Which blogs get the most traffic?
Do you dream of getting more eyes on your business? Blogging is a brilliant way to bring more visitors to your website. But not all blogs are created equal. Some blog posts get seen by waaay more people than others. Let’s take a look at which blogs get the most traffic – and why.
The secret to boosting blog traffic
The blogs that get the most traffic use various tricks to optimise their posts. As a result, search engines like Google are more likely to give them prime positions in search results.
Why are prime positions important?
The higher your blog posts appear in search results, the more likely people are to click on them and arrive on your website.
Ideally, you want to show up in the first 10 results, if not the first 5.
On average, the first result in Google (that’s an organic result, not a paid-for advert) gets clicked 28.5% of the time.
Compare that to 15% for the second result, 11% for the third result, and just 2.5% for the tenth result.
So, if you want to get more people on your blog, you need to give Google good reasons to prioritise your posts.
Thankfully, there are many ways to optimise your posts so they rise higher in search results.
Emulating blogs that get the most traffic
The blogs that get the most traffic are the ones that:
- Cover topics people are searching for.
- Include phrases that people Google (aka keywords).
- Use subheadings to break up the text (aka header tags).
- Build trust with search engines by including internal links and links to reputable sources (aka improve domain authority).
- Are easy to read (aka follow readability practices.)
- Polish how blog post previews look in Google results (aka optimise meta titles and descriptions).
If you’re keen to learn how to emulate the blogs that get the most traffic, keep reading.
Don’t have the time or inclination to learn all this yourself? Get the blogging experts to do it for you.
Cover topics people are searching for
Your blog will never rank amongst the blogs that get the most traffic if you don’t write about topics people are Googling. You can find these topics by using a tool like Ubersuggest.
Enter a general word or phrase related to your business into Ubersuggest. For example, if you’re a wellness coach, you could enter the phrase ‘sleep hygiene.’ Then choose your language and the location you want to target and hit ‘search.’
Ubersuggest will find phrases related to your topic that people are searching for online. (The official name for these phrases is keywords.)
Next, choose phrases relating to that topic that have a relatively low SEO difficulty (SD). The lower the SD, the less competitive that phrase will be.
However, you also want to choose phrases that have a search volume (SV) higher than zero. A keyword’s SV tells you the average number of times people search for that phrase each month. If it’s zero, that means no one is searching for the phrase, so you’ll be wasting your time writing a blog post on that topic.
Let’s look at two examples relating to ‘sleep hygiene’ from Ubersuggest:
The phrase ‘sleep hygiene for mental health’ has a low SD of four, but its SV is zero.
Meanwhile, the phrase ‘sleep hygiene techniques’ has an SD of 17, which is still fairly low, and its SV is 40. A wellness coach would be much better off writing a blog post on this topic.
Include phrases that people Google
If higher blog traffic is your aim, it’s not enough to write a post on a topic people are searching for. Blogs that get the most traffic include the phrases people are Googling in the text of their posts in the right amount and the right places.
Let’s continue the wellness coach example. You would need to include the keyword ‘sleep hygiene techniques’ enough times in your blog post to show Google your content is relevant for queries related to that topic.
Here’s how to optimise keyword use in your blog posts:
- Include keywords in the body of the blog post. For the best results, pick one main phrase to target (aka a primary keyword) and make sure it’s 1–2% of the overall word count. (Here’s a handy percentage calculator to use.)
- Don’t force phrases into your blog post, even if they’re relevant to the topic. Keyword stuffing makes your posts read like spam, and Google doesn’t like it! If Google finds you guilty of this, it won’t rank your blog posts well.
- Include your target phrase in the blog post title. (That’s the first heading right at the top of the post.)
Use subheadings to break up the text
Let’s look at another technique that blogs that get the most traffic use: header tags.
Header tags (H2, H3, H4 etc.), or subheadings, help Google understand your blog posts’ content.
In turn, this improves your chances of appearing higher in search results rankings.
(As we’ve seen, the higher your position, the better for web traffic, as you’ll get more clicks on your blog posts.)
