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How to Get Traffic to Your Blog: Blogging for Beginners
As a beginner blogger, the all important question is, “How to Rank Higher on Google?”
To continue your blogging journey with affiliate marketing, you must continue growing your online presence. Finding a fitting social media platform for yourself in connection with your blog is a must! Also, blog hopping helps to spread the word about your blog when you leave comments on other fellow blogger’s posts. These are initial key elements for blogging for beginners.
However, the next step is also very important! Improving your website’s Google ranking and engagement is essential for driving organic traffic and growing your online presence. These blog tips may seem impossible when you are learning how to start a blog, but several FREE tools can make your online business journey more budget-friendly for you! By understanding how each tool works and leveraging its features, you can dramatically improve your SEO and engagement strategy.
These FREE resources may help you optimize your website content, help you track your progress, and possibly increase your organic traffic!
Please Note: Make sure that the legal pages of your website include information about your analytics usage! This is not official legal advice. For you, and only you, are responsible for your business.
This post will focus on Yoast SEO, Google Analytics, Google Trends, Pinterest Business Account, Getting Your Website Verified by Pinterest, Pinterest Trends, Pinterest Analytics, posting Pinterest pins using the Pinterest Scheduler, and Canva.
Let’s begin our task on how to rank higher on Google!
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins, and for a good reason. It helps you optimize your website’s content for search engines, which is crucial if you want to improve your Google ranking. With Yoast SEO, you can focus on specific keywords, create SEO-friendly meta descriptions, and ensure that your content follows the best practices for readability.
Pros:
Keyword Optimization: Helps you optimize your posts for chosen keywords.
Content Readability: Provides feedback on sentence length, passive voice usage, and transition words.
Meta Descriptions: Assists with crafting SEO-optimized meta descriptions and titles.
Cons:
Limited Free Features: The free version doesn’t include advanced features like multiple keywords optimization.
Learning Curve: New users may take some time to understand the settings and optimization suggestions.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a must-have tool for any website owner. It provides insights into how visitors are interacting with your site, where they are coming from, and which pages are performing the best. By understanding your audience’s behavior, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your website’s performance.
Pros:
Comprehensive Data: Tracks a wide variety of metrics like user behavior, traffic sources, and conversions.
Free and Easy Integration: Simple to set up and use, especially with WordPress
Cons:
Learning Curve for Beginners: The amount of data can be overwhelming if you’re new to analytics. Understanding and analyzing the data requires time and effort.
3. Google Trends
Google Trends is a valuable tool that allows you to see what people are searching for in real-time. You can identify trends, check the popularity of certain search terms, and even compare multiple keywords to see which one has more search volume. This is an excellent way to stay ahead of your competitors and create content that resonates with your audience.
Pros:
Real-Time Data: Provides up-to-date information on search trends.
Content Ideas: Helps you find trending topics and keywords to target.
User-Friendly: Simple to use and interpret, even for beginners.
Cons:
Limited Insights: Does not provide detailed data like user demographics or specific geographic data beyond a general overview. You may not always find historical trends for niche topics.
4. Pinterest Business Account
Pinterest is a highly visual platform that can drive a significant amount of traffic to your website when used correctly. A Pinterest Business Account provides additional tools, such as analytics and the ability to run ads, making it easier for you to manage and grow your presence on the platform.
Pros:
Enhanced Analytics: You get access to Pinterest Analytics, which helps you track engagement and audience behavior.
Pinterest Ads: With a business account, you can create Pinterest ads to promote your content.
Pin Scheduler: Pinterest’s built-in scheduler helps you plan and schedule pins ahead of time.
Cons:
Time-Intensive: Pinterest requires regular pinning and engagement to maintain a strong presence. Success on Pinterest is largely dependent on the quality of your visuals.
5. Getting Your Website Verified by Pinterest
Verifying your website with Pinterest gives you access to more insights and analytics about how your content is performing on the platform. It also increases your website’s credibility in the eyes of Pinterest users, potentially leading to higher engagement.
Pros:
Improved Credibility: Verifying your website adds a checkmark next to your domain, which boosts your authority.
Additional Insights: Once your site is verified, you get more data about what users are pinning from your site.
Cons:
Technical Setup: Requires some technical know-how to add the HTML code or meta tag to your website. As long as you can follow directions, you should be fine.
6. Pinterest Trends
Pinterest Trends is a tool that shows you what’s trending on Pinterest in real-time. Similar to Google Trends, it helps you discover popular content ideas that you can incorporate into your own marketing strategy. Pinterest is unique in that it’s often used for planning future purchases, making it a great platform to predict upcoming trends.
Pros:
Insightful Trends: Helps you find out what’s popular on Pinterest, giving you content inspiration.
Industry-Specific Data: Trends are often categorized by industry, making it easy to find relevant data for your niche.
Cons:
Limited Data: Not all niches are covered extensively, especially if they are too narrow.
7. Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analytics is an essential tool for understanding how your content is performing on Pinterest. It gives you insights into which pins are getting the most engagement, the demographics of your audience, and how users are interacting with your boards. By analyzing this data, you can tweak your strategy to increase traffic to your website.
