How to Grow Your Blog in 2023: 8 Powerful Tips to Boost Traffic

Whew, what a year that was for the blogosphere! With 2023 upon us, it’s time to take a retrospective look at our blog performance. How has your blog fared over the past few months? Were you able to hit your traffic and conversion goals? If not, a little reevaluation should set you on the right track. To help boost your blog performance, we compiled a list of data-driven strategies on how to grow your blog in 2023.

Let’s begin!

1. Update Old Blogs

One of the best ways to boost your SERP ranking and enhance your organic traffic this year is by revisiting your older posts. A blog that has been around the block might need some renewed TLC, especially if it’s reached a traffic plateau or has not been performing up to your standards. Here are a few tips on how to grow your blog by updating old posts.

Re-evaluate your keywords. The performance of the keywords you targeted may have changed. Keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you re-check your keywords’ search volume or discover high-performing alternatives.
Update your content. Remove out-of-date content and replace it with new information, and don’t forget to build your internal links while doing so.
Build links. Remove broken links and link your older blog posts to newer ones.
Revisit your videos and images. Replace outdated images or infographics and add or improve your alt text.
Improve your format. Make sure your format aligns with the current SEO best practices, like leveraging headings and subheadings, adding numbered lists near the beginning, or adding a definition of your target keyword.
Republish with new dates. Review your old blog posts and ensure they reflect the current date. You can also add the current date to your title tag.

2. Get on Other Platforms

While an astounding 77% of Internet users still read blog posts in 2022, today’s bloggers must realise that their target audience is also spending their time elsewhere.

Social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube are rising in popularity – and there’s a big chance your target audience is active in one of those social channels and subscribed to their favorite bloggers and influencers.

In 2023, vow to embrace another platform aside from your website. Head to Instagram if your brand lends itself to beautiful photos, network on LinkedIn if you have a more professional clientele, or tap into TikTok or YouTube if you have video-making chops.

3. Hop Into the Video Bandwagon

In 2022, the average person is predicted to spend 100 minutes every day watching online videos. Studies also showed that 54% of consumers want more videos from the brands they support. The long and the short of it: online videos are blowing up big time, and this trend will carry over in 2023.

Here are tips on how to grow your blog through videos:

Create video tutorials. Add video tutorials to supplement instructional blogs to appeal to visual learners.
Create video summaries or vlogs. Summarize the most critical points of your blog in a video, then expound on those points in the text. You can also post a video accompanied by its transcript to appeal to readers and watchers.
Create video reviews. If you work in the retail industry, particularly in the technology or beauty categories, consider making a video review of your products.

4. Optimize for Mobile

If you’re wondering how to grow your blog in 2023, start with being mobile-friendly. Did you know that 92.1% of people access the internet using their mobile phones? If you’re not entering 2023 with a mobile-friendly website, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Here are some of the most essential tips for making your website mobile-friendly.

Select responsive themes and plugins. If you’re using WordPress, make sure your theme is designed with mobile-friendliness in mind.
Improve your loading times. Website speed is essential if you’re gunning for a more mobile-friendly website. Employ speed-enhancing strategies like compressing images, implementing caching, and ensuring your site is up to date (see more tips below).
Test for mobile-friendliness. Check your website on different devices and see how it looks and feels. Alternatively, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to check where your website can improve.
Use custom CSS. CSS strategies like implementing ‘media query’ ranges allow you to tell browsers when to load various layouts for a page depending on the size of the screen used to view it. Learn how to optimize CSS for faster page loading here.

5. Speed Up Your Website

Did you know that site speed is one of Google’s most important ranking factors? If you’re wondering how to grow your blog, take notes from fast websites. Blogs that load at a glacial pace have little chance of gaining SERP favor, so try to prioritize site speed in 2023. Here are a few tips.

Select a hosting solution that optimizes performance.
Optimize and compress your photos.
Consider reducing your redirects.
Use a caching plugin.
Use a Content Distribution Network.
Remove all unnecessary plugins.
Minify your Javascript, CSS, and HTML.
Measure your site speed using tools like GTmetric or Pingdom Website Speed Test.

6. Improve Your Navigation

Over 37% of internet users say poor navigation and design cause them to ditch websites. Before entering 2023, ensure your website is easy to navigate and that users find what they need in as few clicks as possible. Follow these tips to improve your website navigation.

Use categories. Divide your content into various categories to help users find what they need quickly. For example, you can segregate your blog posts under their respective topics.
Create simple menus. Complicated menus that open into lengthy sub-menus can overwhelm your website visitors. Limit your menu selections whenever possible.
Make your search bar easy to locate. Your search bar should be located easily, as this is where your visitors will most likely begin exploring your site.
Avoid unreadable fonts. Select a font style and size that is easy to read on all devices.
Make your home page accessible. People who explore your website will return to your homepage from time to time, so make sure you have an easily locatable home page button on all pages.

7. Encourage Social Sharing

With more than half of the world’s population on social media, it’s time to start prioritizing strategies that will get you on everyone’s feeds in 2023. One of the best ways to do this is by promoting social sharing, and here are tips on how to do just that.

Make an irresistible offer. Free offers like tools, templates, or eBooks get a lot of shares on social media. Find the right offer your audience will love to share.
Make your blog easy to share on social networks. Add social share buttons to your blog posts, but try to limit the social networks you include. Too many options can overwhelm your visitors, causing them not to share your blog. Prioritize social networks that most of your audience is on.
Add “click to tweet” boxes. “Click to Tweet” boxes allow your visitors to tweet your content. You can add a tip, a short quote, or a statement to the tweet to make it shareable. Several WordPress plugins like Better Click To Tweet allow you to leverage this feature.

8. Leverage Email Marketing

In a survey by SaleCycle, over 59% of respondents said that email marketing influenced them to convert, to no surprise. Email offers a direct connection to your audience, and over 99% of email users check their emails daily.

In summary, email marketing will still be one of the most effective content marketing strategies in 2023, and blogs that don’t tap into its traffic and conversion-boosting powers will find it difficult to succeed.

Here are some tips on how to grow your blog with email marketing.

Personalize. Use your recipients’ first names in the subject line or greet them on their birthday, and make sure your email is from a person and not a company or business.
Perfect the subject line. Write attention-grabbing but relevant subject lines to encourage your readers to open your email.
Have an excellent UI and UX. Clunky emails reflect poorly on your company. Your email should be optimized for mobile and lead to links relevant to the email content or call-to-action.
Make your emails interactive. Interactivity encourages your readers to become invested in your emails. You can add videos, GIFs, or even a countdown clock.

Make Sure Your Web Content is 2023-Ready

Hands-Off Publishing works with high-level publishers and are responsible for endless page 1 rankings and hundreds of thousands of pageviews. Our expert writers and SEO specialists can help you develop high-performing blogs that tick off all the requirements needed to succeed in the coming year.

Do you have several low-performing pages? We can breathe new life into your old posts and pages with our Bring Traffic Service (BTS). Our team can improve your advertising or affiliate revenue and employ on-page optimization and internal linking optimization to boost traffic across your website. Learn more about Hands-Off Publishing here.