional camera is stopping you from taking breath-taking pictures, you are fooling yourself. Of course, you can invest in it a good camera if you can afford it, but trust me, phone pictures with the right editing make the cut beautifully.
The following two apps can take your pictures from zero to a hundred in a few clicks.
· Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom
You can take up the photography plan from Adobe that lets you use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for 9.99$ a month only. For Photoshop, I would recommend using the desktop version because it is better than editing tiny photos and takes half the time. However, Lightroom is pretty easy to use and not cluttered on the mobile version as well.
5. Grow your Blog using Social Media
Tweet it, pin it, post it! That’s one of the best ways to promote your blog. No one can undermine the impact of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram these days. So make sure whatever you post, you share it on all mediums for maximum presence.
Just because there are plenty of platforms out there does not mean you have to be on all of them. Focus on where your readers are and target those platforms first. Understanding your audience and using the right platform for the right audience is crucial for your blogs.
A. Focus on SEO
You cannot just become the most successful blog ever without sound Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You may even be tired of hearing the word because of how commonly it is used, but again that also speaks volumes about the impact it can create on your blog.
Changing the name of your blog to something specific rather than generic, using keyword 3-4 times in your blog, guest posting, and using the right keyword are some of the techniques to boost your SEO.
Remember to continually update your SEO practices to match the changing Google algorithm. Some useful SEO techniques to keep in mind are:
· Long-tail keywords
Never forget to do your keyword research as they bring people to your blog. It is essential to create content people readily want to search for. “Recipes” is one of the most searched keywords, and the competition is immense, so it is important to choose specific keywords. The more specific the keyword, the less the competition.
· H1, H2, H3 Tags
It may not be the best thing you can do to improve your SEO, but if done properly, H1, H2 tags have a great impact on SEO because Google’s search spiders look for keywords in headings the most. H1, H2 tags are signposts that guide your readers through the article and indicate what each paragraph is all about.
H1 is the main heading of your blog, H2 is the subheading, and H3 is the subheading of H2 and so on. Don’t forget to add your keyword in all headings as they tell the visitors what the page content is all about.
· Guest Posts
Writing guest posts is one of the most effective ways to grow traffic on your blog. Do your research and find food bloggers who would be interested in publishing your work. But don’t worry if you don’t know anyone because there are always big sites like PhotoGrazing, FoodGawker, Tasty, etc. Better yet, you can join the food networks on social media to find out other bloggers.
· Use Yoast Plugin
Yoast Plugin is a must for everyone who is using WordPress for their blog. It makes sure everything you share is visible on Google and helps you maximize your SEO potential. Yoast is, by far, one of the most used and most popular plugins for bloggers.
6. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a useful and easy digital analysis tool that lets you track your blog’s or social media site’s performance. It allows you to analyze the users visiting your blog/social media site to inform your marketing strategy.
Make sure your blog is up and running, track spike in traffic and, modify, enhance according to your statistics. It allows you to see your most popular pages as well, so you can make changes according to the likeness and demand of your audience and create similar content that they have liked in the past.
It tells you which content is popular with your audience, what they want to see what they don’t like, and so on.
7. Recipe Plugin
If you have been typing out your recipes, you are just spending more time and using the old ways. Recipe Plugin can make your life easier. It is convenient for a reader to follow your recipe, and it lets you rank higher on Google as well, believe it or not. It is easy for you and the reader both, and it is mostly free. If you are looking for some Plugins, WB Recipe Maker and Yummly could be good options for you.
- Giveaway
Hosting a giveaway is a fun way of promoting your blog, and it works like magic. You can be as optimistic as you want about the number of people who will come to your blog for a potential prize giving you immense traffic.
If you are a small blog with a small network, you can always collaborate with someone with more followers to make the most out of your giveaway. Don’t forget to keep a database of your potential visitors by making them sign up so you can maintain a list for the future.
For instance, a sushi based company collaborated with 10 nano social media influencers to create a giveaway challenge. The winner of the challenge received free sushi delivery from the restaurant, along with vouchers and goodies. This challenge generated more traffic for their blog than any other paid marketing campaign and proved incredibly effective.
8. Eye-catching Captions/Titles
If the readers are not tempted to read your posts, they will never come back to your blog. So, don’t risk losing readers just because your posts are boring. You can always draw the attention of your readers through catchy captions and picture titles. To keep them more engaged, you can ask them questions which tempt them to reply to you.
Plus, one of the perks of having a food blog is that you don’t have to try hard with the captions, if you are posting scrumptious recipes, just a short, crisp caption will be enough to make people come back to your blog wanting for more.
9. Email Marketing
Building an email base of your readers is one of the best ways to retain your customers and clients without doing much. All you have to do is keep them informed and entertained, and they will keep visiting your website.
Writing emails to your clients on your latest products and services and updates is one of the oldest ways, yet it is still worth all the time you spend doing it. All thanks to mass emails, you can keep all your customer base informed.
As for building a new customer base, you can start off by giving a special discount to your clients for signing up. It will give them an incentive to sign up without thinking of it as a hassle, and it will give you an idea of your potential customers and readers.
10. Reddit
What seems like a simple social networking site has a great angle that food bloggers can leverage to promote their blog. It is not as simple as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram but offers an authentic experience to users. Building a following is not as easy on Reddit, and you need some form of discussion to keep people engaged. And that’s exactly why you meet people who have an interest in your blog and will continue to go.
However, your engagement skills should be top-notch to make your mark on Reddit because the platform discourages simple posting, and people don’t come to your website easily as well. With all that said, Reddit has proved itself to be a big platform for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Here are a few points that will help you build your network on Reddit:
- It’s extremely crucial to choose the right subreddits.
- Always make an engaging post to keep your followers engaged, do not post links only.
- Comment on the posts of others and build up Karma as it increases your repertoire on the platform
- If a post has not worked well for you, delete it and try to not include any such content in your posts again.
- The platform works more based on points, so to make your posts visible, try as much as you can to gain points.
Conclusion
Well, that’s a wrap for now! Some of these tricks are simple, some not. But rest assured, if you are consistent and incorporate these little things, you will see results. Start by incorporating one or two and then keep adding as you go along for maximum results.
But remember, traffic does not come overnight, so patience is the key if you are looking for a major boost in your food blog traffic. If you found this guide helpful, don’t forget to let us know. Cheers!
About the Author
Muhammad Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services at Assignyourwriter.co.uk. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for sushi delivery.
