First, let’s clarify the word success.
Success is when you find yourself many visits on your pages, with a high dwell time. Let’s see now the 5 steps to get to the success of your blog.
1. The infrastructure
In technical jargon and obviously improper, I would define it as the hardware of the Blog and it contains the following things:
A) Hosting Web
The provider who will provide you with the space and services to build your website.
IMPORTANT: speed and short response times, as well as a good stability of the service.
B) Domain
The choice of name is essential, especially if your intention is to create a thematic blog, that is a site where the contents are related to specific topics.
IMPORTANT: the name must be rather short and simple, so that it can remain etched in the memory of your visitors.
C) Platform
It is essential to not waste too much time on programming technicalities (PHP, ASP, HTML, etc), to choose a ready-to-use platform (CMS Content Managent System) where to insert your content and define an attractive and pleasant graphic style.
IMPORTANT: rely on CMS with a certain longevity and continuity in updates; this avoids ending up with a platform full of bugs and potentially subject to hacker attacks.
We recommend WordPress or alternatively (cheaper for hosting services) FlatPress.
2. Contents
We can consider our articles, images and content in a general sense, as the fuel that makes our blog move; this last statement is valid for better or for worse, that’s why:
A) Quality and relevance
Write with good language properties and in a simple way or alternatively, if it is not your strong point, write schematically but with a good visual impact (for example a guide for…).
However, the contents must not be sparse, if anything rather long and above all original, not copied; in addition to being in bad taste, the risk is to be penalized by search engines, Google in the first place.
IMPORTANT: the contents must be relevant to the topic usually covered by the blog, contain images (the search through Google Images is widely used) and always cite sources or services through the use of links.
B) Resources and contents
Offer resources and content completely free.
Tips & tricks: If you are a software developer, have written an ebook or have anything else to offer, the “network†is always ready to seize opportunities like these, whatever they may be. A program, images, a service or even just some culinary recipes are the fastest ways to get visits and traffic.
IMPORTANT: if you can, as indicated by other parties, avoid requesting affiliation via email to download or use a service.
C) Constancy
For some it may seem obvious, but not for everyone it is.
Write a lot, updating and writing the pages of your blog often; don’t leave your site deserted or let your news grow old.
Success has a cost: before the effort, time; it must be spent and there are no stories or shortcuts.
IMPORTANT: give yourself targets, such as a number of posts per week or a threshold of visits per month, but always set yourself goals. These serve to have the determination and will necessary to pursue a goal. Without this, the blog is destined to die out in a few months.
D) Interest
Articles should or should cover topics that interest as many people as possible; the wider the audience, the more possibilities there are to visit.
IMPORTANT: Link your posts together to increase the reader’s permanence and curiosity, stimulate his interest by presenting Widgets as the most read or commented articles.
3. Social and presence
This point is yet another boost to your engine but, as indicated above, it costs time; appearing is not enough, presence is needed.
In social networks, in comments, in the non-real life of the web, it is necessary to establish relationships, weave relationships and friendships.
A) Comment
Comment and exchange opinions with your readers and other bloggers, your blog is not the world, so go out and visit other blogs by commenting in your turn and why not, leaving a link to your pages (only if relevant).
IMPORTANT: Always respond quickly to comments, do not let your blog be assaulted by spam (use Akismet).
B) Social Network
Unfortunately in our days we are forced to relate online through Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc. these are opportunities that must be seized.
Share your articles on your profiles, make friends and circles to retain the reader and do the same towards other bloggers.
4. Analysis
For some this part may seem boring, for others it is the best part.
The analysis of visits, the control of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and everything needed to determine the efficiencies or inefficiencies of your blog, are very important factors.
A) Analysis of visits
Rely on services such as Google Analytics, as well as the AdSense program (Google advertising) to obtain a lot of good information about your visitors, on the behavior they have when they are on your site (time spent, keywords that led to you, frequency rebound and much more).
B) SEO
You don’t need to be a scientist to have SEO skills, as in many other areas, you just need to know who to trust.
On WordPress it is sufficient to use the famous and ultra popular Yoast SEO Plugin when publishing the articles.
Alternatively or even complementary if we want, there are several online sites that can provide valuable suggestions on how to improve our performance from the point of view of SEO.
5. Sponsor
You know, advertising is the soul of commerce and a blog or website, whatever it is, cannot escape this law.
This point might look identical to point 3. and in some ways it is, but it’s actually different in technical terms.
A) Search engines
Subscribe your blog to the main search engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Virgilio, etc.
99.9% of the traffic initially comes from them and from the organic searches of Internet users. Only later this percentage will tend to decrease, but will still predominate on return and direct visits.
B) Backlink
Backlinks are links on other sites that point to your pages.
These can be “no-follow” or “do-follow”: the former do not increase our page rank (usually the links in the comments), while the latter are usually citations to our articles.