15 Ways to Increase your Page Views

Last summer I was struggling to get my page views up. I was SO close to hitting the threshold to getting on with an ad network and just needed to hit 25k sessions in 30 days. But somehow I couldn’t break that barrier.

Then, I attended a blogging conference and found out that most bloggers make around $800 their first month they get in with the ad network. That’s a lot of money that could be coming in every month! I suddenly had a concrete number that I could envision coming entering my bank account. That drove me and I started making changes. But what did I do exactly?

15 ways to increase page views

First of all, I got laser focused on my goal. I was making great money on sponsored posts, but I needed a revenue stream that diversified my income. Since I knew my goal to get 25k sessions in one month, I started working towards it! That goal took precedent and everything I did was in some way to increase my page views.

1. write about what your readers want to hear about

I remember hearing Elsie Larson (from A Beautiful Mess) do some stories on blogging and she said something that really hit home for me- find out what your readers think is most interesting about you and write about that. I know that might sound obvious, but it was definitely a light bulb moment for me! But how do you find out?

–Ask them! Go on whatever platform you have and host a Q&A. See what people ask and write blog posts that answers their questions. Whenever I’ve feeling burnt out or like I don’t have anything to write about, I ask my readers what they want to hear. That way I have content AND I’m serving my audience.

–Pay attention! Really think about what people ask you about over and over again and then write a blog post about that subject. The perk is the next time you’re asked that question, you can send someone to that blog post! That’s why I wrote my post on “how do you get so much done.” It was really popular when it came out and constantly drives traffic.

2. get good at pinterest

Last year, my goal was to figure out Pinterest. I took 7 different online courses before I finally felt like I got it. I just looked at my stats and last year in April I had 3,734 sessions from Pinterest. In April of 2019 I had 23,525 sessions!!! That is a 530% increase!!! Pinterest drives really good traffic so it pays to work on it!

The course I took that I felt really made the difference is the Pinterest Launch Plan which is only $27. This isn’t an affiliate link, but I LOVE the course and want to share it because it REALLY helped me.

I don’t want to giveaway what’s in the book, but some simple tips are to re-pin the pins that send the most traffic to your site. Check your Google Analytics by going to acquisition, traffic, referrals, and click on Pinterest- that’ll tell you the blog posts with the most hits from Pinterest. You can then click on each blog post and see the pin that drives the most traffic. Repin that!

You can also make new pins for your best blog posts and pin those. Make sure you’re pinning at least 25-30 pins from your blog daily (I use Tailwind for that). Make a pin for each blog post and pin that. I try to pin at a minimum 1 new pin each day to show Pinterest that I share new content. It’s a lot, but my number 1 traffic driver is Pinterest, so I put in the time for it.

3. update old posts

Some of my most popular posts (my top 10 are shown above) are old ones that I wrote when I first started blogging. And, even though they reach a lot of people, I found easy ways to optimize them. So I did things like-

make sure each post had a keyword
created a new pin (especially if it didn’t have one before)
took new photos and added them in if possible
created a good pin description and added it to the image id
broke the post into smaller paragraphs
added headings
bolded important words to make it easier to read

4. blog daily

Right now, I keep hearing the advice to blog once every 2 weeks and make it an amazing post. That sounds great, but if you’re trying to increase your page views, I’ve found that by blogging 5 days a week, you show your audience that there’s something to come back for. And you get them into the habit of clicking over to your blog daily.

Blogging is all about what you’re doing RIGHT now. People want to build a relationship with you and see what you’ve been up to. Make each blog post great, but commit to 30 days of blogging 5 days a week. It can be tough, but it’ll pay off! And when you get in the habit of doing it, it gets easier.

I remember when I had a 9 to 5 job, I read the same blog every day at lunch. It’s just what I’d do! So when they quit their blog, it was actually rough on me because I spent every lunch break with them. They had taught me to click over every day. Get people used to checking for your blog post daily.