Pros:
Audience Insights: Provides detailed information on who is engaging with your content.
Pin Performance: Shows you which pins are driving the most traffic and engagement.
Free: Available to all Pinterest Business Accounts.
Cons:
Learning Curve: New users may take some time to understand the settings and optimization suggestions. Requires regular monitoring and adjustments to optimize your performance.
8. Posting Pinterest Pins Using the Pinterest Scheduler
Pinterest’s built-in scheduler allows you to plan and publish your pins ahead of time. This is incredibly useful if you want to maintain a consistent presence on the platform without having to log in every day.
Pros:
Time-Saving: Allows you to schedule pins for days or weeks in advance.
Consistency: Helps you maintain a regular posting schedule, which can lead to better engagement.
Cons:
Limited Features: The scheduler doesn’t offer advanced options like third-party schedulers, but remember, Pinterest Scheduler is a FREE tool for Pinterest users!
9. Canva
Canva is a free design tool that makes it easy to create professional-looking graphics, even if you don’t have any design experience. You can use it to create Pinterest pins, social media graphics, blog images, and more. Canva offers a wide variety of templates, fonts, and images, making it a great choice for content creators who need visually appealing graphics.
Pros:
Easy to Use: Drag-and-drop interface is intuitive and beginner-friendly.
Templates: Offers thousands of pre-designed templates that you can customize to fit your needs.
Free Plan: The free version offers plenty of features, though there is a paid plan for advanced users.
Cons:
Limited Customization in Free Version: Some design elements and templates are only available in the paid version.
In Conclusion:
How to Improve Google ranking free and user engagement doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive process. By using these resources, you can optimize your content for search engines, track your performance, and drive traffic from multiple platforms like Pinterest.
Yoast SEO will ensure that your content is SEO-friendly, while Google Analytics and Google Trends will help you understand your audience and stay on top of current search trends.
Pinterest, when used effectively, can be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website, and Canva will help you create eye-catching visuals that stand out.
Each tool has its strengths and limitations, but when used together, they create a powerful strategy for growing your online presence. As you become more comfortable with these tools, you’ll be able to fine-tune your approach and make data-driven decisions that will boost your Google ranking and increase user engagement.
Now it’s time to put these tools to use!
All the best!
Milissa Neirotti
*This post was ChatGPT generated from my detailed outline, then personally revised.
Great tutorial about Pinterest. I have used Pinterest for years without knowing if it is working, or if my pins are being uploaded properly. I had a look and they are all there. I will ask you a few questions about this when we meet again!!
Hi Milissa – These are such great tips! Thank you for posting this information as this week I was going to begin to tackle this idea. You’ve just saved me a lot of time and energy and it is much appreciated. I really need to get my blog spread out more and as I look at the different ways to boost my visibility, this truly helps as I really didn’t know where to start. Have a great week!
Love this post! As a newbie blogger, I totally get the struggle of figuring out how to rank higher on Google. Your tips on tools like Yoast SEO and Google Analytics are super helpful! I also appreciate the shoutout to Pinterest—it’s such a game changer for traffic! Can’t wait to dive into these resources and start leveling up my blog. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Milissa,
Thank you for sharing such valuable insights on how to improve Google rankings and grow an online presence! Your tips, especially on using tools like Yoast SEO and Google Analytics, are incredibly helpful for beginners. I loved how you highlighted the importance of keyword optimisation and understanding audience behavior. This has motivated me to dive deeper into these tools, as I want to make my blog more engaging and discoverable.
I also appreciate your emphasis on Pinterest. I never realised how powerful it could be for driving traffic until reading your post. Your mention of Pinterest Analytics and trends opened my eyes to new content ideas I could explore. It’s great to know there are free tools that can really help in understanding what my audience is looking for!
Wishing you all the success in your blogging journey! Your advice has truly inspired me, and I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned.
Thanks,
Atif
Atif Perwiz recently posted…The Biggest Challenge I have Ever Set Myself
Hi Milissa,
What a fantastic and thorough post! You’ve covered all the essentials that beginner bloggers need to know about boosting their Google ranking and engagement using a variety of free tools. I appreciate how you included the pros and cons for each tool, giving a realistic perspective on their use. It’s also great to see you emphasize the importance of SEO and data analysis through platforms like Google Analytics and Pinterest, both often overlooked by new bloggers! The tips about Pinterest verification and trends are such a valuable addition, especially for driving traffic.
This post will be extremely helpful for anyone starting out in affiliate marketing or blogging!
Keep up the awesome work!
Meredith
Meredith Moore recently posted…Tiny Achievements, Huge Growth: Progress on TikTok & In My Business
I use Yoast on a regular basis to improve my SEO and readability on my posts. I have use the paid version for several years now. I do post on Pinterest every couple of weeks, but I rearely see any movement there. Perhap there is more to learn. Thanks for the info.
Hi Milissa,
Have to start somewhere! And you’ve definitely covered the bases for someone who wants to start off in Affiliate Marketing!
Many forget that it’s not a race, it’s a marathon and you have to pace yourself to get to the winners line.
Thanks for making the steps look easy (even if they’re not sometimes) but more importantly, thanks for showing everyone that it is possible to get there!
All the best!
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