Mommy bloggers have proliferated in recent years to the point that standing out in the crowded space is a serious writing and marketing challenge. It takes more than just another review of convertible car seats to drive traffic to your mommy blog.
Here are five simple yet sophisticated tips for mommy bloggers or other parenting websites to generate traffic that sticks.
Interviews with Thought Leaders
A great way to generate good website traffic is to conduct interviews with experts in child-rearing topics. Nutritionists, pediatricians, child psychologists, early childhood development specialists, educators, and sports coaches are always interested in promoting their own programs through online interviews. You’d be surprised how many gurus you respect are happy to say yes to an interview request.
This is also an opportunity for natural linkbacks, since your guest will no doubt want to promote the interview on their own website. By reviewing new books and then adding in an interview, your blog also gets an inside scoop on the latest information in parenting.
Social Media Links
Search engines such as Google now incorporate social media mentions in their results. The more active you are on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest, the greater the chances you’ll be picked up in the search algorithms. You don’t have to just post what you’re having for lunch. Social media, is, well, social. So re-tweeting, Liking, and Pinning from other participants will expand your reach and get you noticed.
Be sure to organize your social media feeds by topics or keywords. Although you may not follow everyone in a Twitter List, you’ll be able to see his or her tweets and respond to them accordingly, while building new followers in the process.
Guest Blogging
The occasional guest blog post will open up your own website to new readers. It’s easier than you think to get other blogs to allow you to post. Look at websites in closely related but not identical fields, as these carry more weight in page rank than URLs that are far afield from your topic area.
Engage Your Audience
Mommy blogs are most successful if they engage the audience. Many moms are looking for activities that engage their minds beyond which baby food to serve for dinner. Give them a challenge with a little incentive. Maybe spring for a gift card, or better yet, give them the chance to be featured in your blog.
Go a step further, and make the challenge something crowd-sourced, where the crowd picks the winner. You’ll keep readers coming back to vote and see the results. These types of programs also get more readers to provide contact information or to subscribe to your blog. And collecting contact information is key to sales.
Contests are a great way to keep readers coming back to your blog!
Integrity of Content
Last but not least, don’t succumb to the idea that SEO alone will drive traffic to your website. While, yes, keywords and linkbacks are important to getting a high page ranking, in the final analysis, the integrity of your content will be the determining factor in readers coming to your website continually for new information. Be sure information is current and fresh, and well written. A blog post riddled with keywords will make no sense, and readers will give up before moving through your site to revenue generating activities.
At the end of the day, just keep it real, and they will not just come, but also buy!