5. implement SEO strategies

After Pinterest, Google is the second place that drives traffic to my site. My big goal for 2019 is to understand SEO. Admittedly, I haven’t gotten super far with that goal. But I’ll share what I do now that is totally beginner level and has worked for me.

I know my niche (mine is DIY and home decor on a budget) and 99% of my posts relate to that (except this one- lol)!
Update content regularly. Google wants to see that you’re keeping your site fresh
Use metadata. For each blog post, I have a few sentences that I stuff with keywords and add as the metadata to help Google understand what the blog post is all about.
If you’re not already using the Yoost plugin, download it right now and try to get a green smiley face on readability and SEO. It doesn’t help with everything, but it’s a good start!
Make SURE your site works well on mobile. Now a days, Google prioritizes mobile sites over desktop. So your site HAS to look good and work great on a phone.

6. join relevant Facebook groups

I’m in quite a few Facebook groups from one about redoing furniture to one about blogging. In each of my groups I pay a lot of attention because it is a GOLD mine! I even have my own group so I can better understand my audience. Here’s how you can capitalize on Facebook groups-

See what questions are being asked and write a blog post to answer them. One of my most popular posts is Instagram for Beginners because I kept seeing the same questions being asked and I could easily answer them!
When appropriate, drop your blog post as a way to help people. In the furniture painting group, I just shared how I painted my fridge. It got me a lot of traffic AND I hopefully helped someone! Just make sure you’re following the rules and aren’t spamming the group with links. Oh, and make sure to comment and be an active participant.
And, of course, you can learn new things that you can use for your blog or things that can help your audience. In the furniture painting group, whenever people give a hint for painting that I haven’t heard of, I’ve been taking a screen shot so that I can try it out and pass it onto my readers.

7. write similar posts to your most popular blog posts

This tip is again all about looking at Google Analytics and seeing your top blog posts. Once you look at the list, ask yourself if there’s a similar blog post you could write that will expand the reader’s knowledge on the subject?

Let me give you a few examples! When my son was tiny, I built him a play kitchen and that was a super popular post (it still is). We moved and gave it away. Fast forward 3 years, I built him another play kitchen mostly because I wanted more content for my readers on that subject! Because they loved it! Oh, and he plays with it too 😂🙌🏻.

Another example is that when I first started my blog, I wrote about getting out of debt. I broke it down into steps of how I exactly paid off $40,000. That post was a HUGE hit, so I wrote a second post with a free printable and more tips. And the second one ended up being more popular!

8. comment on other blog posts in your genre

I have a list of bloggers I LOVE that also blog about home decor. When I have time (or am trying to increase my page views), I’ll comment on blogs every morning (when posts first go up so more people are likely to see it).

The comment will be all about them- what I love about the post, how great their house looks, etc. And I mean every word. It’s not fake or talking about me. The goal is that other readers will see that comment and then click through to my blog.

Next, I pay attention to my Google analytics and only comment the next week on the blogs where I actually got traffic. It’s important to spend your time wisely so make sure you’re getting a return on your investment. But if you love a blog and want to comment- do it! This is a post for increasing page views so it might seem harsh, but I want to help get your site seen.

Side note, some blogs don’t have a spot where you can put your blog url. I skip commenting on those blogs.

9. do a series

In January of this year, I decided to do my first ever series. It was a MAJOR success! Let me break it down for you. The series was called the 25 days of DIY. I committed that for 25 days in January I’d have a blog post with a video with a new DIY project. I’d never done video on my blog before and this was blogging 5-6 times a week- it was ambitious!

It was also VERY successful. Here’s what worked best for me-

In December, I was CRAZY busy doing sponsored posts (I make 20% of my income for the year in December because it is the key time to advertise via sponsored posts). So I wasn’t making many things on a DIY blog. Instead, I started talking about the 25 Days of DIY to build excitement and asked for projects they’d like to see me do (see screen shots of the stories I created).
I got suggestions for things I’d NEVER thought of doing in my life! I created those posts which became really popular. Things like my little library and painting my tile floor.
Because I was making things my readers wanted to see and doing a challenge, they were really invested. They wanted to see what was next and if I’d actually complete it. Invested readers = page views. And a great relationship with your followers- win win. January is usually a slow month for me, but it started the year off with great page views.
Other benefits included that I learned how to make video for my blog! That’s huge! I started my YouTube channel and still post to it multiple times a week. I’ve found that the readers that come through from YouTube stay longer than any other source!

