Growing the readership of a blog, by Susan Sanderson

Last time I had the privilege of posting on this More than Writers’ blog, I wrote about reading blogs.  Many bloggers become discouraged because very few people read their carefully written blog posts. If that is you, read on! (If not, please don’t stop reading, you might find something interesting!) 

Here are some things which will help people find your blog. 

Depending which platform you are blogging on, there are ways of adding keywords to a blog post. Here on Blogger, there are labels. On WordPress there are categories and tags. It may be necessary to scroll down to find this option. A few well-chosen keywords will help search engines find the post. Using more than fifteen categories plus tags is counterproductive. I am not an expert in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but have gleaned a little about it.

Labels on Blogger

Categories and tags on WordPress

A title that says what the post is about works better than a clever title.

Setting up a profile (Blogger from Google) or avatar (WordPress from Gravatar) helps people to discover who you are, but only share as much information as you are happy to put in the public domain. A link to your blog should be included.

Once you have a profile or avatar, commenting on other people’s blogs may lead them back to yours. Only put a link to your blog in the comments where it is asked for or known to be permitted. Otherwise it might be considered to be spam (not pink meat 😁).

Find groups of bloggers with similar interests and regularly read their blogs and comment on them (or ‘like’ them on WordPress and some other platforms). These may be participants in various challenges, such as Five Minute Friday, The Insecure Writers’ Support Group (IWSG), Blogging from A to Z in April, Cee Neuner’s photo challenges, poetry challenges such as the monthly one I have recently discovered. For these it is OK to leave a link to one of your blog posts and/or to create a pingback*, if you have taken up the challenge.

*A pingback may be created if you link to another blog from your post.

If you are a member of the Association of Christian Writers, you could ask the webmaster to put a link to your blog on the website.

It is possible to share your blog post on social media sites by pasting the URL, which may be found in the address bar of a browser or when you publish or schedule your post, but check the rules before posting in any Facebook groups.

I have included some screenshots to help you navigate the technicalities of some of these actions. These are some of the things I have learned in my twelve years of blogging. There is plenty of help online for most of the things you are likely to need to do as a blogger. My knowledge is confined to Wordpress.com and Blogger.

An earlier post of mine on MTW about blogging is now partly out of date. Bible Gateway no longer has its Blogger Grid. I apologise for some repetition between these two posts, but More than Writers' probably has some new readers after more than 2 years. 

I have written on my own blog about its apparent invisibility. The linked post has more information about WordPress.

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.

Susan always wanted to be a writer.  In 2012 she revived her interest in writing with a blogging project to collect the kinds of sayings, which were much used in her childhood.

Susan experiments with factual writing, fiction, humour and poetry.  She does not yet have a book to her name. Her interests include words, languages, music, nature study and gardening  She has experience of the world of work, being a stay-at-home mum and an empty-nester.   She is active in her local community and Church. She and her husband live in Cumbria, where she coordinates Cumbria Christian Writers.