Header tags also benefit readers by breaking up posts and signposting readers to the information they need.
Let’s face it: no one wants to trawl through a huge wall of text. If it’s taking ages to find answers, people are going to leave your website and look elsewhere.
Build trust with search engines
The blogs that get the most traffic build trust with search engines. This is also known as improving domain authority (DA).
DA is like a measure of how trustworthy or important a website is. It’s based on various factors, like:
- How many other websites link to it (aka how many backlinks it has).
- How long it’s been around.
- How often people visit it.
The higher your blog’s DA, the more likely it is to show up higher in search engine results because search engines trust it more.
Collecting backlinks is a great way to improve your blog’s DA. Get other websites to link to yours by:
- Signing up for online directories in your industry or local area.
- Cross-posting your blog posts on Medium.
- Repurposing your blog posts into guest posts for other blogs.
- Giving journalists tips or quotes for their articles.
If you pursue these strategies, make sure you’re creating great blog posts that are worthy of backlinking. Blogs that get the most traffic offer readers relevant, reliable content.
Make blog posts easy to read
Finally, check how easy your blog posts are to read by pasting them into Hemingway Editor. The free tool will show you which words or phrases you could rewrite to improve readability.
If your blog posts are difficult to read, people might abandon them (and your website).
That’s not great for your search engine rankings or your chances of converting readers into clients.
Including subheadings is a great place to start, but there are lots more ways to improve the readability of your posts.
Many of the blogs that get the most traffic create a superior reading experience by using:
- Simple words. Complex terms and jargon can make content harder for people to understand.
- Short sentences and paragraphs. This bite-sized approach makes information easier to scan and digest.
- Numbered lists and bullet points (especially for lists of three or more items).
- Visual assets, like images, animations, infographics, and videos. These can help break up walls of text and keep readers engaged.
Quick tip: Make sure you fill in the ‘alt text’ box for each image you add. Alt text is a short description of the image Google uses to rank them.
Polish how blog post previews look in Google search results
When someone clicks on your blog post via Google search results, it’s usually because they’re intrigued by the preview. The blogs that get the most traffic have really enticing previews.
Previews consist of a heading (the meta title) and a short snippet underneath (the meta description).
You haven’t got much space to capture people’s attention and tempt them to click on your blog post. So you must make your meta titles and descriptions compelling.
Don’t fall into the trap of promising something that your blog post doesn’t deliver to get more clicks.
You won’t get far with a title like ‘12 Shocking Secrets to Instant Weight Loss’ if your blog post doesn’t share those secrets or meaningfully explore the topic.
Quick tip: Include your primary keyword in the meta title and description. This helps searchers and Google know that your blog post is a relevant result for a particular query.
Quality blogs get the most traffic
Now you know which blogs get the most traffic, you can steal their techniques to increase your website visitors.
Of course, traffic is important. But don’t be dazzled by vanity metrics. Blogs with loads of web visitors still need to work hard to convert these readers into clients.
Let’s put it this way: Would you prefer a blog that gets 50 visitors daily but doesn’t lead to any bookings, or a blog with 50 monthly visitors that consistently brings in 5 clients?
Even blogs that get the most traffic compared to their competitors can fail to capture leads. To avoid this common blogging mistake, include calls-to-action (CTAs) in your blog posts. Ask readers to take one action that brings them closer to working with you. That might be ‘download my free templates’ or ‘learn more about my services.’
Which leads us nicely to our CTA. This one’s for you if you’ve made it through this article and your gut instinct is ‘ughhh I don’t have the time or energy to do all those things, but I want my blog to get more traffic.’
We’d love to take care of your blog and increase your web traffic for you.
About Finer Things Editorial
Finer Things Editorial writes for businesses that help others achieve abundance, whether in the form of profit, self-love, or physical health. Our content helps these businesses attract their dream clients, so they don’t have to chase them. Having taken businesses from 0 to 1,000+ primed-to-buy website visitors per day, we take businesses from unknown to really known.