10. link parties

There’s a lot of link parties in the blogging world. They used to be more popular, but there’s still a bunch around. Each week, I click through to the parties and submit one of my projects with the hope that I’ll get page views. I also see what other bloggers have submitted and have gotten some good post ideas that way too.

You can also organize your own blogging event! For example, in the home decor genre, bloggers get together and share a home tour all on the same day and link to the other bloggers. Or they all make a project and share each others.

There’s also the One Room Challenge where hundreds of home decor bloggers redo a room in 6 weeks. It’s a big link party and works great for page views. Above is a screen shot from last week- can you tell the day I revealed my finished laundry room for this challenge?!

11. notice how you’re sharing and what works

Besides Pinterest, I also share my new blog posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Instagram Stories. For me, I get the most page views from stories out of those 3 sites. Because of that, I pay attention to what works best closely on IG stories. Here’s what I’ve noticed-

When doing a project that will be a blog post, I share some behind the scenes and progress videos. I ask questions and create polls and get people interested. This is fun for me and them!
But I NEVER share the finished space on stories! Because that is a waste! No one wants to click through on a blog post where you know what the final room or DIY looks like.
Once a blog post is ready, I post a story first thing in the morning with a swipe up to the blog post
Next, I noticed that when I posted 2 stories advertising the post, the second one got the most swipe ups. I guess nagging works? Actually, I think it’s easy to ignore one story, but when there’s two it gets your reader thinking- hmmm, that does sound interesting.
I like to do room tours of finished spaces on IG stories, but I wait until the slides promoting the blog post for that room are expired. So my readers know that if they want to see it within 24 hours, they need to click through to the blog.
Then, when I do the room tour, I put up a question box to see if anyone is wondering anything about the project. This gives me more content that I can add to the blog post to really cover the subject well. Sometimes I’ll create a new blog post if enough questions are asked on one thing.
Lastly, I look at my Instagram analytics and see what was successful. I got over 1100 swipes in 24 hours from those IG stories!

12. send out a newsletter

Every Sunday (unless it’s a major holiday or my birthday), I send out a newsletter. I share some tips from the week that aren’t anywhere else. Then I have a link to each of my blog posts from the week. I have 8,000 on my list right now so this greatly increases my page views!

One interesting thing I found is that when I cut all but 1 or 2 images from my email newsletter, click throughs increases. I guess I was giving away too much from the photos?!

13. guest post

I’ll be honest with this one- it’s been awhile since I’ve done guest posting. But when I did email my blogging friends to see if I could guest post on their site, it got me page views. I only shared original content to their page and then teased that they could find more information with another blog post or product I’d created and a link to that page.

14. get media coverage linking to your site

I’ve done this one a number of ways. First off, I became friends with a girl at the local news site. Then I asked if I could do a segment on her show. She said yes and I’ve been on a few times and reached a new audience on TV and via their website.

Secondly, I’ve submitted articles to bigger sites. For example, I share my big room reveals with Apartment Therapy which always gives me great page views.

15. once your readers are on your site, keep them there

Once you get readers on your site, keep them reading! Make your writing compelling so they want to read it! Add links to relevant articles so they can find more information on what they need. Install a plugin that will suggest similar posts at the end of each blog post to keep them clicking.

If each reader reads one extra page, that makes a big difference over time!

Alright! There are my VERY best tips! I sure hope that these are helpful. To be successful blogging, you need to reach a lot of people. These are what I have found to be successful. Anything I’m missing? Any questions? Make sure to leave them in the comment section.

If you love it, pin it!